A Group of Children´s Opinion about the Anime

[Mr.Snack]

Hello everyone.

People who have been reading the anime section during the last few weeks probably must have come across one of my ramblings about Ash leaving the anime. Many arguments are being thrown around both in favour and against the change of protagonists, as well as if the anime is popular with new viewers (children, who are the intended target audience), but much of it is just speculation without much support in either side.

Having this in mind, I did a little survey. Long story short, this weekend I was invited to my cousin´s birthday party. I don´t know how it´s called in English, but the party was held at a type of indoors playground that can be rented for an entire day to hold this kind of parties. It was very popular in my country a few years back. As for why I was invited to a children´s birthday party? Basically, I am considered the cool cousin who´s unbeatable in video games, and who gave him Pokemon Violet along with his Christmas present (people who have read my other posts know that I couldn’t bring myself to play the game and gave it to my cousin). Add to this the fact that I usually help him when he gets stuck in video games and you understand why I was invited: to basically help him move along Violet which, by the way, he isn´t liking very much because he finds it very confusing, but that is a matter for another time.

As I was progressing through the game, we arrived at the battle with Iono and, upon seeing Wattler, one of the kids exclaims «So cool! I hope Ash gets one!». After this, I explained to him that Ash won´t get one, because he´s leaving the anime. They bombarded me with questions and I explained the situation and showed them the poster with the new characters.

This brings me to the core of this post. I will now share the kids’ reactions to the new series, as well as some other questions I asked about characters and past series. This information is obtained from 29 kids. I know the number is laughable, but I still found it interesting and thought to share the results, as someone else may also find them interesting.

Before I start, I want to make some things clear:

- Of the 29 kids, 23 are boys and 6 are girls. They all have between 6 and 10 years old. From those 29, only 22 are into Pokemon. None of the girls like Pokemon and, as such, don´t watch the anime. Of the 22 that are into Pokemon, 1 doesn´t watch the anime, so the survey was conducted on the remaining 21;

- They watch the anime dubbed in the local language on Netflix;

- None of the opinions below were influenced by my own preferences. I talk with my cousin a lot about Pokemon, but exclusively about the games. I knew he watched the anime, but I never talked about it with him before, so none of them knew my preferences. This is to say none gave me the answers I wanted to hear, but wat they genuinely feel;

- People who work with children know they are brutally honest. I´m just writing this here because I will indicate some of the stuff they said about the new series and some of it, especially pertaining to Riko, may sound harsh and misogynistic, but I will still include them because I think they are important to understand what people their age think;

- People who work with children also know that the echo chambers are very common, meaning that an opinion who is branded as cool will become the majority. This is especially true with negative opinions. As such, something perceived as bad by the cool kid will be perceived as bad by a lot of the others. Keep this in mind;

- Some of the results are surprising, especially the ones pertaining to their favourite and least favourite characters;

- For private reasons, I don´t want to say in which country I live specifically, but know it´s in Europe.


With that out of the way, let´s get started.

Reactions about Ash/Pikachu/Team Rocket leaving:

• 15 said they hated the idea and won´t watch the new series;
• 4 said that they hated the idea, but will give the new series a chance;
• 2 said they don´t care and will watch anyway;
• 12 asked why didn´t they get rid of Go instead (I only told them Ash and TR were leaving, so they assumed Go was staying);
• 5 (I´m not kidding) cried.

Opinions on Riko and Roy:

• 19 said things along the lines of «Why is Ash getting substituted by a girl?», «Girls can´t battle», «Pokemon is for boys»;
• 1 (of the 19) said «I hope the protagonist is the guy on the back (Roy)»;
• 2 said that Riko and Roy «Look okay, I guess».

Before I continue, some additional context:

• Almost all of them started watching the anime with Journeys or late Sun and Moon;
• 19 of them watched previous seasons after starting with the current anime. All of the previous seasons. Not all the episodes, but enough to form an opinion about each series. They were also very knowledgeable about the different characters and storylines.
• The next questions were asked only to this 19.

Favourite series:

• 14 said XY;
• 3 said Diamond and Pearl;
• 1 said Journeys;
• 1 said Sun and Moon.

Least favourite series:

• 11 said Sun and Moon;
• 5 said Journeys;
• 3 said Original.

Now about the characters, I was very surprised.



Favourite character:

• 6 said Ash;
• 5 said Pikachu;
• 4 said Meowth;
• 2 said James;
• 2 said Clemont.

Favourite companion:

• 13 said Clemont;
• 4 said Brock;
• 1 said Kiawe;
• 1 said Dawn.

Least favourite companion:

• 11 said Go;
• 5 said Lillie;
• 2 said Sophocles;
• 1 said Iris.

Favourite rival:

• 7 said Gladion;
• 6 said Alain;
• 5 said Leon;
• 1 said Gary.

I was shocked with Clermont’s popularity. I always liked him, but never thought he was this popular with kids. I watched some XY episodes dubbed in my mother tongue, because perhaps the VA did something very fun with his lines, but it was just mediocre and the lines were basically the ones from the English dub translated. A very unexpected result. As for Lillie not being very liked, they explained that they found her annoying and how Gladion was much cooler and should have taken her place as classmate.



Favourite Ash Pokemon (excluding Pikachu):

• 6 said Greninja;
• 4 said Oshawott;
• 4 said Lucario;
• 3 said Infernape;
• 2 said Lycanroc.

Least favourite Ash Pokemon:

• 5 said Meltan;
• 4 said Rowlet;
• 4 said Dracovish;
• 3 said Scraggy;
• 2 said Dragonite;
• 1 said Donphan.

Favourite gag (I think some of them don´t understand what a gag is, as I don´t consider some of the below as gags, but these were their answers):

• 6 Team Rocket motto;
• 5 Team Rocket blasting off;
• 3 Clermont’s inventions;
• 3 Bonnie trying to find a girlfriend for Clemont;
• 1 Bewear catching Team Rocket;
• 1 Serena wanting to be Ash´s girlfriend and him being oblivious.

Favourite battle (They haven’t watched the Master´s Eight yet):

• 6 said Ash VS Team Rocket in Ula Ula;
• 6 said Ash VS Alain;
• 4 said Ash VS Paul;
• 3 said Ash VS Gladion.

Favourite type of episode:

• 8 said Filler;
• 7 said Battle;
• 4 said Companion episode.

Favourite type of series:

• 16 said Traveling a single region;
• 2 said World Tour;
• 1 said School setting

This is it for this little, on the fly survey. I don´t know if many people will care about this, but I thought that some of you might enjoy this type of post.

I won´t take any conclusions from this survey; because people will rightfully argue that the sample is insignificant. However, I have good news! My cousin and his friends had so much fun answering it that they decided to make it their statistics project. In my country, around third grade (7/8 years old) children get some basics of statistics in their math class. They are learning about it this period and the teacher usually asks them to make a school wide survey about a theme of their choosing to use as an example of the subject in class. This means, that in a few weeks, I will have information about this subject collected form 400+ kids with ages between 6-10 years old, which I think is a very good sample size for something like this. If people are interested I can then share those results here.

 

[AndreskX]

Thanks for the survey! It was really interesting.

How'd the new results though, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

A few things that surprised me

• This group of kids REALLY did not like Sun and Moon.
• I'm shocked not one said they don't like BW.
• Despite the fact that these are still kids around 6-10, the reaction towards Liko being the main protagonist is off putting.
• Ash vs. Alain being a favorite battle shocks me cause of the horrendous ending.
• Clemont's popularity kinda surprises me, despite him being a great companion.
• The Team Rocket battle on Ula'Ula Island is the most favored?

 

[c la fet]

19 said things along the lines of «Why is Ash getting substituted by a girl?», «Girls can´t battle», «Pokemon is for boys»;

bruh

 

[snowmint]

Alot of older people don't really follow the current anime correct compared to the likes of the crazy shonen jump shows out there?

 

[UxieLover1994]

I find it quite disturbing that a bunch of boys aged 6-10 could still be misogynistic in the 2020s, and how not even one girl likes Pokémon. Never mind that in my childhood, female-lead shows like Kim Possible were popular among children regardless of gender.

 

[Johtoo]

I find it ironic that Journeys and Sun and moon (two series that are designed to suck up to kids) ended up failing the most. Also, the lack of hype surrounding the new series is apparent. I'm actually being serious. I don't even know when the new series is airing. I'm assuming the next few weeks? Can you imagine the collective groan of the world when they realise this as well?

 

[FelipePR]

Congratulations, Mr. Snack, for your initiative and research. While the pool is, for now, small, the information is quite interesting. However, I wasn't as shocked by the responses, except the rejection of Pokémon Sun and Moon and the the misogynistic issue, but, in fact, did not expect some of the results.

Least favourite series:

• 11 said Sun and Moon;
• 5 said Journeys;
• 3 said Original.

I confess that I believed that Sun and Moon were reasonably successful with the younger audience, since a series more devoted to them, as well as devoted to school circle and interactions with friends and teachers. In addition, I've always seen this season's diverse and broad cast as a positive standout over the others.

Favourite character:

• 6 said Ash;
• 5 said Pikachu;
• 4 said Meowth;
• 2 said James;
• 2 said Clemont.

Not surprise here, right? Pikachu and Ash are the main characters. James and Meowth are charismatic characters who've been in every season, and Clement is apparently quite beloved among younger audiences. The lack of a female character is, however, an unfortunate point.

Favourite companion:

• 13 said Clemont;
• 4 said Brock;
• 1 said Kiawe;
• 1 said Dawn.

I always liked Clemont, and I consider him the character that finally, at least for me, managed to replace or fill the gap left by Brock. Ash and Clemont had great dynamics and synergy, plus the geek side of the young scientist was a lot of fun and his interactions with his little sister were priceless. Add to that his Pokemon, Bunnelby and Chespin, are just as fun as he is.

Although I understand why little ones might like him, I don't expect that from children who are between 6 and 10 years old today, because XY is a somewhat "old series".

This brings me to my main question regarding this topic, how are the little ones watching the old seasons? The Origins Series (at least part of it), Sun & Moon and Journeys are on Netflix, but the rest, including XY (that was removed from Netflix years ago), are not.

Least favourite companion:

• 11 said Go;
• 5 said Lillie;
• 2 said Sophocles;
• 1 said Iris.

I'm not a big fan of Goh, but my main issues with him are his initial overprotagonism over Ash and his goal and the way he executes it, which, despite being the very premise of the games and and the entire franchise, seems somewhat unethical and ill-adjusted within the series. That, in addition to the fact that Goh seems, at least initially, super gifted and that everything looks easier for him.

However, I don't think that such questions are much relevant for those who started to follow the anime in Journeys, so I thought that the opinion of the younger ones was not at all unfavorable about the character.

Least favourite series:

• 11 said Sun and Moon;
• 5 said Journeys;
• 3 said Original.

Favourite rival:

• 7 said Gladion;
• 6 said Alain;
• 5 said Leon;
• 1 said Gary.

This information seems a little ironic to me. The younglings don't like Sun and Moon or Ash's Pokémon from that season, but do they love his rival?

I expected Alain here, but is it possible that, like the people on this forum, the little ones feel a deep bitterness towards Alain due to the result and the hype of the Pokémon league of that generation??

Before I start, I want to make some things clear:

- Of the 29 kids, 23 are boys and 6 are girls. They all have between 6 and 10 years old. From those 29, only 22 are into Pokemon. None of the girls like Pokemon and, as such, don´t watch the anime. Of the 22 that are into Pokemon, 1 doesn´t watch the anime, so the survey was conducted on the remaining 21;

Opinions on Riko and Roy:

• 19 said things along the lines of «Why is Ash getting substituted by a girl?», «Girls can´t battle», «Pokemon is for boys»;
• 1 (of the 19) said «I hope the protagonist is the guy on the back (Roy)»;
• 2 said that Riko and Roy «Look okay, I guess».

Favourite series:

• 14 said XY;
• 3 said Diamond and Pearl;
• 1 said Journeys;
• 1 said Sun and Moon.

Favourite companion:

• 13 said Clemont;
• 4 said Brock;
• 1 said Kiawe;
• 1 said Dawn.

These information are disturbing. Well, I always knew Pokémon was a more male-oriented show, but I didn't think it was so foreclosed to girls. I know the sampling is small, but the fact that none of the girls enjoy the show, while almost all of the boys do, is sad.

It is even sadder to see that these young boys are so little open and interested in female representation. See that despite XY being so loved, Serena didn't get any votes or mentions, the same can be said for Jessie. And Dawn came last with just one vote.

I have two younger cousins, a 14 year old female cousin and a 12 year male old cousin. When they were little (6-9 years old), they liked Pokémon (today they find it ridiculous). At the time, the person most invested in the franchise was my female cousin, who loved Serena and Fennekin.

I wonder what changed, was it Jornadas, with two male protagonists, so detrimental to the female audience? I am happy that the next season comes to try to fix this mistake. And, even happier, that, despite everything, female participation in this forum is quite significant.

Least favourite series:

• 11 said Sun and Moon;
• 5 said Journeys;
• 3 said Original.

I already suspected that the OS would not be well received among younger people. My cousins aforementioned, when they were invested in XY, tried to watch OS on Netflix too, but quickly gave up on the series and classified it as boring and bad.

OS is still my favorite series, much of it may be nostalgia, but I still find the original series' snarky humor and its absurdity one of the most appealing aspects of the entire franchise. Well, we are all products of our time.

I still find it surprising that younglings don't like Sun and Moon, the series that I consider to be the most inclusive and comprehensive. I understand older audiences like me hate it because of the abrupt and profound changes, but why would those who started anime there reject it? Even I, objectively, consider Sun and Moon to be an above average series.

Favourite series:

• 14 said XY;
• 3 said Diamond and Pearl;
• 1 said Journeys;
• 1 said Sun and Moon.

Finally, it seems to me that Pokémon Advanced is, as already suspected, a forgotten series among younger people. All series, even BW and the OS, received, even if it was negative, some mention in your questionnaire, except for Pokémon Advanced.

Did respondents ever see this series? And if they did, did they find it so irrelevant that it didn't even deserve a mention?

You have to commit, on your cousin's next birthday, to take that generation's Pokémon DVDs and Movies to those uneducated kids to watch. You can't let them miss out on the best of the franchise. Lol

 

[Hidden Mew]

With that out of the way, let´s get started.

Reactions about Ash/Pikachu/Team Rocket leaving:

• 15 said they hated the idea and won´t watch the new series;
• 4 said that they hated the idea, but will give the new series a chance;
• 2 said they don´t care and will watch anyway;
• 12 asked why didn´t they get rid of Go instead (I only told them Ash and TR were leaving, so they assumed Go was staying);
• 5 (I´m not kidding) cried.

I kind of find the notion of these kids not being in favor of replacing Ash interesting. A lot of fans have wanted that for years and one defense for it was that kids wouldn't have the same attachment to Ash as long time fans would. Even though these kids started out with SM or Journeys, the majority of them still didn't like the idea. Granted, part of that could be that they said that Ash was their favorite character too, but I kind of find it reassuring that even kids who didn't watch every series were still sad about the news. It also still makes me wonder how well Horizons will be received by kids and especially how much payoff they're expecting from making this decision.

Opinions on Riko and Roy:

• 19 said things along the lines of «Why is Ash getting substituted by a girl?», «Girls can´t battle», «Pokemon is for boys»;
• 1 (of the 19) said «I hope the protagonist is the guy on the back (Roy)»;
• 2 said that Riko and Roy «Look okay, I guess».

Honestly, the idea of kids responding to Liko like that doesn't really surprise me. People still think that a girl as the main lead means that the show is for girls instead of for everyone. Plus, I remember how kids can say sexist stuff when I was little. Ideally, it would be nice if things have changed over the years, bu this sadly sounds plausible.

Before I continue, some additional context:

• Almost all of them started watching the anime with Journeys or late Sun and Moon;
• 19 of them watched previous seasons after starting with the current anime. All of the previous seasons. Not all the episodes, but enough to form an opinion about each series. They were also very knowledgeable about the different characters and storylines.
• The next questions were asked only to this 19.

Favourite series:

• 14 said XY;
• 3 said Diamond and Pearl;
• 1 said Journeys;
• 1 said Sun and Moon.

I'm kind of surprised that XY was so popular with these kids if they started with Journeys or SM. It kind of makes sense when XY had more battles than SM and I could believe that kids liked the Kalos Gym Battles more so than PWC matches too.

Least favourite series:

• 11 said Sun and Moon;
• 5 said Journeys;
• 3 said Original.

I wouldn't have expected kids to dislike SM that much. Maybe they just found other series more appealing after they went to watch some of the older ones.

Now about the characters, I was very surprised.



Favourite character:

• 6 said Ash;
• 5 said Pikachu;
• 4 said Meowth;
• 2 said James;
• 2 said Clemont.

I'm a bit surprised that James and Meowth are on the list. I like Team Rocket as much as the next person and James is probably my favorite member of the trio, but it also feels like neither James or Meowth have had really much to do in the series for ages. Maybe they like their comedic roles, but dub dialogue would make it hard to find them funny.

Favourite companion:

• 13 said Clemont;
• 4 said Brock;
• 1 said Kiawe;
• 1 said Dawn.

I definitely wouldn't have expected Clemont to be that popular. He's my favorite of the secondary male companions and I really liked his storyline in XY, but I didn't think he'd be that popular either.

Least favourite companion:

• 11 said Go;
• 5 said Lillie;
• 2 said Sophocles;
• 1 said Iris.

I'm kind of surprised and a bit disappointed that kids in this group disliked Goh so much. I know a lot of the reasons people dislike Goh here, but I don't know if those reasons would apply to these kids or kids in the target demographic at all for that matter. I'm also a bit surprised Lillie was chosen out of all of the SM girls. Granted, her dub voice probably doesn't help, but I'd still take her over Lana and Mallow easily. They weren't terrible, but I always thought that Lana was overhyped and Mallow is pretty boring despite having one of the most emotional episodes of the series.

Favourite rival:

• 7 said Gladion;
• 6 said Alain;
• 5 said Leon;
• 1 said Gary.

This kind of makes sense with XY's popularity in mind. Both Gladion and Alain come off as more cool serious rivals, so that might be appealing to kids. I don't know if I could have seen Gladion working as one of Ash's classmates, but the dynamic could have been interesting. I guess Leon is technically a rival, but he feels more like a goal than anything else, in large part because of the minimal screentime he had prior to the Master Class tournament.

I'm not a big fan of Goh, but my main issues with him are his initial overprotagonism over Ash and his goal and the way he executes it, which, despite being the very premise of the games and and the entire franchise, seems somewhat unethical and ill-adjusted within the series. That, in addition to the fact that Goh seems, at least initially, super gifted and that everything looks easier for him.

However, I don't think that such questions are much relevant for those who started to follow the anime in Journeys, so I thought that the opinion of the younger ones was not at all unfavorable about the character.

I don't really see how Goh's goal could be unethical within the anime. He captures Pokemon, but they're all taken care of at the Cerise Lab, so he isn't mistreating them by capturing them. This is one of the complaints about Goh or his goal that just never made sense to me. I can understand the issue about how he was able to capture Pokemon pretty easily at first. I think that's why people were upset with his first capture spree, but it never really bothered me. It didn't come off as Goh being super special gifted to me just because he could catch Pokemon with one toss of a Pokeball instead of battling with them first.

This information seems contradictory to me. The younglings don't like Sun and Moon or Ash's Pokémon from that season, but do they love his rival?

I expected Alian here, but is it possible that, like the people on this forum, the little ones feel a deep bitterness towards Alain due to the result and the hype of the Pokémon league of that generation??

Really liking one character from a series that they didn't like doesn't feel like such a stretch to me. If they really liked Alain as the cool, serious and strong rival, then liking Gladion for the same reasons would make sense, especially when I think he has more personality than Alain. Plus, Gladion did appear more frequently in SM while Alain only started to appear more in the tail end of XY. I'm not sure if the kids here would feel as much anger towards Alain due to the Kalos League finals. If they saw XY after starting with SM or Journeys, then they probably wouldn't have the same expectations of Ash winning the Kalos League like a lot of long time fans would.

These information are disturbing. Well, I always knew Pokémon was a more male-oriented show, but I didn't think it was so foreclosed to girls. I know the sampling is small, but the fact that none of the girls enjoy the show, while almost all of the boys do, is sad.

I always saw Pokemon as being more gender neutral as opposed to being more a male-oriented show. Maybe that's due to how the franchise itself is marketed too, but it never really felt like a boys club or something that girls wouldn't be interested in. I remember kids bullying me when I was little because I initially didn't like Pokemon when the craze first hit the U.S. back in the day. I was also bullied for liking Pokemon when I did start to get into it, but I don't think that was because I was a girl. I'm pretty sure it was because anything I said or did would be used as fuel by my elementary school bullies to harass me. That and I started getting into it during the second generation of the games and by that point, kids thought that we were too old for Pokemon, a notion that becomes more ridiculous as time passes given the amount of adult fans in the fanbase.

It is even sadder to see that these young boys are so little open and interested in female representation. See that despite XY being so loved, Serena didn't get any votes or mentions, the same can be said for Jessie. And Dawn came last with just one vote.

I have two younger cousins, a 14 year old female cousin and a 12 year male old cousin. When they were little (6-9 years old), they liked Pokémon (today they find it ridiculous). At the time, the person most invested in the franchise was my female cousin, who loved Serena and Fennekin.

I wonder what changed, was it Jornadas, with two male protagonists, so detrimental to the female audience? I am happy that the next season comes to try to fix this mistake. And, even happier, that, despite everything, female participation in this forum is quite significant.

As sad as it is, these boys seemingly not being interested in female representation or having more interest in the female characters tracks with what I remember what boys were like when I was little. Granted, this is a small sample size, so as interesting as these results are, they might not reflect how the target demographic as a whole feel about the characters, but I would not be surprised if a lot of boys still automatically don't like female characters or think that they're just there for the girls and not them to enjoy. Kids absorb a lot and if they're taught sexist views, that can really stick.

I highly doubt that Journeys having two male protagonists was detrimental to the female audience. I can't see that alone turning girls off from watching the anime. It might have been something happening more gradually than just the case with one series, especially when XY and SM had an equal number of male and female characters in the cast as opposed to the usual one female lead. It could have been the lack of more proactive female leads or it could be that the anime just started to appeal more often to boys than to girls over time. I'm not sure if Liko being the new lead will necessarily fix this mistake. I don't know if having a female lead will necessarily draw in more girls than usual or if she'll have a battle active goal either, but it will take time to see how audience responds to Horizons as well.

 

[FelipePR]

I don't really see how Goh's goal could be unethical within the anime. He captures Pokemon, but they're all taken care of at the Cerise Lab, so he isn't mistreating them by capturing them. This is one of the complaints about Goh or his goal that just never made sense to me.

That is it, you capture Pokémon so that they can share your journey and you theirs, that is, participate in their development and evolution. Catching Pokémon is wanting to connect emotionally with them. The bond between a Pokémon and its Trainer has always been treated as the most honorable, intense and deep affection in that world.

So, while it's not wrong to capture dozens of Pokemons without a second thought, the anime's noblest appeal is evidently undermined. After all, the anime tries to give us a very humanized view of these pocket creatures.

Really liking one character from a series that they didn't like doesn't feel like such a stretch to me. If they really liked Alain as the cool, serious and strong rival, then liking Gladion for the same reasons would make sense, especially when I think he has more personality than Alain.

I consider that I have made an unfortunate use of words. Rather than contradictory, I meant to say Ironic.

On the other side, I also consider Galdion quite cool, I just didn't expect the the preference for he due to the opinions presented so far.

I always saw Pokemon as being more gender neutral as opposed to being more a male-oriented show. Maybe that's due to how the franchise itself is marketed too, but it never really felt like a boys club or something that girls wouldn't be interested in. I remember kids bullying me when I was little because I initially didn't like Pokemon when the craze first hit the U.S. back in the day. I was also bullied for liking Pokemon when I did start to get into it, but I don't think that was because I was a girl. I'm pretty sure it was because anything I said or did would be used as fuel by my elementary school bullies to harass me. That and I started getting into it during the second generation of the games and by that point, kids thought that we were too old for Pokemon, a notion that becomes more ridiculous as time passes given the amount of adult fans in the fanbase.

Well, I was probably wrong and reproduced a prejudiced bias that, unfortunately, still marks our society. Like that boys are supposed to be adventurous, brave and daring, and girls are expected to be more polite, demure and homely. In short, the absurdity that there are things that are for boys and others for girls.

But what I meant is that, perhaps, part of the producers, at the time, also had such a bias. After all, the female lead was cut off from the first few games, and we've always had more male than female representation among anime's central characters. Indeed, only from AG, the female lead character gained a more central (plot revolving) role.

When I was little, I remember that both girls and boys liked Pokémon, although the latter seemed more invested in the franchise. Over time, however, many people stopped being involved with the Pokémon Anime, and, in my circle, not one girl, as far as I know, remained interested. In part, I think this was due to social incentives.

In summary, I had the wrong impression that, at least initially, the franchise saw boys as its main target audience, although it is certain that the anime always paid attention to the female audience. Anyway, It's good to know that you've always felt welcomed by the Pokémon World, even if not by the school community you were in.

 

[Hidden Mew]

That is it, you capture Pokémon so that they can share your journey and you theirs, that is, participate in their development and evolution. Catching Pokémon is wanting to connect emotionally with them. The bond between a Pokémon and its Trainer has always been treated as the most honorable, intense and deep affection in that world.

So, while it's not wrong to capture dozens of Pokemons, without a second thought, for a strictly scientific purpose, the franchise's noblest appeal is evidently undermined. After all, the franchise tries to give us a very humanized view of these pocket creatures.

I still think that calling it somewhat unethical is still pretty inaccurate. Goh always cared about the Pokemon he caught. This was apparent even after his first capture spree where he was playing with his new Pokemon. He never saw them as just getting them for the Pokedex data or for strictly scientific purposes. He wanted to catch every Pokemon to work his way back to Mew, but that didn't mean that he didn't care about the Pokemon he caught along the way. Even when the data was stolen during Drizzle's evolution episode, Goh wasn't upset about the data itself, but what it represented to him. It was losing all of the memories and adventures they had made across different regions. Granted, they didn't really show a lot of the bonds between Goh and his Pokemon, but I think that has less to due to with the catching method and more to do with how they couldn't reasonably make all of his Pokemon into characters.

I can understand the notion that Goh's catching method doesn't quite work within the context of the anime, especially with they have always emphasized that you have to weaken Pokemon in battle before catching them, but I don't think it undermines the appeal of bonding with your Pokemon while capturing them.

Well, I was probably wrong and reproduced a prejudiced bias that, unfortunately, still marks our society. Like that boys are supposed to be adventurous, brave and daring, and girls are expected to be more polite, demure and homely. In short, the absurdity that there are things that are for boys and others for girls.

But what I meant is that, perhaps, part of the producers, at the time, also had such a bias. After all, the female lead was cut off from the first few games, and we've always had more male than female representation among anime's central characters. Indeed, only from AG, the female lead character gained a more central (plot revolving) role.

When I was little, I remember that both girls and boys liked Pokémon, although the latter seemed more invested in the franchise. Over time, however, many people stopped being involved with the Pokémon Anime, and, in my circle, not one girl, as far as I know, remained interested. In part, I think this was due to social incentives.

In summary, I had the wrong impression that, at least initially, the franchise saw boys as its main target audience, although also paid some attention to the female audience. Anyway, It's good to know that you've always felt welcomed by the Pokémon World, even if not by the school community you were in.

I'm not sure if the game developers had that bias necessarily. I'm not sure how common playable female character options were back during the first two generations, at least based on the video games I would see back then. I wouldn't be surprised if fewer girls got into the anime in certain areas due to social incentives. Girls can get picked on for liking what is seen something just for boys and the same applies for boy getting into what is seen as just for girls. I suppose I have felt welcomed by the Pokemon World. It always felt like it had more universal appeal instead of marketing itself to one specific gender over the other.

 

[UxieLover1994]

I remember the struggle of trying to fit in with kids and teens who enforce gender stereotypes and would never accept you for liking something that is viewed as for "the other gender". I was accepted to an extent in primary school, but shunned and bullied in high school for not confirming to female-aimed interests.

In contrast, adult fans don't really care about gender identity. My city's Pokémon GO Facebook group are mainly male, but they are very welcoming of female and non-binary players, and I've made a lot of friends with them. But when we hold events such as conventions, the contrasts are shocking between age groups. With adults, the gender balance is even. With children and the occasional teen, it is overwhelmingly male. Just the other day for the Regieleki Elite Raids, around 50 players turned up, and the ratio was 25/25 in gender; most were aged between 20-40, and there was only one child, a male (albeit with his mother, also a player).

It enrages you that children's media is still only targeting one gender in the 2020s, enforcing negative stereotypes and creating toxicity in the schoolyard (especially in gender-segregated schools). These can stick around into adulthood, you know, and sadly, such enforcement and conferment have cost many people their lives.

I would still think the anime would do well with Liko as the primarily protagonist in Horizons. A female protagonist doesn't always mean the show is exclusively for girls, like I said earlier with how well Kim Possible turned out.

 

[FelipePR]

I'm not sure how common playable female character options were back during the first two generations, at least based on the video games I would see back then. I wouldn't be surprised if fewer girls got into the anime in certain areas due to social incentives.

I think that, at the time, the number of female protagonists in games was quite restricted. Of notable game protagonists in the 90s, the only ones that come to mind are Samus Aran (Metroid), Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Jill Valentine (Resident Evil 3) and Regina (Dino Crisis). There is secret playable female characteres in some Castlevania games too, like Maria in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, Leaf's concept art has existed since the first generation of Pokémon games and it's a shame they decided to release the first generations games without her.

In these times, at least in Brazil, boys were encouraged to have a video game, that is, they ended up getting video games from their parents and/or relatives as gifts, while girls should have a hard time convincing their relatives to present them with one of these devices. I remember that when I had a disagreement with my sister regarding the use of video-games, my mother would say: The video-game belongs to your brother.

Certainly, society has advanced a lot in this regard, and today's situation is quite different to that of the late 90's. Even so, sexism is something yet present, especially in the games industry, which must be actively fought.

 

[snowmint]

I'm surprised if kids are discovering the anime themselves and not having their parents shove it down there throats.

 

[Mr.Snack]

Hello everyone.

You don´t know how happy I am that people enjoyed this and that it created a good discussion. This is what I love the most.

I am sorry for not participating in the coversation, but I´m taking a time off from posting in the forum to cool down a little, but once I saw this amazing answers, I had to come back.

I do have the new survey. I didn´t post it yet, because by the time I made this post, there wasn´t must interest. However, as everyone here is showing interest, I will organize tha data and put it here. This time the sample size is about 400 children between 6 and 10 years old. In the past month, I also got data from around 150 high schoolers (ages 15-18), that I will also share. I don´t have data for children between 11-14 yet. I also have the opportunity to gather some data from Japan. I have a cousin who works as a teacher in Tokyo and is also a huge Pokemon fan. However, her sample size will be a bit smaller, since she explained that there is more difficult to articulate wide school surveys. Once I get that information, I will also publish it here.

I know this sample sizes are nothing special, however I still think this kind of stuff is interesting and, as seen here, can start a good discussion.

I think some of the results were surprising, for example the second most popular characer between 6-10 years old and the most popular between 15-18. A little spoiler: they are both Team Rocket members, but not the same one.

I will try to organize the post during the weekend, so appolagies in advance for some delay that may occur.