A New Change in Serena's Character Design...

[Pokemaster97]

I'm a little disappointed that they seem to be going the cliche route with the main female protagonist cutting their hair midway through the series. I'm indifferent about the new design, style wise, but I can't really comment much more until I see it in action.

 

[Necrozma]

Ew, terrible redesign. That short hair just looks messy and ugly. I'm not really fond of short hair on girls anyway though. And that hat is ugly too. I'm basing this off of the silhouette, btw, not the fan interpretation. Though the fan interpretation looks like it could be spot on.

If this is going to be Serena's new look for a long time, I might not even watch the rest of the XY anime. It's one of the WORST designs I've ever seen on a character in it.

Do you realize how incredibly shallow this sounds? Whether she looks good or not, a character's design is a truly awful reason to drop an anime as opposed to legit stuff like, oh I don't know, writing?

I mean...wow...i'm shocked by your line of thought.

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

I wonder if this is going to be a plot-important haircut sort of thing. I feel like if it's just to show off the customisation feature, they would have done it earlier.

 

[Kelleo]

Do you realize how incredibly shallow this sounds? Whether she looks good or not, a character's design is a truly awful reason to drop an anime as opposed to legit stuff like, oh I don't know, writing?

I mean...wow...i'm shocked by your line of thought.

It's not shallow at all, actually. I don't want to see a terrible design every single episode. If this was just a more minor character, I'd still be watching. But Serena is part of the main cast, and we'll see her in every single episode until the Kalos arc ends.

 

[Alola]

First Korra and now Serena. From what I've seen, the silhouette and fan interpretation, I really like her haircut. However, I like her current hairstyle (and hat) just a bit more. It was really growing on me as the in-game representation really did not do it justice at all. And if Serena is getting a wardrobe change, then I hope the same applies to Clemont because I am tired of that jumpsuit. Seriously, ever since Brock left, the main male companions have only worn impractical traveling clothes.

I agree with Mikuri. I think if Serena had an arc where she came back to join Ash in another region/saga, a haircut there would be much more appreciated.

 

[CrashBash]

Do you realize how incredibly shallow this sounds? Whether she looks good or not, a character's design is a truly awful reason to drop an anime as opposed to legit stuff like, oh I don't know, writing?

I mean...wow...i'm shocked by your line of thought.

It's not shallow at all, actually. I don't want to see a terrible design every single episode. If this was just a more minor character, I'd still be watching. But Serena is part of the main cast, and we'll see her in every single episode until the Kalos arc ends.

Technically, it IS sort of shallow, because, well, it's aesthetics. For an animated show, like Pokemon, I would have thought the most important thing would be the story, closely followed by the animation, sound and the characters in general. And when I say that, I'd say it'd be more important as to how the characters behave in the long run than how they look.

Basically, what you're talking about seems pretty minor in the long run. It's a character design, it isn't that high on the "what-makes-this-teh-awesomesauce" list. The reason I'm watching the anime, and why I like it, is because it has some very engaging stories and it's fun too, and I'm frankly paying more attention on how Serena behaves than how she looks, because, at the moment, that's what will make or break her.

 

[Necrozma]

Do you realize how incredibly shallow this sounds? Whether she looks good or not, a character's design is a truly awful reason to drop an anime as opposed to legit stuff like, oh I don't know, writing?

I mean...wow...i'm shocked by your line of thought.

It's not shallow at all, actually. I don't want to see a terrible design every single episode. If this was just a more minor character, I'd still be watching. But Serena is part of the main cast, and we'll see her in every single episode until the Kalos arc ends.

Yes, it's shallow and superficial because you are dropping an anime for all the wrong reasons. That's just like choosing to end a friendship with a person because you can't stand looking at them.

Also props for declaring a design that has yet to be revealed as awful. How you got all that from a sillhouette I have no clue.

 

[JacobYBM]

The manner in which a story is told (storyboarding, layouts and key animation, voice performances, and music placement) is just as important as the story, if not more so. What made Satoshi versus Shinji so good wasn't simply the dialogue, it was the performance of the actors, the performance of the key animators (mostly Iwane Masa'aki), the contributions of the episode directors (mostly Asada Yuuji), and all of Mima Masafumi's contributions (voice directing, music placement, etc.). Those are the things that endear dramatic works of art to us, not simply 'the story'. If one only wanted the story they would be perfectly fine simply reading a summary on a website.

I'm not a very big fan of Hiro'oka Toshihito's designs, especially Serena. I think the basic design of her hair is rather ugly and the key animators don't try to spruce it up much. I'm all for Serena getting a new look, especially if it opens up more opportunities for her hair to look more 'living', even if in simple still shots.

 

[Kelleo]

Believe what you want to, but I'm allowed to have my opinions. I'm not changing them and I dislike the way this design looks so far too much to want to put up with it.

 

[JacobYBM]

Believe what you want to, but I'm allowed to have my opinions. I'm not changing them and I dislike the way this design looks so far too much to want to put up with it.

A design you haven't actually seen in detail yet.

 

[Kelleo]

A design you haven't actually seen in detail yet.

Doesn't matter. I still don't like what the silhouette alone shows.

 

[CrashBash]

Believe what you want to, but I'm allowed to have my opinions. I'm not changing them and I dislike the way this design looks so far too much to want to put up with it.

We're not saying that, we're just saying it's shallow and superficial for someone to abandon some potentially very good stories, with potentially excellent voice direction, animation and everything else YBM said, SIMPLY because Serena's hair is different. If such an episode existed, would you seriously refuse to watch it simply based on Serena's haircut?

It reminds me of when the reboot of "Devil May Cry" was doing its rounds, and everyone was claiming that the redesign of Dante was awful simply because he had black hair, instead of focusing on something else like, oh, I dunno....how goddamn awful his personality was.

 

[JacobYBM]

A design you haven't actually seen in detail yet.

Doesn't matter. I still don't like what the silhouette alone shows.

By saying "doesn't matter" you are recognizing that the two are in fact separate things. You have also recognized that your previously stated opinion is in reference to the silhouette. If the two are separate things then clearly you have no opinion of the actual design. If you have no opinion of the actual design...well, you've just wasted a lot of time and emotional grief on your part.

 

[Kelleo]

We're not saying that, we're just saying it's shallow and superficial for someone to abandon some potentially very good stories, with potentially excellent voice direction, animation and everything else YBM said, SIMPLY because Serena's hair is different. If such an episode existed, would you seriously refuse to watch it simply based on Serena's haircut?

Um, I said I didn't like the hat too. And we don't know if her outfit will be different. Also, I never said that I would stop watching the show for sure. I said I MIGHT. Because I haven't yet seen the design in full. Just a silhouette of the haircut and hat.

 

[CrashBash]

We're not saying that, we're just saying it's shallow and superficial for someone to abandon some potentially very good stories, with potentially excellent voice direction, animation and everything else YBM said, SIMPLY because Serena's hair is different. If such an episode existed, would you seriously refuse to watch it simply based on Serena's haircut?

Um, I said I didn't like the hat too. And we don't know if her outfit will be different. Also, I never said that I would stop watching the show for sure. I said I MIGHT. Because I haven't yet seen the design in full. Just a silhouette of the haircut and hat.

That doesn't exactly change anything, it's still an aesthetic change that does not affect anything important in regards to the anime itself and if you're seriously even thinking about giving up on the anime for something so minor, then that's your problem, not the creators'.

Anyway, this is getting out of hand.

 

[Team Gaara]

I don't see the big deal of Serena getting a haircut. It just looks like a reference to the customization feature and nothing more. I doubt her personality will change (though that would be a major improvement) or anything like that. While I prefer her longer hair style the most in-game, I'm curious to see how she'll look in the Anime since they also see to be changing up her outfit a bit, as well.

 

[Moe]

Considering half the episodes she has to stay overnight in tents, it can't be easy to keep her hair clean - especially when unlike Iris you don't want Pokemon living in there. At least Dawn had Piplup helping her - Fennekin is probably less helpful there.

I'm surprised that they are making a change - it never has made sense that Serena spent so much time in the third episode picking what to wear and then went and wore the exact same thing every day. I'd rather they treated it normally and just gave her a few different outfits that changed daily, not just randomly decide one day that she'll change everything to then keep wearing that every day until the next change.

Also - did I miss something else that confirmed a redesign?

 

[Life]

I like it. The anime characters have never gotten an updated look in the middle of a saga, so this is a first, and a neat one I might add. I'd actually like to see style/aesthetic changes more often, if only to shake up the visuals every now and then.

 

[Deadman]

What to say? Well, I personally don't like boy hair cuts on females but on the other hand, shorter hair on a long, sometimes difficult journey has a practical reason. However, we only know of a silhouette and fan interpretations as of now. Might as well be just a style, that they appear shorter. However, even if I don't like the short hair, I have to bear it anyway, except I would stop watching but a different hair cut is hardly a reason for me to stop (besides it could grow back). Future will show it.

 

[Shinneth]

Honestly, I figured the staff would be too cheap to implement the character customization aspect of XY into the anime at all, so the fact that they're going as far as giving Serena a haircut is a pleasant surprise! I'm hoping new clothes/accessories come with the package, otherwise it will seem a little lazy. It's hard to judge with just a silhouette but I am iffy on the haircut, but if I was able to tolerate the incomprehensible mess that is Iris' hair, I think I can get used to Serena getting a long-term haircut.

I only hope they DON'T use the trope of symbolism in the act of cutting your hair - which is mostly used to signify character growth in terms of their flaws or letting go of past events that held them back. It's not a BAD trope by any means; I've just seen it done SO many times and in Serena's case, this would've been appropriate if she'd done it when she finally made a solid decision on what she wanted for herself that didn't involve following Ash around the region. The time to do something like a character growth-signifying haircut has come and gone.

I don't mind at all if she just has her hair cut for the hell of it; that's something I can see Serena doing. I'm just hoping there's no deeper meaning shoehorned into it. It'll just come off as super silly doing it for that reason now.