Anime & Manga General Discussion

[RetroPokeFan]

Hey, hey. I'm just wanting to know why Ash's Dracovish haven't actually appeared in many episode, thus far? Why do you think that Dracovish is not actually a main, major, recurring or supporting focus in the anime?

Because they don't care about having Ash's team... be a team or have his Pokémon even be a thing or do anything at all. Simple as that.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

From Sky One to CITV to POP, the Pokémon anime sure has been going places TV wise (certainly not home media wise now that Manga Entertainment is dead and that Season 1 release kinda sucked) but now the franchise has found another home for some of the classic seasons: the BBC.

Pokémon is heading to the BBC for the first time as iPlayer catches series and movies

Pokémon is heading to the BBC for the first time. The British broadcaster has acquired two complete story arcs from the Pokémon the Series collection to be housed on the BBC iPlayer, along with the story arcs’ accompanying feature-length Pokémon … Continue reading →

www.licensing.biz

The big ol' Beeb will be adding both Diamond and Pearl and Black and White onto their iPlayer with Diamond and Pearl coming next month.

Shows XY pic in the article

 

[thomaswiencek]

be a team or have his Pokémon even be a thing.

I don't understand what this mean?

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I don't understand what this mean?

They hardly show up like you mentioned and on top of that they have no chemistry or even life (or anything resembling much of a personality for the most part to them at all). Heck, as others mentioned they aren't even allowed to be characters meaning there's no reason to care for them.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Cinderace's Goal is to have the Strongest Kicks

Drizzile's Goal is to become like his Idol

I wonder what Grookey's Goal is?

 

[Unireon]

It doesn't, and maybe won't, have any.

Since it's more a gagmon than a character.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

It doesn't, and maybe won't, have any.

Since it's more a gagmon than a character.

People said the same about Scorbunny and Sobble tho. Grookey has time to develop.

By the way your Gallade icon is so cute.

 

[Unireon]

People said the same about Scorbunny and Sobble tho. Grookey has time to develop.

By the way your Gallade icon is so cute.

That's a good point.
But neither Hibunny nor Messon caused that much trouble and got away with it.
Instead of improving, it gets worse. That makes the monkey hard to sympathise with.

Thanks. I love Erureido, it's one of my favourite species.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

People said the same about Scorbunny and Sobble tho. Grookey has time to develop.

I mean, those aren’t exactly glowing examples since Sobble just disappeared after evolution instead of developing away from the gagmon mechanics.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I mean, those aren’t exactly glowing examples since Sobble just disappeared after evolution instead of developing away from the gagmon mechanics.

I should've said "Grookey has time to grow out of it's Gagmon mechanics" instead

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

The more time goes on, the more and more I miss episodes like XY051. Like, that episode was essentially just pointless filler, but it also provided a deeper look into Hawlucha's character and really showed the partnership between human and pokemon as well as the relationships between pokemon much better than Journeys ever has overall.

Pikachu centered episodes in the past were always enjoyable because most of the time, they offered interesting characterizations of other pokemon as well. Now? The pokemon are non-existent and since Pikachu lost all his charm, so did the episodes.

None of the humans and pokemon in this series really feels like they're in a proper partnership compared to series' past. What happened to the partnership between Goh and Cinderace? What exactly is the dynamic that Chloe and Eevee have? Is Grookey now Goh's partner? In what way does Grookey act like a "partner"???

I actually didn't like Hawlucha very much before the episode I mentioned previously, XY051. There's a reason why episodes like these are important, even if they are just filler, as they can provide characterization for the characters to help the audience better like them. Hence why I now love Hawlucha just as much as any other Ash pokemon. And his later dynamic with Noivern just added to it.

Now, I don't have a single reason to care about any of the pokemon in Journeys. They're either unlikeable and present(Grookey and Morpeko), OOC as heck and always present(Pikachu), acting like a pet(Eevee), or non-existent(insert every other pokemon on the cast here). Why should I care about these pokemon when the series hasn't given me much reason to? And the ones I do like, such as Drizzile and Raichu, are so far into the background it's saddening.

I just really miss the pokemon...

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Who is Dracovish? How does it feel about it’s teammates? How does it feel about the new world it’s been thrown in?
How does Gengar feel at the Sakuragi labs? Does it get lonely without any attention all over again? How does it feel about Dragonite? Farfetch'd and the other new arrivals?
Did Sirfetch'd and Lucario have a battle to test their new strength? How do they feel about Dracovish's antics?
What happened to Lucario? How does it deal with its desire to battle? How does it feel when Pikachu gets to do most of the PWC battles? Why didn’t it go to Sinnoh?

Has Pikachu told any of them about Leon and their rivalry? How do these Pokémon feel about Ash (other than overwhelming fondness) and how well do they mesh with each other? Do they view each other as a part of a singular team? Who is Gengar's best friend in the main cast? Who is Dracovish's best friend in the main cast? Has Dragonite ever had to comfort any of the Pokémon in the main cast?

How does Ash's team feel about each other as characters?

In any other saga we'd have answers to all these questions. In JN there are almost none.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Really says a lot about the current state of the cast when literally the only team-wide interaction Ash’s party has had was everyone gawking at Sirfetch’d slicing a letter open-and even then nobody directly interacted with it and Dracovish wasn’t even present.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

I wonder why so many things have got push off to the side when it comes to Journeys.

Spoiler

There’s the fact that Cinderace and Lucario’s dynamic has clearly been absent straight after the Unova episode they had, and other things that have notably been reduced/scrapped/rushed to allow another thing to come to fruition such as Lucario and Sirfetch’d’s mini rivalry, Ash’s “Depression”, Gengar’s “curse”, Cinderace’s mood as a Raboot, and then there’s areas that are so far apart from their last appearance, the actual ability to get immersed into these plot lines have faded. For example, we haven’t seen Goh’s childhood friend (Horace) in over a year, Bea and Ash haven’t met for almost an entire year, we haven’t seen Leon in over half a year, as well as Chairman Rose (if he ever does come back), and all of those feel flat.
When Ash and Bea do fight, it doesn’t feel like there’s any intensity to it, because we barely know anything about Bea. She doesn’t reflect something that Ash has, or makes it clear of what he lacks, she’s just a run-of-the-mill tough trainer that wants to get stronger. She’s flat, and the gap between seeing her doesn’t help fill in the blanks. The same goes for Leon. Unlike Kukui, he doesn’t reappear enough to drive home the desire for Ash to overcome the figure standing in front of him. In other words, the fight has no emotion. If Horace came back, I think they would have to reintroduce him. I can’t recall anything about him, and Goh’s dynamic with him feels disjointed to the point I forgot he’s friends with them, and that Horace even exists. Maybe he’ll come back in Project Mew (which I doubt, but he might look for clues for Celebi through Mew?)

This series just bounces all over the place to me, it doesn’t know what to do and keep up with. Goh’s insecurity plot line is interesting to me, but it isn’t helped by the fact that this insecurity is barely challenged and showcased, and what he’s regularly doing (competing in races so free of concern) kind of disregards that. Like, he feels attacked by Gary’s presence. When it comes to Gary, it’s like he’s afraid that Ash, one of his only friends, will be taken away, and he’ll be alone. But again, Project Mew episodes are so scattered that it cannot build this very well and it feels like there’s no risk for Goh. It’s not like Gary appears enough to warrant Goh to think Ash will get bored of him, and therefore, low stake, low emotional affinity towards this plot line.

Nothing can build with this series in a structured manner. It’s either do one thing quickly, like Raboot’s personality, and move on, leaving an unsatisfying result, or take too much time and spread everything too far, leaving everything getting muddled together.
I can say that the only things Journeys has kept consistent with is Koharu’s path in life, and even that at times has been having issues

 

[Enzo]

You know, after some thinking to myself these days, I have a very pertinent thought about JN:

What's the point the writers are trying to do here, exactly?

Spoiler

It's just that... not a lot, barely nothing, I would even say, actually has a lot of weight in the narrative. Like, there's some episodes that are focused in some of Goh's mons, for example. But the problem is that why even actually bother with making an episode about, say, Cubone, and not do anything with it afterwards? Cubone came had an episode about itself, got captured by a main character and completely poofed after the credits rolled. I'm 99% sure we haven't seen it since. The same thing applies to so many other mons, like Aerodactyl, Suicune even, Falinks and etc. So, why exactly do they need an ep all for themselves if they will have absolutely no impact going forward?

Or, just as @Reborn Talonflame put in: the Ash x Bea rivalry (or should I say, the idea of one?). There's really not a lot here. We know basically nothing about Bea even after all this time. We don't know her motivations, what sets her apart from Ash and what makes their rivalry. Is she a sort of ''She is/has something that Ash is lacking and that he needs to achieve to beat her" rival like Gary and Alain, or is she more of a ''opposite mindsets and approaches, 'unstoppable force meets immovable object' collides'' sorta of rival such as Paul? What's the emotional stake here? Why be invested on her character and the narrative surrounding her and Ash? Why should we care? (Btw, I swear on God that before the Iris ep teased her return, I genuinely wondered if the writers were just gonna drop her).

Why did they introduced so many interesting plot lines and hooks they can pull with Ash's team and are not bothering with any of them? ''Gengar's ~Curse~", Lucario talking to Ash through Aura, the very potentially deep talks about Dracovish's own existence as an unique artifical being being thrusted back into the world in a new, bizarre form years after it's passing (who does it feels about it's own existence, for example), how the evolution changed and affected Sirfecth'd and how it sees the world and Ash now. There's so much that can be done and yet nothing.

Cinderace's blotched development, Drizzile heading in a potentially worse path, Grookey doing nothing beisdes being a cute plot device, Goh's character and goal being one of the biggest problems I have ever seen in the anime in ages, and nada being done to repair any of it.

And this all without counting structural problems such as the episodic format, PWC and travel through all the regions being concepts that spasmed and died as soon as they showed up.

It gives off this bizarre sense of the writers giving up on a idea as soon as it appears, and it's so sad to watch. Idk, there had been some gigantic potential for this series yet they managed to belly flop basically everything.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

I just realized that we haven't a Grass Starter evolve since DP

Remember the "Water Starter Curse"?
Is the "Grass Starter Curse" also a thing?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

We may have episode 78 title. Waiting for a verification.

Spoiler: Tweet

Spoiler: Translation

8/27 (20?) # 78
"Targeted Sakuragi Research Institute!"
An incident occured in which the Pokémon data collected by Satoshi and Go has disappeared from the Sakuragi Research Institute! That night, Jimeleon sees a suspicious object in the lab.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Imagine if it turned out that Drizzile was actually following Goh all along but he was just invisible the entire time?

 

[Kurolegacy]

I’m curious what everyone would think if, should Misty and/or Brock return, they were sporting their outfits from LGPE especially with how Journeys has already shown to change character designs to be in line with the game counterparts especially with the Kanto Gym Leaders based on the silhouettes.

 

[Emmy]

I’m curious what everyone would think if, should Misty and/or Brock return, they were sporting their outfits from LGPE especially with how Journeys has already shown to change character designs to be in line with the game counterparts especially with the Kanto Gym Leaders based on the silhouettes.

Is there a reason why one should have a strong opinion on the matter in either direction?