• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Are they ever gonna show Sobble and Grookey in action?

How much of an impact does the extra screen time really have though these days? Sword and Shield did very well in terms of sales in it's debut and that is without the anime really focusing on anything concerning Galar. There is a lot of merchandise featuring Sobble and Grookey, and there isn't any promotion linking them to Ash or his friends. IMO, I think the days of mass promoting a generation like they did with generation 3 or 4 and with the new Pokemon front and center are long over.

They can use the anime to further promote new Pokemon and make them more popular or capitalize on their popularity for more merchandise. Piplup was quite popular as the secondary mascot for DP, which led to more merchandise centered around it during and after the fourth generation. For more recent examples, I remember seeing some merchandise based around Ash's Rowlet and Lillie's Snowy. While certain Pokemon like the starters can still get merchandise before the anime starts, getting more attention through being on the main cast obviously doesn't hurt. Considering that Scorbunny is almost certainly going to be the secondary mascot of PM and Koharu has a Yamper, I really don't see how mass promoting a generation is long over. Like I mentioned before, they still want to promote Sword/Shield to some degree despite the whole series not being centered in Galar and they already have two popular Pokemon established within the main cast right from the start. It's really just a matter of when, not if, they'll have Grookey and Sobble within the main cast as well.
 
I don't see them leaving a starter out of the main cast. Ash might get both depending on if Koharu eventually travels with them or not. I suspect Gou won't get either of the others since they're focusing on him with Scorbunny, but that might change.

For more recent examples, I remember seeing some merchandise based around Ash's Rowlet and Lillie's Snowy.
Ah yes, the infamous backpack toy that's been making the rounds on the internet.
 
They should! It's bad enough already that Galar isn't getting the focus it deserves especially with the recent controversies.

I wonder how this generation will be remembered in the future with the backlash from the games and the anime focusing on Kanto nostalgia instead of Galar. It almost feels like the creators themselves don't even like Galar!? Apparently morale is the lowest it has ever been at the Pokémon company... :unsure:
 
I actualy want Ash to catch both of them. It is after all the best way to promote them. I really love sobble and it would be cool to see Ash training an emotional pokemon grow up again after noibat(but I hope for it to be done better this time). And Grookey just seems so... Ash. Actualy more than litten and rowlet ever did. As for their evolutions I would like for sobble to fully evolve in order for it to show its character growth(also it looks like greninja which is my favorite pokemon of Ash. And don't say that they won't do it because of that. Infernape was also pretty similar to charizard but that never stopped them from making it just as awesome.). Grookey on the other hand, I can only see it evolving once if Ash catches it. It's final evolution looks like a torterra character to me and I hated how they treated it after its evolution and wouldn't want to see another one like it. And because thwakey for me isn't quite the eye-catcher, I'll prefer it being kept as a grookey.
 
I actualy want Ash to catch both of them. It is after all the best way to promote them. I really love sobble and it would be cool to see Ash training an emotional pokemon grow up again after noibat(but I hope for it to be done better this time). And Grookey just seems so... Ash. Actualy more than litten and rowlet ever did. As for their evolutions I would like for sobble to fully evolve in order for it to show its character growth(also it looks like greninja which is my favorite pokemon of Ash. And don't say that they won't do it because of that. Infernape was also pretty similar to charizard but that never stopped them from making it just as awesome.). Grookey on the other hand, I can only see it evolving once if Ash catches it. It's final evolution looks like a torterra character to me and I hated how they treated it after its evolution and wouldn't want to see another one like it. And because thwakey for me isn't quite the eye-catcher, I'll prefer it being kept as a grookey.

I don't really think that Infernape is that similar to Charizard. They were both abandoned by their original trainers, but that actually played a key role in Infernape's storyline while it was pretty much just an afterthought for Charizard. I'm also not really sure how Rillaboom is like Torterra or how that would mean a potential Rillaboom for Ash would be treated the same way either. That being said, Sobble would be able to showcase a growing sense of confidence with its evolutions, so I could see that being a factor as to which one Ash would get. Sobble and Froakie really aren't that similar with their evolved forms, so I don't think that would be a problem. Not to mention Ash already has multiple fully evolved Fire type starters anyway. Having another fully evolved Water type starter wouldn't hurt.

I love Grookey and its evolved forms, so I'd kind of prefer it getting to evolved instead. But as long as it didn't become Rowlet 2.0, then I'd be fine with it staying as a Grookey.
 
They can use the anime to further promote new Pokemon and make them more popular or capitalize on their popularity for more merchandise. Piplup was quite popular as the secondary mascot for DP, which led to more merchandise centered around it during and after the fourth generation. For more recent examples, I remember seeing some merchandise based around Ash's Rowlet and Lillie's Snowy. While certain Pokemon like the starters can still get merchandise before the anime starts, getting more attention through being on the main cast obviously doesn't hurt. Considering that Scorbunny is almost certainly going to be the secondary mascot of PM and Koharu has a Yamper, I really don't see how mass promoting a generation is long over. Like I mentioned before, they still want to promote Sword/Shield to some degree despite the whole series not being centered in Galar and they already have two popular Pokemon established within the main cast right from the start. It's really just a matter of when, not if, they'll have Grookey and Sobble within the main cast as well.

It is true that the presence of Pokemon in the anime helps to increase the popularity and promote the merchandise (at a higher level than the presence in this).

That said, being members of the main cast does not always promote them so much. This season can be even worse in that regard for Sobble and Grookey since it seems to be a lot of focus on Pikachu and Scorbunny.


PS: Now there seems to be more promotion on Galar, but I'm not sure if this will continue over time (after all, they just need to promote the SWSH games for somr months).
 
I just read the summaries for episodes 10, 11, and 12 and it sounds like these two still won't be shown off yet. I'm really starting to get worried. This will be 2+ months worth of episodes without seeing Grookey or Sobble. I don't follow the anime much, but to me that seems like an unusually long amount of time before showing all of the starters off. What is going on here?
 
I just read the summaries for episodes 10, 11, and 12 and it sounds like these two still won't be shown off yet. I'm really starting to get worried. This will be 2+ months worth of episodes without seeing Grookey or Sobble. I don't follow the anime much, but to me that seems like an unusually long amount of time before showing all of the starters off. What is going on here?

Well the setup for this series is pretty different from the other ones. Not to mention they don't seem to be that interested in Ash capturing new Pokemon just yet. I'm sure that they'll still showcase Grookey and Sobble at some point, but it just might take awhile. I really hope that Ash captures a Grookey. Since they're going to showcase Leon in episode twelve, maybe that will help to kick off more adventures set in Galar or for Ash to be interested in the Gym Challenge.
 
I just read the summaries for episodes 10, 11, and 12 and it sounds like these two still won't be shown off yet. I'm really starting to get worried. This will be 2+ months worth of episodes without seeing Grookey or Sobble. I don't follow the anime much, but to me that seems like an unusually long amount of time before showing all of the starters off. What is going on here?
I think it might be possible that one of them makes a small appearance in episode 12, either one of the Starter evolutions (because Leon has one on his team in the games) or a small cameo in the background or of a few seconds (say, one being interested in Pikachu or Scorbunny) but I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t. We also haven’t had an announcement for episode 13 so maybe one of them could appear in that assuming Satoshi and Gou are still in Galar during that ep?

But yeah, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t concerning they haven’t made an appearance yet, especially Sobble since it seemed to be the most popular of the trio.
 
Yeah I'm beginning to get impatient for Sobble and Grookey's debuts, especially the latter's. I dunno what the writers are waiting for given that they already had Ash spend two episodes in Galar.
I don't know why either. This might go down as the longest a starter has ever taken to debut ever.
 
I don't know why either. This might go down as the longest a starter has ever taken to debut ever.
This brings up a good question. When is the longest a starter has taken to be debuted in the anime and which starter was it? I'm asking as someone who doesn't follow the anime that much. I'm only interested in this one to see my boy Sobble in action. I want to see what they do with Sobble and Grookey as well.
 
Yeah I'm beginning to get impatient for Sobble and Grookey's debuts, especially the latter's. I dunno what the writers are waiting for given that they already had Ash spend two episodes in Galar.
It becomes even worse when you realize that Go has captured Pokémon the past 3 episodes in a row while Ash hasn’t gotten anything new (and no Mimey doesn’t count).
 
This brings up a good question. When is the longest a starter has taken to be debuted in the anime and which starter was it? I'm asking as someone who doesn't follow the anime that much. I'm only interested in this one to see my boy Sobble in action. I want to see what they do with Sobble and Grookey as well.
Kanto starters debuted in EP01 and actually seen in EP10, EP11 and EP12.
Cyndaquil and Totodile debuted in EP117 (first Johto ep) Chikorita debuted in EP118.
Hoenn starters debuted and seen in AG001.
Sinnoh starters debuted and seen in DP001.
Unova starters debuted and seen in BW001.
Froakie debuted in XY001, Chespin and Fennekin debuted in XY003.
Litten and Popplio debuted in SM001, Rowlet debuted in SM004.

So, it's either Rowlet (seen in TV screen) or Squirtle (actually seen).
 
Well the setup for this series is pretty different from the other ones. Not to mention they don't seem to be that interested in Ash capturing new Pokemon just yet. I'm sure that they'll still showcase Grookey and Sobble at some point, but it just might take awhile. I really hope that Ash captures a Grookey. Since they're going to showcase Leon in episode twelve, maybe that will help to kick off more adventures set in Galar or for Ash to be interested in the Gym Challenge.
He should get sobble. He needs a new water type Pokémon.
 
He should get sobble. He needs a new water type Pokémon.

He could get a different Water type instead. Although, the amount of new Water types for this generation is surprisingly small, unless they plan on introducing a couple of more Water types for any upcoming new Galarian forms they have for the DLC. They could just give Ash both Grookey and Sobble, which would work for me.
 
He could get a different Water type instead. Although, the amount of new Water types for this generation is surprisingly small, unless they plan on introducing a couple of more Water types for any upcoming new Galarian forms they have for the DLC. They could just give Ash both Grookey and Sobble, which would work for me.
I think this is fairly likely. Gou seems hyper focused on Scorbunny in the ads so far.
 
I wish they'd hurry the heck up. Ash needs another Pokemon already, and it's not fair the "OMG look at me! I'm so cute! :3" starter is on the cast while the two that will evolve, are being held off until seemingly the end of time
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom