Controversial opinions

[GrookeyFan77]

I honestly feel like you could make a compilation like this with every series (possibly with the exception of XY).

The other series does not have this much. Even SM.

 

[Enzo]

I have to say: the biggest problem of this anime imo is that they just don't let Ash grow. And this is what is holding this anime back all the way back to Sinnoh-Unova.

They cannot get rid of Ash at this point, he's too iconic to be replaced. And there's also the fact that Ash and Pikachu pratically got fused together in a single character. They can't get rid of Ash cuz it also means getting rid of Pikachu, and considering Pikachu is the TCP's Mickey Mouse, they sure as hell don't want that.

The anime is basically stuck in this loop for years. Ash goes to a new region, grows by learning lessons and meeting people there, then gets defeated in the end, goes to a new regions where he forgets pratically everything he learned and they go at it again. Rinse and repeat. The thing is that the public that watches the anime grows up and the anime resets itself all the time to grab the new public.

This issue of having to appeal to every audience all the time being a 25 year old franchise is that is very hard, even if you are the highest grossing franchise like Pokémon is. Imo, it was all going well until BW. Of course Kanto-Sinnoh also had it's problems, but I think the flip-floping of trying to reach the mark of appealing to the new audience starterd in Unova.

They esseantially soft-rebooted the series there to try and retell the original series's story. No wonder Ash and Pikachu got their experience (and age!) reset, little to no callbacks to older series, Iris and Cilan feeling way to similar to Misty and Brock. They tried to use the og series as the base to attract younger audiences to what was a 14 years old anime at the time. But it backfired cuz not only the older audience got enraged to see Ash going from what was arguibilly his prime to forgeting how to throw Pokeballs in the next year, but also it was doomed to fail cuz they could never fully comit themselves to reboot the series cuz they cant't just erase everything that had happenned in those 14 years.

XY looked like the perfect next installment: Ash slightly more grown-up, the art style and story being more mature, they even made Ash a possible girlfriend!!! But yet it failed when not only the target audience prefered to watch colorful, funny animes like Yokai Watch, but also besides sinning when it came to continuity, and also the fact that they just couldn't let the anime (and Ash) move forwad to tell a more mature, thought-out story cuz, hey, kids make money. So they resorted to shove Alain there to make Ash lose. Again.

Then came Sun and Moon, a col0rful, comedy-heavy, slice of life type of anime. They tried yet again to appeal to the young audience by making everything more funny. Yet they went headfirst into a wall cuz the public got even more mad when they went form XY's art style and tone to SM's. Let's agree that one was jarring to see.

And now Journeys, a series that is nostalgia-heavy and that sins by making Ash stagnant and feeling like a background character 90% of the time and not having a proper plot and every episode feels disconneted due to being in this ''episodic format'' that is proving it's own failure by every episode.

Notice a pattern? All of those problems arise form the fact that the series has to follow a status-quo and cant' fully comit to a new premise, cuz Ash has to go back to where he was a the end. Then how can the anime continue with those rules????

* They can't retire the protagonist and the anime's mascot; (OS-DP)
* They can't reboot the series and make the protagonist progress and regress again (BW);
* They cannot age the series up and go for a more mature, aged-up plot cuz kid's content makes money (XY);
* They have to keep changing themes and genres cuz they have to appeal to everyone so they can't just stay in just one (SM)
* Making a whole new protagonist doesn't works cuz Ash has to appear vide rule number 1 (JN)

Sorry for the wall of text, but sometimes I fear this anime is fated to just keep spinning in it's own axis, trying to shoot a bullet to the bullseye and missing the shot everytime.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

IMO, one of BW's biggest faults is that it relies on DEMs more than any (or at least most) other Pokémon series. For example, there were three instances of one of Ash's Pokémon evolving during a Gym battle, two of which ended up winning him the ongoing battle. And it wasn't just Ash who won thanks to a DEM in BW. Cameron is a good example.

 

[Unireon]

For reasons like that, I hate the target audience.
Since they were mentioned...
Some of the longest-running anime aimed at children, Doraemon and Nintama in particular, doesn't fear telling complex stories or tackling deep topics despite their episodic/comedic nature.

 

[Vulpes Incarnatus]

* They can't retire the protagonist and the anime's mascot; (OS-DP)
* They can't reboot the series and make the protagonist progress and regress again (BW);
* They cannot age the series up and go for a more mature, aged-up plot cuz kid's content makes money (XY);
* They have to keep changing themes and genres cuz they have to appeal to everyone so they can't just stay in just one (SM)
* Making a whole new protagonist doesn't works cuz Ash has to appear vide rule number 1 (JN)

funny thing is that JN had all the potential in the world to tick every one of those boxes and make it the best series had they approached it with a proper plan and structure and not made it nothing more than a corporate GO advertisement. that screams haphazard to me.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

Don’t really know if this is an unpopular opinion around these parts but, I believe Iris was an extremely underrated character.

I personally despise B&W, but the only thing I actually enjoyed about the series was Iris. This may be thanks to her actually having development, unlike everyone else in the series, and the only reason I can think why people didn’t like her was her catchphrase.
I’ll admit, that was particularly annoying, considering we knew how mature/skilled Ash can be, and seeing someone call him a “kid”, after knocking out two legendaries in a semi-final of a prestigious battling competition, kind of belittled the growth we saw from him.

However, Iris was the only enjoyable part of B&W.
The rivals were terrible and never even brought the best out of the main characters - Cilian’s rival was a joke, and this is the main reason I dislike Cilian as a character, he was never really tested, and he’s essentially the same person at the end of the season, besides outgrowing a Purloin fear. Ash, we all know is a stumbling idiot and is immensely infuriating. The rest of the rivals felt empty - Bianca had no purpose after her father’s story (which lasted one episode, they could have at least made a gag of her dad showing up every so often trying to chase her down), Trip was a mess and didn’t even reflect a story onto Ash, and since he was more focused on Alder, Ash was never challenged in his personality. Stephen was as basic of an anime character you can get, whilst Georgia is the only one I feel as though provides a threat to a character’s progress, but that was eliminated after her first episode (she only picked up one more win afterwards to a random trainer).

Iris, has actual story. First, her background made her unlike any character - at school, she didn’t fit in and struggled to make friends. However, as the series goes on, she find more confidence in herself and manages these problems. You could say that her confidence was sparked on by her learning to bond with more Pokemon - understanding Excadrill’s feelings, as well as Dragonite’s, whilst working with a team of misfits, like herself. All of her Pokemon had problems - Axew couldn’t control its power, Excadrill shut itself off as it lost trust with her, Emolga was lazy, and Dragonite had temper-issues. Through her journey, it was key for her to become a better Dragon-Type Master by first learning how to actually master developing a Pokemon, hence why the first two she develops are Emolga and Excadrill, and not dragons. After this, and establishing more confidence, she’s able to return to Drayden and challenge him, with her partner’s wishes at mind, she does better, but still loses, showing she still needs growth. That sets her off to Johto to continue her development.
Her growth is even shown through episodes where she teaches other, and helps calm down a Hydreigon.

Whilst relatively simple, I think she gets over-hated in what is frankly, a poor anime, and I used to hate her, but realised she actually isn’t that bad. In fact, she’s the best part of it, and I’m excited to see her return, maybe more than Gary.

 

[Daren]

Yeah they really picked a bad time to end the badge quest. Some of us thought with Gyms returning in Galar, we'd be getting a badge quest again, and some of us were thrilled knowing how Galar has a much bigger emphasis on the challenge than past regions, going as far as having trainers fight in giant stadiums and treating it how sporting events are treated around the world. It even seens far more competitive, so some of us were pumped for Ash fighting much stronger Gym Leaders, which never ended up being the case.

I remember that.
I even suggested the issues with the Alola league's low competition level would be smoothed over if Galar was a more intense league he won afterwards.
Later when the PWC was first announced after the claim his story was about becoming the top battler I thought it was a logical way to move his story forward.

Instead we get offscreen rank climbing and tons of randos.

 

[DynamicFusion]

You do know that people that worked on Sinnoh and the show before still write this show like Atsuhiro Tomioka, Aya Matsui and Shoji Yonemura

Yeah, but most of the good staff left after Best Wishes/XY

The original writers were Shudo, Tomioka, Sonoda, Takegami, Ohashi, Fujita and Yonemura. Tomioka and Yonemura are the only ones left, Shudo left in the middle of OS and the other four left after XY.
Of the other current writers, Matsui started in AG (but was absent for BW and most of XY), Omode started in BW, and Fujisaku and Miyate both started in SM. The other 5 writers (Yoshida, Akao, Tsuchiya, Kakihara and Machida) for them Journeys is their first Pokemon Series

More than half of the current writers for Journeys didn't even work on Sun & Moon or any Pokemon Series before that.

Also Tomioka has only written five episodes for Journeys, whereas for other series he wrote more than twenty-episodes for each of them.

No wonder this Series is one of the Pokémon Anime's worst.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

No wonder this Series is one of the Pokémon Anime's worst.

Whilst I certainly understand the frustration for Journeys, ranging from a lack of development for everyone asides Goh, and the lack of general screen-time for Ash, and the lack of creativity, the seemingly unusual amount of filler, and so on...
I think it’s harsh to say this series is one of the worst when it hasn’t even finished yet, regardless of the supposedly lack of direction. Who knows what’s ahead, I’m not going to let a poor run think it’s a lost cause.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Who knows what’s ahead

This is exactly why I too don't judge this series until it's over.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Yeah, remember that a whole picture changes everything: BW and XY were extremely well-received during their first years, but as they went on they ended up being rather controversial sagas, especially BW. By contrast, Alola was rather divisive when it began, but ended up gaining a lot of favor by the time it ended. For all we know, something similar could happen to Journeys.

 

[cjd1207]

The original writers were Shudo, Tomioka, Sonoda, Takegami, Ohashi, Fujita and Yonemura. Tomioka and Yonemura are the only ones left, Shudo left in the middle of OS and the other four left after XY.
Of the other current writers, Matsui started in AG (but was absent for BW and most of XY), Omode started in BW, and Fujisaku and Miyate both started in SM. The other 5 writers (Yoshida, Akao, Tsuchiya, Kakihara and Machida) for them Journeys is their first Pokemon Series

More than half of the current writers for Journeys didn't even work on Sun & Moon or any Pokemon Series before that.

Also Tomioka has only written five episodes for Journeys, whereas for other series he wrote more than twenty-episodes for each of them.

No wonder this Series is one of the Pokémon Anime's worst.

The only time Tomioka wrote more than 20 episode before episode 60 of a series was DP when he was head writer. Also Yoshida , Kakihara and Machida all wrote 3 episode or less in this season so we don't know what their quality as writers. If anything blame the series director that was in charge from JN01-JN55 that couldn't reign in the bad traits of this series

 

[Unireon]

Who knows what’s ahead

More fanservice/nostalgia overuse and tons of bad writing/decisions, maybe?

I'm rather pessimistic, preferring them putting this series out of its misery as fast as possible.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

More fanservice/nostalgia overuse and tons of bad writing/decisions, maybe?

I'm rather pessimistic, preferring them putting this series out of its misery as fast as possible.

Well, I don’t blame you for being pessimistic, cause I’ve felt disappointed at many points (Alola episode, Bea’s rematch, Wilkstrom’s impact, Riolu’s development), but there are several things to be excited for - Rinto, the fact Ash will at some point have to battle Raihan (I hope), the continuation of Goh’s friend Horace, etc.

 

[DynamicFusion]

BW was certainly received positively in its first year, even if you go look at past threads on this Forum and others you'll see people saying it was one of the best in its first 10-20 episodes. The Impressions on it however gradually went down especially after the Fandom got frustrated after Something VS Something got postponed (and eventually never aired). XY was well-received throughout though. SM had a rather mixed reception with it going from everybody hating it in its first episodes to people slowly gradually changing their opinion after especially the Nebby Arc which made SM gain its own sub-fandom and status as a Top Three Series.

Absolutely nothing is changing for Journeys though. At the start, it had a rather lukewarm reception and slowly and gradually people started losing interest as its been the exact same from how it was in Episode 1 and we are now near Episode 60. There is absolutely no way that Journeys is going to get its own sub-fandom regardless of how hard certain twitter shills try. I certainly do not see this series ending on a high note like Sun & Moon (Pikachu Vs Tapu-Koko) did either. They already showed that they were struggling in animating Dynamax/Gigantamax in Previous Battles, Fat Pikachu vs Giga Charizard is gonna be a huge shitshow to watch at the end regardless of the result.

the fact Ash will at some point have to battle Raihan (I hope)

Well I got some bad news for you if you want to see some sort of a Character Arc with Ash & Raihan because the Director said this recently.

Animedia: What do Leon and Raihan mean to Ash and Goh?

Chief Director Tomiyasu: For Ash, at least, Leon is a clear goal, someone he wants to battle. Leon is someone who's stronger than him and is pretty close to being this ideal version of a Pokémon Trainer for him. Ash has already locked onto Leon but he's doing so as a goal for him to accomplish, not just as someone he looks up to. As for Raihan...well, Satoshi's a pretty clueless kid and so once thoughts of "Mr. Leon" pop into his head he probably doesn't see much of anyone else. He probably just groups Raihan in with Leon's other challengers (laughs).

My Reaction...

 

[Unireon]

They really have that concept of Satoshi....
He's only defined by his love of Pokemon, gluttony, cluelessness/dumbness or being comedy relief, taking turns according to the 'plot'.
Limiting him to being an unidimensional character, lacking any depth.

Now, I think BW is way more better than this series.
Never wanted it to be pulled off, but I do wish that for Journeys.

 

[Reborn Talonflame]

They really have that concept of Satoshi....
He's only defined by his love of Pokemon, gluttony, cluelessness/dumbness or being comedy relief, taking turns according to the 'plot'.
Limiting him to being an unidimensional character, lacking any depth.

Honestly, you could take Ash from EP2 this series, and he hasn’t changed at all.

Kanto & Johto - Gains experience and over time makes less mistakes
Honnen - Learns to cool himself down (ego) and become calm during battles
Sinnoh - Learns to become more adaptable through his battling style, reinforced by his rivalry with Paul
Unova - Reboot to make mistakes like Kanto version; learns from them(?)
Kalos - Strengthens the bond between himself and Pokemon to reach new lengths.
Alola - Becomes more aware of his Pokemon’s style (Lycanroc’s rage, Rowlet’s style, Z-Moves)

Journeys - Nothing. Even that “arc” where he was depressed was glossed over and he acts literally the same afterwards. He’s learnt nothing, and that’s what makes this Ash disappointing, and added on top of that, he’s done nothing new (Dynamax has been used twice).

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Absolutely nothing is changing for Journeys though. At the start, it had a rather lukewarm reception and slowly and gradually people started losing interest as its been the exact same from how it was in Episode 1 and we are now near Episode 60. There is absolutely no way that Journeys is going to get its own sub-fandom regardless of how hard certain twitter shills try. I certainly do not see this series ending on a high note like Sun & Moon (Pikachu Vs Tapu-Koko) did either. They already showed that they were struggling in animating Dynamax/Gigantamax in Previous Battles, Fat Pikachu vs Giga Charizard is gonna be a huge shitshow to watch at the end regardless of the result.

The series is only reaching its 60th episode out of potentially 150+, and the head writer has recently changed. Things can still be changed in a way that makes the series better received.

 

[Unireon]

Unova Satoshi was still less cocky or prone to tantrums/outbursts than Kanto Satoshi.
He had a nasty case of a short fuse and ornery tendencies back then.

Bad writing, I was baffled at how they ruined an interesting plot.
Still can't get how seeing Gou fight Flygon, using a technique he developed before, helped him overcome his 'depression'.
His recovery from a crushing defeat was better handled in DP, there his depressive state felt believable and relatable.

Changing head director so suddenly is a bad move/sign.

 

[cjd1207]

Unova Satoshi was still less cocky or prone to tantrums/outbursts than Kanto Satoshi.
He had a nasty case of a short fuse and ornery tendencies back then.

Bad writing, I was baffled at how they ruined an interesting plot.
Still can't get how seeing Gou fight Flygon, using a technique he developed before, helped him overcome his 'depression'.
His recovery from a crushing defeat was better handled in DP, there his depressive state felt believable and relatable.

Changing head writer so suddenly is a bad move/sign.

The series director changed not the head writer