Controversial opinions

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

A big problem with a lot of animes regarding the whole invincible protagonist thing is the fact that many, if not most, tend to drag on for a long while after the protagonist unlocks a certain special awesome powerup that's been hyped up like crazy when that point is honestly when the story should end: the protagonist is at their peak, they finally became the strongest, there's nowhere else for their character to go. It's over. Time to move on to something else, or at the very least someone else. Naruto, Dragon Ball, and Inuyasha are I feel especially bad offenders. Now, to their credit, each of these shows did make marked attempts to mitigate the protagonist power creep issue, but unfortunately none of them really solved it because it ended up leading to other problems:

• Dragon Ball went for the serial escalation route by trying to make sure that each new threat was conveniently more powerful than the last, but because it also wanted the stakes to be as high as possible it also made the mistake of hyping up each new antagonist as "the strongest ever", which eventually becomes hard to buy because when the new one pops up you already know they're going to be rendered obsolete by whoever the next one is.
• Inuyasha meanwhile tried to go for the "clever antagonist" route by making it so that the only reason the heroes couldn't skewer the villain into tiny pieces was because the villain was just too smart, but unfortunately this was handled extremely poorly because most of the time the villain's tactics weren't properly foreshadowed and he didn't exactly display much more intelligence than any other character onscreen, and this resulted in the villain coming off as less of a strategic mastermind and more like that one snotty kid in the playground whose overpowered OC always conveniently has a counter for whatever the other kids' OCs throw at them.
• Naruto went for a similar route to Dragon Ball, but it suffers from this issue slightly less if only because it did at least eventually reach a conclusion. That said, I did hear that Naruto was so powerful by the end that the sequel series apparently had to resort to nerfing him severely so that he didn't just steamroll whatever new threat popped up. I haven't actually watched Boruto, though, so if anyone reading this actually has feel free to correct me or clarify.

Yu-Gi-Oh, however, is kind of on a category of its own. Fun fact, despite how much milage one can make from jokes about Yugi always conveniently making the right draw he needs to win a duel (to the point that it's actually an in-universe superpower. No, I'm not making this up, I swear), he actually happens to have more losses than most other succeeding protagonists of that franchise... and his losses still can be counted in only one hand. Let that sink in.

 

[Alola]

I agree that Ash shouldn't be catching Legendary Pokémon to avoid him getting too powerful. The only one I could realistically see him catch is Kubfu, similar to how him catching and evolving Meltan didn't make him overpowered.

If the writers would have gone in a more preferable direction, Kubfu should have replaced Riolu and episodes centering around the Isle of Armor could have been a thing. The beauty of it is that the Isle is a flexible endeavor - players can progress the story as they wish. This would lend to pacing for Ash and Kubfu, who could bond outside the Isle, and make serious, tangible progressions when they journey back to it. Urshifu seems like such an Ash Pokémon, too. And its legendary status is subtle like how Melmetal's was.

 

[Daren]

If the writers would have gone in a more preferable direction, Kubfu should have replaced Riolu and and episodes centering around the Isle of Armor could have been a thing. The beauty of it is that the Isle is a flexible endeavor - players can progress the story as they wish. This would lend to pacing for Ash and Kubfu, who could bond outside the Isle, and make serious, tangible progressions when they journey back to it. Urshifu seems like such an Ash Pokémon, too. And its legendary status is subtle like how Melmetals was.

On one hand, I think this would make a lot of sense and would be a great way to show off Kubfu and Urshifu.

But to be honest, considering how popular Ash with a Lucario is as an idea I can't really fault the writers for pouncing on it when the opportunity arrived.

 

[Alola]

On one hand, I think this would make a lot of sense and would be a great way to show off Kubfu and Urshifu.

But to be honest, considering how popular Ash with a Lucario is as an idea I can't really fault the writers for pouncing on it when the opportunity arrived.

The thing is though, Ash & a Lucario is an opportunity they had several regions, as well as a movie, to pounce on let alone create.

Lol I still remember the uproars from him not getting that Riolu in Sinnoh, despite everything being there for him to obtain it.

 

[Daren]

The thing is though, Ash & a Lucario is an opportunity they had several regions, as well as a movie, to pounce on let alone create.

Lol I still remember the uproars from him not getting that Riolu in Sinnoh, despite everything being there for him to obtain it.

Honestly, I always assumed that before this series there was specific mandate not to give him old Pokémon unless they evolved into a new one (Aipom), or else I figured they'd have given him something that could Mega Evolve back in XY.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I remember how people hated the overexposure Riolu got, but right now we're on a 12 episode streak of not even seeing Lucario. Not so overexposed now. Too often do we get episodes where Ash doesn't even have another Pokemon on hand other than Pikachu lately.

 

[Daren]

I remember how people hated the overexposure Riolu got, but right now we're on a 12 episode streak of not even seeing Lucario. Not so overexposed now. Too often do we get episodes where Ash doesn't even have another Pokemon on hand other than Pikachu lately.

I suspect now that the heavy Riolu focus may have been to get him ready for the Darkest Day rather than a sign he'll be the new Infernape/Greninja, especially with the big showdown vs Gigazard seemingly earmarked for Pikachu at the moment if it comes to it.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Honestly, I always assumed that before this series there was specific mandate not to give him old Pokémon unless they evolved into a new one (Aipom), or else I figured they'd have given him something that could Mega Evolve back in XY.

This reminds me of that one theory that Ash's Charizard would return and become Mega Charizard Y and act as the rival/foil/counterpart to Alain's Mega Charizard X. On one hand I can understand why the writers didn't go this route, since Charizard had already had a return during the end of BW and him ending up as the XY ace could have easily been perceived as unfairly robbing the XY team of glory, but on the other hand it just makes the treatment that Mega Charizard Y got in the anime even more tragic.

 

[Nicolas721]

Personally, I think the worst part of the anime is the gym battles-or rather, the working towards Ash and his goal. Don't get me wrong, I love Ash's growth and it isn't like I don't want him around or just want his appearance to have no relevance, but I've always felt the gym battles to be rather...bland? I always liked it when the characters added flair and strategy to their battles, making it significantly more exciting, but when it's just action for the sake of action it kinda makes me...not really that excited anytime Ash goes for another gym battle. Think back to the OS series days-a lot of its charm was from the fact that it wasn't really battle focused, and was more so about the adventure and journey that Ash took with his friends. Though, that does get boring after a while, but that's what we have the evil team plots for, right? Think about how much more interesting the anime could be if the focus was exclusively on the journey Ash takes-meaning that more time could be spent developing Ash and his pokemon as characters, making the story character focused instead of plot-driven.

This is actually a reason why I loved the 21st movie so much-majority of the movie is spent building up and developing all these different characters and showing how all their stories come together in a way that isn't forced or shoe-horned in...everything just feels right. Ash may not have a major role there, but he actually has a strong effect on the other characters as well-so it isn't as if he wouldn't be important. Ash and Pikachu's relationship were excellently handled in that movie, as well as small worldbuilding moments-as subtle as showing Ash and Pikachu overlooking the city from their hotel room veranda to a character shown exiting the bathroom to a news channel that just BUILDS to the essence of this world. What I want is THAT.

For the Gen 9 anime, I'm honesty crossing my fingers slightly for it to be a kind of Ash and his pokemon journey(feat. Team Rocket+CotD)travelling through the region. It's a complete and utter fantasy that'll probably never happen, but just focusing on Ash's character, Pikachu's character, more chance for Team Rocket development(especially if Ash and his pokemon are the only ones they'll have to share screen-time with), and just overall making the characters drive the story forward is what I want to see. This entire anime is about the travelling aspect and pokemon development-both things which the current series is failing at and is getting hate for as a result. The anime has always been mainly plot-driven rather than character-driven, which leads to a lot of forced and OOC moments throughout the show, but they've shown before that when they focus solely on characters-they do a better job than anime as big as Naruto do when it comes to characters.

Quite honestly, I just want to see some type of character development arc that just shows the pokemon anime at its finest. Ash showing that he does have another side to him that he hides from others(SM has actually done this before), Pikachu getting proper development that is NOT battles(please no battles for Pikachu. Can I start a hashtag on that?), Ash's pokemon showing up more and how their personalities bounce off of each other, Goh's history being explored(seriously JN, you set up a very interesting character and backstory potential and just...rarely explore it for a poorly executed goal), less random filler episodes and if there must be filler-more filler that follow the traditional formula(it's old, yes, but it's a pick your poison. The old "help out CotD and see some potential for a good one-episode story" or a two-parter random episode that...could also have potential, I guess???), and just more character focus in general.

I know that might not be everyone's cup of tea, since people like the Gym battles(as the constant complaints about OS not having any has shown...)and Ash's goal in general, but I've always been someone to prefer fluff and energy when it comes to battles compared to entirely action focused with maybe occasional strategy to mix it up. It's purely a personal preference based on a hopeless fantasy, but I'm still hoping for that Gen 9 thing. Dreaming never really hurt anyone, now did it?

I disagree that Pokemon battles' role should be reduced. I get that action may not be everyone's cup of tea and that their result is predictable most of the time, but they can go hand in hand with a character's development and show their motivations, to give some examples: Paul vs Brandon, Dawn vs Maylene, Iris vs Drayden, etc.

However, I definitely agree that the show should have more focus on character moments and how the situations they live affect them influence their arc. I also agree that Ash and Pikachu's relationship should be challenged more.

 

[Hidden Mew]

This reminds me of that one theory that Ash's Charizard would return and become Mega Charizard Y and act as the rival/foil/counterpart to Alain's Mega Charizard X. On one hand I can understand why the writers didn't go this route, since Charizard had already had a return during the end of BW and him ending up as the XY ace could have easily been perceived as unfairly robbing the XY team of glory, but on the other hand it just makes the treatment that Mega Charizard Y got in the anime even more tragic.

It also makes the decision to bring Charizard back even more baffling. While it would have overshadowed Ash's XY team way more than Ash-Greninja ever could, I also kept thinking that there was some reason to bring Charizard back beyond the nostalgia. I don't know if giving Ash a Mega Charizard Y was a possibility at one point before they decided on Ash-Greninja.

Considering how frustrated fans are over Ash's Pokemon not appearing more often, the complaints about Riolu taking up attention feel really weird and ironic to me, especially when I don't really think it took up that much spotlight in the first place.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

Considering how frustrated fans are over Ash's Pokemon not appearing more often, the complaints about Riolu taking up attention feel really weird and ironic to me, especially when I don't really think it took up that much spotlight in the first place.

My guess as to why Riolu was complained about was probably somewhat of a pre-emptive reaction, since the writers have made some missteps when handling team aces in the past, and just about everyone and their mom assumed that Riolu/Lucario was going to be the Journeys team ace. I admit that Riolu/Lucario did feel a little shoved down viewers' throats for a while, but even back then I didn't think it was Riolu who was the problem. But if anything, the one Ash mon that has been hogging a good majority of the spotlight in Journeys is Pikachu, since even in the beginning he'd battled far more than the rest of the team combined.

Fun fact, back during BW I thought Pikachu was pretty bad about hogging the spotlight, which was further exacerbated by the Unova roster being larger than most (the BW moment of Pika-hogging that I felt was especially bad was when Pikachu was used as the final Pokemon in the Gym battle against Burgh in place of the newly evolved Tranquill, who ended up as one of Ash's most underused mons), but I think at least so far Journeys is being a lot worse than BW was in regards to making Pikachu a spotlight hog. And the worst part is that this is less due to Pikachu robbing other Pokemon of moments of glory and more because there's almost nothing happening, so the only Ash Pokemon that gets screentime is obviously going to be the one that doesn't remain inside his Pokeball.

 

[Jewel the Quaxly]

I remember an earlier post mentioning how lifeless everything is in Journeys and I personally agree. There just isn't much proper worldbuilding that can make this world come to life. Journeys did this completely fine in the beginning and actually did it just as well as SM did, if not better. However, as time went on, the anime just steadily grew more lifeless. There's less and less people showing up in sceneries, less pokemon in backgrounds, less main cast pokemon in general, and everything seems to needlessly drag on. The fact that Ash's goal-a goal which should involve other trainers-is rarely shown on screen is yet another example of this. The fact that Ash and Goh are researchers but we rarely see them actually doing research is another example of failed worldbuilding.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I agree that Ash shouldn't be catching Legendary Pokémon to avoid him getting too powerful. The only one I could realistically see him catch is Kubfu, similar to how him catching and evolving Meltan didn't make him overpowered.

I mean one of our protagonists is actively catching legendary Pokémon and a lot of people are saying he isn’t overpowered...
Its pretty weird that people are fine with Go getting legendaries but then Ash getting one would be too overpowered. My personal opinion is that Ash and Go shouldn’t be getting legendary Pokémon other than Kubfu or Meltan.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I mean one of our protagonists is actively catching legendary Pokémon and a lot of people are saying he isn’t overpowered...

Considering that Goh doesn't have easy access to Suicune, I'm not sure how that would make him overpowered. Suicune's strength compared to other Legendary Pokemon is also kind of debatable at this point. It's not weak by any means, but I'd say it's fairly low on the Legendary totem pole, especially compared to the huge deities we tend to get with each generation.

Its pretty weird that people are fine with Go getting legendaries but then Ash getting one would be too overpowered. My personal opinion is that Ash and Go shouldn’t be getting legendary Pokémon other than Kubfu or Meltan.

I'm not sure how many people were fine with Goh getting Legendary Pokemon. The reception towards the Suicune episode and people being concerned over Goh catching Moltres implies that more fans are against it more so than in favor of Goh getting more Legendary Pokemon, or at least they aren't excited over Goh getting Legendary Pokemon.

 

[skiittylalis]

I remember an earlier post mentioning how lifeless everything is in Journeys and I personally agree. There just isn't much proper worldbuilding that can make this world come to life. Journeys did this completely fine in the beginning and actually did it just as well as SM did, if not better. However, as time went on, the anime just steadily grew more lifeless. There's less and less people showing up in sceneries, less pokemon in backgrounds, less main cast pokemon in general, and everything seems to needlessly drag on. The fact that Ash's goal-a goal which should involve other trainers-is rarely shown on screen is yet another example of this. The fact that Ash and Goh are researchers but we rarely see them actually doing research is another example of failed worldbuilding.

i think this is the consequence of the whole journeys formula that really isnt working........ compare journeys with literally any other series where we got to explore a single dedicated region with ash and friends. there was so much the anime did to bring these places to life!! not focusing and fixating on one place to give all the attention it deserves really limits what can be done with it and makes it seem like its...... "just there" instead of an actual place. like what do we know about galar in the anime besides it has a wild area and pokemon get big and "oh noes rose did something bad"?? i remember in the old formula series we would get silly things like town festivals dedicated to wobbuffet or a pokemon dress up competition. those little things really made the worlds feel alive and lived in!! and in journeys we get none of that because ash and goh never spend enough time in a certain place to learn about it, or the places they visit have NOTHING. i mean, literally NOTHING. must i remind you of castellia city in episode 48??

and like...... this kinda ties in with my eternal question of what journeys wants to be. it seems to want to be a slice of life half the time which in that case a smaller cast makes sense so we can learn everything about our main characters but the slice of life thing is being handled far worse than alola: probably due to how sm was a more "dedicated" sol series while journeys cant make up its mind between sol and action/adventure. idk with the whole empty world and nonexistence worldbuilding and checking episode pages to see less than 20 pokemon on most episodes...... this pokemon anime is becoming FAR less about pokemon to me and feels like someones fanfic collection being animated. maybe an extreme comparison?? sure but it honestly feels like it to me

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Considering that Goh doesn't have easy access to Suicune, I'm not sure how that would make him overpowered. Suicune's strength compared to other Legendary Pokemon is also kind of debatable at this point. It's not weak by any means, but I'd say it's fairly low on the Legendary totem pole, especially compared to the huge deities we tend to get with each generation.

I don’t see then why Ash couldn’t get a similar legendary under similar circumstances?

I'm not sure how many people were fine with Goh getting Legendary Pokemon. The reception towards the Suicune episode and people being concerned over Goh catching Moltres implies that more fans are against it more so than in favor of Goh getting more Legendary Pokemon, or at least they aren't excited over Goh getting Legendary Pokemon.

@FinnishPokéFan92, the person whom I quoted has been pretty vocal about how they don’t have any issues with Go getting legendary Pokémon (specifically Suicune), so I found it weird that it’s fine with Go has a legendary but if Ash were to hypothetically get one he’d be overpowered and win everything.
It becomes weird moreso when we notice that Go is the character who’s having absolutely no problems at all working towards his goal, legendary involved or not.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I don’t see then why Ash couldn’t get a similar legendary under similar circumstances?

Honestly, if Ash had caught Suicune instead of Goh, people would probably have been thrilled, or at least the episode would have been less controversial.

@FinnishPokéFan92, the person whom I quoted has been pretty vocal about how they don’t have any issues with Go getting legendary Pokémon (specifically Suicune), so I found it weird that it’s fine with Go has a legendary but if Ash were to hypothetically get one he’d be overpowered and win everything.
It becomes weird moreso when we notice that Go is the character who’s having absolutely no problems at all working towards his goal, legendary involved or not.

One person being okay with Goh getting Legendary Pokemon and not okay with the idea of Ash getting one doesn't necessarily mean that a lot of people feel the same way. More people would probably be okay with Ash catching Legendary Pokemon due to his experience. That's basically how a lot of fans reacted over Meltan, along with being Ash's first Steel type, despite how his experience had nothing to do with its capture. I do agree that the concern of Ash being overpowered and win everything if he did catch a bigger Legendary Pokemon is kind of odd on paper. I can kind of understand it when Ash does battle more often than Goh and the chances are pretty good that he'd have the hypothetical Legendary Pokemon on his team, or at least be relatively easy to call upon it for big battles. The concern of making any form of conflict moot was brought up frequently for Suicune as well though.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

ne person being okay with Goh getting Legendary Pokemon and not okay with the idea of Ash getting one doesn't necessarily mean that a lot of people feel the same way

That’s exactly why I quoted the person holding that opinion to get more insight though... I understand that and that’s why it’s under me quoting someone and not a general statement. I don’t know why it’s been answered as if I made a sweeping set of statements about the entire fan base. And it’s clearly not one person if this comment thread was anything to go by. I just found it weird that some people spent ages trying to defend the Suicune capture and then in the same breath say that the other protagonist doesn’t deserve a legendary.

I saw some people on the thread who were fine with Go getting suicide but opposed to Ash getting a legendary so I wanted to know the reasoning. A lot of Ash’s Pokémon haven’t really battled much in JN so I’m not particularly opposed. I was uncomfortable with Melton and I was uncomfortable with Suicine.

But if a much less experienced trainer can catch Suicune I don’t see any reason why Ash cannot capture one. Some people would be thrilled if Ash got a Suicune because they think that Ash is more experienced and could finally use something powerful. I’m exploring different possibilities in these posts seeing the different angle JN has taken with regards to what the protagonist can or cannot catch.

If I’m being completely honest neither Ash or Go should catch legendaries in my opinion.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

@FinnishPokéFan92, the person whom I quoted has been pretty vocal about how they don’t have any issues with Go getting legendary Pokémon (specifically Suicune), so I found it weird that it’s fine with Go has a legendary but if Ash were to hypothetically get one he’d be overpowered and win everything.
It becomes weird moreso when we notice that Go is the character who’s having absolutely no problems at all working towards his goal, legendary involved or not.

I was fine with Goh getting Suicune, because 1) I felt that he earned it in the end, 2) he wasn't selfish about wanting to keep it and it was Suicune's choice in the end, and, most importantly of all, 3) Suicune didn't stay at the lab, which means that it's not going to be always accessible to him and thus make him OP.

 

[Enzo]

I remember an earlier post mentioning how lifeless everything is in Journeys and I personally agree. There just isn't much proper worldbuilding that can make this world come to life. Journeys did this completely fine in the beginning and actually did it just as well as SM did, if not better. However, as time went on, the anime just steadily grew more lifeless. There's less and less people showing up in sceneries, less pokemon in backgrounds, less main cast pokemon in general, and everything seems to needlessly drag on. The fact that Ash's goal-a goal which should involve other trainers-is rarely shown on screen is yet another example of this. The fact that Ash and Goh are researchers but we rarely see them actually doing research is another example of failed worldbuilding.

I think it was me (????????????)

But anyways, yeah, I agree 100%. It's like, okay, Pokémon is not an anime that is know for it's crowds and all, and that adding a lot of characters in scenes does ups the cost of production and yada yada... But this series makes nearly every location just seem like a ghost town. I mean, JN060 features an Pokémon Center where the only ones inside there are Ash, Goh, Nurse Joy and Rinto. In every other series, like XY as an example, we see more people and their Pokémon.

JN048 had Castelia City, a gigantic city that is overflowing with people 24/7, just appear completely abandoned. Are you telling me the only humans there are Ash, Goh, Jessie and James and like 2 other dudes? Lucario and Cinderace keep getting slingshooted all over the place and we don't see anyone else?

There has been multiple episodes where a large part of the screentime is outside in the streets of Vermillion City, and there's not an single person on the streets besides our duo and maybe the TRio. Not any cars moving, nothing. Nada.

And even in places where it makes sense to not have a lot of people, like forests and all, we also don't see any Pokémon besides Pikachu and Grookey. Even the wild looks dead.

Idk, but the world feels so... cold and dead in a sense in JN to me, it's so bizzare to describe it, but it's been getting worse imo.