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Controversial opinions

Agreed but feel this is due to the length of the Anime he went from getting his butt kicked to OP and we didn’t see how he one most of his badges.

It is worth noting we are OP in the games so it suffers from this as well. I’d like that style of story with an original character that ends up a Red/Gold tier trainer but takes many seasons.

Make a Pokémon anime geared towards teens :y Satisfy both demographics
 
The first dub opening is overrated. :p

I personally think Johto is the best opening, then Hoenn.

The Sun and Moon animation looks great.
Charizard is incredibly overrated.
Misty is incredibly annoying.
Mallow and Lillie are the best characters from Sun and Moon.
Ash should've caught an Alola form.
I think Max is funny.
May is far better than Misty.
Ash should've used his Snorlax more often.
 
I actually like Illima's character in the series. With his recent showing in the Alolan League, it seems there's a very strong, negative, opinion of him floating around, that I don't understand.

Now, I'm not saying he's a favorite character of mine. However, there are certainly far worse written characters, in my opinion.
 
Make a Pokémon anime geared towards teens :y Satisfy both demographics

I'll never understand why folks always suggest this; it's been over 20 years since the franchise first began, if coming up with a second full-time Pokemon anime series aimed at an older demographic were profitable, I'm sure that it would've already been done by now. The fact that it hasn't should make it evident that it's not a practical idea.
 
Isn't that what the Manga's for?

Not really if you're referring the Adventures/Special manga series. Despite its reputation, Adventures isn't aimed at an older audience. The battles can be more intense than the anime, but it's still clearly a manga aimed at kids.
 
I'll never understand why folks always suggest this; it's been over 20 years since the franchise first began, if coming up with a second full-time Pokemon anime series aimed at an older demographic were profitable, I'm sure that it would've already been done by now. The fact that it hasn't should make it evident that it's not a practical idea.
Not nessecarilly. Just because something wasn't done doesnt mean it's a practically useless idea, it means the company doing Pokemon anime think's it's impracticall for their own reasons, and that makes a huge diffirence.


Now, after watching this video, imagine that Pokemon anime aimed for teens is indeed released. Suddenly, there's a big BOOOMM!!!, millioons of watchers all over the globe...
And then, the writers simply start writing an incoherent, bad, and clumsy story, the bad animations and gore are turned up to eleven and become so over the top the audience simply gets bored. The viewers begin to drop, and the company begins to think the reall reason for that is because this idea wasn't profitable to begin with...
Completellly neglecting the zyllions of complaints people had about this series writing, soundtrack, animation, et cetera, which are the reall reason so many people left the show.

#YouAreSuchAKid
Goddamn, why do people keep complaining about that line!? It's like calling Dustin from Stranger Things an awfull character because he told Mike 'You're like a goblin with 0 IQ', and called him an idiot on multiple ocasions.
 
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I'll never understand why folks always suggest this; it's been over 20 years since the franchise first began, if coming up with a second full-time Pokemon anime series aimed at an older demographic were profitable, I'm sure that it would've already been done by now. The fact that it hasn't should make it evident that it's not a practical idea.

This. We have Pokemon Adventures for that anyway. It's the next best thing to an actual anime for older fans at least.
 
This. We have Pokemon Adventures for that anyway. It's the next best thing to an actual anime for older fans at least.
No, we don't? Cause Pokemon Adventures isn't really for older audience?

Besides, it is something a lot of people have been requesting over the years, and like I already said, the only way it won't be profitable is if the actuall execution is going to be terrible.





... Through I'd like to specualte that the actuall reason for them not doing something more mature is because they don't want another 'Legend of Dratini' to happen.
 
it means the company doing Pokemon anime think's it's impracticall for their own reasons

Well obviously and that's exactly why I don't see it as a practical idea since they're the ones who would be funding the project in the first place, and if they couldn't be bothered to do it before, then I don't see why that would be something that they'd want to dabble with in the future.

Like I dunno, it's possible that they thought about it at some point since they probably do some form of research on what the core audience wants to see, but the core audience are preschoolers and elementary school students, not teenagers who want the series to explore darker themes. So they probably didn't think it was necessary to produce a second anime series that would likely flop anyway.
 
My controversial opinion: Sun and Moon is a better anime than X&Y.

The big issue I have with X&Y is that it was very lifeless and boring. Not much really happened. Ash was just heroic without any real flaws, his new companions were also a bit to perfect with the exceptions of Clemont, Serena was too passive and barely interacted with anyone besides Ash, Team Rocket was just there and didn't do much, and they focused for my taste too much on Ash's Greninja and barley showed the other two starters.

And the biggest reason I really couldn't get into X&Y is the Shipping. I'm not a fan of Shipping because this feels always more like a tool to attract viewers rather than a device to tell a good story. And this is what AmourShipping was for me: a rating trap. The worst part is that Ash and Serena were not even portraited as a cute couple because Ash couldn't realize until the last few seconds, that Serena had a crush on him, so the romance just came from one side and was most of the time treated as a simple running gag.

This is also the reason why I also do not like Serena as a character. She got only popular because of the Shipping and feels overall more like the perfect waifu wet dream: she is in love with the hero character for only doing one nice thing in the past for her, she builds her whole life around him, she only goes on this big journey to be with him, she only talks with him and no one else, she only talks when Ash speaks with her, she leaves everything behind her to be with Ash, she cooks, she cleans, she dresses up in cute costumes, she gets easily jealous if another girl speaks with Ash, heck, there was even one episode where she put Ash's clothes one to battle another trainer because Ash was sick that day.

To be honest, she comes off more like a pathetic loser rather than a nice girl. Seriously, Ash did just one nice thing for her in the past, one thing, and now he is suddenly the center of her whole life. C'mon, Serena get your life together!

This leads also tp my second controversial opinion: Iris was a better female lead as Serena!

Yes, I said it! Iris wasn't perfect either but besides that one annoying running of hers, she was a pretty solid character. Not good, but solid. She was funny, had a unique design, was pretty strong for a companion, and the best thing was: she called Ash out when he acted like a fool or a little kid. Serena would just stand there and love everything that Ash does. No matter how idiotic he would act.
 
This leads also tp my second controversial opinion: Iris was a better female lead as Serena!

Yes, I said it! Iris wasn't perfect either but besides that one annoying running of hers, she was a pretty solid character. Not good, but solid. She was funny, had a unique design, was pretty strong for a companion, and the best thing was: she called Ash out when he acted like a fool or a little kid. Serena would just stand there and love everything that Ash does. No matter how idiotic he would act.

Aight I'm not gonna lie, I do dislike Iris and have a soft spot for Serena. But after reading this, you do have a valid point that Iris' tolerance for Ash is much lower, whereas Serena's was a bit over the top. Obviously, this led to the whole "Iris was so annoying what the heck" sort of bandwagon, but now it seems a bit more justifiable to me. But I think this sorts of does put it in perspective for me. Thanks.
 
Goddamn, why do people keep complaining about that line!? It's like calling Dustin from Stranger Things an awfull character because he told Mike 'You're like a goblin with 0 IQ', and called him an idiot on multiple ocasions.

I think it's because of how that catchphrase made Iris look like a giant hypocrite. She would act just as immature as Ash would, if not more so. It isn't really the worst thing about Iris, but it was pretty frustrating all the same.

No, we don't? Cause Pokemon Adventures isn't really for older audience?

Besides, it is something a lot of people have been requesting over the years, and like I already said, the only way it won't be profitable is if the actuall execution is going to be terrible.

I'm not sure if poor execution would be the only way for a hypothetical series aimed at older audiences to be unprofitable. It probably would be profitable regardless of the execution, but I don't know if The Pokemon Company would think it's really necessary to make a second series just to appeal to a different demographic. I don't think that they'd want to make a second anime series in general. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon spin-off series would be absolutely perfect for a relatively short series and it actually features talking Pokemon, but they've only made a few specials and shorts promoting the games.

My controversial opinion: Sun and Moon is a better anime than X&Y.

The big issue I have with X&Y is that it was very lifeless and boring. Not much really happened. Ash was just heroic without any real flaws, his new companions were also a bit to perfect with the exceptions of Clemont, Serena was too passive and barely interacted with anyone besides Ash, Team Rocket was just there and didn't do much, and they focused for my taste too much on Ash's Greninja and barley showed the other two starters.

And the biggest reason I really couldn't get into X&Y is the Shipping. I'm not a fan of Shipping because this feels always more like a tool to attract viewers rather than a device to tell a good story. And this is what AmourShipping was for me: a rating trap. The worst part is that Ash and Serena were not even portraited as a cute couple because Ash couldn't realize until the last few seconds, that Serena had a crush on him, so the romance just came from one side and was most of the time treated as a simple running gag.

This is also the reason why I also do not like Serena as a character. She got only popular because of the Shipping and feels overall more like the perfect waifu wet dream: she is in love with the hero character for only doing one nice thing in the past for her, she builds her whole life around him, she only goes on this big journey to be with him, she only talks with him and no one else, she only talks when Ash speaks with her, she leaves everything behind her to be with Ash, she cooks, she cleans, she dresses up in cute costumes, she gets easily jealous if another girl speaks with Ash, heck, there was even one episode where she put Ash's clothes one to battle another trainer because Ash was sick that day.

To be honest, she comes off more like a pathetic loser rather than a nice girl. Seriously, Ash did just one nice thing for her in the past, one thing, and now he is suddenly the center of her whole life. C'mon, Serena get your life together!

I think that Serena only got jealous when Minette was flirting with Ash and/or pointing out her crush on Ash. I don't recall Serena getting jealous with just any girl speaking with Ash. She also pretended to be Ash during that episode because the trainer wouldn't listen to her and she didn't want to risk Ash battling when he was already suffering from a fever. Calling Serena a pathetic loser is rather harsh. I can definitely understand not liking the shipping angle for XY or how their relationship was handled, but I also think that is't a bit much to say that Serena's crush on Ash was the center of her whole life. If that was the case, I don't think Serena would have even imagined traveling on her own. Plus, I still think that all of Serena's best moments throughout the series had nothing to do with her crush on Ash and were all about her determination to become a Pokemon Performer and her connections with her Pokemon. I'm not too surprised that she's often considered as just the girl with a crush on Ash. That was focused on during XY's run and for better or for worse, having her kiss Ash before leaving is probably what a lot of fans are going to remember her for too. I just think that there's more to Serena than just her largely one-sided crush on Ash.

Tomboyish Mermaid said:
This leads also tp my second controversial opinion: Iris was a better female lead as Serena!

Yes, I said it! Iris wasn't perfect either but besides that one annoying running of hers, she was a pretty solid character. Not good, but solid. She was funny, had a unique design, was pretty strong for a companion, and the best thing was: she called Ash out when he acted like a fool or a little kid. Serena would just stand there and love everything that Ash does. No matter how idiotic he would act.

Well that was the time where Serena argued with Ash after he lost to the Snowbelle Gym for the first time. Granted, I don't think Serena trying to compare her losses at Pokemon Showcases was the best idea considering how they aren't really on the same level of difficulty compared to Gym battles and she did basically want the real Ash to come back, but I don't think it's quite accurate to say that she blindly loved everything Ash did. Iris calling Ash out for being a fool or a little kid would be more noteworthy if she had any room to talk. Iris was often acting like a little kid herself and she was rarely called out for being a hypocrite. Like I mentioned earlier, Iris's catchphrase wasn't the worst thing about her, but it was pretty annoying.

Iris's strength really didn't feel believable to me in the slightest. All of her accomplishments were handed to her on a silver plate. They tried too hard to make her look like such a special gifted trainer whenever she got focused, but it didn't really match with how she was presented through most of BW. Her entire attitude and lack of training for Axew definitely made her look more like a rookie trainer, not someone who won nearly one hundred battles in a row before officially becoming a trainer. She definitely didn't train Axew enough to warrant it learning two overpowered moves, she was given an overpowered Dragonite to make up for doing virtually nothing with Axew and she clearly didn't learn anything from her experiences with Excadrill given how she handled Dragonite not listening to her. Despite all of the hype for her skills in-universe and how she was offered to become a Gym Leader, Iris' battle skills were average at best and even that might be too generous.
 
Here I have another controversial opinion that will trigger some of you: I do not think that Misty is that great of a character.

I even would dare say that she is one of the weakest written characters of the show. I still like her, she is a funny character and I really like her design. I have a weakness for redheads, but overall I think she is a pretty weak character. She didn't really have a clear goal, Misty lacked episodes that focused on her and especially during the Johto arc she hardly did anything. Heck, even animation-wise she couldn't do much, because she had to hold her Togepi all the time in her arms.

A lot of people complain about Iris lacking a goal, but at least Iris can be called out a central character. Misty was at the end just background decoration. As I said, I still like her. She is cute, funny, and has a cool design, but as a character, she really is a good example of how to nor write a female lead. If I would rank the girls in term of how they are written, it would be like this:

  1. Dawn
  2. Bonnie
  3. May
  4. Lillie
  5. Lana
  6. Iris
  7. Serena
  8. Misty
  9. Mallow (Sorry, Mallow, but you are sadly the weakest one.)
 
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I actually like Illima's character in the series. With his recent showing in the Alolan League, it seems there's a very strong, negative, opinion of him floating around, that I don't understand.

Now, I'm not saying he's a favorite character of mine. However, there are certainly far worse written characters, in my opinion.

I completely agree. He may not be my favorite, but he is way better than Sophocles or Faba.
 
Here I have another controversial opinion that will trigger some of you: I do not think that Misty is that great of a character.

I even would dare say that she is one of the weakest written characters of the show. I still like her, she is a funny character and I really like her design. I have a weakness for redheads, but overall I think she is a pretty weak character. She didn't really have a clear goal, Misty lacked episodes that focused on her and especially during the Johto arc he hardly did anything. Heck, even animation-wise she couldn't do much, because she had to hold her Togepi all the time in her arms.

Aside from the use of the term trigger, I generally agree. I can understand why fans would like Misty more than I do, but she does feel pretty overrated to me. Not having a clear goal and especially not having a lot of focus during her run in the original series really brings her down for me. She spent a lot of time talking about becoming a Water Pokemon Master, but didn't really do much to help get to that goal. Her team was pretty lackluster and I don't think her battle skills were that impressive, although it helps that I don't think that the original series glorified Misty as a battler as much as they could have.

Tomboyish Mermaid said:
A lot of people complain about Iris lacking a goal, but at least Iris can be called out a central character. Misty was at the end just background decoration. As I said, I still like her. She is cute, funny, and has a cool design, but as a character, she really is a good example of how to nor write a female lead. If I would rank the girls in term of how they are written, it would be like this:

  1. Dawn
  2. Lillie
  3. Bonnie
  4. May
  5. Lana
  6. Iris
  7. Serena
  8. Misty
  9. Mallow (Sorry, Mallow, but you are sadly the weakest one.)

Were people complaining about Iris lacking a goal? Unlike with Serena, it didn't take long for her goal to be revealed. It was another vague Master of a specific type of Pokemon goal and that did come with similar limitations that Misty's goal had, but I don't recall it being one of the main problems a lot of fans had with Iris. Calling Misty background decoration might be a tad too harsh, but there were times where she faded into the background. Misty is generally likable, but she is probably one of the most blatant token girls out of the main female leads we've had thus far.

That is an interesting list too. While I disagree with some of the placements, I can understand why you'd rank most of them like that. I don't think I'd put Lillie or Lana that high up. I think that Lillie does have the best writing out of the three SM female leads, but I don't know if it is really that impressive compared to all of the other leads. I feel like the long stretches where Lillie didn't have much focus really hurt her storyline, although I might feel differently upon rewatching SM. I'd also feel like Lana is a bit too overrated and nothing about her focused episodes have really impressed me that much thus far. She does get some nice moments, but she doesn't stand out that much for me. While I agree that Mallow is the most forgettable of the female leads, I'd personally take her over Iris. Mallow is bland and kind of just there most of the time, but she isn't frustrating to watch, poorly written or unlikable. Even upon rewatching BW, there were some episodes and moments about Iris that still made me so upset. I prefer a likable yet overall forgettable character like Mallow over an annoyingly frustrating character like Iris any day of the week.

Although, this list does make me wonder if I prefer Bonnie over Serena. I still think that there was more to Serena than just her crush on Ash, but her storyline still wasn't perfect, especially with how Showcases were handled and why she left for Hoenn. I really love Bonnie's storyline with Squishy. Their bond was so genuine and Bonnie singing to Squishy during the Team Flare arc is easily one of the most emotional scenes in XY. But Bonnie did have her annoying moments during a good chuck of the series and I loath her running gag with a burning passion. It's a bit of a tough call for me. I'll have to think about that some more before I could make my own list.
 
  1. Dawn
  2. Bonnie
  3. Serena
  4. May
  5. Lillie
  6. Lana
  7. Misty
  8. Mallow
  9. Iris
My list would be like that. Still, I like them all more than Cilan.
 
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