Do you have any unpopular opinions about the anime?

[Soniman]

The problem as I see it is that XY (In particular) trades in Ash's earlier brashness and recklessness for just increased competence and a tendency to never argue about anything.

Thats less his fault and more just the fact that the characters hes given to interact with never give him a reason to argue, Serena loves him, Clemont admired him, Bonnie liked him, Sawyer idolized him, Tierno was friendly, Alan was obsessed with him and so on. Hence why his big drama for said saga comes from his own internal fears and doubts with the whole Greninja thing then anything external

The overall effect is that of a character who has no particular defining traits anymore - he's competent but not a prodigy; he's only not cheerful when showing token empathy;

Ash's default state is cheerful, this is not a XY only thing.

he only ever gets annoyed or riled by evildoers; he's helpful and empathetic, but empathises with everyone's problems equally, regardless of whatever they are.

Ash is a helpful guy, nothing really wrong with that. I guess im just not sure what youre trying to say here, Ash's defining traits are his good nature, empathy towards people and espescially pokemon, and passion for trsining and battling, XY didnt change any of that

That's not to say that Ash was ever a fantastic character (I don't think the anime has ever produced more than satisfactory characters). However, I find the Ash of OS a lot more believable than the Ash of XY. LadySasaki puts it well with the phrase "blandly smiling". Ash hasn't developed or matured: he's been watered down.

Agree to disagree then, I find the idea that he hasnt matured or developed whatsoever and only just watered down pretty ridiculous myself I and it just kinda goes with what I was saying with XY Ash getting a bum rep because some of his other traits have been played down compared to others.

This comes back to something I touched on earlier, which is that I don't think the writers really know what to do with Ash. A story that goes on forever, glued to a huge franchise, is already certain death to any sensible character development. In a standalone story that might end, you could have the protagonist mature through growing up, passing some of the milestones of life. Not so with the Pokémon anime, so the result is the mess you get from trying to have a character grow whilst at the same time never significantly change at all

Really isnt news at this point.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Thats less his fault and more just the fact that the characters hes given to interact with never give him a reason to argue, Serena loves him, Clemont admired him, Bonnie liked him, Sawyer idolized him, Tierno was friendly, Alan was obsessed with him and so on.

Call it a tapestry, if you like, it still boils down to the same thing.

Ash's default state is cheerful, this is not a XY only thing.

Ash is a helpful guy, nothing really wrong with that. I guess im just not sure what youre trying to say here, Ash's defining traits are his good nature, empathy towards people and espescially pokemon, and passion for trsining and battling, XY didnt change any of that

Well, you are missing the point. Take the empathy thing, for example. When you have a character that reacts the same way to everyone's problems, whatever they are, not only is it thoroughly unrealistic (Because no-one is that even-handed in their compassion), but their homogeneous response just becomes blandly robotic. I think that's what people mean when they accuse Ash of having no personality - even his niceness has no nuance to it.

There's little evidence to really show that this can be called maturing, either. Take the idea that the current cast never give him a reason to argue - ok, fair enough, but in that case you can't give Ash the credit for maturing out of the bickering he did with the likes of Misty or May, either. If he got into bickering matches with Clemont and apologised shortly afterwards, for example, or dropped a petty argument before it escalated, that would show that he's learned to interact with people better. It would even be consistent with earlier seasons, given that he would almost never apologise and it usually took Brock's intervention to end the bickering.

So there you have it, that's why I find Ash's current incarnation to be a flat, bland and unconvincing character

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

Serena, the overhype of the league and the release of Greninja and Goodra destroyed the Kalos series in anime in my opinion.

 

[Soniman]

Call it a tapestry, if you like, it still boils down to the same thing.

im just saying, other factors at play and so on

Well, you are missing the point. Take the empathy thing, for example. When you have a character that reacts the same way to everyone's problems, whatever they are, not only is it thoroughly unrealistic (Because no-one is that even-handed in their compassion), but their homogeneous response just becomes blandly robotic. I think that's what people mean when they accuse Ash of having no personality - even his niceness has no nuance to it.

Nooot really? His (very few) meaningful interactions with Serena and dealing with her doubts regarding goals and dreams were unique to them, his interactions towards Clemont over meeting as equals at the gym were the same, his interactions with Goodra were diffrent from Greninja which were diffrent from Noibat. I really dont agree with your assessment that Ash is just some robot who has only prepackaged lines for every character and theres no variation or uniqueness to it based on what ive seen for myself in the show

There's little evidence to really show that this can be called maturing, either. Take the idea that the current cast never give him a reason to argue - ok, fair enough, but in that case you can't give Ash the credit for maturing out of the bickering he did with the likes of Misty or May, either. If he got into bickering matches with Clemont and apologised shortly afterwards, for example, or dropped a petty argument before it escalated, that would show that he's learned to interact with people better. It would even be consistent with earlier seasons, given that he would almost never apologise and it usually took Brock's intervention to end the bickering.

This is some pretty heavy conjecture. So because we never got the opportunity to see Ash argue much to see how he handles it that must somehow mean theres no actual proof of his maturity then? Theres more ways to gauge maturity then who you argue with you know. Ash was kind of a dick in AG sometimes but id still say hes pretty mature to based on everything else we were shown.

so there you have it, that's why I find Ash's current incarnation to be a flat, bland and unconvincing character

More power to you then, people not liking Ash is something ive long grown accustomed to so the recent flare of negativity towards his recent incarnation in the fandom is par the course at this point for me.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I know that I'm fighting against a tide, but I grew to dislike Ash-Greninja throughout his tenure in the anime. Too much attention in too short a timeframe probably.

 

[Master Cyrus]

I've gained a lot of appreciation for anime girls with short blue hair this year so for now I like Lana more than Mallow or Lillie [emoji14]

 

[Johtohfiller]

Not sure if this is actually unpopular or if there's just a lot of backlash lately, but I think the XYZ gang is great and I've never found them bland, they're tied with Dawn as my favorites. I do wish they'd done more Serena-Clemont and Ash-Bonnie interactions but otherwise I've thoroughly enjoyed them, to the point I've decided to take up fanfic which is something I haven't had much interest in before.

 

[FANG-TAN]

The problem as I see it is that XY (In particular) trades in Ash's earlier brashness and recklessness for just increased competence and a tendency to never argue about anything. The overall effect is that of a character who has no particular defining traits anymore - he's competent but not a prodigy; he's only not cheerful when showing token empathy; he only ever gets annoyed or riled by evildoers; he's helpful and empathetic, but empathises with everyone's problems equally, regardless of whatever they are.

That's not to say that Ash was ever a fantastic character (I don't think the anime has ever produced more than satisfactory characters). However, I find the Ash of OS a lot more believable than the Ash of XY. LadySasaki puts it well with the phrase "blandly smiling". Ash hasn't developed or matured: he's been watered down.

This comes back to something I touched on earlier, which is that I don't think the writers really know what to do with Ash. A story that goes on forever, glued to a huge franchise, is already certain death to any sensible character development. In a standalone story that might end, you could have the protagonist mature through growing up, passing some of the milestones of life. Not so with the Pokémon anime, so the result is the mess you get from trying to have a character grow whilst at the same time never significantly change at all

Also interesting to note is that OS Satoshi was conceived during a time when the show was planned to end. He was undergoing character sanitation from when the series became a phenomenon all the way to DP while still trying to keep a semblance of consistent character development/maturation and history (at least in the Japanese version, without all the corny catchphrases I assume TPCi went with). You can only stretch that out for so long. It's clear that by the beginning of the Best Wishes series that the folks in charge of the anime at OLM realized that a complete and constant wash of any defining traits and development was necessary for what they are going for. They need him to serve the role of what is usually reserved for a new protagonist entirely, but at the same time trying to keep a "familiar image" for the anime (hence marketing tool). What resulted was an extremely inconsistent vanilla protagonist.

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I can't be arsed to care about the goals of the companion characters that much. I don't think I ever went out of my way to rewatch a contest episode for instance.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

You are not the only one. I like Alain and I am glad that he won the league. Ash doesn't deserve to win since he released two of his pokemon from a full team that has no rotations.

 

[CrystaI]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

Count me in as well.

I like Alain because he is a well-designed solid character with complicated mind-set and complex emotion more than just being angry/happy/sad. Also he has his own thinking and own will, act on his own decision, yet at the same time has quite a weak ego that allows him to be induced, hence a character that can become both a reliable ally and a worthy adversary. Of course not yet to mention, he is the badassly cool-looking ikemen type which is simply a feast for the eyes

 

[Peppermint Phoenix]

I found Zero from M11 to be an interesting and sympathetic villain.

 

[Juliko]

Personally, I never liked Misty. I mean, I don't hate her, but I don't consider her to be the best Poke-girl and don't worship her like everyone else does. Even as a kid, I was never fond of her, namely because she always seemed to get so unnecessarily angry at Ash, even when he did stuff that really didn't warrant scoldings, and the fact that she kept yelling at him over stuff that, let's face it, any kid would do, even in the beginning, really didn't win her any points. Really, girl? Do you really think yelling at someone for their lack of knowledge on stuff is gonna help him learn? Even Iris fell into this trap, especially with her whole "You're such a kid!" spiel. Bottom line, I think Misty should have been nicer and more helpful towards Ash.

That's the reason why I personally think Serena is the best Poke-girl. She's genuinely nice, she doesn't flip out at Ash over everything, isn't annoying, and is super girly without bordering on being annoying or superficial.

 

[Johtohfiller]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

I like him too, I just wish they hadn't made his Charizard so broken.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

I agree with you and the other posters here regarding Alain.

 

[Pokemon Trainer Troy]

-I think that Lillie looks a lot better in the anime than in the games

-I am 11 years old, and i think im too old to wathc the anime. Though ill still watch it.

- Do you know the song Girls Girls Boys? Well, in its chorus, the singer says, "Girls love girls, not boys." So no "lovey - dovey" stuff will happen in the new season of the anime.

 

[Silver Sneasel]

I do have some, but I guess one of them will drive many people mad... I find XY&Z overrated. Yeah. I honestly don´t like a "mature" Ash. Greninja is overpowered, I guess even Pikachu was on its shadow. I think I only liked the Litleo and the Cilan meets Clemont episode. The fact the Brazilian dub is terrible doesn´t help much, too... Now for other points:

- Cilan is annoying sometimes, even though he is voiced by my fave seiyuu.
- Croagunk is a bit extreme with Brock sometimes.
- I really dislike Brock´s character design and voice after the Johto League.
- Piplup and Oshawott are adorable in the anime.

And... I´m actually liking Sun & Moon anime a lot. I don´t mind the new designs anymore.

 

[Keshav]

I most be the only person in the entire population who likes Alain and has no problem with him.
(Yep, you can throw random stuff at me but I ain't gonna hide because I'm a evil devil that's what)

I'm in too, after watching team flare arc, I'm really starting to like it. I have concluded one thing. XY series actually had 2 protagonists, Ash and Alain. Alain was the main protagonist of mega specials and Ash, XY. In XY&Z, they both met each other. Though Alain didn't had much screen time, he was still a protagonist. He has one episode in the main series where he captures Zygarde and the thing is, the episode didn't feature Ash. Just him. He won the league. He had reasons for it. He had a goal. He was always with Ash in the front during the team flare arc. He had redemption. Heck, he was the one to save chespie.
So I really do think he is also a protagonist and I really like that fact. Alain was my favorite character of this series despite having a broken charizard.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

The English dub was actually tolerable from the OS up through three-quarters into AG, but started getting bad during Battle Frontier when the dub crew was replaced (the quality of the voice acting & script writing was most affected in this transition to me), and has unfortunately sadly been getting worse since then (DP started the trend where the dub invented TRio's alliterations/rhymes/"Dig it," "Oy vey" & "lugs" slang, late BW started the return of the food censorship with the apples/berries stuff, XY started making up gibberish language in the script altogether like "Dog pulse," "Greninjo," "You'll catch cold," "Furshonista," etc. and the music replacement was at its greatest in this Saga in the dub) to hit the all-time low point in XY(Z).

From what I saw of the preview, SM's dub is a little better than XY(Z)'s, but it doesn't even remotely compare to anything from early BW and beforehand dubbed.