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For a series set in "all the regions" we sure seem to be spending a lot of time in Kanto, don't we?

Dogasu

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The numbers don't lie:

Kanto: 10 (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 6, 10 (probably?), 11, 15, 16, 17, 18)
Jouto: 1 (Epsiode 9)
Houen: 1 (Episode 7)
Shin'ou: 1 (Episode 8)
Isshu: 1 (Episode 14)
Kalos: 0
Alola: 0
Galar: 4 (Episodes 4, 5, 12, 13)

Considering we're foregoing the usual "let's just do the plot of the newest games" thing for a "world tour" type of series, we sure do seem to not be doing that at all, are we?

Do you think Pocket Monsters 2019 will remain 50% Kanto through to the end? Or do you think we'll start to see some more variety in the settings moving forward?
 
What strikes me is who is this Kanto pandering even for? It can't be for older fans as we haven't seen misty, Brock or any references to ash's previous journey. It can't be kids who played let's go, because they are straight out replacing all the characters from that game and even Lance didn't use his signature Dragonite. It can't even be for Pokemon Go because aside form Go catching a lot of Pokemon, the show makes no references or adopts anything from that game. And it certainly isn't appealing to the generation 8 games.

This is a series that appeals to basically no one. And that's what frustrates me the most. If you're going to keep the series in Kanto, then give us a reason why. Give us pandering. Right now we have absolutely no idea why ash and go are even stuck in Kanto all the time.
 
Not only that, but all of Ash's current Pokémon are from Kanto; unless he gets more than a full team Kanto makes up a full half of this series', even if you assume Mimey isn't permanent. If you do Kanto is a full two thirds of it.

I sort of hope this Kanto fest is a frontloaded nostalgia assault aimed at the parents who grew up with gen 1 who are watching it with their kids now and it'll balance out more later, but Kanto focus is sort of a thing with Pokémon--always has been but it's getting more blatant since gen 6 gave the Kanto starters megas instead of the Kalos ones (and even gave the player one for free), now in gen 8 the Champion uses a Charizard as their ace instead of a Galar Pokémon.

Edit: There's also that poster that has Bulbasaur/Squirtle/Charizard, suggesting Ash's Kanto starters might reappear even if none of his other reserves do.

This series is pretty unpredictable so far, so at least that's interesting.
 
Yep. I've said it before, but the Kanto focus is getting annoying, and this is coming from someone who grew up with Kanto and loves it. I'm not really someone who complains about Kanto pandering, but in this case I absolutely will, for two reasons:

1) As you said, this series was being billed as a "world tour." Yet basically every single episode thus far has taken place in Kanto. We literally have two regions that haven't even been visited yet. I'm fine with Ash and Gou's homebase being in Kanto, but I'd like a little more variety in terms of where they're going. There are a lot of interesting locations and Pokemon that are getting the short end of the stick right now. Especially considering there's a brand new region with brand new Pokemon that's barely been touched! I think Galar is a super interesting region, and I'm pretty ticked it's not going to get the same treatment as other regions before it.

2) They're not even doing anything that appeals to people looking for nostalgia. To be frank, I don't care about episodes that are set in Kanto where every city and town looks generic, and we're just seeing Gen 1 Pokemon who we've seen time and time again. If we were seeing older characters, or well known landmarks in these cities and towns, or revisiting past storylines, I'd say great! But we're not. I feel nothing when I watch Kanto episode after Kanto episode. They don't remind me of my childhood. Heck, they don't even remind me of rewatching OS episodes now as an adult. I'm currently re-watching BW, a series that aired when I was in high school, and have felt much more nostalgia doing that than watching any of the Kanto based episodes in the new series. So I don't really know what they're aiming for with all the Kanto spotlight?

I really hope we start going to the other regions more often, but I honestly don't have tons of confidence that we will. I feel like this series was described as one way in the beginning, and it had a lot of promise and interesting potential, and watching it so far, it isn't really living up to any of that. The content of the episodes has improved a bit, which is appreciated, but I do still want to see them take charge of the "world tour" angle a little better.
 
I mean, 'world tour' doesn't mean that Ash and Go have to travel to other regions in every episode. The fact that 8 out of 18 episodes that we know of took place in other regions not named Kanto is already really good imo. As for the sheer amount of Kanto nostalgia, that's been a thing for like the past 7 years.
 
But, we've also spent more time in Kanto than every other region combined. I'm just looking for a better balance, that's all.

(also, I question how we could possibly be "nostalgic" for something that refuses to ever go away...)
 
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Do you think Pocket Monsters 2019 will remain 50% Kanto through to the end? Or do you think we'll start to see some more variety?
Knowing this series it'll probably be the first option.
it's getting more blatant since gen 6 gave the Kanto starters megas instead of the Kalos ones (and even gave the player one for free), now in gen 8 the Champion uses a Charizard as their ace instead of a Galar Pokémon.
You get a Kanto mon, they get a Kanto mon, everybody in the nation gets a Kanto mon! In fact we're just going to make the new region after Galar Kanto 2.0! Whoopee!
As you said, this series was being billed as a "world tour." Yet basically every single episode thus far has taken place in Kanto.
Yeah, so much for this series being a "world tour." Just too bad that even the world tour side hasn't been good for the most part at the moment. I pray it shall hopefully be better down the line.
Especially considering there's a brand new region with brand new Pokemon that's barely been touched!
Anime: "New region, new Pokémon, what's that? Let's make Ash more interested in food than seeing new mons!"
 
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Eh, Koharu episode is really a "Kanto episode" just because it takes place in Kanto? Even though it's mostly focused on Koharu, and her relationship with a certain non-Kanto pokémon? Same is true for the Lugia episode, an episode focused on a Johto legendary. The episode about Gou's family is really a "Kanto episode" just because it's mostly focused on Kanto pokémon, even though those pokémon itself was not the main point of that episode? This seems a very reductionist view of a series to me.
 
Eh, Koharu episode is really a "Kanto episode" just because it takes place in Kanto? Even though it's mostly focused on Koharu, and her relationship with a certain non-Kanto pokémon? Same is true for the Lugia episode, an episode focused on a Johto legendary. The episode about Gou's family is really a "Kanto episode" just because it's mostly focused on Kanto pokémon, even though those pokémon itself was not the main point of that episode? This seems a very reductionist view of a series to me.

But... but all of these episodes do take place in Kanto! It doesn't matter who or what they focus on, the events in those episodes literally happen in the Kanto region. Episode 11 is a Koharu episode, since it focuses on her, but it's also a Kanto episode, since it takes place in Vermillion City (a Kanto city) and it also focuses on a Kanto Pokémon. The episode about Go's family is about Go and his family (duh), but it's also about a Kanto Pokémon and it's set entirely within Kanto. Yeah, they're not just Kanto episodes, since they also focus on the main characters and their adventures/struggles, but they're still Kanto episodes nonetheless. You... you can't deny that they are Kanto episodes.

Which is the whole problem (or, at least, one of the problems) with the series: despite supposedly being about the Pokémon world as a whole, a series that's not supposed to be set in just one region, we spend quite a lot of time in Kanto, with most of the episodes focused on Kanto, on Kanto Pokémon and/or on characters that live in Kanto and go on adventures in Kanto. Kanto being a region that we've seen Arceus knows how many times already in the anime and that's been the partial focus of at least two other series (soon to be three).
 
My initial idea for this series was Ash and Go spending 10-20 episodes in each region and only returning to the Sakuragi Institute between trips.

Hopefully we'll get a couple of extended stays in other regions. That would help balance out the Kanto bias.
 
1. It isn't Kanto, but rather Vermilion City. The only two exceptions are episodes 1 and 10 that allowed us to see more of the region.

2. This direction should have been obvious the minute they turned the lab into Ash and Go's new home (episode 2). They were going for a SM-like environment there, except with more frequent traveling. Prior to this, people thought that each region would get one dedicated saga, with either Kanto or Galar being the first (there was no indication of Galar being the first, but whatever).

3. Maybe it's just me, but I care more about the quality of the episode than its setting. My favorite episodes from this series are all from Kanto, but they could have been set elsewhere. So what?

4. The one complaint I can understand is the lack of Galar Pokemon. I think that the staff should get that sorted out, but I'm indifferent. I'm surprised that Twilight Wings is barely different in this regard.

5. My ideal distribution of episodes would be something like: 10% Kanto+10% Vermilion, 12% for each of Johto-Unova, 9% Kalos, 8% Alola, 15% Galar. That seems pretty far off now, but who knows.
 
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I don't have a problem with Vermillion getting the majority of the focus.

The one thing I really wished they had done is kept the school setting from SM. It would have worked a lot better in this series then it did in SM. They could have made the Sakuragi Institute into a some type of Pokemon Academy and Ash and Go could have been students there. They could have had a more expansive supporting cast and it could have added more world building. The boys could still do their global trotting schtick on the side.
 
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I think that part of the issue is that they do want to have a regular setting for Ash and Gou similar to the Pokemon School in SM, but that's kind of at odds with the general setup. While there were a lot of understandable complaints about the Pokemon School concept, it did make sense with the basic premise of the series. SM primarily focused on Ash having adventures with his new friends in Alola. Staying primarily in one place made sense with that premise, especially with the much larger cast. With this series, the cast is smaller than usual and the major gimmick this time around is traveling to different regions. Having a home base isn't necessarily a problem with that setup, but I don't think it fits as well as the Pokemon School ultimately did. It might feel more natural if they spent more time in a single region and the Lab was a place for them to go and rest in-between their travels, but aside from the Galar episodes, I don't think that they've spent that many episodes in a different region. Having some longer arcs or even some two-parters set in different regions would really help too.
 
Short answer: Yes

Long answer: No kidding

What's getting to me is that this more episodic shift is not allowing us to do better world building. Even when they're in different regions, it feels so self contained that it's a bit annoying. Small nods to the games like one of the COTD in the Relic Castle episode was based on the Pokemon Ranger design in the Gen 5 games was much appreciated, but I would like some more lore that's not self-contained.
 
I think this season needs less filler and maybe some more arcs. If each region had a small arc consisting of 5-10 episodes there would be enough time for cameos and potential new captures for Gou.

I think it would have been better to have Gou catch less Pokémon and have him plan ahead which new captures he would aim for in each region. Maybe Gou really wants a specific Pokémon that only exists in one region that has some kind of ability that will come in handy when he eventually has to fight against Mew. Right now it feels a little aimless, I think they could tie Gou's various goals together instead.

If they want Satoshi to only have Kanto Pokémon, the least they could do is to let Gou's non-Kanto Pokémon get some screentime.
 
Also Kanto Pokémon, and Galar Pokemon fighting in Kanto which makes no sense for me.


Kanto is the OG region, but to be fair it's the blandest regions, with the exception of Lavander Town every city looks the same,the other regions are more unique.

But what is curious to me is that the main plot seems to be developing in Galar.

Im not an AntiKanto persons but I dont like where this is going. I hope that the next episodes take place in Alola or Kalos.
 
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