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How will Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon effect the anime?

I'm honestly still amazed that people really think that they'll stay at the school setting for three years or that there's even a chance of that happening to begin with. Pokemon has always been about going on a journey, whether it's the games, the anime or the various manga titles, and Ash loves traveling around to see new Pokemon and make new friends. They aren't suddenly going to become a school anime simply because of Ash going to school. That would never make any sense and it would be especially bad here when Sun/Moon seem to be emphasizing journeying through the islands in order to complete the trials and find Zygarde Cells. The anime always does its own thing instead of being faithful adaptation of the games, for better or for worse, but I don't think that they're going to take such a drastic change as Ash not traveling because he has a book report due the next day on Alola forms or he has math homework to deal with.

It's just a hook to get people interested in watching the series. I'm sure that there is more to it, like how it could connect to the Island Trials, but considering that they're being pretty vague about the school so far, it's primarily a hook to grab people's attention and get them to talk about the new series. The anime has generally never liked to stay in one place for a long period of time, so I don't see how Ash going to school will change any of that. I'm still pretty sure that the school setting will be only temporary. Ash's journey will still probably connect back to graduating or something like that, but Ash isn't going to try and journey as far as he can only to head back to the dorms by nightfall.

We can never be too sure about that now. I've seen shows and manga that completely change genres for various reasons. Dragon Ball was originally a Journey to the West-type adventure manga featuring a kid Goku and company searching for Dragon Balls. Dragon Ball Z on the other hand is an action-packed sci-fantasy Shonen manga that focuses on big action fight sequences centering around Goku and Vegeta battling god-like villains rather than searching for the Dragon Balls. The contrast between those two are staggering to the point you have to classify them as two different genre despite originally being in the same manga.

Sometimes, a genre shift can be seen as a sign of desperation to get kids' attention to a declining show, and there are instances where the show producers forget what made original show great in the first place.

And I am not sure how school would be a hook to grab people's attention and bring more folks back to the anime. If the poster was about Ash being invited to the Champion's League, that's one thing. But school is something you would attract new kids to, not adults. And knowing school anime, it is very easy for them to keep Ash stuck in one area for a long period and not explore beyond.
 
We can never be too sure about that now. I've seen shows and manga that completely change genres for various reasons. Dragon Ball was originally a Journey to the West-type adventure manga featuring a kid Goku and company searching for Dragon Balls. Dragon Ball Z on the other hand is an action-packed sci-fantasy Shonen manga that focuses on big action fight sequences centering around Goku and Vegeta battling god-like villains rather than searching for the Dragon Balls. The contrast between those two are staggering to the point you have to classify them as two different genre despite originally being in the same manga.

Sometimes, a genre shift can be seen as a sign of desperation to get kids' attention to a declining show, and there are instances where the show producers forget what made original show great in the first place.

That is a valid point on how other series have changed genres. I'm not too familiar with Dragon Ball, but I do know that is drastically different from Z and the other series in that franchise. I just don't see how the school gimmick automatically means that there's a strong chance that Pokemon is going to change genres now. I can't really say it's impossible given that we don't really know anything about the series, but I'd say it's extremely unlikely at the moment. It really does come off like assuming the worst based off of nothing.

Shado said:
And I am not sure how school would be a hook to grab people's attention and bring more folks back to the anime. If the poster was about Ash being invited to the Champion's League, that's one thing. But school is something you would attract new kids to, not adults. And knowing school anime, it is very easy for them to keep Ash stuck in one area for a long period and not explore beyond.

I never said anything about the school setting attracting adult fans. I just said that it would grab people's attention. It would appeal to kids, but it does get people in general talking about the anime. It makes them curious, wondering how and why Ash is going to school and wanting to see how this plays out. That was generally what I was talking about when I said that it would grab people's attention.

They really haven't been using the main series to appeal to older fans anyway. They have stuff like Origins or Generations to appeal to older fans and get them excited for the upcoming games rather than try to get them interested in the main series. The school gimmick is something to attract the new kids in their audience, which is fine. Kids are still the primarily audience for the show and they recognize that people get in and out of the anime all the time, so they need something to make them interested about the anime. I've seen a good amount of school anime too, but thinking that they are going to keep Ash in one area for a long period of time and not explore Alola beyond that setting is pretty ridiculous. It's just more assumptions based on nothing and for me to think that they'd actually pull a stunt like that, I'd need more evidence than people panicking that the sky is falling when it comes to the anime.
 
That is a valid point on how other series have changed genres. I'm not too familiar with Dragon Ball, but I do know that is drastically different from Z and the other series in that franchise.
I think the main difference would be that Dragon Ball changed slowly towards the "Z" style format over it's run with the adventure elements being downplayed over time, finally more or less vanishing after the Demon King Piccolo arc--with arguably a brief return during the Freeza arc. If Sun/Moon does become a school anime it would be a much more sudden change...but I'm not expecting that to happen.

I never said anything about the school setting attracting adult fans. I just said that it would grab people's attention. It would appeal to kids, but it does get people in general talking about the anime.
Are school settings popular with kids in Japan? I always hated them at that age and found the "token kid" in children's shows annoying, but an anecdote is just that.
 
I having a bad feeling that Ash is going to release his fully evolved starter this region just like Greninja...
 
I think the main difference would be that Dragon Ball changed slowly towards the "Z" style format over it's run with the adventure elements being downplayed over time, finally more or less vanishing after the Demon King Piccolo arc--with arguably a brief return during the Freeza arc. If Sun/Moon does become a school anime it would be a much more sudden change...but I'm not expecting that to happen.

Ah, that makes sense. I know that there were fights in Dragon Ball, but I wasn't sure if it was different from how it was in Z or if that change was really sudden.

Daren said:
Are school settings popular with kids in Japan? I always hated them at that age and found the "token kid" in children's shows annoying, but an anecdote is just that.

I don't know. I know that there are new school series made fairly often, but I don't know how many of the are marketed directly to kids in Japan, especially the high school shows.
 
They should better change their audience, xy&z felt like it isn't made for tens. And most of the people that play games are teenagers so it would fit right and today's tens are smart than they think, my 10 years old brother find this school setting and Ash being reset dumb so I don't see what are they doing to appeal to their demographic audience.
 
Oh, I got it! It won't be like Hogwarts, it'll be like the battle school in Ender's Game!
 
They should better change their audience, xy&z felt like it isn't made for tens. And most of the people that play games are teenagers so it would fit right and today's tens are smart than they think, my 10 years old brother find this school setting and Ash being reset dumb so I don't see what are they doing to appeal to their demographic audience.

XY was still clearly made for kids. Just because older fans find it more appealing than some of the other series doesn't really change that. All of the series are clearly made with kids in mind. While it's true that a lof of older fans are playing the games, using the anime to attract kids is still a good idea. After all, they need to keep trying to get new people into the franchise instead of just relying on the older fanbase. Bringing in new fans is going to help the franchise keep going more so than primarily relying on older fans. I agree that kids are smarter than media and people in general give them credit for, but at the same time, I don't think that just one ten year old's opinion reflects how the target audience in general would feel about this change, especially when we still know virtually nothing about the school and we definitely don't know if Ash is going to have a signficant reset.
 
XY was still clearly made for kids. Just because older fans find it more appealing than some of the other series doesn't really change that. All of the series are clearly made with kids in mind. While it's true that a lof of older fans are playing the games, using the anime to attract kids is still a good idea. After all, they need to keep trying to get new people into the franchise instead of just relying on the older fanbase. Bringing in new fans is going to help the franchise keep going more so than primarily relying on older fans. I agree that kids are smarter than media and people in general give them credit for, but at the same time, I don't think that just one ten year old's opinion reflects how the target audience in general would feel about this change, especially when we still know virtually nothing about the school and we definitely don't know if Ash is going to have a signficant reset.

However, that doesn't mean it should solely aim for children, especially if they are using a character that older fans find more familiarity to. That's the issue of keeping Ash and Pikachu. Ash is not Mario or Mickey Mouse, where you can put them into different scenarios that outright contradict each other with no problem due to the loose standards of those continuities. Ash, however, had a history that was built on continuity references and character development. Even after all these years, people can still trace the current Ash back to the first episode of Pokémon where he debuted, like all of the comic book superheroes of Marvel.

And because of that, Ash will always have older fans. Adult fans who still remain to see their favorite hero continue on his never-ending adventure of being a Pokémon Master, seeking bigger challenges than ever before. No matter what appeals they may draw new children, the Pokémon anime will always have an adult fanbase so long as Ash remains. And why bother aiming for just children when you can aim for all-ages? If Sun & Moon is going to be solely focusing on the kids, it has no reason to respect the past sagas at all since it's not aiming for older fans looking for an acknowledgement of the past.

This is why I feel that Sun and Moon's approach to a new premise feels horribly misguided. School is something that most old fans would not see Ash do at all. They saw episodes focused on school and time and time again, Ash proves to be better working as an independent trainer than trying to follow other people's lessons (even Tierno's dancing lesson reflects that notion). As such, seeing Ash making school graduation his goal (after six regions of character and trainer development) is already a reset to them (unless the advertisement is horribly misleading which, if that is case, shows a great deal of marketing incompetence). Sun & Moon has already alienated good amount of the old fanbase by sending Ash to school, and thus it mostly falls on the children to rejuvenate the anime's popularity. It's the riskiest gamble they have ever made, and I don't feel that they could even pull it off.
 
And why bother aiming for just children when you can aim for all-ages?
I guess you've never watched The Apprentice (my only experience of business...) - you're far more likely to succeed in putting a product to market if the target audience is specific. Especially in a medium like this, there's no way they can please everyone so the best bet is to appeal to their largest audience which is the kiddies.
It's the riskiest gamble they have ever made, and I don't feel that they could even pull it off.
I'm still not buying this being the riskiest gamble ever. Is it riskier than getting rid of Kasumi, giving Satoshi a female co-star or lobotomising the TRio? All they're doing is tackling Satoshi's Pokemon master journey with a different approach. Let's be honest here - how many of the adults who are whining now are actually going to jump ship? Plenty will stick around because they always have and don't know any better. And those who do leave will not be noticed or missed by TPC who have bigger fish to fry.
 
However, that doesn't mean it should solely aim for children, especially if they are using a character that older fans find more familiarity to. That's the issue of keeping Ash and Pikachu. Ash is not Mario or Mickey Mouse, where you can put them into different scenarios that outright contradict each other with no problem due to the loose standards of those continuities. Ash, however, had a history that was built on continuity references and character development. Even after all these years, people can still trace the current Ash back to the first episode of Pokémon where he debuted, like all of the comic book superheroes of Marvel.

And because of that, Ash will always have older fans. Adult fans who still remain to see their favorite hero continue on his never-ending adventure of being a Pokémon Master, seeking bigger challenges than ever before. No matter what appeals they may draw new children, the Pokémon anime will always have an adult fanbase so long as Ash remains. And why bother aiming for just children when you can aim for all-ages? If Sun & Moon is going to be solely focusing on the kids, it has no reason to respect the past sagas at all since it's not aiming for older fans looking for an acknowledgement of the past.

That's a good point on how Ash will always have older fans. I'm still pretty sure that adult fans of the anime are in a small minority. It's much more common for adult fans to be playing the video games, but not so much for adults to be watching the show, especially when it's pretty common for people to lose interest in the anime over time. Still, it's true that there are going to be older fans watching the show, but I'm not surprised that they don't try to cater to older fans through the main series. Like I said, we're a minority compared to the kids and the show is made specifically with kids in mind to promote the games. That has been the case from day one. Sure, you can still make a show for kids appealing to older fans and that's perfectly fine, but it still needs to be focused on appealing to kids first and foremost. It is a large demographic and trying to hard to appeal to everyone could result in more problems than solutions for the show.

Shado said:
This is why I feel that Sun and Moon's approach to a new premise feels horribly misguided. School is something that most old fans would not see Ash do at all. They saw episodes focused on school and time and time again, Ash proves to be better working as an independent trainer than trying to follow other people's lessons (even Tierno's dancing lesson reflects that notion). As such, seeing Ash making school graduation his goal (after six regions of character and trainer development) is already a reset to them (unless the advertisement is horribly misleading which, if that is case, shows a great deal of marketing incompetence). Sun & Moon has already alienated good amount of the old fanbase by sending Ash to school, and thus it mostly falls on the children to rejuvenate the anime's popularity. It's the riskiest gamble they have ever made, and I don't feel that they could even pull it off.

While the idea of Ash being in school does sound strange, I still feel like you're jumping to conclusions a bit too much with how it's already a reset or that his Pokemon Master goal has changed and you're speaking for all older fans here to boot. I certainly don't think that Ash wanting to graduate school automatically means that he has been significantly regressed. I don't see how SM alienates the older fans more than BW did and the anime went past that series. Knowing how the Internet works, I'm not sure if all of the people who are complaining about SM means that none of them will watch the series. Everyone was complaining about the Kalos League and wanted to drop the anime for good, but then the Team Flare arc was highly praised among many fans, including those who still complains about the Kalos League. Besides that, SM hasn't even aired a single episode yet and you're already under the impression that only kids will be able to rejuvenate the anime's popularity. The show could turn out a lot better than what people are expecting either right away or down the road and that would attract older fans to watch it. I don't recall XY getting that much attention from older fans, aside from the Mega Evolution specials, until fairly late in its run, so it's not like older fans were widely praising XY right off the bat either. You're already acting as if a large amount of older fans won't watch SM at all when that's simply not the case.

As for this being the riskiest gamble they've ever done, I disagree with that as well. Ash going to school is not anywhere close to how much of a risk it was to replace Misty with May in order to do Contests or Team Rocket becoming serious. I'd argue that Team Rocket becoming more serious/competent in BW was the biggest risk they've taken for the anime in a long time and that blew up in their faces completely. Ash going to school and making older fans jump to conclusions as a result is not that huge of a risk, especially when we still don't know much about the school or why Ash decides to go there.
 
the shool can be a moving school that after some classes you have open air classes on other islands. Plus we had pokemon schools in the past and they also alowed to participate in the pokemon league.
They earned badges in school.

Greninja will come back in future give rest for sake,
I can see it coming back someday for a legendary battle, we have Zygarde in Sun and Moon too.
 
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