Preview JN028: Sobbing Messon

[PkmnTrainerV]

Another thing to add when it comes to the anime basically coddling Go, the fact that the most recent episode ended with Go disappointed at not catching Farfetch’d and the narrator basically saying “But what about Go?” only for Sobble to appear. What about Go? It’s not as though in literally every situation that arises that he needs to capture a Pokémon. It’s honestly not the end of the world if he doesn’t capture something and for the plot to treat something like that as a major blow to the point that the plot has to make it up to him just makes him look like a spoiled brat who is upset they didn’t get their way. God forbid someone else gets a Pokémon and Go doesn’t when he’s already captured over 30 Pokémon in 27 episodes, 2 of which featured him spam catching. He gets no sympathy from me for failing to catch something because, at this point with his character, he doesn’t deserve it.

At first I thought that the writers simply didn’t realise (or want to show) that self serving and greed are a part of his character to be worked upon, or the character was coming off as such to the audiences, but they even disapproved that.

And now I have a larger question to the anime writers:
How do you explain one of the Seven Deadly Sins being a “good thing” and even worse, handwave it? What kind of message does it pass to the audience, specially since they think that it’s mindless children. What effect would saying “Your greed is good” with no further explanation have on them?

They somehow patched up a hole and opened up a worse one in my opinion. Simply not acknowledging the trait was a bad thing but fairly excusable, but acknowledging it and saying that it’s a good thing (specially with no explanation to clarify the stance) is exponentially worse. The flaws of the main character aren’t flaws because he’s the main character.

 

[Daren]

I suspect what's going on with Gou is that Ash didn't reset this time and they don't want one co-protagonist to be vastly more successful than the other.
Look back at AG and DP. May got the same ranking in the Hoenn Grand Festival as Ash in the league. Dawn actually got farther than Ash did but Ash blatantly would have gotten second if he'd met Tobias later so they're still similar. However in both cases Ash was vastly more experienced.

So in Journeys up to this point Ash is a battling powerhouse in a way he wasn't in most previous series--he usually has a lot of trouble early on. Here though his equivalent of that early Gym leader loss was to the world champion. So Gou is also portrayed as blasting through things.
It's like how in some RPGs new characters always join at the same level as the rest of the party, even if they're young and inexperienced but joining people who had saved half a dozen cities already.

For the same reason Gou might start running into more trouble later since I assume Ash will start struggling more as his rank climbs.

How do you explain one of the Seven Deadly Sins being a “good thing” and even worse, handwave it?

Keep in mind that's a Christian concept so it probably doesn't have a ton of weight on the writer's thought process, Christianity being a tiny minority religion in Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the writers or higher staff are Christian.

 

[Black&White]

If Ash was getting Sobble then Go would have gotten Farfetch'd. It's that simple. When Ash caught Galarian Farfetch'd yesterday that more or less sealed the deal

 

[nickdt]

Considering they did a bait and switch with the upcoming episodes preview, i can see them doing a bait and switch in the episode and have Sobble choose Ash because Gou is too clingy.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Keep in mind that's a Christian concept so it probably doesn't have a ton of weight on the writer's thought process, Christianity being a tiny minority religion in Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the writers or higher staff are Christian.

Even so, the point they made is that greed is almost universally seen as a toxic thing that must be fought, so the anime just saying that it’s fine without any context behind it is bound to raise some eyebrows.

 

[Daren]

That... makes no sense. Look at it this way. You have a relatively new trainer who has absolutely no practical experience with Pokemon yet he's somehow has an unrealistically high success rate with no explanation on how he's succeeding so easily. This does not make for an appealing character in any logical way. Why should we care about him if he's automatically succeeding?

Oh, I agree Gou's had things too easy and I don't really care about him at all now. I'm just saying that it seems to fit the pattern; Ash keeps traveling with new trainers who perform about as well as him in the end, but in this case it stands out as odd because of how powerful Ash is now.

*
About greed; I agree it's a weird line. I assume they don't want to criticize one of the focal points of the series--I do wonder if maybe "greed" could have been a slightly awkward translation of the original line? Words don't always have perfect equivalents.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Keep in mind that's a Christian concept so it probably doesn't have a ton of weight on the writer's thought process, Christianity being a tiny minority religion in Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the writers or higher staff are Christian.

Even if that is a Christian concept, the concept of greed is never seen to be something that is a positive thing no matter where in the world you are. It’s basically the point of crossing from ambitious to overly ambitious. In fact, in quite a few religious sects, the path to enlightenment comes from the absence of greed as to not be attached to worldly possessions.

 

[Emmy]

Hmm...Having assumed prior that Sobble would go to Ash, I'm surprised by the possibility of Gou getting it...but I'm not necessarily opposed to it. It definitely could fill the "cute" factor after Scorbunny evolved, and even if it did become Inteleon then it still feels like it could suit Gou more in getting difficult catches rather than in battles with Ash. The real question is what will they do with Grookey?

Even if that is a Christian concept, the concept of greed is never seen to be something that is a positive thing no matter where in the world you are.

Somebody hasn't watched Kamen Rider OOO.

 

[SamurottMan]

So if Sobble goes to Goh, my last hope is for TRio to get Morpeko.

It's a PikaClone it must be in the cast, right?

...Right?

 

[Black&White]

Why did people think Go would get nothing from Galar? The promo was advertised as both boys making new friends.

 

[nickdt]

Why did people think Go would get nothing from Galar? The promo was advertised as both boys making new friends.

We didn't think that (Although it would have made sense if Gou didn't get anything on the second visit, since Ash got nothing on the first visit).

 

[Eclipsical]

I don’t really care about Go not struggling to catch many Pokémon since his growing collection brings me immense satisfaction, the only capture of his that’s bothered me is Darmanitan, and maybe Pinsir. Once he actually is trying to catch strong Pokémon regularly and not mostly stage-1 Pokémon you find near the start of the game I’ll prefer if he fought them. In the end, he could bring Golurk to literally almost any Pokémon battle and demolish his opponent without much trouble considering it took around 10 Pokémon to take it down originally. I don’t think that Go’s greed is necessarily a bad thing since it doesn’t harm anybody else. All the Pokémon he catch have a fantastic home with a seemingly endless budget for everything they can ever want. I would probably find it more greedy if Go didn’t spend a presumably large amount of time feeding and bathing most of them in return, since it seems that Go and Ash are the ones that care for them while Prof. Sakuragi and his assistants do other research.

I think Raboot’s development has been decent so far, so if they focus on the introverted and afraid of battling sides of both Go and Sobble and they help each other through their issues together, I think it’ll be fine development.

For Morpeko, last time the TRio found a Pokémon they wanted they just put it in the Gacha Machine, so the same will probably happen to Morpeko going by what happened to Chewtle.

 

[Mew29240]

I'm more intriguided by that than the sobble situation to be fair.

I really hope he goes with James. However the scene he is in confuses me.

We see him near a destroyed Team Rocket balloon alongside a lot of food. When does this happen after they try to catch Sobble or after?

Also this will maybe be like last week episode the first part will be about Sobble -Team Rocket situation and the second trying to find Sobble and Team Rocket catching Morpeko?

The summary mentioned that TRio just entered Galar, so maybe they got there via balloon? It might be pushing it given that the Galar Region is probably super far away though...

They might've left the balloon behind for a bit and then encounter the Morpeko after getting back to it (post-blastoff).

 

[Rocket Messiah]

People who say that the seven capital sins are not well-known in Japan may not be aware that they use this resource in some media for example in Digimon each one of the seven demon lords represents a sin. Also that anime with the same name (I only watched the first season). I only know of these of two but I'm not into japan culture so another person can give a better answer.

I know that some people will say that "Hey but in the games you can't catch a lot of Pokemon and let them rot in a PC" well the games represent your actions so you can do what you want with your Pokémon. Also you can catch deities cause it was established that the issue with Legendary Pokemon is not capturing them is controlling them like most of the evil teams want to do.

Others will say "But In the original games Oak gives you the pokedex to complete it and catch all Pokemon " Indeed but the Pokedex is an enciclopedia so by catching Pokémon you help cause it helps to knew better how Pokémon live,how they act, which Pokémon they pray. In general it helps knowing his biology. For example it lets you know that you should not troy your dolls at the trash cause it will return as Bannete and kill you (This is true).So the Pokedex in the end is for the greater good.


What about Go? Does he catch Pokémon because it helps knowing his biology? Has that been stated? Maybe Sakuragi does But he never asked for him to catch those Pokémon I'm wrong? Why does he catches them? Cause he wants to meet with a legendary. A legendary that is strong cause I'm pretty sure that if Mew lost with that Nidoking in episode 1 he would not be that interested. Rewatch the scene again if you don't belive me watch his reactions in that episode. He wants to catch the strongest mon of them all. Is that greed?

For me yes it is.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Today I learned that Gou is living a sinful life 'cause he catch pokémon. LOL!

Just as long as Go catches Galarian Farfetch'd tomorrow than Sobble is as good as Ash's

Still hoping for a Koharu capture.

 

[Black&White]

Today I learned that Gou is living a sinful life 'cause he catch pokémon. LOL!


Still hoping for a Koharu capture.

She's not even in the episode

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

She's not even in the episode

It doesn't have to be in this episode.

 

[Black&White]

It doesn't have to be in this episode.

Go and Sobble are bonding in the preview. Think it will go to him.

Koharu can still get Grookey

 

[Adelon]

I think the greed thing is being played for laughs. It's the anime making fun of Goh rather than praising him for "sin".

He's a good person at heart, flaws don't make somebody a bad person, and Goh's "flaws" are definitely par for the course if we are talking about a boy who hasn't even reached puberty yet.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Keep in mind that's a Christian concept so it probably doesn't have a ton of weight on the writer's thought process, Christianity being a tiny minority religion in Japan. I wouldn't be surprised if none of the writers or higher staff are Christian.

Even so, the point they made is that greed is almost universally seen as a toxic thing that must be fought, so the anime just saying that it’s fine without any context behind it is bound to raise some eyebrows.

Yes, I’m not Christian myself, but I used it to reflect how there are very few ways you can redeem cruelty.

Today I learned that Gou is living a sinful life 'cause he catch pokémon. LOL!

Maybe ask Gurkinn about it?

I think the greed thing is being played for laughs. It's the anime making fun of Goh rather than praising him for "sin".

He's a good person at heart, flaws don't make somebody a bad person, and Goh's "flaws" are definitely par for the course if we are talking about a boy who hasn't even reached puberty yet.

Well... I could see the laugh interpretation if it were "joke-y" (and it’d honestly make sense), but they made it some kind of serious moment completely devoid of comedy...

Well, no one wants Go to be perfect or not have slaws, and nor am I saying that he’s a bad person. It’s just that flaws need to have repercussions, that’s how you get character development. If flaws don’t matter they might not as well exist.