Preview JN093: Your Name is Françoise

[Sai]

So back to filler plots for January I guess. I guess everyone complaining about too much plot in a row got their wish. Also what happened to Gengar's gigantamax battle? Guess it'll be in February

 

[Okido]

Francois as in Ren's Magnemite? That could be interesting. Ren has definitely barely had any focus at all, so I wonder if it will be some backstory for them, kind of like how JN057 was for Chrysa.

(Also yay, this episode is airing on my birthday )

 

[Unireon]

Who is Ren?

(Utterly and visibly lost)

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Sounds like a wholesome episode

 

[BigDocFan]

Who is Ren?

(Utterly and visibly lost)

The male member of Cerise's assistants

 

[Unireon]

The male member of Cerise's assistants

I see......

Then he should have the presence of a character voiced by Shimono Hiro....

Spoiler: Explanation

So little presence that he just fades into the background
And his existence altogether gets ignored and forgotten very easily

Because I was unable to recall who he was.

 

[BigDocFan]

I think Ren's only notable role so far in the series was his being scared by Gengar before Ash caught it

 

[Eevee800]

I think Ren's only notable role so far in the series was his being scared by Gengar before Ash caught it

It is a true, but sad fact. Heck has he even been outside the lab before?

 

[BigDocFan]

It is a true, but sad fact. Heck has he even been outside the lab before?

I think he might have done briefly in JN058 monitoring the avalanche of Gulpin.

 

[Eevee800]

I think he might have done briefly in JN058 monitoring the avalanche of Gulpin.

I dont even remember lol.

 

[BigDocFan]

I dont even remember lol.

Giving how terrible that episode was, who can blame you.

I don't think Ren's screen time outside the lab even amounts to 5 minutes

 

[Eitarou]

Please tell me we're not wasting Ren's first and likely only focus ep on an origin story for his Magnemite that appears more on a screensaver than it does in person.

 

[Eevee800]

Please tell me we're not wasting Ren's first and likely only focus ep on an origin story for his Magnemite that appears more on a screensaver than it does in person.

I think so!

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

RENJI!!!!

 

[ii kanji]

Took me reading the above conversation to understand who the hell this was referring to...

Anyway, I really enjoyed Kikuna's episode so I am expecting much goodness here. Just a shame it's so little, so late. I would have so liked to see both characters well developed during this series. Oh well.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Well this episode will certainly…exist. Starting the year off on an inconsequential note. Hopefully not signs of more to come.

 

[JinksChow]

The Friday night timeslots aren't the problem.

I covered a lot of this on Twitter a few months ago, but it's more that production is getting further and further behind (something that COVID is certainly not helping) than it is a timeslot problem.

Now let's look at the output over the last few years.

2018: 48 episodes, 1 movie
2019: 50 episodes, 1 (CG) movie
2020: 41 episodes, 1 movie
2021: 42 episodes, 1 clip show, 0 movies

As mentioned earlier, when the show was on Thursday nights it used to air hour long specials whenever they had to skip a week because of timeslot issues. Yet these days...that basically never happens. A Friday night timeslot is not fundamentally different from a Thursday night timeslot and so there's no real reason Pocket Monsters couldn't air hour long specials if it wanted to. But it just...doesn't.

My money's on there being issues with production. For example, the absolute workhorse that is Masaaki Iwane has vastly cut back on the amount he's been working on the show lately, for whatever reason. He's in his mid-50s now; maybe he's just tired and wants to work on something else? The last episode on which he was the sole Key Animator was an episode that aired in February 2020; ever since then he's always paired off with someone else (usually Izumi Shimura), which in turn means that he's not able to pump out episodes the way he used to.

I'm sure COVID is also wreaking havoc on the production schedule, though at the same time there are dozens of other shows that don't take anywhere near as many breaks as Pokémon (and are also better animated) and so there are obviously ways around it.

The way I see it, a move from Friday night to any other timeslot wouldn't really fix any of the production issues the show seems to be facing right now.

As this thread is now dedicated to JN093, I probably won't be derailing this any further beyond this reply, but I just want to add a bit further to this post.

As you've pointed out, there are many other weekly anime that are airing alongside Pokemon that do not take frequent breaks. But I would like to draw a comparison to an anime that has many parallels to Pokemon: Yokai Watch. Yokai Watch is also produced by OLM (albeit by a different team), also airs on TVTokyo, and furthermore airs on Fridays as well. But let's look at their output over the same period of time:

2018 (Original Series + Shadowside): 48 episodes, 1 movie
2019 (Shadowside + 1st Reboot + Jam): 49 episodes, 1 movie
2020 (Jam): 49 episodes, 0 movies
2021 (Jam + 2nd reboot): 48 episodes, 1 movie

Despite being produced by the same animation studio, airing on the same network, and even airing on the same day (in 2021), Yokai Watch has somehow produced more episode than Pokemon.

Looking at this, I am inclined to agree with you that it is not a timeslot issue, but rather a production issue. But this production issue just does not make sense, when Yokai Watch should be similarly affected and yet has continued trucking along.

It just feels that TVTokyo is pushing Pokemon to the side when it comes to schedule conflicts, while OLM is also not giving enough resources to Team Kato.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I guess everyone complaining about too much plot in a row got their wish.

I've literally seen no one on these forums at least complaining about a lack of pointless filler.

 

[ii kanji]

I've literally seen no one on these forums at least complaining about a lack of pointless filler.

I don’t know if I’ve been complaining out loud, but ngl that is definitely me

 

[Eevee800]

I don’t know if I’ve been complaining out loud, but ngl that is definitely me

Haha tho some really sucked. I am glad those awfully two-in-one episodes are gone tho!