Monotype battles in the anime

[Tiki Man]

So yeah, does anyone think that monotype battles in any way, shape, or form could ever work in the anime?

Personally, I could see it working in any one of these ways…

Scenario 1: It can become like contests and require a person to travel the region trying to win around four or five monotype tournaments to compete in a monotype championship tournament.

Scenario 2: Make it a single competition that takes place in the next region similar to the whirl cup that took place in Johto where they were only allowed to use a water type. Except this time the person is allowed to choose the type they wish to use in the tournament.

Scenario 3: It could also be presented as a hobby for the third traveling companion who would only participate in them sporadically throughout the region.

This idea would have been impossible a couple generations ago considering the lack of pokemon they had for certain types back then. But now that we are nearing generation 5 and there are plenty of pokemon for each type it should allow for plenty of variety in matches. Also considering the fact that ash has already gathered a good amount of pokemon for different types such as water, flying, ground, and grass not to mention what he will catch in Isshu, it could work for him if he chooses to participate in any tournament along the way. Anyway I was only suggesting this because I think that monotypes battles have so much untapped potential In the anime. I hope that it is something that will be explored sometime in the future.

 

[Iteru]

Scenario 2. A four episode arc that makes for a nice break from the main quests. I'd like that.

 

[Froakie]

Do you mean triple battles?

 

[DracoMan]

I don't think that's what this is about. I think this is about battles/tournaments in which only Pokemon of a certain type can be used, like how only Water Pokemon could be used in the Whirl Cup. Frankly, I don't see that being sustained over the long term if only one type can be used the whole time. Perhaps a series of battles/small tournaments with each one using a different type.

 

[Dexter]

Triple battles would be nice but I really don't see them having another monotype tournament like the whirl cup. I definitely see them having a triple battle tournament. If there had been a Battle Frontier, the Frontier Brain Argenta at the Battle Hall would have used special types like the Orange Gym leader Rudy.

 

[Froakie]

Oh! Sorry. I thought monotype meant Black/White. My reading abilities aren't all that great.

Anyway, it could be a nice idea, but if a new character brought in only had pokemon of one type (Psychic?? There sure is a lot of them around..) I'd see it getting slightly boring.

 

[Stranger]

It sounds like the opposite of gyms. Normally gym-trainers work with a single type of pokemon, or at least they stick to a theme of sorts.

They could add it as some sort of gym rule, where the challenger has to prove his worth to the gym-trainer by fighting with a certain element.

To be worthy of the water-badge, you have to be proficient with a water pokemon. Something like that.

 

[Lady Muffin]

So yeah, does anyone think that monotype battles in any way, shape, or form could ever work in the anime?

Personally, I could see it working in any one of these ways…

Scenario 1: It can become like contests and require a person to travel the region trying to win around four or five monotype tournaments to compete in a monotype championship tournament.

Scenario 2: Make it a single competition that takes place in the next region similar to the whirl cup that took place in Johto where they were only allowed to use a water type. Except this time the person is allowed to choose the type they wish to use in the tournament.

Scenario 3: It could also be presented as a hobby for the third traveling companion who would only participate in them sporadically throughout the region.

This idea would have been impossible a couple generations ago considering the lack of pokemon they had for certain types back then. But now that we are nearing generation 5 and there are plenty of pokemon for each type it should allow for plenty of variety in matches. Also considering the fact that ash has already gathered a good amount of pokemon for different types such as water, flying, ground, and grass not to mention what he will catch in Isshu, it could work for him if he chooses to participate in any tournament along the way. Anyway I was only suggesting this because I think that monotypes battles have so much untapped potential In the anime. I hope that it is something that will be explored sometime in the future.

Monotype battles kinda exist in the gyms already.

Edit: Actually, if it came down to the three of these, i'd prefer #1 so that the third character isn't like an attachment or something. XD; Thank you.

But I don't see this happening at all because it's somewhat too similar to gyms, imo.

 

[Iteru]

The only problem is, who would compete and what type? It would need diversity to be interesting, I can only really think of Ash using the Flying type. The normal birds (Noctowl is a major plus for uniqueness), Gliscor for not being the norm for flyings and Charizard for Fire.

 

[Tiki Man]

Monotype battles kinda exsist in the gyms already. I don't see a point to this in the anime, sorry. ):

Yeah sure the gym leader usually use teams that consist of one type but that’s not always the case. And besides for it to be a monotype battle both sides have to be using a team consisting of one type.

The only problem is, who would compete and what type? It would need diversity to be interesting, I can only really think of Ash using the Flying type. The normal birds (Noctowl is a major plus for uniqueness), Gliscor for not being the norm for flyings and Charizard for Fire.

Ash has plenty of pokemon of each type though.

Water: Buizel, Totodile, Corphish, Kingler.
Grass: Sceptile, Bulbasaur, Torterra, Bayleef
Etc.

They don’t have to be full battles.

 

[Ventias]

I guess I'd have to go with the 2nd one, the idea of another Whirl Islands that you can decide what type you use sounds kinda neat.

 

[dman_dustin]

So yeah, does anyone think that monotype battles in any way, shape, or form could ever work in the anime?

I would only support it if, said character only caught Pokemon of previous gens or if it was Ash.

There is a problem with it and sorry if this has been explained, but how many monotype Pokemon does the person need for each competition? Because that person is just going to have to catch a lot of Pokemon in order for this to work.

Ash can do this with Water, Fire, and Grass, and if need be he can call on Charizard and Squirtle (what do you mean they can only be used in Kanto or Johto, are you ignoring the wonderful teleportation system, that the anime is known for), He can probably do this with Ground, and to a lesser extent fighting (since he only has 2 at the moment, of course if Mijumaru evolves into a fighting type and Ash gets it, there ya go). He can also do Normal, and Flying.

But for any new trainer (or new main cast member) they are going to be at a serious disadvantage. If it was a max of two then they might be able to pull it off.

There would also have to be various arenas itself for the competition. What I mean is just like in the games, the contests can pull of a smart, tough, and cool contests which are separate from each other. So they'd probably have to with multiple monotype competitions at once in one place.

I would love Monotype competitions, since Ash would likely use his older Pokemon (maybe even some who need it), but at this moment with the introduction of triple battles, I think it is more likely for Ash to use older Pokemon in a massive triple battle competition than a monotype gym (even though I'd really like that).

 

[Iteru]

Ash has plenty of pokemon of each type though.

Water: Buizel, Totodile, Corphish, Kingler.
Grass: Sceptile, Bulbasaur, Torterra, Bayleef
Etc.

They don’t have to be full battles.

Yeah, and the Water types all have the same style. BORING.
The Grass ones are a bit more versatile, but Torterra doesn't even do defensive anymore so no.

Those types suck for excitement and for being different. That is my point.

 

[Hestia]

Scenario 2. A four episode arc that makes for a nice break from the main quests. I'd like that.

This. I can't really see it working for the whole series, I think it would get a bit dull after a while. But a short arc would be great and would permit Ash to use his reserves.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

I agree with everything Iteru said. I think the only other most diverse group Ash has is Ground-types, bnut that is only because all of them have different secondary types(in Donphan's case, none) them each other.

 

[Jukain]

I am not comfortable with this idea. Why? They've tried it before and failed at it. They might have better ideas by now, but it's a very restrictive idea. For Ash, it doesn't make sense because he trains a variety of pokemon, not just one type. If it's a new character, we risk a second Misty, which I don't think will work. It just doesn't sound like a good idea.

 

[V Faction]

Sounds gimmicky. Though I like the challenge of finding Pokemon to compete with in a single-type Tournament, it's not a premise I enjoy thrown in my face.

The Whirl Cup was fine, and that Grass route mini-tourney was okay, and the Poke Ringer stuff is fun, but if you told me Iris was going to come into this generation for BW/Best Wishes and only use Psychic Pokemon? I'd be terribly bored. New generation means showing off the new Pokemon. Unless we get a surplus of new Psychic-types (which, oddly enough, we seem to have a lot revealed already),the concept falls flat on its face.

But hey, give me a battle where Ash has to utilize all the strengths and weaknesses of his Pokemon that belong to a single type and I could dig it. Imagine a fight where he had to use Bulbasaur, Torterra, Sceptile, and Bayleef all in a row.

 

[Tiki Man]

Alright I see, so no one thinks scenario 1 is a good idea. But like others have mentioned I still think it would be great for a filler saga in the anime for Ash to give some of his reserves some more time to shine. It may even be a great way for him to show some character development. As for scenario 2 I think it would be a great idea to try at least once as some random competition. I mean they’re all the time coming up with off the wall competitions in each saga anyway so why not a monotype tournament. But like I said instead of restricting it to just water types make it a tournament where the trainer gets to choose what single type they want to use for the whole thing before the tournament starts.

 

[Ampharos King]

The closest things we have to monotype battles in the anime are:
- Grass-type tournament in Grass Routes
- Whirl Cup
- Ash VS Rudy (each time they battled, they must use a pokemon of a specific type and could not reuse the same pokemon again [i.e. Bulbasaur VS Exeggutor, Squirtle VS Starmie]).

 

[PlatinumDude]

I agree with Scenario 2. Scenario 1 sounds like it could take up a lot of time.