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My Big Problem with the Pokémon Anime - An Essay and a Rant

Let's bring a poll to this discussion. What do you think is more likely to happen first?

  • Ash wins the Pokémon League and/or becomes a Pokémon Master

    Votes: 29 34.1%
  • Our generation will pass away entirely

    Votes: 56 65.9%

  • Total voters
    85
So far, if the Alola league will take place, Ash's only semi rival is Gladion. Unless they shoehorn in someone to beat him again, he has a chance to win this one. Who knows if they will even treat this like a main league or just a more hyped Orange Islands.
 
If Kiawe isn’t made a trial captain (which I doubt he’d be now), he has a decent chance to compete in the league.

He gets a Mega Charizard Y who curbstomps every Pokemon in sight including the supreme Ash-Incineroar
 
I expect Kukui, Kaki and Mamane to join the league. And maybe even Lilie and Suiren too.
 
I expect Kukui, Kaki and Mamane to join the league. And maybe even Lilie and Suiren too.

Can't see this happening, I'm sure only those who beat all the Kahunas will be allowed to enter and that leaves Ash the only one who is interested. Maybe Kiawe will also and I'm sure Kukui already beat them but I've never seen his Z-ring. If they just allow anyone who's beaten one trial in then the league is weak as fk.
 
Winning a regional Pokemon League does not make one a "Pokemon Master." Thus, maybe the writers could give Ash a win for once (!) and shake things up, but continue to travel to other regions and still attempt to achieve that dream. This is the kid who won the Orange League and was offered a position of Frontier Brain, yet he still chose to continue his journey and better himself-the same principle can be applied if he won a regional tournament. If that's his passion, the writers can still have him achieve some victories within it rather than have him lose anything of significance.

But that's assuming it's the writers decision and not that of the executives.

And I think Alola will be treated as a major League because it,s in the games, especially if it gets E4s
 
But that's assuming it's the writers decision and not that of the executives.

And I think Alola will be treated as a major League because it,s in the games, especially if it gets E4s

Not sure if I'm mistaken but I believe some of the writers and even some VA's actually want ash to be a winner and keep going but the higher ups think that it will signal the end of Ash. Pretty dumb especially when they're holding back potential that Pokemon had for 20 years now.
 
There were quite many mini evidence (tweets from personal accounts, blogs, interviews, even open conversations in SNS) showing the front end staffs such as storyboard screenwriters, VA, animators and even the lower end promotion marketing staffs, all hoped for Ash Ketchum to advance a step further into his dream of Pokemon Master where it leads to a new innovative story at the end.

Yet at the same time, there were also mini evidence showing the authoritative higher up staffs that overlook (double entendre intended) everything financially, such as the director boards and sponsor companies that fund the anime projects, feared the end of Pokemon Anime. Personally I don't know how did they come up the false impression of "Pokemon League winning = End of Pokemon Anime" in the first place. But unfortunately, rigid top-down management is still the business administration model of Japanese TV industry. Therefore no matter how the lower end staff wished for a better progress of Pokemon Anime story just like we the older audience did, as long as the higher ups which has the utmost decision-making power yet at the same time they are the ones that is furthest away from customers and audience still hold onto such false belief, there is just no way that Ash Ketchum will make any significant progress in his Pokemon Trainer career journey.
 
That's pretty sad tbh especially when you look at other long running anime that thrives off winning and makes it even better. Might even boost sales if they actually make it look like the anime leads somewhere.
 
The anime is selling well so they don't need to care.
But if it wasn't for the games, they anime would be doing shit.
Who wants to watch a hero who keeps losing and can get regressed?

Exactly, I just wished that the main shot callers felt that way. It's a bit disappointing knowing they can do so much but stay in this little safe area.
 
In the M20 interviews which I translated previously sometimes ago, it mentioned somewhere that the chief director Yuyama Kunihiko never saw Satoshi as a "hero", but merely a common 10-year-old boy one may find in every neighborhood. If I remembered correctly, there were also mentions in some English fanbooks of Pokemon series described the cultural difference between the Japanese raw version and English dub version of Pokemon Anime, where the English medium tends to view and treated Ash Ketchum as a typical chosen hero more than just a mere children in ones neighborhood.

But then, here is something I don't get it at all. If Satoshi is supposed to be a common 10-year-old boy one may find in everywhere, why made him do all the heroic activities that were to be done by the "heroes"? What made him so special that he gets the priority in meeting all the legendaries than those trainers that actively seeking for those pokemons for years?

That's why I cannot empathize with the thinking of the Japanese side, but sympathize more with the thinking of the English fandom. Because what they deemed Satoshi as and how they used him in the story is just two completely different thing. This is just like saying this guy is a waiter but you give him all the kitchen works to do not letting him serve any customers at the front end.
 
In the M20 interviews which I translated previously sometimes ago, it mentioned somewhere that the chief director Yuyama Kunihiko never saw Satoshi as a "hero", but merely a common 10-year-old boy one may find in every neighborhood. If I remembered correctly, there were also mentions in some English fanbooks of Pokemon series described the cultural difference between the Japanese raw version and English dub version of Pokemon Anime, where the English medium tends to view and treated Ash Ketchum as a typical chosen hero more than just a mere children in ones neighborhood.

But then, here is something I don't get it at all. If Satoshi is supposed to be a common 10-year-old boy one may find in everywhere, why made him do all the heroic activities that were to be done by the "heroes"? What made him so special that he gets the priority in meeting all the legendaries than those trainers that actively seeking for those pokemons for years?

That's why I cannot empathize with the thinking of the Japanese side, but sympathize more with the thinking of the English fandom. Because what they deemed Satoshi as and how they used him in the story is just two completely different thing. This is just like saying this guy is a waiter but you give him all the kitchen works to do not letting him serve any customers at the front end.
Actually, this is not what he said at all. From your own translation:
* Within the TV series, even Yuyama declared Satoshi is somehow like a "hero", despite he will quarrel with someone, he didn't show his weakness within these 20 years. Hence Yuyama wanted to revert Satoshi back to a normal 10-year-old boy who loves pokemons by using this chance of 20th anniversary.
* Within the anime series, Satoshi was portrayed like a hero. But in this movie, Yuyama wanted to make him into a normal 10-year-old boy who will become frustrated to the point of slander at other when losing battle.
Satoshi is always a heroic character since the first episode where he sacrificed himself to save Pikachu. What Yuyama really want was to make him a less heroic, more "relatable" person.
 
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OK, my bad. I apologize for not double check my own work.

But, will making Satoshi less heroic bring in more audience, especially when they only start to do so recently after 20 years of heroizing him?
Well, I admit the current SM saga going down the slice-of-life slapstick gag comedy route where they are really indeed portray him as a common 10-year-old children is not that bad in the entertainment and enjoyment value (bar the art style and animation. I'm one such person that dislike the over-fluid animation which is giving the characters too much over-movements. This is just my personal opinion, OK?). So maybe this is the appropriate character portrayal niche for Satoshi.

But then, since they only started to head to this direction after 20 years of heroizing Satoshi, it felt more like a desperate move where TPTB is regretting in choosing the "heroic Satoshi" direction from the beginning and continue heading on regardless, until they meet a critical dead end where they can't continue this route anymore.

After observing the SM saga closed to a year, I already start to felt indifferent towards this character portrayal change, and didn't mind this "common 10-year-old Satoshi" route any much more. Still, because this is a complete different direction from the previous "heroic Satoshi" route, I wished they could have neglect any past mention of Satoshi's past, including his Tauros and even eliminate SM042/043. This is because any past series was done on the character basis of "heroic Satoshi", hence any mention to the past will break away this new "common 10-year-old Satoshi" temperament.


BTW, the M20!Satoshi is by no mean any "common 10-year-old children". At that very moment of a Rainbow Feather fall upon him, Satoshi was already made into a typical chosen hero commonly seen in epic heroic fantasy stories, regardless of how Yuyama Kunihiko argue he isn't one. I really doubt does Yuyama had any understanding of the narrative differences between a "hero" and a "commoner"? TBH, I found too much of his wording contradicts with the actual result of the final products.
 
BTW, the M20!Satoshi is by no mean any "common 10-year-old children". At that very moment of a Rainbow Feather fall upon him, Satoshi was already made into a typical chosen hero commonly seen in epic heroic fantasy stories, regardless of how Yuyama Kunihiko argue he isn't one. I really doubt does Yuyama had any understanding of the narrative differences between a "hero" and a "commoner"? TBH, I found too much of his wording contradicts with the actual result of the final products.
Satoshi is still the hero. He's still the one who saved Pikachu by sacrificing himself, twice. What Yuyama want is to make him less of a "flawless hero" and more of a character with flaws, something like Satoshi from OS.
 
Satoshi is still the hero. He's still the one who saved Pikachu by sacrificing himself, twice. What Yuyama want is to make him less of a "flawless hero" and more of a character with flaws, something like Satoshi from OS.
Pretty sure no one sees him as flawless, anyway.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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