Review New series: Initial thoughts

[Pulsaro23]

Episode 14 was one of the better episodes of this series and more episodes should be like it.

Yeaaaah... no it wasn't. And no, more episodes shouldn't be like it.

 

[Henry Suarez]

I'm really enjoying the series now, episodes 10-15 were all great, fun, entertaining episodes. 1, 2, 5, 6, 7 were not bad as well, only episodes 3, 4, 8 and 9 have been kind of lazy.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

I've taken a peek at some of the episodes, and I'm curious: what's the main goal in the show? Everything seems to be more random/filler than in previous arcs.

 

[Kitasuki]

I've taken a peek at some of the episodes, and I'm curious: what's the main goal in the show? Everything seems to be more random/filler than in previous arcs.

For Ash is to beat Leon. To do so he needs to win the world championship.
For Go, at the moment, to complete the pokedex.
For Koharu, to become a ghost type.

 

[Silktree]

Koharu will be a breeder in the game sense, hence the Ditto, Riolu and all other babies recently promoted.

 

[Adelon]

Koharu will be a breeder in the game sense, hence the Ditto, Riolu and all other babies recently promoted.

I wish she'd be dragged into the Distortion World by Giratina so a girl with a more pleasant personality can be best friends with Ash and Go.

Iris was kind of annoying sometimes, not going to lie, but at least she seemed to genuinely care about Ash as a person.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

For Koharu, to become a ghost type.

Koharu: "Wooooo, I'm a ghost type girl now."
*Ash and Go are too busy to care*
Koharu: "Why won't you two ever pay attention to me?"

 

[Silktree]

I wish she'd be dragged into the Distortion World by Giratina so a girl with a more pleasant personality can be best friends with Ash and Go.

Iris was kind of annoying sometimes, not going to lie, but at least she seemed to genuinely care about Ash as a person.

To each their own. Nice girls are overrated and Koharu is hardly mean. She keeps her distance from Ash because he doesn't have much of an interest in anything but Pokemon, and has a vague goal that confuses her. Go isn't much different, but they go way back. She will probably change her mind about trainers.

 

[game3524]

Yeah, Koharu is more aloof towards Ash then outright mean to him. IMO, that is a nice change from what we got from Lillie in SM and Serena in XY.

 

[P_S_B]

Go Towards Your Dream! Satoshi and Go!!

Give me a call when it's called, "Go Towards Your Dream! Satoshi, Go and Koharu!!" Words cannot adequately express the crushing disappointment I am feeling right now from reading the 4 new summaries with none of them having any indication that she'll be in any of them. If she's going to be a 'one episode per year' type character then they shouldn't have featured her so prominently in the opening animation.

I had hoped that Koharu finally getting an episode would kickstart her development and allow her to start showing up a bit more often, not disappear from the show altogether. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you people need to have a prominent female role to act as an audience surrogate for the girls so they can get the most out of the show and you're just not doing it. Last series there were 3 to choose from, now you've gone from that to nothing and it's really not good enough when you said you were making this series for, "everyone."

I'm probably getting annoying now complaining about this all the time and so I'll try to cut back on it, but it's difficult not to when it's not showing any sign of getting better. You've fixed the writing being awful, now can you fix this too, please?

 

[SinnohBoi]

I think it's time for people to move on. It's obvious the anime is in a severe state of decline and OLM are making sure that decline continues. They have taken the successful Pokemon formula, and created something nobody even wanted. And those who were excited by world tournament series where ash travels every region were only left disappointed to find out that ash spends most of his time in Kanto acting like Gou's awkward sidekick while his retconned mr mime plays another mime act that he never did in the series before it.

Pokemon 2019 is everything wrong with the anime and the only brightside to it is that it is seemingly tanking in Japan and worldwide.

On the brightside, at least we can still go back and watch the previous series and enjoy how great the anime once was.

 

[KrspaceT]

I think it's time for people to move on. It's obvious the anime is in a severe state of decline and OLM are making sure that decline continues. They have taken the successful Pokemon formula, and created something nobody even wanted. And those who were excited by world tournament series where ash travels every region were only left disappointed to find out that ash spends most of his time in Kanto acting like Gou's awkward sidekick while his retconned mr mime plays another mime act that he never did in the series before it.

Pokemon 2019 is everything wrong with the anime and the only brightside to it is that it is seemingly tanking in Japan and worldwide.

On the brightside, at least we can still go back and watch the previous series and enjoy how great the anime once was.

Tanking in Japan? Worldwide? Evidence please.

 

[Islander Princess]

Now that we're a couple of months in, I can say one thing about this series that drives me crazy is its inconsistency. After a pretty disappointing start, we just had a string of some really good episodes that did a great job of setting up some storylines, developing the characters, all that good stuff. Now they announce the next slate of episodes, and a large majority of them sound very underwhelming. When upcoming episodes are announced, I'm used to a mixed bag, but not where I'm almost totally disinterested or apathetic to every single one. I feel like this is just going to keep up for the remainder of the series and the whole thing is going to run very hot and cold, which is frustrating.

In addition, I kind of thought they were gonna stop with the nostalgic fake outs (ala Piplup/Crogunk and Ho-Oh) after bringing Lance in to face Leon, but nope, they went right back to it by having Ash face a "stand in" for Lt. Surge. Honestly, what is the point of that? And I don't want to hear "younger kids won't know who he is." Nobody knows who this guy is; he's literally a COTD. Besides, it's not like this series has done a bang up job thus far of showing off characters or Pokemon younger viewers are more familiar with anyway. I mean, we're getting to 20 episodes in and they still haven't shown off Grookey or Sobble, which is kind of mind boggling.

It's just really disappointing. Every time I think the series is taking two steps forward, it takes one step back. I do want to like it, but the inconsistency is maddening, and its making that very difficult.

 

[Hidden Mew]

In addition, I kind of thought they were gonna stop with the nostalgic fake outs (ala Piplup/Crogunk and Ho-Oh) after bringing Lance in to face Leon, but nope, they went right back to it by having Ash face a "stand in" for Lt. Surge. Honestly, what is the point of that? And I don't want to hear "younger kids won't know who he is." Nobody knows who this guy is; he's literally a COTD. Besides, it's not like this series has done a bang up job thus far of showing off characters or Pokemon younger viewers are more familiar with anyway. I mean, we're getting to 20 episodes in and they still haven't shown off Grookey or Sobble, which is kind of mind boggling.

It's especially weird considering that kids should be at least somewhat familiar with Lt. Surge due to Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. Those games came out only a couple of years ago and while Lt. Surge isn't one of the more popular Kanto Gym Leaders, he's still probably recognizable enough, especially when he is one of the earlier Gym Leaders. Maybe they wanted Ash to battle against a new character instead, which wouldn't be a problem if they just brought in one of the Galar Gym Leaders for him to battle instead of making a brand new character. Maybe the logic behind that decision will be clearer over time, but it is really strange on paper at least.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

The most obvious reason for these decisions has to go back to XY and how that tanked regardless to how people think of it. New devs are trying to refresh and change the formula for a new generation of children, but by doing so has damaged and thrown out the heart that made the past series from OS to XY seem timeless. With SM they decide to have Ash go to school and finally have him become Champion, but now with LG (as I like to call the New Series) they seem like they are trying keep up with the times in today’s climate (probably to appease China) as well as to make Ash travel the world, despite not visiting Galar that truly deserve it. Only the Champions will probably return in this series, but who depends on the people who are making this and tripping people’s expectations up. So many potentials and they could care less about it. The collection of Ash’s badges and trophy in the second episode is just insulting than nostalgic. Makes me feel that this TV series is just a semi AU Ash TV series rather than a proper continuation of Ash’s journey to become a Pokémon Master. The company may argue that they only cater to children lower than 14, and if so, then why are there so many people over 14 shopping in the Pokémon Centers in Japan? Why are there wedding services? Perfumes? And few other stuff that are targeted to them as merchandise? No wonder their universe is in such crummy shape, they couldn’t even have Great Britain the right way up?

 

[KrspaceT]

I think they are getting better at balancing Go and Ash....and I have no problems with their continued showing of Go's quantity to Ash's quality in mons (both power and battle wise + personality wise). If they can master the balance I think it would work out, and I feel they've gotten better in the last stretch of time.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

I just wish they would stop the Kanto Pandering for once. I know it was their first one that made them big and that Gen 5 didn’t do well because of the lack of Kanto Pokémon, but how long will it be until enough is enough. Ash already has a Dragonite and Gengar, about half in Ash’s party. please save room for a Galar Pokemon at least, like a Centiskorch.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

Seriously why are they hardly even bothering to promote Galar and its Pokemon? Gou has a Scorbunny, but Ash's team is all Kanto right now. So far we've only been in Galar for 4 episodes. We've also only seen 4 Galarian Pokemon. We haven't even seen Sobble and Grookey 20 episodes in.

I honestly just wish they stuck to the classic formula cause it worked. They could have had Ash receive an invite from Chsirman Rose after becoming Alola's first Champion. He challenges Leon, then loses. He's determined to defeat him so he joins the Galar Gym Challenge. They could have had the cast be Ash, Hop, and Gloria. Or Ash, Hop, and Bea.

 

[VetProf]

Seriously why are they hardly even bothering to promote Galar and its Pokemon?

Because half of the anime is currently being used to advertise Pokemon Go.

 

[Everclear]

Seriously why are they hardly even bothering to promote Galar and its Pokemon? Gou has a Scorbunny, but Ash's team is all Kanto right now. So far we've only been in Galar for 4 episodes. We've also only seen 4 Galarian Pokemon. We haven't even seen Sobble and Grookey 20 episodes in.

I honestly just wish they stuck to the classic formula cause it worked. They could have had Ash receive an invite from Chsirman Rose after becoming Alola's first Champion. He challenges Leon, then loses. He's determined to defeat him so he joins the Galar Gym Challenge. They could have had the cast be Ash, Hop, and Gloria. Or Ash, Hop, and Bea.

They're focusing on the world tour aspect which we have known would be the core of the series from the start. I think they're handling it really badly because most of the episodes take place in Kanto but Galar was never going to be the main part of this series anyway.