Preview Pocket Monsters Sun & Moon

[Max1996]

I've been told of the main reason behind the sudden change in animation. Apparently, OLM is not going to be the animation studio for Pokemon Sun&Moon. Who is going to animate this series, I don't know.

 

[SammyW27]

TEAM SKULL OFF THE BAT?!?!

Sign me up! (and just hope it goes better than Aqua & Magma)

Also, I'm okay with the animation. There are plenty of anime they look like that. Besides, the quality of the animation doesn't mean a better story & characterizations, as we've all seen plenty of times.

Heck, I'm not even surprised at a downgrade after how things went with XY(&Z) and its movies...
Hopefully any money saved from animation to better writer and/or more VAs. (I sometimes wonder if the high quality of XY's animation had something to do with how underpopulated it was...)

 

[Enzap]

It's been getting a lot of hate but honestly I think I prefer this new style. While the old art style looked more clean and high scale, I'm sure it was more expensive to make and therefore led to a lot of animation shortcuts. This just feels more like Pokémon to me, especially since Ash now looks his age.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, I kind of like the new art style. It does look a bit too cartoonish at points. Even Ash looks a bit rubbery at the end, but I think that's a good way to help make SM more distinct from XY. The animation doesn't really look bad to me, but I also usually have a hard time telling that unless it's really bad anyway. The cartoonish style meant mean that this is a more comedy series, which would be fine if the jokes are actually funny or at least if Ash isn't a complete idiot. So I'm fine with that for the most part.

I am surprised that apparently the first four captains and Lillie are in his class. Lillie makes sense, but I don't know why the Island Captains would be there. I do hope that Ash still gets a group of traveling companions, mainly because I think having the classmates take the place of traveling companions wouldn't quite work. With this classroom alone, there would be five other characters for them to develop and they can't really manage to handle three characters well enough. I wouldn't be surprised if the classroom setting is only a temporary deal. Although, I do like the idea that Ash is applying to become a Captain. That would probably appeal to fans who were upset over Ash losing the Kalos League in a way.

I like that we see Ash using a Z-Move with Pikachu. That is just perfect. It's also awesome that we see Team Skull within the trailer. Hopefully that means that they'll show up early on in the series and appear throughout its run.

At least it's more than a poster, but I get the impression people are still going to judge a book by its cover until the series actually starts. Maybe I just don't like how much hate the series is getting right off the bat, but I like the style and vibe I'm getting from the trailer and I do hope that it's a good fun series.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I'm saving my judgements until the series actually starts. Staying with XY&Z for the Flare arc worked very well, this is another one of those situations.

After that and XY in general, a little drop down into this more lighthearted and cartoony series actually seems like a good thing. A change of pace.

 

[Kirby4ever]

The series is kind of a bit childish, but it'll take some time to get used to. I'll watch the first 10 episodes or so before I start judging on how the series as a whole. I wonder how it's going to work with the UB, maybe things will quickly turn dark and crazy towards the end? As of right now, it's far too early to tell what's going to happen since that's three years away.

 

[GurahkWeavile]

I......I don't even.......


(Sighs) Trying to keep an open mind.......not working as well.....

 

[Pokefan19]

Despite the cartoonish look.... artistically there's a nice flow to the animation. I'm not sure if I'm hyped, but the trailer didn't exactly leave me disappointed

 

[Enzap]

Despite the cartoonish look.... artistically there's a nice flow to the animation. I'm not sure if I'm hyped, but the trailer didn't exactly leave me disappointed

This basically sums up my thoughts too. Cartoony doesn't equal bad, it's a stylistic choice and one that has been popular in anime recently. Look at shows like Kill la Kill Mob Psycho 100. They're both very non traditional in how cartoonish and "sketchy" they are but you really can't say they have bad animation.

But it's still the Pokémon anime, so it's probably not going to be fantastic, but I think it will at least be pretty good for what it is. Hopefully entertaining enough to hold my interest for longer than XY did.

 

[JacobYBM]

CG animation is expensive and time consuming to make. That being said, it's still much harder to make good hand drawn animation because there are only so many good and fast animators available. The Japanese animation industry makes over a hundred new series a year. Dozens of episodes premier in a single week. Good animators aren't just lying around.

Going off of the preview it does seem like we'll be getting some good animation, though. Satoshi will have expressive character animation and Pikachuu's Renkou Senka (Quick Attack) had background animation, rather than CG animation. Instead of using CG for the battles it seems like the series director wants to rely more heavily on hand drawn animation to go for a hand-drawn feel, rather than a perfectionist CG feel.

 

[Ryu Taylor]

View: https://twitter.com/rica_matsumoto3/status/776407594113957888


The backlash got Rica Matsumoto's attention.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I wonder what she said. Based on the trailer, her voice acting for Ash is still good.

 

[JacobYBM]

I wonder what she said. Based on the trailer, her voice acting for Ash is still good.

Because a change in character design would suddenly mean a change in the quality of her acting? Matsumoto and the others would be working on the series constantly, any degradation would be gradual, not sudden.

 

[Daren]

I wonder what she said. Based on the trailer, her voice acting for Ash is still good.

From what I can tell reading what autotranslate spits out, she's saying that even if he's drawn different his spirit is still the same, how people still love Satoshi and that she promises to continue to voice him as well as possible so everyone can continue to.

This is google translate, mind you.

 

[SeanWheeler]

Despite the cartoonish look.... artistically there's a nice flow to the animation. I'm not sure if I'm hyped, but the trailer didn't exactly leave me disappointed

What about that choppy bit when Ash walked into the classroom?

 

[Enzap]

What about that choppy bit when Ash walked into the classroom?

I was a bit surprised they had that scene since it was the only noticeably bad part, but I wouldn't take that as an indication of the series as a whole. Especially since they're probably focusing their attention on the battles and action more than classroom scenes. There's really not much need to blow all your money and time on the mundane.

 

[Aura7541]

That's a rather significant shift in artstyle, but I can get used to it. What's more important to me is how Ash's character and development is handled and the interactions with his companions. Changing up the formula with Ash going to school is a big risk. It gives the anime a breath of fresh air, but it also runs the risk of major regression if the execution isn't there. I'm cautiously optimistic. As long as there won't be a BW-esque regression, I am perfectly okay with that.

 

[Gard81]

Apparently, if going by the anime poster with a better resolution, Mimikyu will be joining Team Rocket...Now I feel even more sorry for it.

 

[Mitchman]

What's weirding me out the most is that this isn't a full artstyle shift, and its mostly the characters themselves and the Pokemon. Less line work, much more rounded and it has that soft, flat, sketch art look to em, but the backgrounds and what not have the detail to attention and richness of XY. I personally wouldn't mind the sketch work flat artstyle if they kept it in the style and spirit of the show, ie less rounded look for the characters something akin to how My War Games looks similar to this but while keeping Digimon Adventures artstyle, but the simple fact that they are blending the two styles is far too jarring for me. Not a fan of this change, but I would respect it more if they had the nerve to at least go all in with it then this half measure.

 

[Misty-Moo]

Even though I can see people's point regarding the new style being jarring because it's so different, I can't see why it's being referred to as bad/cheap/less detailed. For the first time I can remember, you can actually tell that Pikachu's furry, for example (any slightly iffy parts are probably because it's a preview and they'll get re-done before airing).
Also, I thought Team Rocket were with Bewear in the poster because they were getting a new balloon - a Bewear-shaped airship - but I could be wrong.