Preview Pocket Monsters the series (2019)

[sc190191]

Well they gave us a full four weeks to wait for a really exciting reveal, then we got next to nothing, leading to a lot more questions, a lot of "potential avenues" still, no confirmation on AU, no animation, just a small amount of artwork, a character that seems to be based on a really annoying mobile game played by and targeted to mostly people that had given up on the anime many years ago (thus making the advertisement rather pointless), and a huge fear that we won't have a female in the main cast.

After sitting through 3 years of SM, I was really hoping things could get back to normal. For the first 15 or so years of not being the "target" audience, I never really felt that and continued to enjoy the anime greatly, but I'm thinking it may be about that time, after stupidly forcing myself to watch the 3 miserable years of SM with the hopes that it was just an aberration and that the hugely successfully show would return to what made it hugely successful and entertaining for many people over many years, which I was clearly incorrect about. Although I will still give this a chance (since we still know very little), I have finally shortened the leash, I have finally began to entertain the idea that I will not be watching the Pokemon anime anymore.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I'm admittedly disappointed that we didn't get an animated trailer. I wanted to see how the characters look in motion, but to be fair, this would have been a bigger surprise without the leak. I'm still glad that we got the poster ahead of time in a way, but it is a double edge sword given that was basically going to be the announcement we've been waiting nearly a month for. At least we learned about Go, that he is a boy and his goal, so that's neat. His voice sounded pretty good based on what little we heard and I'm curious to see if there is a reason as to why he wants to catch Mew specifically.

I definitely think that people are jumping to conclusions in regards to the female lead. It hasn't been confirmed that the cast is just going to be Ash and Go and I honestly don't understand why people are making that assumption. This is just the first teaser poster for the anime. It wouldn't be the first time for them to not reveal every character in the cast on a teaser poster and we still know so little about the series itself. It just seems way too early to assume that there isn't going to be a female lead. I still like the idea of having previous female companions joining Ash and Go for a few episodes. That could be a neat idea, but I don't know if they'll do that as opposed to introducing a brand new female lead.

I'm also not sure about them wanting to appealing more towards the mobile game players with the anime. It wouldn't be impossible. Pokemon Go has been hugely successful, but I don't know if they'd want to go in that direction as opposed to covering primarily the new main series games. I highly doubt that they'd want to avoid Galar because of the whole National Dex issue. They wouldn't have been aware of the backlash when they were planning this series out, so that shouldn't have been a factor at all. Plus, I'm still hoping that the backlash has cooled down, but I'm probably being too optimistic again. In any case, I hope that the Galar region does get a good amount of attention at least. I assume that they'll still want to focus on the eighth generation to some degree given that Go has Scorbunny as his starter. If they didn't care about the new games, then I'm not sure if they'd want one of the new starters being confirmed as part of the main cast right from the start. I'm also still hoping that either Ash or another potential main character will catch Grookey considering it is my second favorite Galar starter. I know that people are assuming that Go is more inspired by mobile games, which I suppose is a reasonable assumption, but considering how long it has been since we've had a anime exclusive character in the main cast, I think that there's at least a decent chance that he is from Sword/Shield and we just haven't seen him in the games yet.

I wish that we had a bit more information, but at least we'll only have to wait a week for more details. That is much more tolerable than waiting another month. I like both Ash and Go's designs and the general setup does sound interesting. While the lack of solid information is still bothersome, especially with all of the theories going around for weeks, nothing they've shown here really turns me off or makes me assume the worse about the new series. I just hope that they'll provide more information and an animated trailer sooner rather than later so that we can all get a better idea of what the series is supposed to be about.

 

[SammyW27]

I've been thinking for a long time that they should have a saga with just Ash, the Girl, and a revolving door or other characters. And frack me, it looks like that's whats happening. Only instead of a PokeGirl, Ash is getting a boy toy this time.

Yeah, it feels weird that this is about the franchise as a whole instead of SwSh, but that could work. Besides, it doesn't look like there's very much to SwSh anyway. And hey, they could always change course later

Not comfortable with the designs yet. I'll have to see some footage, but I'm not feeling the slightly better than SM look. Hopefully they they won't suck the life of the animation like SM did part of the time. Let's pray to Arceus they won't bury us under meme faces either.

There damn well better be a lot old characters, be they from the Games or Show. If we're going back to previous regions, better bring back old friends to make it worthwhile. They better not screw this up like they did with the Battle Frontier...

The downside to going back to old regions? The villain teams' stories are done, so that means this series could be really light on antagonism. We'll have to hope and pray to Arceus that A) The TRio are still as good as they were in XY and SM, B) there are more Team Rocket members, C) some meaner rivals, and D) hunters and criminals cause trouble.

 

[RileyXY1]

I'm admittedly disappointed that we didn't get an animated trailer. I wanted to see how the characters look in motion, but to be fair, this would have been a bigger surprise without the leak. I'm still glad that we got the poster ahead of time in a way, but it is a double edge sword given that was basically going to be the announcement we've been waiting nearly a month for. At least we learned about Go, that he is a boy and his goal, so that's neat. His voice sounded pretty good based on what little we heard and I'm curious to see if there is a reason as to why he wants to catch Mew specifically.

I definitely think that people are jumping to conclusions in regards to the female lead. It hasn't been confirmed that the cast is just going to be Ash and Go and I honestly don't understand why people are making that assumption. This is just the first teaser poster for the anime. It wouldn't be the first time for them to not reveal every character in the cast on a teaser poster and we still know so little about the series itself. It just seems way too early to assume that there isn't going to be a female lead. I still like the idea of having previous female companions joining Ash and Go for a few episodes. That could be a neat idea, but I don't know if they'll do that as opposed to introducing a brand new female lead.

I'm also not sure about them wanting to appealing more towards the mobile game players with the anime. It wouldn't be impossible. Pokemon Go has been hugely successful, but I don't know if they'd want to go in that direction as opposed to covering primarily the new main series games. I highly doubt that they'd want to avoid Galar because of the whole National Dex issue. They wouldn't have been aware of the backlash when they were planning this series out, so that shouldn't have been a factor at all. Plus, I'm still hoping that the backlash has cooled down, but I'm probably being too optimistic again. In any case, I hope that the Galar region does get a good amount of attention at least. I assume that they'll still want to focus on the eighth generation to some degree given that Go has Scorbunny as his starter. If they didn't care about the new games, then I'm not sure if they'd want one of the new starters being confirmed as part of the main cast right from the start. I'm also still hoping that either Ash or another potential main character will catch Grookey considering it is my second favorite Galar starter. I know that people are assuming that Go is more inspired by mobile games, which I suppose is a reasonable assumption, but considering how long it has been since we've had a anime exclusive character in the main cast, I think that there's at least a decent chance that he is from Sword/Shield and we just haven't seen him in the games yet.

I wish that we had a bit more information, but at least we'll only have to wait a week for more details. That is much more tolerable than waiting another month. I like both Ash and Go's designs and the general setup does sound interesting. While the lack of solid information is still bothersome, especially with all of the theories going around for weeks, nothing they've shown here really turns me off or makes me assume the worse about the new series. I just hope that they'll provide more information and an animated trailer sooner rather than later so that we can all get a better idea of what the series is supposed to be about.

You're right on the main cast thing. For DP, the first poster only had Dawn with no Ash, which made people think that Dawn would replace Ash as the protagonist. The second poster had Ash, Dawn, and Paul with no sign of Brock, which made people think that Paul would replace Brock as the male companion.

 

[Almonds]

It hasn't been confirmed that the cast is just going to be Ash and Go and I honestly don't understand why people are making that assumption.

The trailer states that this time they will have a "double protagonist", which refers to Ash and Go.

There's always a possibility that a female companion can join in later in the series, though. So we'll have to wait and see

 

[BigDocFan]

To be there, when there are 3 companions, one companion doesn't get much focus so just having 2 might be a good thing

 

[Beatsy Ray]

I definitely think that people are jumping to conclusions in regards to the female lead. It hasn't been confirmed that the cast is just going to be Ash and Go and I honestly don't understand why people are making that assumption. This is just the first teaser poster for the anime. It wouldn't be the first time for them to not reveal every character in the cast on a teaser poster and we still know so little about the series itself. It just seems way too early to assume that there isn't going to be a female lead. I still like the idea of having previous female companions joining Ash and Go for a few episodes. That could be a neat idea, but I don't know if they'll do that as opposed to introducing a brand new female lead.

I should point out the only times they have ever intentionally withheld the reveal of a main cast member for a new series was in the case of returning characters. Brock was withheld in DP and Ash in BW. They understand the value of surprising the audience with returning cast members. If there was another new travelling companion, she would have definitely been featured in the trailer.

 

[El Squibbonator]

I was under the impression that Ash will be serving in more of a mentor role this time around--the experienced champion, showing rookie trainer Gou the ropes. That the writers can have their cake and eat it too. They can keep Ash around, but also pass the torch to a new protagonist.

 

[RileyXY1]

Considering their similar clothing styles, I'm thinking that Go will be a male version of Marnie. He will probably have Morpeko if my theory is correct.

 

[Rocket Messiah]

I don't care about Ash (Maybe a bit)

I don't care about Lets or Go

I don't care about legendaries

I don't care about world tour

I don't care about anything else BUT

This is my Jam

Pocket Monsters 2019:

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Considering their similar clothing styles, I'm thinking that Go will be a male version of Marnie. He will probably have Morpeko if my theory is correct.

Interesting. I hope not, I was really hoping she would be a competent rival.

 

[Father of a Scorbunny]

And this is what the anime is now......

 

[RileyXY1]

Interesting. I hope not, I was really hoping she would be a competent rival.

My theory will also mean that there will be no more TR, because their role of stalking the protagonists would be replaced with Team Yell, who will be obsessed with Go in this series.

 

[BigDocFan]

I was under the impression that Ash will be serving in more of a mentor role this time around--the experienced champion, showing rookie trainer Gou the ropes. That the writers can have their cake and eat it too. They can keep Ash around, but also pass the torch to a new protagonist.

I like the idea, assuming Ash has better memories this time around

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

To be there, when there are 3 companions, one companion doesn't get much focus so just having 2 might be a good thing

"Two is company but three's a crowd."

 

[BigDocFan]

"Two is company but three's a crowd."

Which is why I feel Ash and Go have potential

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

My theory will also mean that there will be no more TR, because their role of stalking the protagonists would be replaced with Team Yell, who will be obsessed with Go in this series.

Doubt it. Meowth and Wobblfett are on the poster if you look closely. Also, Marnie will probably be one of Ash and Go's main rivals.

 

[sc190191]

Just an observation on this new character, while in theory the goal of meeting Mew seems somewhat interesting, it also seems fairly shallow, and if achieved will lead to a "now what" type moment. Also, if he truly catches "all" or many Pokemon in "Go" style, this will fundamentally go against most everything the anime has taught us over its 20+ year span, and be very against Ash's personality as well. Will he bond with them? Will he train them? Is he training them just enough to travel around and meet Mew? I honestly have no interest at all in this new character based on what has been presented so far.

And if they are going to have two protags, why on earth would one not be female? I just don't understand. The female leads are certainly what drew me to the anime in every series other than SM (where nothing drew me to the anime). I think this is true for many others as well. I just don't understand why they would take a route like this, although most everything about this announcement disappoints me (with the sole exception being that there will likely be travel/adventure), this is by an enormous margin the single most disappointing factor.

Anyone who thinks old protagonists are returning are needlessly getting their hopes up, only to have them shattered for the millionth time. At this point, it appears as if the only thing they are retaining from their 22 year history (19 years of which were filled with outstanding characters, moments, etc) is boring, old Ash. For me personally, that means losing everything I loved about this show, while only retaining a character I tolerated because everything around him was so interesting, and now pairing him with a character with a very odd goal, based on a game I despise, and for the first time ever, in an era I would have never thought to even be worried about this, not giving us a female in the main cast.

Well I was going to try to not overreact, but just too many emotions right now, so I got the overreaction out and hopefully now I can ignore this until it actually happens and we know what its actually like.

 

[Silktree]

It would be nice if that Dragonite took the bear's place.

Satoshi:
A 10 year old boy who aims to become the best at Pokémon battling
due to a certain encounter he had.
He's a straightforward boy with a strong sense of justice.
His dream is to become a Pokémon Master.

Considering that Ash didn't even mention Ho-Oh in that 20th anniversary episode, I consider this another AU hint in addition to the logo. It's a stretch to say that Ho-Oh had a big effect on the original Ash. The other Ash's goal was to be good enough to battle it.

 

[Almonds]

What if this series presents a recurring female rival in place of a female companion?