Pokemon Journeys: Thoughts So Far

[JinksChow]

Here is the translation from dephender.

"As far as Satoshi's battles as a Pokémon Trainer are concerned, Pocket Monsters XY gave me the impression that he had matured a lot. This made it difficult to create new dramatic story arcs for him, but since Satoshi is such a straightforward person, he has this aspect to him where he sometimes forgets things he's already learned from experience. When this happens, we have Go comment on how "THIS is what Satoshi is ACTUALLY like" or "THIS is what Satoshi always says", etc. This makes Satoshi a boy who still has a lot of room to grow. He's someone who always continues to strive towards his goal, and you could even say that if he didn't do this, he wouldn't BE Satoshi. Our job as writers is to find ways to make this happen"

Thanks, I remember Dephender on Serebii had made a translation for this interview, I just couldn't find where it is.

And this is simply amazing, the SERIES COORDINATOR for Pokemon JN believes that a core personality trait of Ash is forgetfulness.

See guys, this is why JN030 and JN036 happened, because Ash FORGOT he promised Pikachu to train with him, and he also FORGOT he invented the strategy for climbing Draco Meteor. But don't worry guys, we have good old Go here to remind Ash about the things he's forgotten!

 

[GrimmEvil]

Thanks, I remember Dephender on Serebii had made a translation for this interview, I just couldn't find where it is.

And this is simply amazing, the SERIES COORDINATOR for Pokemon JN believes that a core personality trait of Ash is forgetfulness.

See guys, this is why JN030 and JN036 happened, because Ash FORGOT he promised Pikachu to train with him, and he also FORGOT he invented the strategy for climbing Draco Meteor. But don't worry guys, we have good old Go here to remind Ash about the things he's forgotten!

Lol, I love how it seems to me as if they are proud of making Ash look like an idiot.

Personally I would find it difficult to dumb down a character I spent years developing just so that I could make this character that will vanish in 1 to 2 years look so amazing.

 

[Colt]

Thanks, I remember Dephender on Serebii had made a translation for this interview, I just couldn't find where it is.

Sorry but he said me this in dm

 

[JinksChow]

Sorry but he said me this in dm

Well, this is embarrassing. I guess I must have misremembered. If by any chance, do you know whether Dephender has the rest of the interview?

 

[Colt]

Well, this is embarrassing. I guess I must have misremembered. If by any chance, do you know whether Dephender has the rest of the interview?

Sorry. I just took link to ur post nd asked dephender to translate

 

[Schemer99]

My main problem with Journeys is that it's treated as just another adventure. Realistically, Journeys should be Ash's swan song.

Unfortunately, series aren't allowed to end anymore, so the writers have to make it seem like Ash is getting better, but at the same time they can't commit to this fully and it shows with how they treat the PWC battles and how they treat the returning characters.

 

[JinksChow]

Sorry. I just took link to ur post nd asked dephender to translate

Thanks. I've looked around, and apparently the interview was from the 2020-08 issue of Animedia. Maybe someone on here or the other forum has that magazine and could confirm?

 

[DynamicFusion]

Here is the translation from dephender.

"As far as Satoshi's battles as a Pokémon Trainer are concerned, Pocket Monsters XY gave me the impression that he had matured a lot. This made it difficult to create new dramatic story arcs for him, but since Satoshi is such a straightforward person, he has this aspect to him where he sometimes forgets things he's already learned from experience. When this happens, we have Go comment on how "THIS is what Satoshi is ACTUALLY like" or "THIS is what Satoshi always says", etc. This makes Satoshi a boy who still has a lot of room to grow. He's someone who always continues to strive towards his goal, and you could even say that if he didn't do this, he wouldn't BE Satoshi. Our job as writers is to find ways to make this happen"

That excerpt from that interview is absolutely incredible. This clearly shows complete incompetence from the Staff. The Fans need to wake up and demand more instead of settling for less. Otherwise we might not be far away from another Best Wishes.

 

[Enzo]

That excerpt from that interview is absolutely incredible. This clearly shows complete incompetence from the Staff. The Fans need to wake up and demand more instead of settling for less. Otherwise we might not be far away from another Best Wishes.

This is like,,, WILDLY unrelated, but do you know the name of the artist who drew the picture in your icon? This art is so pretty!

 

[DarkraiKnight]

That excerpt from that interview is absolutely incredible. This clearly shows complete incompetence from the Staff. The Fans need to wake up and demand more instead of settling for less. Otherwise we might not be far away from another Best Wishes.

Considering that Ash’s battling has been pretty stellar,
(outside of the times he tried to shock Ground-types), I don’t think that’s an issue.

 

[DynamicFusion]

This is like,,, WILDLY unrelated, but do you know the name of the artist who drew the picture in your icon? This art is so pretty!

That is Lillie drawn by Shuhei Yasuda. Yasuda was the Assistant Character Designer for Sun & Moon and is the Main Character Designer for Journeys.


View: https://www.facebook.com/374441239332365/posts/1625127447597065/


His Twitter Account is @alien18183go. This is also his profile picture.

Considering that Ash’s battling has been pretty stellar,
(outside of the times he tried to shock Ground-types), I don’t think that’s an issue.

I mean, what is not to say, in the next series they completely run out of ideas and decide to reboot Ash? This interview shows that the Staff has really learned nothing from BW and has the same mentality which I find disappointing.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I don't really see the problem with that comment. People have been complaining about Ash forgetting his experiences for years. I could understand this notion of Ash forgetting if his skills had regressed in Journeys, but despite the quality of some of the battles themselves, it doesn't feel like Ash has regressed significantly either.

 

[Galactic_V]

Thanks. I've looked around, and apparently the interview was from the 2020-08 issue of Animedia. Maybe someone on here or the other forum has that magazine and could confirm?

I do have this Animedia issue. What interview are you talking about?

Btw this issue was the one that revealed Gou would be the one to catch Messon.

 

[JinksChow]

I do have this Animedia issue. What interview are you talking about?

Btw this issue was the one that revealed Gou would be the one to catch Messon.

Apparently this issue has an interview with Shoji Yonemura, so if you don't mind, can you check whether the interview excerpt I posted before comes from this issue? If it is, can you see whether there are any other interesting tidbits? Thanks!

I don't really see the problem with that comment. People have been complaining about Ash forgetting his experiences for years. I could understand this notion of Ash forgetting if his skills had regressed in Journeys, but despite the quality of some of the battles themselves, it doesn't feel like Ash has regressed significantly either.

If Ash is only forgetting stuff like type advantages, then I don't really have a problem. Ash forgets ground immunity to electric types and ghost immunity to normal types pretty often, which the writers at least make it believable that he only forgot during the heat of battle.

However, what is unacceptable is that Shoji Yonemura seems to believe this "forgetfulness" should extend to Ash's other core personality traits. You don't just "forget" you think outside the box and come up with interesting strategies, you don't just "forget" your love for Pokemon and get angry with Pikachu over your own mistakes. What's next? Ash forgets his courage? Or maybe he forgets his dream to become a Pokemon Master? Sure, Ash has not regressed in skills, but that is really the least that the writers can do. If the anime staff have learnt one thing from Best Wishes, that would be not to regress Ash's skills.

We've been complaining about OOC moments for Ash, and it seems that the root cause is because the series coordinator believes that Ash should "forget" about his character. Shoji Yonemura seems to think all Ash boils down to is someone who loves to eat and forgets stuff. This is what leads to the flanderisation of characters in long-running shows, by allowing one or two personality traits to consume their entire character.

 

[Enzo]

If Ash is only forgetting stuff like type advantages, then I don't really have a problem. Ash forgets ground immunity to electric types and ghost immunity to normal types pretty often, which the writers at least make it believable that he only forgot during the heat of battle.

However, what is unacceptable is that Shoji Yonemura seems to believe this "forgetfulness" should extend to Ash's other core personality traits. You don't just "forget" you think outside the box and come up with interesting strategies, you don't just "forget" your love for Pokemon and get angry with Pikachu over your own mistakes. What's next? Ash forgets his courage? Or maybe he forgets his dream to become a Pokemon Master? Sure, Ash has not regressed in skills, but that is really the least that the writers can do. If the anime staff have learnt one thing from Best Wishes, that would be not to regress Ash's skills.

We've been complaining about OOC moments for Ash, and it seems that the root cause is because the series coordinator believes that Ash should "forget" about his character. Shoji Yonemura seems to think all Ash boils down to is someone who loves to eat and forgets stuff. This is what leads to the flanderisation of characters in long-running shows, by allowing one or two personality traits to consume their entire character.

You know, to a certain point, Ash forgeting about some type matchups and some of the typings and abilities of Pokemon he battles is actually pretty realistic. We cannot expect that somebody will remember all the time every single typing of every single Pokemon, espcially if it's been a while since he battles them. I myself sometimes forget that Poison resists Fighting and Fairy resists Bug, for example. Keep in mind that we at least have an entire encyclopedia of knowledge about it with Bulbapedia and Serebii, but these characters in their own world don't.

But I do agree: boiling Ash down to pretty much 3 traits (Forgetfulness, Gluttony and being overchaged with energy all the time) is a bad move. This honestly is the type of thing that empties out a character and makes them seem flat, non nuanced. And the writers really make these mistake pretty often imo.

But I also wanna add that it's not just Pokemon who has this sin tbh.

 

[Galactic_V]

Apparently this issue has an interview with Shoji Yonemura, so if you don't mind, can you check whether the interview excerpt I posted before comes from this issue? If it is, can you see whether there are any other interesting tidbits? Thanks!

Just checked the entire issue, there's an interview with Yonemura Shouji, but that excerpt is not from there.

 

[JinksChow]

Just checked the entire issue, there's an interview with Yonemura Shouji, but that excerpt is not from there.

I see, thanks for your troubles.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

You know, to a certain point, Ash forgeting about some type matchups and some of the typings and abilities of Pokemon he battles is actually pretty realistic. We cannot expect that somebody will remember all the time every single typing of every single Pokemon, espcially if it's been a while since he battles them. I myself sometimes forget that Poison resists Fighting and Fairy resists Bug, for example. Keep in mind that we at least have an entire encyclopedia of knowledge about it with Bulbapedia and Serebii, but these characters in their own world don't.

And that's not even adding the fact that there's some Pokemon whose appearances can be seriously deceiving and don't really look like the types they're supposed to be. Lucario for example is part-Steel, but so little about its appearance communicates that that I honestly wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it was a pure Fighting-type at first glance. And that's one of the milder examples: would anyone without prior knowledge seriously guess that Blacephalon is Fire/Ghost just by looking at it?

 

[nickdt]

Thanks, I remember Dephender on Serebii had made a translation for this interview, I just couldn't find where it is.

And this is simply amazing, the SERIES COORDINATOR for Pokemon JN believes that a core personality trait of Ash is forgetfulness.

See guys, this is why JN030 and JN036 happened, because Ash FORGOT he promised Pikachu to train with him, and he also FORGOT he invented the strategy for climbing Draco Meteor. But don't worry guys, we have good old Go here to remind Ash about the things he's forgotten!

Loolll. Ash's core personality trait is forgetfullness.

In Kalos - remembers Dawns Piplup
In Alola - Remembers Brock, Misty Rock Tomb Climb and Counter Shield.
In Journeys: Remembers the Alola Gang.

 

[KenzeyEevee]

How longer it goes on, how more I am sure Satoshi cant get a single ep for himself.
Some examples:
JN10-Gou butts in
JN16-no Gou
JN21 no Gou
J28-butts in
JN34-butts in
JN39-butts in
JN51-butts in
JN56-butts in

While other way around:
JN-005 just is there
JN-006 just is there
JN0017 just there
JN0015- just there
JN22-just there
JN28-just there
JN32 not even here
JN33 10 sec battle
JN38 there to fight trio
JN53 just there to fight villans
JN54-just there