Pokémon Sword and Shield anime speculation thread

[KrspaceT]

First off: Hi everyone, I am a longtime Pokemon fan.

Second: Here's my question? If they are going to do a continuation, would it be possible that all the other companions (aside from Brock and Misty) would have forgotten that Ash even existed by now?

....Um, no.

I don't see why folks who traveled with Ash through entire regions wouldn't remember him.

This.

Also friendship.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

If they are going to do a continuation, would it be possible that all the other companions (aside from Brock and Misty) would have forgotten that Ash even existed by now?

If it was just a continuation, having Ash's friends just randomly forget that he's even a thing wouldn't make a lick of sense.

 

[KrspaceT]

If it was just a continuation, having Ash's friends just randomly forget that he's even a thing wouldn't make a lick of sense.

....Honestly that sounds like a series trying to be a bit too clever about the time since the last entry, like Nuts and Bolt having the Bear and Bird being fat or, in less horrible things, having Rocko and Co be in space and landing in modern times, or Zim being gone for 'a while'.

I don't like that trope.

 

[Father of a Scorbunny]

But what if it were a show taking place throughout a Multiverse? Wouldn't they not know who he is?

 

[Adelon]

First off: Hi everyone, I am a longtime Pokemon fan.

Second: Here's my question? If they are going to do a continuation, would it be possible that all the other companions (aside from Brock and Misty) would have forgotten that Ash even existed by now?

Why would they forget him? I am confused by your premise. You tend to remember somebody pretty well if you've spent weeks travelling with him across a region (even the smallest ones are comparable in size to a tiny country).

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

But what if it were a show taking place throughout a Multiverse? Wouldn't they not know who he is?

If you mean AU Ash, then they're likely to redo the stories of how Ash meets and befriend, which will be hardly likely due to how far in the anime series it got.

 

[game3524]

Is there any upside at all to using AU Ash? I’m not really comfortable with them completely removing Ash’s older Pokemon not named Charizard from the series. They didn’t appear in the series, but at least we knew they existed...

True.

However, I don't think AU Ash (if they choose that route) will only have Pikachu and Charizard to start.

 

[KyseL]

Something I just realized might be worth taking into consideration. Since it's almost a rule nowadays that any new Pokémon series / generation comes out roughly every 3 years, the 25th anniversary of the franchise and the anime as well, and all this nostalgia pandering might actually be used as a build up for some kind of special event in the third year of the series.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

Since Ash hardly ever sees his Oak'd Pokemon anyway I can't say that the possibility of us getting an AU Ash in this series would tick me off. I mean what would we really have to lose with this option since Ash pretty much gets reset in some form at the start of every saga anyway.

 

[DynamicFusion]

Is there any upside at all to using AU Ash? I’m not really comfortable with them completely removing Ash’s older Pokemon not named Charizard from the series. They didn’t appear in the series, but at least we knew they existed...

AU Ash is basically the same as the TV Anime Ash in terms of personality. Yuyama just said that the AU Ash is more fashionable. The possibility of AU Ash taking over as Protagonist is even more likely since Yuyama may retire as Executive Director and baton pass to Yajima who was involved in both of the AU Movies, one as Assistant Director and the other as main director. Of course the Executive Director only exists to make sure the Anime's Production is on schedule and to unironically make sure none of the status quos are broken but yeah.

I think the A scenareo is way more likely as they would't change the name if it was still going to be a sword and shield anime.

Personally I'd add the C option of: Main series Ash continues into a new series that embraces all previous series. You said that first year calendars didnt showcase story relevent Pokemon, but as far as I've seen that's not the case. The 2007 and 2014 calendars I posted were both first year calendars and showcased only Pokemon with a significant role in the show.

All I'm saying is that the calendar and the logo are equally strong pointers of where the series will go. You can't aknowledge one and not the other. Heck, if you want to read into the "previouse hats" section of Type:Wild you could say that SM ash will become AU ash, taking over the asthetic of M20 while continuing the show's continuity.

On the 2014 Calendar we have Pikachu, Kalos Starters, Eevee, Sylveon, and Kanto Starters. Pikachu and Eevee are basically mascots, The Kalos Starters are, I mean the Regional Starters, Sylveon was the New EeveeEvolution, and Kanto Starters are there... you know because Kanto is the the First Generation. For SM's First Calendar, we basically got Pikachu and The Three Alola Starters and they weren't even in their Sun & Moon Design!

The 2017 Calender (first year Calender for SM) just had Pikachu and all the Alolan starters, with Poplio (Lana's) and Litten being more in the forefront than Pikachu and Rowlit.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/916zb8NrkcL._SY450_.jpg

Yet...

https://forums.bulbagarden.net/proxy.php?image=https%3A%2F%2Farchive-media-0.nyafuu.org%2Fvp%2Fimage%2F1567%2F77%2F1567779836528.jpg&hash=a218466d21d1f70a766bda78140c74bb

In the 2020 Calender (first year Calender for SwSh), you see Pikachu in the forefront, followed by Scorbunny and Sobble. In the background are Alolan Volpix, Sylveon and Shaymin along with Grookey.

Somehow I could see Grookey belonging to Gloria, since it's with Pokemon that belonged to girl characters, whilst Scorbunny and Sobble would belong to Ash, or some other character might have Sobble. All we're saying is that... they Might bring Lillie, Serena and Mallow back, but that remains to be seen.

Honestly I don't think its necessary to really look that much into to detail about the position of each Pokemon, while they could be drawn in a hinting way or they could just be drawn in any order.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

AU Ash is basically the same as the TV Anime Ash in terms of personality. Yuyama just said that the AU Ash is more fashionable. The possibility of AU Ash taking over as Protagonist is even more likely since Yuyama may retire as Executive Director and baton pass to Yajima who was involved in both of the AU Movies, one as Assistant Director and the other as main director. Of course the Executive Director only exists to make sure the Anime's Production is on schedule and to unironically make sure none of the status quos are broken but yeah.

So... they can simply give Ash a better costume instead of changing the lead to AU Ash? Replacing normal Ash with AU Ash achieves nothing, and effectively erases all the Oaked Pokémon from the series, whereas keeping Ash would at least make sure they exist.

 

[DynamicFusion]

So... they can simply give Ash a better costume instead of changing the lead to AU Ash? Replacing normal Ash with AU Ash achieves nothing, and effectively erases all the Oaked Pokémon from the series, whereas keeping Ash would at least make sure they exist.

I mean, there are plenty of good things that are removed and there are plenty of bad things that are removed as well. Like I mentioned in another post of my mine, I think a Journey with AU Ash traveling all Regions could give some like Johto and Hoenn better representation. Ever since BW, Unova, Kalos, and Alola have had diverse representation. As Bad as BW was, things started to get more organized from there. And to be fairly honest, what else could you honestly do with the TV Anime Ash? He already grew as a Strong Trainer in Previous Series especially in DP & XY, even gained Parental Figures in Sun & Moon, dealth with themes like Death, saved the world from Many catastrophes, and may even win a League now. XY & SM have already broke the status quos that were possible to break. There is nothing else left. There really is nothing else you can do with him without it being a copy of previous series now. Let's say we are all just imagining and overthinking and they end up using TV Anime Ash, even if they make him a legit, serious, badass trainer, he will have to revert back to LV 1 and regress in the Next Region.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

I mean, there are plenty of good things that are removed and there are plenty of bad things that are removed as well. Like I mentioned in another post of my mine, I think a Journey with AU Ash traveling all Regions could give some like Johto and Hoenn better representation. Ever since BW, Unova, Kalos, and Alola have had diverse representation. As Bad as BW was, things started to get more organized from there. And to be fairly honest, what else could you honestly do with the TV Anime Ash? He already grew as a Strong Trainer in Previous Series especially in DP & XY, even gained Parental Figures in Sun & Moon, dealth with themes like Death, saved the world from Many catastrophes, and may even win a League now. XY & SM have already broke the status quos that were possible to break. There is nothing else left. There really is nothing else you can do with him without it being a copy of previous series now. Let's say we are all just imagining and overthinking and they end up using TV Anime Ash, even if they make him a legit, serious, badass trainer, he will have to revert back to LV 1 and regress in the Next Region.

I’m pretty sure we'll run into those issues with AU Ash as well down the line.
On the topic of giving Johto and Hoenn better representation, are you suggesting that the hypothetical AU Ash will travel through them from scratch? Because it literally wouldn’t be feasible to do that due to time contraints. At best maybe a Generations style montage. The present Ash could traverse back to Johto and Hoenn and maybe we could even see the neglected Johto bunch of Pokémon again, but if AU Ash is used, congrats: they don’t exist!
A series set in all regions will not be able to divide its time well in giving focus to a region compared to a fully fledged dedicated series like AG for Hoenn. They’re supposed to promote Galar anyway, so it will be in the foreground most of the time undoubtably.

I'm not really comfortable with outright removing all the older characters and Pokémon we know from existence when the replacement will be potentially identical to the Ash we have now anyway.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

I’m pretty sure we'll run into those issues with AU Ash as well down the line.
On the topic of giving Johto and Hoenn better representation, are you suggesting that the hypothetical AU Ash will travel through them from scratch? Because it literally wouldn’t be feasible to do that due to time contraints. At best maybe a Generations style montage. The present Ash could traverse back to Johto and Hoenn and maybe we could even see the neglected Johto bunch of Pokémon again, but if AU Ash is used, congrats: they don’t exist!
A series set in all regions will not be able to divide its time well in giving focus to a region compared to a fully fledged dedicated series like AG for Hoenn. They’re supposed to promote Galar anyway, so it will be in the foreground most of the time undoubtably.

I'm not really comfortable with outright removing all the older characters and Pokémon we know from existence when the replacement will be potentially identical to the Ash we have now anyway.

Yes, unless this is a Japanese thing where things change because of a new emperor and a new era, I just don’t see how this new series with AU Ash will work. It’ll probably be a right mess to balance things out, and yet Galar is suppose to be the stage in the anime, with the other Regions also set in it. They’ll more than likely keep TV Ash for now and have him in Galar but also travelling to previous Regions with reasons yet to find out. This will be less messy and understanding for the plot.

 

[Panky..]

There really is nothing else you can do with him without it being a copy of previous series now. Let's say we are all just imagining and overthinking and they end up using TV Anime Ash, even if they make him a legit, serious, badass trainer, he will have to revert back to LV 1 and regress in the Next Region.

This is where you're flat out wrong.

1st underlined point - According to the games, the Galar region is intense on Pokemon battling and very passionate about it. The Gym Challenge is its own festival/spectacle and not some generic competition that it felt like in the other games. The fact that Gyms are full house stadiums and that you need a sponsorship to compete in the Gym Challenge in the first place makes it a League for the very best (the sponsorship angle gives this a lot of credence).

2nd underlined point - Not necessarily. Building off the above explanation, they don't even have to reset Ash at all. They just have to make the Galar trainers more competent, experienced and tryhard. Kind of like how Sinnoh was introduced, just more passionate about battling. The difficulties he'll face will be wrt his Galar team and overcoming the faults they have, training and bonding with them .etc. They'll have absolutely no need to reset him.

 

[SinnohBoi]

The whole idea of AU Ash becoming canon in the anime series is simply stupid. Why replace a character for the - wait for it - THE EXACT SAME CHARARCTER. What serves the point in doing this? The answer is simple, it doesn't serve any point. Firstly, AU Ash would have no connections to Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos. His Kanto Journey hasn't been explained, nor do we know if he won all the badges there (I haven't watched the movie, so i'm guessing here). So how would AU Ash visit these past regions without having any connections to them? Is he supposed to go to Hoenn, visit AU May and reminiscence about times they never had together? Or is he supposed to obtain all 8 gym badges in 2 episodes? Honestly, it just isn't possible and it would be an utter mess if they went down this path because you cannot simply put an AU Ash in the anime. At least not now. You either retire the character, or you stick with him - simple. And there's also the question of Ash's reserves. You can't end his journey without him achieving something great, involving all of his past pokemon. It would discredit his entire journey. I could go on for hours here, but I won't because even I know those in charge of the anime are not stupid enough to put an AU Ash in. Considering all the plot holes; and, or problems that will arise from visiting other regions.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

The whole idea of AU Ash becoming canon in the anime series is simply stupid. Why replace a character for the - wait for it - THE EXACT SAME CHARARCTER. What serves the point in doing this? The answer is simple, it doesn't serve any point. Firstly, AU Ash would have no connections to Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos. His Kanto Journey hasn't been explained, nor do we know if he won all the badges there (I haven't watched the movie, so i'm guessing here). So how would AU Ash visit these past regions without having any connections to them? Is he supposed to go to Hoenn, visit AU May and reminiscence about times they never had together? Or is he supposed to obtain all 8 gym badges in 2 episodes? Honestly, it just isn't possible and it would be an utter mess if they went down this path because you cannot simply put an AU Ash in the anime. At least not now. You either retire the character, or you stick with him - simple. And there's also the question of Ash's reserves. You can't end his journey without him achieving something great, involving all of his past pokemon. It would discredit his entire journey. I could go on for hours here, but I won't because even I know those in charge of the anime are not stupid enough to put an AU Ash in. Considering all the plot holes; and, or problems that will arise from visiting other regions.

That's why it'll most likely be a continuation reboot to the TV Ash, with him travelling to Galar and competing there with his new companions, but will also have him travelling to past regions to see his old companions. (How they'll do that they've probably got that under wraps by now).

The problem I also see with AU Ash is not only the rushing, but that Team Rocket is just... there, you might as well make them jerk rivals or crooks. what is the point of having them there if we haven't had Ash introduced to them for the first time, like in the second episode of the entire anime, ''Pokemon Emergency''. I do find much floors to the AU Ash in 2 years than the entire existence of the TV Ash.

It could either be that the AU Ash was to celebrate Pokemon's 20th Anniversary in Gen 7, or that the Anime and Movies are both two different universes.

The new ''Pokemon'' logo that is used for the AU movies for the TV series is what it is... a logo, nothing more.

 

[SerenaToAlola]

Is there any upside at all to using AU Ash? I’m not really comfortable with them completely removing Ash’s older Pokemon not named Charizard from the series. They didn’t appear in the series, but at least we knew they existed...

Your statements following your question confused me. Why would they have to get rid of every other Pokemon but Charizard? Anyway, I think they can easily retcon stuff that weren't popular or didn't make sense with AU Ash. Also I think retelling the story in updated graphics would be nice to look at. They would also save alot of time and money having to come up with original plot ideas.

 

[Yᵒᵘ Oᶰˡʸ Lᶤᵛᵉ Oᴺcᴱ]

Your statements following your question confused me. Why would they have to get rid of every other Pokemon but Charizard? Anyway, I think they can easily retcon stuff that weren't popular or didn't make sense with AU Ash. Also I think retelling the story in updated graphics would be nice to look at. They would also save alot of time and money having to come up with original plot ideas.

I think he was implying that if we get an AU Ash in this series it might be the same AU Ash from the 20th and 21st movies, in which case his only Pokemon (other than Pikachu obviously) would be Charizard since those two Pokemon were the only confirmed Pokemon in Ash's possession by the end of those movies.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Why would they have to get rid of every other Pokemon but Charizard?

I think he was implying that if we get an AU Ash in this series it might be the same AU Ash from the 20th and 21st movies, in which case his only Pokemon (other than Pikachu obviously) would be Charizard.

That’s my reasoning. When people mention that the similar to the movie logo might mean an AU Ash, I inferred it to be the movie AU Ash for prettu obvious reasons.

As far as we know, the Oaked Pokemon were never even captured in that AU.