Pokémon Sword and Shield anime speculation thread

[Hidden Mew]

Problem is that it seems Gloria doesn't have impact on the game, meaning she won't appear in the anime, since then she promotes nothing.

That's a strange way to look at it. She is still the playable female character and represents the current generation like the previous female leads. Of course she still promotes the games. Dawn barely had any presence in D/P despite being an assistant, or at least I don't recall seeing the other playable character appear as a NPC outside of the early stages of the game, so I don't think that being a rival or NPC within the game is that big of a factor. It's just another pattern fans have picked up on and firmly believe it to be true as a result. They may go with a different female lead, but the idea that the playable female trainer doesn't promote anything because she supposedly doesn't have impact on the game is just strange and confusing to me.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

That's a strange way to look at it. She is still the playable female character and represents the current generation like the previous female leads. Of course she still promotes the games. Dawn barely had any presence in D/P despite being an assistant, or at least I don't recall seeing the other playable character appear as a NPC outside of the early stages of the game, so I don't think that being a rival or NPC within the game is that big of a factor. It's just another pattern fans have picked up on and firmly believe it to be true as a result. They may go with a different female lead, but the idea that the playable female trainer doesn't promote anything because she supposedly doesn't have impact on the game is just strange and confusing to me.

I couldn't agree more with you. No use for me to act like a broken record since I've already posted a recent post.

 

[Islander Princess]

Oooh, I hope the rivals are handled better in this series! I feel like the ball has really been dropped on the way the rivals have been portrayed since BW. I'd really love to go back to the days of AG and DP where there was a relatively large cast of rivals, but they were almost all well developed and interesting, an integral part of the plot, etc. There aren't many things I dislike about SM, but one that I do is how Hau was neglected. He was one of my absolute favorite game characters with such a fun personality...and then they just did absolutely nothing with him in the anime.

 

[SammyW27]

Another thing they could do is make the GLs into recurring characters like they've done in the past (and especially in manga stories). Some of them could even be honorary members of Ash-tachii. That sounds like a great middle ground.

 

[RC821]

I think Victor may be a good candidate for Ash's companion.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Leon, we'd probably see him a lot as well and I'm not looking forward to that since he's got that holier-than-thou 'look at me I'm a king' vibe going on.

We're going to see him often, whether Hop's a companion or not either way since he’s probably going to be an important character in the story.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Oooh, I hope the rivals are handled better in this series! I feel like the ball has really been dropped on the way the rivals have been portrayed since BW. I'd really love to go back to the days of AG and DP where there was a relatively large cast of rivals, but they were almost all well developed and interesting, an integral part of the plot, etc. There aren't many things I dislike about SM, but one that I do is how Hau was neglected. He was one of my absolute favorite game characters with such a fun personality...and then they just did absolutely nothing with him in the anime.

The handling of the rivals is probably due to Japanese Bias.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

The handling of the rivals is probably due to Japanese Bias.

What is ‘Japanese bias’? Specially in this context?

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

What is ‘Japanese bias’? Specially in this context?

Japanese Bias is when Japan thinks they're better than the rest of the world. Why they have so much exclusive merchandising, why they have exclusive events, games that have more exclusive stories, characters and such like whilst the rest have less effort. Japan is the Big Mac with the works, the rest of the world, the double cheeseburger.

Now I quite understand, it is Japan centered after-all, they don't know the rest of the world than they do in their home country. Pokemon was suppose to end at Gen 2 by having the entire region be Japan, but was instead divided into 3 Regions with a span of Gen 2-4. After Gen 4, it seemed like many of the good stuff are mishandled from Gen 5 onwards. Either because the original developers have left, or are working on different projects such as Town. That's just how I see it.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Why they have so much exclusive merchandising,

why they have exclusive events,

Have you ever considered the fact that it might have to do with the fact that Pokémon is literally a Japanese origin franchise and the developers are Japanese, and all the part owners of the franchise are Japanese? It’s infinitely easier to host events in your own country with less chances of blunder then in country no. 100. Of course they’re going to give exclusive events to the country of their origin.

If Pokemon was an American franchise they’d do exclusive events for the US instead.

games that have more exclusive stories, characters and such like whilst the rest have less effort.

Pokemon games all over the world have the same story. A person in UK is playing the same copy of Sun/Moon story as a Japanese person, so you aren’t being cheated out of a better story.

Now I quite understand, it is Japan centered after-all, they don't know the rest of the world than they do in their home country. Pokemon was suppose to end at Gen 2 by having the entire region be Japan, but was instead divided into 3 Regions with a span of Gen 2-4. After Gen 4, it seemed like many of the good stuff are mishandled from Gen 5 onwards. That's just how I see it.

Your entire comment doesn’t really answer the question, and is off topic. Even if a <<Japanese Bias>> exists, how is it applicable to the rivals:

The handling of the rivals is probably due to Japanese Bias.

Pokemon isn’t purposefully degrading their games because they’re not set in Japan. It affects their earnings all over the world and doesn’t make sense because the Japanese play the same games.

It just sounds like a prejudice in vein of "French high mighty rude lul" among others.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

Have you ever considered the fact that it might have to do with the fact that Pokémon is literally a Japanese origin franchise and the developers are Japanese, and all the part owners of the franchise are Japanese? It’s infinitely easier to host events in your own country with less chances of blunder then in country no. 100. Of course they’re going to give exclusive events to the country of their origin.

If Pokemon was an American franchise they’d do exclusive events for the US instead.


Pokemon games all over the world have the same story. A person in UK is playing the same copy of Sun/Moon story as a Japanese person, so you aren’t being cheated out of a better story.


Your entire comment doesn’t really answer the question, and is off topic. Even if a <<Japanese Bias>> exists, how is it applicable to the rivals:


Pokemon isn’t purposefully degrading their games because they’re not set in Japan. It affects their earnings all over the world and doesn’t make sense because the Japanese play the same games.

It just sounds like a prejudice in vein of "French high mighty rude lul" among others.

I do see your points here.

 

[Daenerys]

Japanese Bias is when Japan thinks they're better than the rest of the world. Why they have so much exclusive merchandising, why they have exclusive events, games that have more exclusive stories, characters and such like whilst the rest have less effort. Japan is the Big Mac with the works, the rest of the world, the double cheeseburger.

I don't think that's the case, especially not the part about Japan believing that they're better than the rest of the world.

That said, I don't get what the handling of the rivals has to do with 'Japanese bias'. The writers just suck at developing rivals these days; it's like all of their creativity for writing good rivalries disappeared after they finished developing Paul.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

I don't think that's the case, especially not the part about Japan believing that they're better than the rest of the world.

That said, I don't get what the handling of the rivals has to do with 'Japanese bias'. The writers just suck at developing rivals these days; it's like all of their creativity for writing good rivalries disappeared after they finished developing Paul.

It looks as if times changed. This isn't 2009 anymore, it's 2019, soon to be 2020. A lot has changed, some for the better, but most for the worse. Less said about that the better.

 

[Islander Princess]

Another thing they could do is make the GLs into recurring characters like they've done in the past (and especially in manga stories). Some of them could even be honorary members of Ash-tachii. That sounds like a great middle ground.

YES, this too! They really started rocking the development of the gym leaders as the series went on and made them more and more interesting by giving them unique personalities and especially giving them more than one episode to show them off. Like...I have plenty of qualms with XY, but their gym leaders certainly weren't one of them. They were pretty much the most interesting and well developed group of gym leaders ever (and their participation in the Flare arc was outrageously cool). That somehow took a big step back in SM with the "trial captains" (probably because they weren't actually trial captains...) I would really like to see the XY level of gym leader focus resumed.

 

[SammyW27]

Y Like...I have plenty of qualms with XY, but their gym leaders certainly weren't one of them. They were pretty much the most interesting and well developed group of gym leaders ever (and their participation in the Flare arc was outrageously cool). That somehow took a big step back in SM with the "trial captains" (probably because they weren't actually trial captains...) I would really like to see the XY level of gym leader focus resumed.

Or at least DP level

 

[TapLover]

What if they think Dynamax doesn't work in the anime context, and make the Gigantamax designs Mega Evaluations?

 

[Daenerys]

What if they think Dynamax doesn't work in the anime context, and make the Gigantamax designs Mega Evaluations?

Oh great, more tests. As if my college finals in real life weren't enough, now we need them in the anime too.

 

[Grass Type Gardenia]

What if they think Dynamax doesn't work in the anime context, and make the Gigantamax designs Mega Evaluations?

Dynamax is the new feature for the series, they cannot leave that out.

 

[nickdt]

Oh great, more tests. As if my college finals in real life weren't enough, now we need them in the anime too.

hahahahahaha ROFL.

 

[Sakuraa]

What if they think Dynamax doesn't work in the anime context, and make the Gigantamax designs Mega Evaluations?

I can't imagine why that would be the case when they've had giant Pokemon several times before. Also it would misleading to label a Gigantamax Pokemon as a Mega Evolution.