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Should Pokemon Go Have Been Represented?

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Pokemon Journeys is a series like none other and it is the first series to represent the mobile app Pokemon Go. Its representation comes in the form of its controversial co-protagonist, Goh. The representation is very clear, from the character name all the way down to Pomemon Go's capture mechanics. Pokemon Go has become a big money maker for the franchise ever since it came out in 2016, achieving worldwide success and becoming a cultural phenomenon. Do you think it should have been represented in the anime though? If so, is the way they did it okay or should Pokemon Go have been represented in a different way, possibly through Spark, Candella, and Blanche. To be clear, this is not a topic for attacking Goh as a character. This is about whether the series should have represented Pokemon Go or not.
 
To be honest, I really don’t mind it. To me, he’s just another protagonist rather than the “Pokémon GO shill” that everyone makes him out to be. I enjoy the unorthodox goal of wanting to catch every Pokémon.

Besides, it was inevitable that the game would represented somehow. They did it with Ranger and Mystery Dungeon.
 
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I personally think we should have gotten an episode with the team leaders, or a protagonist who joined a Pokemon Go team and built a goal around a competition surrounding the Pokemon Go gyms and maintaining control of them.

Like maybe each town has a few Go Gyms. Each gym has a key or code. At the start of the season, trainers activate the Go Gym and they're given a code, but if they're defeated, the trainer must pass on the code for that Go Gym. There's a social network for Go Gyms and people can alert their team if a Go Gym has been taken or something. Maybe Goh still exists in this scenario and sometimes episodes involve making their way back to a city to reclaim a Go Gym.
 
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Truthfully, I don't really feel like Go has enough substance to be so heavily featured in the anime. I wouldn't have minded an arc or, as you said, using the team leaders to feature the mechanics in the anime world. But the issue I'm having right now with Go's representation in the anime is they're whittling the aspects down to even less than what's already in the game.

I have nothing against Goh's goal to capture every Pokémon, but there are other things related to Go that he could be doing as well. We've seen raid battles, but only sporadically and so far, it's not really something Goh specializes in or focuses on. The fact that there are gyms that already exist probably throws a bit of a wrench into introducing Go specific gyms, but at least this idea:

Like maybe each town has a few Go Gyms. Each gym has a key or code. At the start of the season, trainers activate the Go Gym and they're given a code, but if they're defeated, the trainer must pass on the code for that Go Gym. There's a social network for Go Gyms and people can alert their team if a Go Gym has been taken or something.

I could see working, because it does set it apart from the more traditional gyms. I know there was some speculation from the beginning of Journeys that the "new gym" being built in Vermilion City was a Go gym, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was just some throwaway detail that was put in as part of the plot.

In summary, if they really wanted to stretch out what's in the game a little more, they could. It probably wouldn't be something I'd be super interested in (Go is something I only visit sporadically at this point and kind of lost interest in), but I do think it'd give Goh a greater purpose at least.
 
They can barely represent the Main Games properly. A lot of Elite 4 Characters haven’t even appeared. Plots from the games haven’t been properly adapted. I don’t even see a reason to give Go this much representation when they can’t even give the Main Games enough.
 
If GO makes money then it makes sense to advertise it. I actually like Goh's goal, though I feel like there are several issues with the manner in which it is being handled, as well as broader structural problems that the series faces as a result of the goal.

I could see working, because it does set it apart from the more traditional gyms. I know there was some speculation from the beginning of Journeys that the "new gym" being built in Vermilion City was a Go gym, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was just some throwaway detail that was put in as part of the plot.

Considering it hasn't been mentioned for 60 episodes, it seems unlikely that it will be expanded on. Though I would personally be interested in seeing what they would do with the idea.

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Honestly, I'm fine with it. Goh doesn't really feel like he's just there to represent Pokemon Go and it doesn't really feel like Journeys is really Pokemon Go: The Series. The latter always felt like an exaggeration when there isn't a lot of Pokemon Go represented in the anime as it is. There's the Go style catching method and maybe you could argue the Raid Battles, but that's about it. It's certainly not enough to say they're adapting Go into the anime instead. I don't really mind the notion of Goh wanting to catch every Pokemon. There are valid issues with that goal, like how working his way back to Mew doesn't make sense and how he catches Pokemon too easily, but the concept itself doesn't really bother me. Sometimes watching Goh go on a catching spree makes me more excited to play through Sword/Shield or check out Pokemon Go to go on my own catching spree since it reminds me how catching Pokemon is fun.

Besides all that, having Go incorporated into the anime might have been inevitable just because of the impact it has had on the franchise and how successful the app has been. The facts that they are still able to have a lot of events years after it was released and that they created Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee to bring in Go players into the main series shows just how successful and huge Pokemon Go is.

The problem is that there really isn't much for them to adapt from Go into the anime for an arc, let alone for a series long goal. I love playing Pokemon Go. I play it all the time, but its contents are pretty minimal. They have added more to do over the years so that it's more worthwhile to play in my opinion, but there aren't really any storylines to adapt or a lot of characters to use. Maybe they could have had Professor Willow and the Team Leaders as fellow researchers at the lab, if only to give the lab supporting cast some more personality and to have them possibly play more of a role in Ash and Goh's training. But unless Chloe became Professor Willow's daughter instead, it wouldn't have been worth having them in the anime if it meant that Chloe wasn't around. Professor Cerise is kind of bland, but he usually does come off as surprisingly likable and endearing when they focus on Chloe's family or have him interact with Chloe.

I don't think that the Go style Gym format would really work for the anime either. The idea of different teams protecting their Gyms never really seemed like it would fit within the context of the anime, especially when regular Gyms already exist. I don't know if they could have adapted it into a more engaging goal or to give more of a reason as to why they'd need to have control over a certain number of Gyms. Raid battles exist, but they aren't really something Goh focuses on and I think it would be a bit difficult to incorporate this more often in the anime, mainly because only one character can end up catching the Raid Boss instead of being available to everyone like in the games.

One aspect from Go that would be interesting to adapt into the anime would be the concept of taking Shadow Pokemon from Team Rocket. I don't know if they'd just have the Team Go Rocket leaders show up more frequently or have Jessie and James get Shadow Pokemon from their Gotcha Machine instead, but having Goh catch and purify Shadow Pokemon could be an interesting aspect and give more weight to some of his captures too. Much like the Go style Gyms, this is probably a concept that works better within the context of a game than in the anime, especially when I don't know how they could purify Shadow Pokemon, but it is an interesting aspect of Pokemon Go and seeing that incorporated into Goh's goal could be interesting.
 
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The funny thing about adapting GO in the anime, is that like,,, GO, as a game doesn't really has any story. There's not really anything to adapt. It's characters, while well designed imo, have no motivations or story lines, no new region (since the real world is the region here), etc.

They managed to adapt other side games like Pokémon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon because hey, they have their own storys, arcs, characters and mechanics. Pokémon GO is, essentially speaking, this loose, stitcthed-together patchwork of some random bits of both the main line games and the anime. Added with the fact the it managed to let people who watch/play Pokémon finally do what pretty much everyone has always wanted to do: go around catching Pokémon in the real world. And to make it even better for the public, it's a free mobile game. So everyone can enjoy it, and you don't need to pay a lot of money for a dedicated console to play it in.

So it was pretty clear this ''nostalgia-overdose'' of a game would make some phat money. And it did. No wonder they adapted it in the main anime with a co-protagonist and slapped some other mechanics of it in the main series, like the Pokédex, the ''NICE!'' capture rate, raid battles, etc.

But no, I don't agree with reducing Journeys/Goh to just a walking GO advertisement. It's downplaying both the series and the character too much. But yes, I do believe we shouldn't be naive tho: it was obvious that they would want GO to be a bigger thing than just an arc, 1 or 2 characters or a few references. I mean, a series that it's main region is the world as whole (!!!) (since let's be real, Galar is not the focus of this series), with a character who's entire motivation is to catch all Pokémon while using the same mechanics as the mobile game, and who's even named after it?

Of course it's not Pokémon GO: The Series, but acting like the higher ups didn't pulled a few strings here and there so the game has a bigger impact in the series layout than all of the other sideline games before it strikes me as naiveté, in all honesty.
 
Pokemon Go is explicitly labeled as an adaptation of the Pokemon world into the real world, so when you try to "adapt it back" you end up with abominations like Let's Go like characters treating Pokemon as prizes, less focus on experience through battles, duplicate catches being encouraged and gyms being ruled by people. Thankfully, the inclusion of Go elements didn't reach that level as @Hidden Mew explained, and with some suspension of disbelief Journeys can be seen as taking place in the usual Pokemon World.

The most controversial element of this is the catching, which it's interesting on paper, since it can bring back memories of the games and looking for strange Pokemon, but as we all know the execution is bad. Go elements aren't enough (Serious question: Go players enjoy catching Pokemon? Or it's just a necessary step for the reward feeling in case it's a valuable Pokemon?), you need core series elements like different balls and battling.

If Go had to be adapted it should have done it as a series of specials that take place in the real world.
 
Pokemon Go is explicitly labeled as an adaptation of the Pokemon world into the real world, so when you try to "adapt it back" you end up with abominations like Let's Go like characters treating Pokemon as prizes,

Yes anyone who treats Pokémon as something to collect or as merchandise to buy/sell are at the height of moral depravity.:ROFLMAO:
 
The most controversial element of this is the catching, which it's interesting on paper, since it can bring back memories of the games and looking for strange Pokemon, but as we all know the execution is bad. Go elements aren't enough (Serious question: Go players enjoy catching Pokemon? Or it's just a necessary step for the reward feeling in case it's a valuable Pokemon?), you need core series elements like different balls and battling.

I enjoy catching Pokemon in Pokemon Go. I do often check to see if it's a Shiny Pokemon and I focus on catching mainly for candies and experience at this point, but it is something fun to do when I'm out for a walk and it can be satisfying to just capture a Pokemon after I use up some berries or Pokeballs to get it.

That might be another problem with trying to adapt Pokemon Go into the anime now that I think about it. It is very much a solo experience. They have made changes to where players can interact with each other, mainly with inviting friends to Raid Battles, trading and battling, but generally speaking, people can play the game with minimal interactions with other players. The same could be said for the main series games too, but they do have storylines, other prominent characters, new regions and new Pokemon to use for the anime. Since Pokemon Go doesn't really have anything like that, they would have less to work with compared to other spin-off titles like Ranger.
 
Serious question: Go players enjoy catching Pokemon? Or it's just a necessary step for the reward feeling in case it's a valuable Pokemon?
Not a GO player, but I do enjoy catching pokemon, even when they aren't necessarily rare/powerful. I actually prefer interactivity outside of battle and wish there was more of it. I think the anime actually captures my interest fairly well, though it does still have its issues.
 
Yes anyone who treats Pokémon as something to collect or as merchandise to buy/sell are at the height of moral depravity.:ROFLMAO:
In the animé, though, Pokémon are sapient beings, capable of distinguishing between right and wrong, good and evil, despite what Ekans may have said in the "Island of Giant Pokémon". Remember, Mewtwo believed that Pokémon were nothing but slaves to humans in the first movie and he did not learn differently until the end. In addition, remember, we had a villain that did just as you just stated, treated a Pokémon as merchandise to buy and sell. Notably, she's the only human character to have died of something other than old age (for me, the jury's still out on Lysandre's fate since we did not see a body afterwards or have any indication that his death was confirmed), in the series, with the appearance of her goggles seemingly indicating her demise without actually showing her body. As such, simply catching them for the sake of catching them goes against the previous themes of the animé. Now, Goh could grow and learn that there's more to Pokémon than simply catching them or, there's another possibility where he could later go down a dark path with his catching goal, something that if done right could turn out very interesting.
 
Ah, yes. Catching Pokémon by throwing Pokéballs in order to complete the Pokédex, the exclusive feature of Pokémon GO.

All jokes aside. I'm actually surprised it didn't happen earlier, and as far as this show comes, the GO representation is fairly minimal, too. We have the "Excelent!", "Great!", "Nice!" sound effect, Go's name, raids (sort of), and that gym under construction that only appeared once.
 
Either the "Excelent!", "Great!", and "Nice!" sound effects are more apparent in the Japanese version or the dub doesn't include them since I really don't remember hearing them. I think that I can recall one or two "Nice!" within some of the early episodes, but that's about it. I remember hearing that come up a lot, mainly when people were claiming this to be adapting Pokemon Go, but it really doesn't sound out to me in particular.
 
Either the "Excelent!", "Great!", and "Nice!" sound effects are more apparent in the Japanese version or the dub doesn't include them since I really don't remember hearing them. I think that I can recall one or two "Nice!" within some of the early episodes, but that's about it. I remember hearing that come up a lot, mainly when people were claiming this to be adapting Pokemon Go, but it really doesn't sound out to me in particular.
I don't know about the dub, but they're definitely there in the Japanese version. They may be a bit less frequent now, but might be related to Go catching less Pokémon onscreen in recent episodes.
 
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