Preview JN007: The Hoenn Region, Site of Fierce Fights! The Battle Frontier Challenge!!

[Konja7]

To be fair, the writers might have had no idea how the episode would be promoted.

Yeah.

Using the Battle Frontier name is probably a fanservice name that writers try to use.

However, it's pretty possible the promotion of "certain Pokemon" in the summary isn't decision of the writers.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

I agree with you on that absolutely, so much hype and speculation only for it to end up being a major disappointment..

This tournament gives Mimey some extra development apart from being Ash’s caretaker and he gets to use his first ever Psychic/Fairy type in an official battle..

This is a horrible cop out by the writers to make Ash use his mom’s Pokémon when he was 50 other Pokémon he caught and trained sitting at Oak’s lab who are more battle tested than Mr. Mime..

If you want to give Mimey a bigger role in the series, ease it in and give us an episode to see how Mr. Mime desires to battle and become a a part of Ash’s team..

I just hope Mr. Mime doesn’t disappoint us viewers and Ash manages to win the tournament easily, he does have the type advantage against the opponent he’s facing so I expect him to come through

From looking at this pic, it seems like Mimey is doing well and isn’t afraid to battle like it was in the Sun and Moon series when ur was with Delia..

Guess Ash is good at making his Pokémon believe in themselves aye?

View attachment 129859

This reminds me of that time a Gothitelle matched Cynthia’s Garchomp in physical blows

 

[Konja7]

As a fan of many animes, I can say if staff members tell "they want to appeal to new and old fans", you should never believe them.

They will usually focus on one side of their audience primarily.

If this were movies or OVAs, it would be much more likely they are trying to appeal to older fans.

However, as it is TV and and the kids audience is still extremely important, then they probably focus mainly on new fans.

 

[ChampionAsh]

As a fan of many animes, I can say if staff members tell "they want to appeal to new and old fans", you should never believe them.

They will usually focus on one side of their audience primarily.

If this were movies or OVAs, it would be much more likely they are trying to appeal to older fans.

However, as it is TV and and the kids audience is still extremely important, then they probably focus mainly on new fans.

Its kinda weird to make an excuse that old pokemon cannot appear due to new fans being confused. They used to appear pretty regulary till DP , God knows what happened after that coz charizard and bulbasaur are the only old mons to make an appearance since then which is pretty sad, they can easily explain that ash caught them in the past and ash can use old ones in this series with Go being the one catching new ones. And tbh Ash needs a direction, he is totally directionless in this series

 

[Silktree]

Except that’s essentially based on nothing that the series has presented us with while the people’s frustration is based on what we’ve been given. It’s always nice to hold out hope, but this series really hasn’t given us any reason to especially with this troll move.

Are you saying that promotional material doesn't count? If so, we should all forget about vague hints in summaries and interviews. It works both ways.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Its kinda weird to make an excuse that old pokemon cannot appear due to new fans being confused. They used to appear pretty regulary till DP , God knows what happened after that coz charizard and bulbasaur are the only old mons to make an appearance since then which is pretty sad, they can easily explain that ash caught them in the past and ash can use old ones in this series with Go being the one catching new ones. And tbh Ash needs a direction, he is totally directionless in this series

Yea it’s definitely weird to suddenly drop any semblance of the past with this series as even SM acknowledged the past when Misty and Brock returned in the anniversary episodes with them even bringing back Jigglypuff who we hadn’t seen since Hoenn. Hell, given that they introduced Sakuragi Park, they could have had Ash transfer his Pokémon from Oak’s lab to there for the interim that he’s there. At least then we could see them and he could swap them on the fly allowing us to see a mix and match of Ash’s Pokémon this series. But instead, we get nothing but Ash and Pikachu and we’re 7 episodes in. Has Ash ever taken this long to get anything else?

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Mimey is an old pokémon.

 

[Daenerys]

They used to appear pretty regulary till DP

That was close to 10 years ago, things change. Also I think that people are underestimating how hard it is to reintroduce Ash's old Pokemon. One or two here and there isn't much of a problem, but bringing many of them back would be a hassle since the animators would likely have to animate flashback scenes for each one just to get the new viewers (which I'm willing to bet make up the vast majority of the audience) up to speed.

 

[Konja7]

Its kinda weird to make an excuse that old pokemon cannot appear due to new fans being confused. They used to appear pretty regulary till DP , God knows what happened after that coz charizard and bulbasaur are the only old mons to make an appearance since then which is pretty sad, they can easily explain that ash caught them in the past and ash can use old ones in this series with Go being the one catching new ones. And tbh Ash needs a direction, he is totally directionless in this series

My point in that post wasn't to excuse that.

I just want to mention that I see many anime where their staff said they are going to appeal new and old fans, but this hardly happen at the end.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Are you saying that promotional material doesn't count? If so, we should all forget about vague hints in summaries and interviews. It works both ways.

You mean the same vague promotional material we get literally every series that presents Ash and friends with random Pokémon, most of which never have any kind of significant role? And what vague hints in summaries are you seeing that the rest of us aren’t because we are now at 7 or the 9 episodes they gave us summaries for and there has been nothing to show that alleviates people’s frustration. Anything that seems like it ties into the past has turned out to be nothing more than a bait and switch used to build anticipation before ultimately delivering on nothing.

 

[Almonds]

About target audience and the idea of "appealing to old fans" and whatnot:

The 90s kids already grew up and many of them are approaching 30s. A good percentage of them would have gotten married and are living busy lives raising kids who are the next generation of pokemon's target audience. Those "old fans who are parents" wouldn't consider seeing Ash's reserves as a priority when watching pokemon with their children as long as everyone has a fun time. And I don't see a parent getting upset over no Charizard or Sceptile when their pre-school child is giggling over Mr. Mime and getting excited about the next episode.

"Old fan" parent spending quality time with their child over pokemon. At least that's the impression I'm getting when they are addressing "old fans."

 

[Daren]

That was close to 10 years ago, things change. Also I think that people are underestimating how hard it is to reintroduce Ash's old Pokemon. One or two here and there isn't much of a problem, but bringing many of them back would be a hassle since the animators would likely have to animate flashback scenes for each one just to get the new viewers (which I'm willing to bet make up the vast majority of the audience) up to speed.

Why do they need flashbacks? The series already established Ash is an experienced trainer. Kids aren't stupid, if he sends out a Pokémon that hasn't appeared before they can figure out it's one he caught in the past.

 

[Kurolegacy]

That was close to 10 years ago, things change. Also I think that people are underestimating how hard it is to reintroduce Ash's old Pokemon. One or two here and there isn't much of a problem, but bringing many of them back would be a hassle since the animators would likely have to animate flashback scenes for each one just to get the new viewers (which I'm willing to bet make up the vast majority of the audience) up to speed.

That is such a terrible excuse for lazy writing. Pokémon is a series that has been going for over 20 years, across 7 regions. Needless to say that a lot has happened to Ash in that time and he has owned Pokémon. The animators don’t have to create anything for if Ash brings back a Pokémon as all they need is a line from Ash about how he caught it a while back in x region. His Tauros, Muk and Bulbasaur (all Pokémon he had caught back in the OS) appeared in SM when they visited Professor Oak’s lab with no trouble whatsoever. Hell they even brought back Jigglypuff who we hadn’t seen since Advanced with no problem. So there is no made up issue with what the animators have to do to bring back old Pokémon. The writers have all the power to bring back old Pokémon any time, they just don’t.

 

[ChampionAsh]

That was close to 10 years ago, things change. Also I think that people are underestimating how hard it is to reintroduce Ash's old Pokemon. One or two here and there isn't much of a problem, but bringing many of them back would be a hassle since the animators would likely have to animate flashback scenes for each one just to get the new viewers (which I'm willing to bet make up the vast majority of the audience) up to speed.

They should then just reboot the series because it is frustarating to see when ash even requires to use more pokemon than he currently has on hand, he does not use his old ones and instead uses stuff like Mimey , so its better they reboot rather than making him use mimey and release clickbait titles and summaries

That is such a terrible excuse for lazy writing. Pokémon is a series that has been going for over 20 years, across 7 regions. Needless to say that a lot has happened to Ash in that time and he has owned Pokémon. The animators don’t have to create anything for if Ash brings back a Pokémon as all they need is a line from Ash about how he caught it a while back in x region. His Tauros, Muk and Bulbasaur (all Pokémon he had caught back in the OS) appeared in SM when they visited Professor Oak’s lab with no trouble whatsoever. Hell they even brought back Jigglypuff who we hadn’t seen since Advanced with no problem. So there is no made up issue with what the animators have to do to bring back old Pokémon. The writers have all the power to bring back old Pokémon any time, they just don’t.

totally agree with you there

The thing is Sinnoh League is so far the best pokemon league in the anime even with the tobias thing they pulled at the end, the reason was because Ash used a combination of his older and newer pokemon, bringing back old pokemon are only gonna make the anime much better as the current series has been nothing but disappointing(apart from a few factors) due to treating Ash as a joke, ALMOST ZERO CONTINUITY and ash being totally without a direction to go towards

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

What people don’t seem to realise is that kids have thousands of ways to inform themselves of Ash’s past if they get confused.

I see so many talking about it like the children are gonna have an existential crisis if an old pokemon shows up, when in reality what’s going to happen is they going to the internet to learn where that thing came from-and consequently getting hooked into the previous seasons.

 

[Kurolegacy]

What people don’t seem to realise is that kids have thousands of ways to inform themselves of Ash’s past if they get confused.

I see so many talking about it like the children are gonna have an existential crisis if an old pokemon shows up, when in reality what’s going to happen is they going to the internet to learn where that thing came from-and consequently getting hooked into the previous seasons.

Yea honestly people with that kind of mentality are basically the reason that these days everything “for kids” treats them like they’re stupid and has to hold their hand every 5 seconds. If anything, seeing Ash’s older Pokémon could give children an interest in seeing older episodes of the series as to see where they came from and see them in a higher capacity.

 

[Konja7]

What people don’t seem to realise is that kids have thousands of ways to inform themselves of Ash’s past if they get confused.

I see so many talking about it like the children are gonna have an existential crisis if an old pokemon shows up, when in reality what’s going to happen is they going to the internet to learn where that thing came from-and consequently getting hooked into the previous seasons.

Kids would look for information if they are interested. However, if kids feel confused or alienated, it's pretty likely they won't look for information. That's why they don't want that kids need to see previous seasons.

That said, there are simple ways to introduce old Pokemon and companions to new audience (without kids needing to see old seasons). So, that isn't the reason why they don't show old Pokemon or companions.


The more likely reason is that they just want to focus on the new characters for this new season, since the audience will follow their story.

Mr. Mime seems to be an important Pokemon for the season if the opening is a hint.

 

[Konja7]

Yea honestly people with that kind of mentality are basically the reason that these days everything “for kids” treats them like they’re stupid and has to hold their hand every 5 seconds. If anything, seeing Ash’s older Pokémon could give children an interest in seeing older episodes of the series as to see where they came from and see them in a higher capacity.

As everyone else, I was a kid in the past. In my case, when something confused me, I wasn't more interested on that, I just ignored or dropped it.

So, I don't think the mentality that "kids shouldn't need to look for information about old seasons to totally enjoy this new season" is wrong.


That said, there are simple ways to introduce old Pokemon without kids needing to see old seasons. So, I don't think that's the reason why the staff doesn't show old Pokemon.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

Well I've been trying to remain optimistic but it's all been for not. My expectations for this series have absolutely plummeted. That fact that they are willing to go this far out of their way not to acknowledge continuity is honestly kind of insulting and downright mean-spirited, but at least I know better now. Maybe episode 9 will save the day by referencing Ash's encounter with Ho-oh? So what, we already know that episode 1 is only one they consider canon anymore. I suppose if there is as much backlash within the Japanese fandom as there is on these formus then the writers could change their minds later, but honestly this is just leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

Nobody wanted this. Nobody asked for this. Mr. Mime has never shown an interest in battling and ash has never shown an interest in using him in battle. I can't even begin to comprehend what they were thinking, and if I have to give them any credit at all it's that I honestly don't have the slightest clue where they're planning to go from here. Reserves are off the table so why hasn't Ash caught a Pokemon? Is he really just going to stay a background character? Even if he gets a Galar starter he'll never be able to build a full team at this rate, not unless the series is just going to take place in Galar after episode 12.

The only thing I'm looking forward to at this point is the Alola episode. Dodging continuity is going to be the hardest there, and it will amusing to see how they manage it if that's the case. Are they just going to go to a random secluded beach and Mantine Surf and Ash will never even consider just walking a mile over to Kukui's house? This is starting to feel like a reboot disguised as a continuation just to trick old fans into caring.

To be honest I've never really cared about Mimey, but to completely drain him of any personality he had and replace it with a dead meme is really offputting. I wonder if the lead writer is just a big Detective Pikachu fan.

 

[Kurolegacy]

As everyone else, I was a kid. In my case, when something confused me, I wasn't more interested on that, I just ignored or dropped it.

So, I don't think the mentality that "kids shouldn't need to look for information about old seasons to totally enjoy this new season" is wrong.


That said, there are simple ways to introduce old Pokemon without kids needing to see old seasons. So, I don't think that's the reason why the staff doesn't show old Pokemon.

Even so, not every kid has that mentality either. There should be some kind of middle ground as opposed to filing every kid under the same category which only serves to hurt the overall quality of products released today as opposed to even 10 years ago.