While the battle royal was unique, it was also an incredibly lazy way to rush through the preliminaries and wasted numerous returning characters, relegating them to mete cameos as opposed to making this league feel like it rewarded you for having watched the series. In addition, if the writers really wanted the whole class to compete, the preliminaries would have been a good place for them to shine especially since they were never going to get as far as Ash or Kiawe.
I think the big difference is that there was a pretty steep drop of viewership during XY, but SM viewership was more consistent until the time slot change.First of all, ratings are not everything and don't have any indication on the quality of the anime. TVTokyo has gone on record saying they don't care about ratings, even if the Pokemon anime drops to below 3% ratings, which has happened in both XY/XYZ and SM.
Second of all, as someone else pointed out, the SM anime has not been faring better in ratings when compared to XY/XYZ.
Take a look at this:
精灵宝可梦 XY动画收视率列表 - 神奇宝贝百科，关于宝可梦的百科全书
wiki.52poke.com
精灵宝可梦 太阳＆月亮动画收视率列表 - 神奇宝贝百科，关于宝可梦的百科全书
The first link is for viewership ratings for XY/XYZ in Japan, while the second link is for viewership ratings for SM in Japan.
Ever since the time slot change, viewership ratings for the SM anime has basically been cut to two-thirds, sometimes even more so. But even before that, SM was barely keeping up in ratings when compared to XY. When you compare equivalent episodes, SM has only beaten XY on a few occasions. To add insult to injury, the SM anime has been out of the top 10 anime in viewership ratings since March (28 consecutive weeks), which has broken all previous records of the Pokemon anime. The most it had done so before was 7 consecutive weeks back in XY/XYZ. We should really thank Meltan's capture as well as the Misty/Brock cameos, otherwise the SM anime would actually have been out of the top 10 the entirety of 2019.
Before you argue that viewership ratings have steadily been dropping in Japan due to declining birthrates, each episode actually has a detailed rating separating viewership into age demographics. If you check those, SM has had lower viewership ratings among kids (4-12) and teens (13-19) when compared to XY/XYZ for most episodes.
While the time slot change definitely has effect on lower viewership ratings, there is no denying that the current genre of the Pokemon SM anime is not doing any favors. The lowest rated SM episode currently is SM126, which is probably the epitome of what SM is about.
Honestly, since the website I linked is considered an affiliate of Bulbapedia by both being members of Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis, I feel like we should translate those pages to English just to prevent people from bringing up misinformation about viewership ratings...
Ratings have never been a discussion, Pokemon has always had low Ratings since the starting of XY&Z. I wouldn't say there haven't been good stuff, Guzma's Cruel Battle Strategy, the epic badass moment between Ash and Gladion, Jessie Vs James, and plenty more.
I think it's more of a discussion that who has made the Top 10 in the Ratings more. SM even though having low numbers still made the Top 10 more than XY before the timeslot change. Only 13 Times out of the Top 10 in 90 Episodes for SM meanwhile 27 Times out of the Top 10 in 90 Episodes for XY. Both of them performed hideous when they entered their final Arc, SM clearly performed better against other Animes even sometimes topping MHA, while XY performed better in viewership regard.First of all, ratings are not everything and don't have any indication on the quality of the anime. TVTokyo has gone on record saying they don't care about ratings, even if the Pokemon anime drops to below 3% ratings, which has happened in both XY/XYZ and SM.
Second of all, as someone else pointed out, the SM anime has not been faring better in ratings when compared to XY/XYZ.
Take a look at this:
精灵宝可梦 XY动画收视率列表 - 神奇宝贝百科，关于宝可梦的百科全书
精灵宝可梦 太阳＆月亮动画收视率列表 - 神奇宝贝百科，关于宝可梦的百科全书
The first link is for viewership ratings for XY/XYZ in Japan, while the second link is for viewership ratings for SM in Japan.
Ever since the time slot change, viewership ratings for the SM anime has basically been cut to two-thirds, sometimes even more so. But even before that, SM was barely keeping up in ratings when compared to XY. When you compare equivalent episodes, SM has only beaten XY on a few occasions. To add insult to injury, the SM anime has been out of the top 10 anime in viewership ratings since March (28 consecutive weeks), which has broken all previous records of the Pokemon anime. The most it had done so before was 7 consecutive weeks back in XY/XYZ. We should really thank Meltan's capture as well as the Misty/Brock cameos, otherwise the SM anime would actually have been out of the top 10 the entirety of 2019.
Before you argue that viewership ratings have steadily been dropping in Japan due to declining birthrates, each episode actually has a detailed rating separating viewership into age demographics. If you check those, SM has had lower viewership ratings among kids (4-12) and teens (13-19) when compared to XY/XYZ for most episodes.
While the time slot change definitely has effect on lower viewership ratings, there is no denying that the current genre of the Pokemon SM anime is not doing any favors. The lowest rated SM episode currently is SM126, which is probably the epitome of what SM is about.
Honestly, since the website I linked is considered an affiliate of Bulbapedia by both being members of Encyclopædiæ Pokémonis, I feel like we should translate those pages to English just to prevent people from bringing up misinformation about viewership ratings...
