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Why does XY have better battle sequences than Pokemon 2019?

SinnohBoi

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One came out in 2013 while the other in 2019. Excuse me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't the battle animations and sequences be getting better? Not the other way around? Can someone fill me in here and explain to me why XY looks like a more recent anime than Pokemon 2019? I'm also not talking about artstyles here, rather how battles are done.
 
One came out in 2013 while the other in 2019. Excuse me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't the battle animations and sequences be getting better? Not the other way around? Can someone fill me in here and explain to me why XY looks like a more recent anime than Pokemon 2019? I'm also not talking about artstyles here, rather how battles are done.
If you're referring to how the Kalos League looked compared to the battle from the most recent episode, the explanation is simple: the Kalos League was an event in its series' climax, so of course its animation budget would be huge. This newest episode, while notable, wasn't series finale-levels of epicness because it obviously didn't need to be. It's within the first tenth of its series, after all. And IMO, the animation in SS012 was great. Not super duper awesome like in Ash vs Sawyer, Alain, or Kukui, but perfectly suitable for the level of epicness the battle stood for.
 
Two things: different director, different priorities.

XY's director wanted dynamic battle sequences and pushed for unique footage, which was challenging and labour intensive. Battle focused episodes typically had the best staff available working on them, and likely had the most time put into them as well. Notably, the animation outside of battles was ordinary, because making a show like Pokemon have consistently great animation in every scene is impossible given the schedule they have.

This was the reverse in SM. Great animation outside of battle, more ordinary animation in them, including the return of speed lines and stock footage. Same resources, just directed in different places.

It's likely a similar case for PM2019, although so far I think it's a step down from both XY and SM in animation quality.

Excuse me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't the battle animations and sequences be getting better? Not the other way around?

Not necessarily. Animation quality depends on the talent available and the time they're given to work on any given scene. As Pokemon is a weekly show, production time for episodes is quite short, so they have to prioritise moments within each episode, and sometimes entire episodes, to receive the most time.
 
One came out in 2013 while the other in 2019. Excuse me if I'm wrong here, but shouldn't the battle animations and sequences be getting better? Not the other way around? Can someone fill me in here and explain to me why XY looks like a more recent anime than Pokemon 2019? I'm also not talking about artstyles here, rather how battles are done.

XY replacing speedlines with moving backgrounds was director Tetsuo Yajima's decision IIRC. The current series has a different director.
 
They are saving the animation for some specific episodes maybe? Different Priorities, Different Ideas mainly. Current Director likes to do something different. If you are looking at the credits, there are a highly unusual amount of animation directors for some episodes, mostly the fillerish ones, this usually is very rare but PM has had a lot over other series already. Usually more Animation Directors means unimportant episodes. Also keep in mind that the reason why XY was so good in the Animation Department was because of the progress behind-the-scenes made during BW. Same goes for SM, XY&Z starting to use the new Toon Boom software in 2015 was how SM progressed otherwise the change we saw in 2016 could have been even more radical. PM doesn't seem to have anything like that, it seems to be an SM Cour 2 instead.
 
I don't care about the quality of battle animations as long as they meet a certain standard. The Battle Frontier episode did just that, while the Dynamax battles were let down by, well, Dynamax.

XY could have the best animations (uh, did it?), but there was no real reason for me to watch it.
 
I agree with your assessment. I much prefer the animation in XY. Even the unimportant battles in XY were very well choreographed and animated.

while I haven’t been much of a fan of S&m animation or the storylines period. The battle vs. Kukui has been well done. I’m hoping thebattle sequences in Poke2019 will get better
 
I think one contributing factor to the more epic battles in XY was the writing itself. Satoshi/Ash and other characters like Alain had arcs and there was emotional build-up before the battles. Even if the animation would improve in the new season, I still think DP and XY would be better for this reason. It's hard root for the characters when we don't know what they are striving for and why it's important to them.
 
Please note: The thread is from 4 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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