Anime & Manga General Discussion

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Giving an Eevee to a girl is the trend that still endures despite being overused.

I still don't get what was the purpose of Wanpachi, it has been banished into non-existence.

Most Pokemon in this series are just plot-devices at best and props at worst.....
Thinking of it, what was Wanpachi's personality/characterization like.....

I am still waiting for the Gen that may throw the curveball that gives Satoshi an Eevee.....

He deserves one after all this time, he should get one. Hey, Gary got one too, and Gary's not a girl last time I checked.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

tbh, as much as I still want Ash to catch an Eevee someday (which may or may not happen, though I'm not holding my breath), for this saga specifically I think that Goh should have been the one to have Eevee as his main partner/shouldermon in Journeys. After all, Eevee was officially promoted to co-mascot that more or less stands as an equal to Pikachu at the end of Gen 7, so what better way to reflect that than to make Eevee the main partner of the character ads were hyping up as co-protagonist? Heck, assuming Eevee would have still kept its odd quirk of being unable to evolve, maybe that could have served as an additional motivation for Goh's goal of catching every Pokemon: maybe Goh would have reasoned that by catching and studying as many Pokemon as possible, he might be able to identify the reason his little foxcatdogbunny thing can't evolve despite that being its species' entire shtick.

And if you're worried about what this would have meant for Sorbunny, then fear not, because I'm extremely confident that Goh would have still been able to get it even if Eevee was made his main partner, it's just that I feel that Cinderace was inevitable meaning Scorbunny was never going to remain shouldermon material anyway, so my reasoning is that Eevee would have been to Goh what Pikachu is to Ash (small, cute, marketable critter that travels on its trainer's arms or shoulder) while Cinderace would have been a more proper "Lucario" so to speak (which Journeys already even tried to sort of make the football soccer bunny into anyway).

And besides, if Goh had gotten a non-evolving Eevee as his main shouldermon, that means no annoying Grookey, so I'd say this would have been a win

(Note that this doesn't mean that Grookey wouldn't have been part of the main cast, it's just that instead of being the designated comic relief it would have been a proper battler instead. Ideally under Ash, since I still think distributing the Galar Starters between Ash, Goh, and Chloe would have been much better than giving them all to Goh, especially since because of his goal Goh can't realistically get that many opportunities to train all three of them (hence the whole mess of Sobble getting virtually 90% of its development offscreen)).

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

BRING BACK POKEMON INTERACTIONS JOURNEYS!

https://twitter.com/Alipoke658/status/1478081133359382538?t=caW6jnL0p9De88JNOyG-Xg&s=19

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It’s honestly sad that these interactions used to be so common that no one batted an eye at them. But when JN shows even a scrap of them, people jump to applaud it. Just shows how low the bar has become.

I thought they didn't mean to commit any false advertising.

Well, they admitted to creating the Pikachu Episode as the first episode of JN for the clickbait headlines. And the Ho-Oh episode’s promo art showed Ash with the rainbow wing. Not to mention they literally went out of their way to pair Go with Galarian Farfetch'd and Ash with Sobble, swapping voiceovers.

JN is the only series which has actually admitted to doing clickbait advertising and that’s honestly sad.

 

[Unireon]

It is a shame that the staff has to resort to outright lying/deceiving in order to create hype/expectations.

At the end, they just fall even deeper when their tactics only cause criticism and disappointment.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

It’s honestly sad that these interactions used to be so common that no one batted an eye at them. But when JN shows even a scrap of them, people jump to applaud it. Just shows how low the bar has become.


Well, they admitted to creating the Pikachu Episode as the first episode of JN for the clickbait headlines. And the Ho-Oh episode’s promo art showed Ash with the rainbow wing. Not to mention they literally went out of their way to pair Go with Galarian Farfetch'd and Ash with Sobble, swapping voiceovers.

JN is the only series which has actually admitted to doing clickbait advertising and that’s honestly sad.

I'll say it again: abysmal writing. I've had issues with the writer's decisions in the past (lookin at you BW/most of SM and the ending of pretty much every league, especially Sinnoh and Kalos) but nothing ever as bad as the crap Journeys has pulled. This series has set the bar so low, that the bar sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. They're getting a little better lately I've noticed in terms of screentime and development (Lucario, Gengar) but the fact remains it took them waaaay too long for that to happen. Like, I thought BW was bad in terms of managing Ash's Pokemon and how much screentime they got and development they recieved, but I think Journeys might be even worse. Like, when was the last time Dracovish battled or did anything of note, huh? Oh, that's right, over 25 freakin episodes ago! Might as well call it Palpitoad 2.0 at this rate.

 

[R1ke]

Of all the things I’ve forgiven the writers for, the pokemon handling is something I’ll never understand. How hard is it to just show Ash’s team existing throughout the episodes? Let alone interacting. Just have them wander in Cerise Park even.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

I'm actually starting to get annoyed with this whole "gotta give a girl an Eevee because it's cute" thing.

I can forgive it for Chloe because her Eevee's inability to evolve is a good reflection of her own inability to choose which path to take in life. For other girls, it was just given to them for being cute (or to promote Let's Go in Lana's case), but with Chloe, her having an Eevee actually serves to develop her character. So with her, I don't mind it.

 

[Enzo]

... You guys realize the ''false adverstising'' thing was a joke, right? lol.

Albeit I would've never believed that Pokémon would have to resort to clickbait/viewbait in it's lifetime, to be honest. I frankly still can't believe the one they pulled with Sobble's/Farfetch'd's captures, for instance. C'mon, they tricked all of us into believing that Ash would capture it just to pull the rug on the last second like a mean prank.

On the topic of Eeeve: well, at the absolute least, Chloe's Eeeve has some admitelly good story-telling potential for both herself and Chloe. But I still wish they would've broken the trend of a girl having an Eevee in this series, it has gotten too stale for my taste.

But, considering how they've broken so many ''rules'' in the anime in this series, I'm starting to think maybe they either didn't want to break this particular rule, or it's an even harder one than we imagine and the higher ups just refused to let them do it.

 

[Mew2]

Of all the things I’ve forgiven the writers for, the pokemon handling is something I’ll never understand. How hard is it to just show Ash’s team existing throughout the episodes? Let alone interacting. Just have them wander in Cerise Park even.

Precisely. And it would be easy for the writers to do, too. Just show the Pokémon interacting at the beginning of the episode(s) before the main plot takes off, and maybe at the end as well. It is the bare minimum and would actually solve so many problems with Ash's team at the moment. Heck, they could do this in terms of showing Ash's Pokémon train as well, both with Ash and on their own.

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

It’s lowkey hilarious(ly sad) when you notice that Gengar and Dragonite are constantly sent out together, sitting next to each other, performing aerial tasks together...

They haven’t so much as looked at each other. Not even during the whole devolution ordeal when you’d think they would be curious about each other’s condition.

 

[Hidden Mew]

As far as the whole girl gets an Eevee trend goes, I don't really mind it. It wasn't really a trend until Sandy since there was a significant gap between May and Serena getting their respective Eevee. I think that Chloe getting an Eevee right after Lana got Sandy in SM is the main reason why people started to complain about the trend. There was already backlash towards Lana getting Sandy instead of Ash during SM, it did virtually nothing after its capture despite all of the buildup and was given to Lana seemingly just to tie in with Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. If SM didn't have Sandy, I don't think people would have an issue with this trend, especially when Chloe's Eevee fits her way more than Sandy did with Lana and I was one of the few people who didn't get upset when Lana caught it. Another issue could also be that Chloe's Eevee probably won't evolve, but that would still kind of fit with Chloe's conflict.

Despite the complaints about this trend, it kind of reminds me how I wanted Dawn to get her own Eevee and evolve it into a Leafeon. This is due to a combination of how I think Dawn needed a Grass type on her team and Leafeon is one of my favorite Eeveelutions.

 

[Unireon]

There was already backlash towards Lana getting Sandy instead of Ash during SM, it did virtually nothing after its capture despite all of the buildup and was given to Lana seemingly just to tie in with Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee.

That was an omen of things to come.

Hyping something and then trashing it.

Journeys is rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Oh God can totally see JN hyping up Serena’s turn and it being trash just to get a lot of attention. Disgusting.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

That was an omen of things to come.

Hyping something and then trashing it.

Journeys is rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

They did that with Ash-Greninja and the Kalos League. XYZ relied too much on hype that it hurt them.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Oh God can totally see JN hyping up Serena’s turn and it being trash just to get a lot of attention. Disgusting.

We know nothing about her possible return yet.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

It's so funny to me because pretty much all of JN's promotional stuff features Pokémon playing and interacting within themselves (Lucario, Inteleon and Cinderace being the most common pairings). And then you tune in for the series... and see nothing of that. I know the marketing team and the writing team are made up of different people with different jobs and objectives, but the discrepancy is so... baffling to me.

It's like they are desperately trying to sell the show as something it just isn't, and it's both depressing and funny as hell.

Can they get sued for false advertising?

I'm not sure either. It's like the writers are scared to show Ash and Goh's major Pokemon interacting with each other.

Are they afraid that showing the Pokemon being talking to each other will make them look less "badass" or something? Because that's honestly the vibes I'm getting

Like they think Pokemon interactions will make them less cooler or something when in reality it's stripping them of all personality


Which is a shame because judging by the amount of fanart I see of Lucario, Cinderace, Inteleon, Grookey, Dragonite, etc all together and interacting with each other much more than I do in the show it seems like the viewers actually WANT to see these Pokemon interacting and it's just really sad how out of touch the writing staff is with it's audience

 

[Lightning Flame Blast]

Are they afraid that showing the Pokemon being talking to each other will make them look less "badass" or something? Because that's honestly the vibes I'm getting

I mean, that’s pretty much how they handled Greninja’s personality, or lack thereof, so you could be onto something.

 

[R1ke]

I’d agree with that but they’ve given Lucario an entire ‘gag’ type episode with Cinderace so idk. Maybe they backpedaled or don’t know what they want anymore.

Surely Gengar and Dragonite don’t have to look cool anyways, at least that’s how they’ve characterised them

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

I can forgive it for Chloe because her Eevee's inability to evolve is a good reflection of her own inability to choose which path to take in life. For other girls, it was just given to them for being cute (or to promote Let's Go in Lana's case), but with Chloe, her having an Eevee actually serves to develop her character. So with her, I don't mind it.

Problem is that it's really hard to find Chloe's parallel to Eevee compelling because the "girl gets Eevee" trend had already been worn into the ground by the time Chloe showed up, so no amount of the girl being an excellent match for Eevee this time around was going to make the decision not controversial to at least some degree. Kind of like how if you force feed someone nothing but chocolate cake for years in a row, eventually they're going to get so tired of the flavor and texture of it that even the most objectively delicious, exquisitely-made chocolate cake concocted by the undisputed best pastry chef on the planet is going to taste bland and unappetizing to them, even if they actually used to love chocolate cake once upon a time.

Also, call me a cynic, but part of me gets the feeling that the only reason Chloe is so conveniently a good match for an Eevee is precisely because the writers (or perhaps the executives) didn't want to break the "girl gets Eevee" trend...

Maybe it's just that I'm bitter because Eevee's one of my favorite Pokemon and I'm just sick and tired of it constantly getting typecasted as nothing but a cutesy and useless lap warmer for girl companions (who in general I feel have gotten their importance and significance severely diminished since the end of XY, which in and of itself is another much more serious problem).

Funnily enough, I actually find that May's and Serena's Eevees were by far the least problematic despite ostensibly only being added to the girls' teams for "cuteness" points. And that's because ironically those Eevees actually did stuff besides being cute: May's Eevee was an active battler and helped her win Contests while Serena's got actual character development, and both showcased newly-introduced Eeveelutions. I think another thing that helped May's and Serena's Eevees is that there was a gap of two Generations between them, as neither Dawn nor Iris caught Eevees, so we had plenty of breathing room there.

It wasn't really until Sandy was introduced that girl companions getting Eevees became a problem: Sandy was ostensibly Let's Go promotion, which honestly gave him quite a bit of unique potential compared to past MC Eevees, but instead he ended up being quite possibly the most pointless capture ever made. Also, I get the feeling that the whole reason Sandy's supposed connection to Let's Go ended up being so downplayed was precisely because he was dumped onto Lana: the fact of the matter is that the Partner Pokemon are supposed to be player character-exclusive and by extension effectively protagonists, and Lana's not based on a player character nor is she even that important, so giving her a unique special awesome desu Eevee that is stronger than average and can use broken moves exclusive to it would have felt out of place and needlessly elevated Lana over her classmates for really no reason. And of course, there's the fact that Sandy came immediately after Serena's Sylveon, and was in turn immediately succeeded by Chloe's Eevee, effectively giving us no breathing room between girl companion Eevees at all.

Again, this probably would be much less of a problem if the Eevees actually did something. There's absolutely no reason why a Pokemon has to just be cute and nothing else: Pikachu and Piplup were both plushie sellers and badass battlers (...as were May's and Serena's Eevees, for that matter), so clearly being a cute plushie advert and being an active participant in the plot are not mutually-exclusive concepts.

Surely Gengar and Dragonite don’t have to look cool anyways, at least that’s how they’ve characterised them

Besides, Gengar has been the designated fall guy in every major battle it's participated in besides the one against Visquez, and being a jobber does wonders at diminishing a character's badassery and coolness. Just ask poor Torterra. Or my precious baby boy Kamon

 

[Kurolegacy]

I'm not sure either. It's like the writers are scared to show Ash and Goh's major Pokemon interacting with each other.

Are they afraid that showing the Pokemon being talking to each other will make them look less "badass" or something? Because that's honestly the vibes I'm getting

Like they think Pokemon interactions will make them less cooler or something when in reality it's stripping them of all personality


Which is a shame because judging by the amount of fanart I see of Lucario, Cinderace, Inteleon, Grookey, Dragonite, etc all together and interacting with each other much more than I do in the show it seems like the viewers actually WANT to see these Pokemon interacting and it's just really sad how out of touch the writing staff is with it's audience

I’m wondering if them not having Pokémon having interactions could be a side effect of the concept of Go and his goal. In prior series, the captures of Pokémon were akin to adding a new cast member to the series and as such each capture was an important event. However with Go, due to his goal, Pokémon are mostly treated as a box to be checked off causing them to be less of cast members and more of just a measuring stick. Due to such a quantity, the writers were never going to go out of their way to characterize or give interaction to each one and instead chose to downplay them. Sadly this may have had an encompassing effect in which the writers downplay all Pokémon in an effort to simplify everything. Hence why, for the most part, you only ever see Ash or Go use or otherwise interact with the bare minimum of their Pokémon and pretty often, it’s their shouldermon.