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

[Panky..]

I love how people here expect a show targeted towards pre-schoolers to pander to them.

Except... you know... the first episode that they literally marketed as a Pikachu backstory and admitted to using the hype generated by older fans to get them interested enough to watch it? Or the part where they admitted that the series is also for old fans? If you're going to pull such marketing moves then you're expected to deliver properly.

Besides I don't see what's wrong with pandering to older fans... kids will watch it either ways regardless of how it goes, but pandering to older fans only adds to the positives. You're making it sound like it's an absolute crime.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I had a hunch that it would be Mimey boy anyway considering this anime sure loves to eat it’s breakfast meal consisting of continuity-free cereal in the morning.

That and the Pidgeot scene from the last episode honestly didn’t look like it was going to mean much anyway. It was just a regular old Pidgeot that had nothing in relation to the Pidgeot that Ash has probably forgotten about at this rate.

 

[Pulsaro23]

Confirmation of Mr Mime:

サトシとゴウがバトルフロンティアに挑戦！　TVアニメ『ポケットモンスター』12月29日放送のあらすじ＆場面カットを紹介 | 超！アニメディア

TVアニメ『ポケットモンスター』12月29日放送のあらすじ&場面カットが到着したので、紹介する。 ＜「激闘のホウエン地方！挑戦バトルフロンティア！！」あらすじ＞ 　ホウエン地方で行われるバトル大会『バトルフロン …

cho-animedia.jp

... ...

I... I'm... I just... words cannot describe just how fucking stupid and mind-boggling this is on so many levels. Why is it that, out of all the Pokémon that Ash has that haven't seen any action in over 9 years, the writers decided that Mimey, MIMEY, would be the best for this tournament? Seriously, who the hell came up with this idea?! Who wrote this?! Why did they write this?!

I love how people here expect a show targeted towards pre-schoolers to pander to them.

The show whose writes and crew members went on record saying that it's for the older fans as well? The show whose first episode was "dedicated" to Pikachu's backstory, something that older fans have wanted to see for a long time? That same episode that they admitted was made for the sake of garnering attention from people?

Yeah, how dare the older fans expect to see something that they would enjoy from the series that promised it to them?

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Who the wrote this?!

Spoiler

 

[Pulsaro23]

Spoiler

View attachment 129826

It was a rhetorical question.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

It was a rhetorical question.

Sorry. I wasn't sure if it was, so I decided to provide you with the info in case you were seriously asking that.

 

[Konja7]

Except... you know... the first episode that they literally marketed as a Pikachu backstory and admitted to using the hype generation by older fans to get them interested enough to watch it? Or the part where they admitted that the series is also for old fans? If you're going to pull such marketing moves then you're expected to deliver properly.

Besides I don't see what's wrong with pandering to older fans... kids will watch it either ways regardless of how it goes, but pandering to older fans only adds to the positives. You're making it sound like it's an absolute crime.

It isn't a crime to pander older fans.

However, it is older fans who will watch it either ways regardless of how it goes. It is kids who the anime need to attract (as kids don't have a previous attachment to the franchise).

 

[pokepal_123]

Mimey is also an old character that only long time fans would know about. Like the only alternatives I could see him use here were his Kanto trio who we have seen return many times before and wouldn't mean anything for continuity given they debuted before Mime.

Seeing him use Mimey after all these years should excite fans.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

At this point, it kinda seems like the writers are so desperate to not give Ash a new Pokémon or have him use one of his reserves that they're making him loan a Pokémon from his mother rather than doing either of those other options.

 

[RileyXY1]

At this point, it kinda seems like the writers are so desperate to not give Ash a new Pokémon or have him use one of his reserves that they're making him loan a Pokémon from his mother rather than doing either of those other options.

Yeah. It's making me worried for how the writers are going to treat Ash this time around. He's basically nothing more than a comic relief side character now.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Mimey is also an old character that only long time fans would know about. Like the only alternatives I could see him use here were his Kanto trio who we have seen return many times before and wouldn't mean anything for continuity given they debuted before Mime.

Seeing him use Mimey after all these years should excite fans.

Considering that Mimey is his mother’s Pokémon, why would it excite fans for Ash to use? At that point, it’s him using a borrowed Pokémon when it’s completely unnecessary considering just how many Pokémon he has. Plus adding insult to injury, him even having Mimey shows that there was some prep time for this tournament and it wasn’t just on the fly so there’s no excuse that he turned to Mimey and not any of his many reserves. That feels more like a middle finger to older fans with such a troll move.

But to sum up my feelings of this, oh thank you PM 2019, I was almost interested in this episode.

 

[Pulsaro23]

Mimey is also an old character that only long time fans would know about. Like the only alternatives I could see him use here were his Kanto trio who we have seen return many times before and wouldn't mean anything for continuity given they debuted before Mime.

Seeing him use Mimey after all these years should excite fans.

At least the Kanto starters are fan-favorites that people love than Mimey! At least they have years of experience under their belts and have an interest in Pokémon battles!! At least they actually kriffing belong to him!!!

Look, I don't hate Mimey (or at least I didn't, prior to this series). I found it to be alright and I wouldn't have minded to see it get a little more screen time. But to have it be used by Ash in an official tournament? To have it replace a spot that could've easily been filled by one of his reserves, who, as I said before, haven't been used in a proper battle since the end of Diamond and Pearl 9 years ago? I'm sorry, but no. Mimey's barely had that much screen time or interactions with Ash, it has never been shown to want to battle by his side and Ash was never shown to want to use it in battle, Ash has never spent months bonding with it like he did with his Pokémon. Compared to his reserves, that had an entire series' worth of time to shine, that have had countless episodes dedicated to them and to Ash bonding with them, that have been shown growing and becoming stronger, who have been show to have endearing personalities, people don't have a reason to care about it that much. People love his past Pokémon because they've grown up watching them or because they've been or even just because they've been charmed by their colorful and fun personalities. Mimey, at best, was nothing more than a side character that was fun to see from time to time. You don't get to just ignore attachments that people have to Ash's past Pokémon and declare that fans should be excited that a stupid comic-relief Pokémon that doesn't belong to Ash, that doesn't have any battle experience whatsoever, that isn't even shown to be interested in battles and that no one was invested in or barely cared about gets to be used in a tournament instead of one of the countless Pokémon that Ash has that people actually care about a lot, that haven't been used in over 9 years! How many fans even wanted Ash to use Mimey in place of his past Pokémon? 'Cause I'm sure that if people had to choose between Mimey and one of his reserves, a huge majority would've chosen a reserve! Any of the Pokémon Ash has would've been a better option than Mimey!

 

[Daren]

I guess there is a tiny possibility we'll get a good reason for Ash to do this but at this point episode 9 is going to have to lift like Atlas to keep me interested in this.

 

[Singaporean]

Second preview of the episode:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_s2gr21s54

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Knowing this anime, I was kinda mentally preparing for it to be Mimey myself...

 

[Panky..]

At this point, it kinda seems like the writers are so desperate to not give Ash a new Pokémon or have him use one of his reserves that they're making him loan a Pokémon from his mother rather than doing either of those other options.

Yeah. It's making me worried for how the writers are going to treat Ash this time around. He's basically nothing more than a comic relief side character now.

That's the story of this series in general, which had so much potential that is being squandered for fuck-all reason. They refuse to showcase anything new related to Gen 8 and Galar in quantity, treating it like afterthought... they're also refusing to show the old stuff and embrace continuity properly. If they're doing neither, they should have just rebooted it and not treat Ash (and all the characters we've come to love so far) like dirt.
Like, what are they even doing then in that middle ground? Making Pokemon GO: The Anime and turning Pokemon into hollow shelled collectibles, introducing mechanics from GO that are not fitting for the anime and just making pointless episodes with no direction or weight?

I'd really like to know what's going on in the writers heads that they resort to make such moves, especially after they had stated in the past about the series being for old fans as well. If I didn't know any better, they're intentionally trolling/antagonizing us.

 

[ChampionAsh]

Honestly I thought the series has too much potential and ash can use his reserves, meet old friends, explore old regions maybe meet old gym leaders and stuff. But all that is going to the drain with Go taking spotlight and ash being treated as comic relief sidekick and Pokemon Go mechanics in the anime. Seriously I am not excited for Ho Oh episode now coz it will probably be Ash and Go going to the johto region and the tower. Then they will most prolly encounter some wild pokemon on the way and ash will be used as comic relief with Go maybe catching some of them. And then finally they will see Ho-Oh and Ash will some signs of amnesia not actually acknowleging he saw it before like he even did not acknowledge that caterpie was the first pokemon he caught after it was the first pokemon Go caught. This anime so far has been worse than black and white for me, it had so much potential but too much focus on Go, zero continuity, Ash being treated as some comic gag and Pokemon Go mechanics in the anime along with other unmentioned factors is making it worse than black and white so far for me.

 

[Panky..]

Honestly I thought the series has too much potential and ash can use his reserves, meet old friends, explore old regions maybe meet old gym leaders and stuff. But all that is going to the drain with Go taking spotlight and ash being treated as comic relief sidekick and Pokemon Go mechanics in the anime. Seriously I am not excited for Ho Oh episode now coz it will probably be Ash and Go going to the johto region and the tower. Then they will most prolly encounter some wild pokemon on the way and ash will be used as comic relief with Go maybe catching some of them. And then finally they will see Ho-Oh and Ash will some signs of amnesia not actually acknowleging he saw it before like he even did not acknowledge that caterpie was the first pokemon he caught after it was the first pokemon Go caught. This anime so far has been worse than black and white for me, it had so much potential but too much focus on Go, zero continuity, Ash being treated as some comic gag and Pokemon Go mechanics in the anime along with other unmentioned factors is making it worse than black and white so far for me.

The salt in the wound would be Gou "capturing" and brainwashing Ho-oh with a single curve ball throw that's identified as "eXcELLeNt!", at this point I wouldn't put it past the writers to pull off something so underhanded.

 

[BigDocFan]

Whilst not keen on the idea of Ash using Mimey, it will be interesting to see it battle, first time since Chronicles unless I'm mistaken

Wonder if Ash has actually caught it in a Poke Ball or its just tempoary

 

[nickdt]

With Mimey being the one to fight, i can think we can safely say Ash is considering retiring his other Pokemon.