I enjoyed Mewtario's piece on pokemon's potential commentary on Japan's current socioeconomic state. While I do agree that it's overthinking pokemon's creative team's intentions, doesn't mean it wasn't an interesting read, I think it's better to overthink rather than underthink. However, I think that the ending of Naruto has had an effect on pokemon and I think the success of Naruto's sequel will impact long running shonen series in the present and future. However, I think the way the animators have setup the series thus far, really any potential outcome is a possibility. I'm also going to segway into two older questions posted: % that AS goes canon, I'd say 50-60% but if AS goes canon, that doesn't dictate how the future anime pans out. Serena & Ash can go their separate ways at the end of XY and AS still go canon, they can also travel to a new region together in Gen VII and AS go canon, or they could go the most unlikely route and end Ash's saga and have AS go canon and reboot the series with Gen VII. I'm not going to expound on it just here but I believe that Pikachu is the real mascot for the anime as opposed to Ash and with the ending of a series like Naruto frsh in everyone's mind, rebooting the series in the same vein Naruto currently is, is still unlikely but more of a possibility for pokemon I believe compared to how AS's potential was before the XY anime debuted.
But I think the percentage of AS being canon will jump or drop quickly within the next 10-12 episodes. I think between the gym battle with Clemont and Serena's next showcase, and episodes in between, there's plenty of hint fodder. I still maintain we might see the Dying Declaration of Love from Serena when her and Ash are trapped by the fire (which is funny considering an episode earlier, Serena took a flamethrower to the face from point blank range and shook it off like a champ, ah the wonders of pokemon) but I'm not really gonna touch the Top 5 hints list cause it'll just be a rehash of other people's lists but I want to bring up one hint that I don't think I saw on anyone's list that could come back to be the first true big Ash hint.
I think XY025, where Serena gets anxious before Ash's battle with Grant and Bonnie and then Clemont noticed her tension, I serious think the animators can mirror this same thing in the episode where Serena has her next showcase. During the first or second round (i say second round cause I think it's safe to assume that after everything in XY060, that Serena will most likely win the next showcase she enters) we see our heroes in the stands and we may see a little tension from Ash that canned a direct callback to ep 25. Maybe Ash's grip on Pikachu gets a little tight, maybe even with Pikachu shooting Ash a "what the hell dude, that hurts..." kinda look which tips Bonnie off and she's asks Ash if he's okay. Ash can have some dialogue with Bonnie that is similar to Serena's lines from XY025, possibly something like:
Ash: "I didn't think much about Tripokelons being as difficult as something like fighting for a gym badge but after watching Serena's first time, I never thought of the pressure she must've felt having so many people's eyes on her and fennekin. How happy she was receiving that dress from her mom and wanting to beat Shauna and then (cut to flashback of Fennekin's fall from 060) but do you know what?
Bonnie: What is it??
Ash: She got up, even falling short of a goal, it's easy to feel helpless (flashback to Ash's charizard slacking off in the Indigo League match vs Richie) but even with everyone's eyes on her, Serena got up, she kept fighting. In her training, she keeps fighting to achieve her goal, I see know Serena has to train as hard as I need to for my gym battles.
Clemont: Serena was so happy just thinking about competing in a Tripokelon, imagine how happy she'd be if she won?
Bonnie: (smiling) Yeah!
Ash: Yeah, (smiles)...I think all of us want to see Serena achieve her goal
Of course, this is all just fantasy (for the moment anyways) but with Serena's concern noticed by the anime's designated shipper character means that during Serena's second contest the roles can be reversed here and even though the undercurrent of the scene/dialogue may not be inherently romantic in subtext, but just the effort put in to write a scene like this (like the cliff scene in episode 40), shows the animators have even bigger plans for the ship imo. Even more than the ribbon episodes, mirroring concern between Ash & Serena would make this imho the biggest Ash hint yet and in turn the biggest hint in AS. But that's just me....wow what a tangent!
But I think the percentage of AS being canon will jump or drop quickly within the next 10-12 episodes. I think between the gym battle with Clemont and Serena's next showcase, and episodes in between, there's plenty of hint fodder. I still maintain we might see the Dying Declaration of Love from Serena when her and Ash are trapped by the fire (which is funny considering an episode earlier, Serena took a flamethrower to the face from point blank range and shook it off like a champ, ah the wonders of pokemon) but I'm not really gonna touch the Top 5 hints list cause it'll just be a rehash of other people's lists but I want to bring up one hint that I don't think I saw on anyone's list that could come back to be the first true big Ash hint.
I think XY025, where Serena gets anxious before Ash's battle with Grant and Bonnie and then Clemont noticed her tension, I serious think the animators can mirror this same thing in the episode where Serena has her next showcase. During the first or second round (i say second round cause I think it's safe to assume that after everything in XY060, that Serena will most likely win the next showcase she enters) we see our heroes in the stands and we may see a little tension from Ash that canned a direct callback to ep 25. Maybe Ash's grip on Pikachu gets a little tight, maybe even with Pikachu shooting Ash a "what the hell dude, that hurts..." kinda look which tips Bonnie off and she's asks Ash if he's okay. Ash can have some dialogue with Bonnie that is similar to Serena's lines from XY025, possibly something like:
Ash: "I didn't think much about Tripokelons being as difficult as something like fighting for a gym badge but after watching Serena's first time, I never thought of the pressure she must've felt having so many people's eyes on her and fennekin. How happy she was receiving that dress from her mom and wanting to beat Shauna and then (cut to flashback of Fennekin's fall from 060) but do you know what?
Bonnie: What is it??
Ash: She got up, even falling short of a goal, it's easy to feel helpless (flashback to Ash's charizard slacking off in the Indigo League match vs Richie) but even with everyone's eyes on her, Serena got up, she kept fighting. In her training, she keeps fighting to achieve her goal, I see know Serena has to train as hard as I need to for my gym battles.
Clemont: Serena was so happy just thinking about competing in a Tripokelon, imagine how happy she'd be if she won?
Bonnie: (smiling) Yeah!
Ash: Yeah, (smiles)...I think all of us want to see Serena achieve her goal
Of course, this is all just fantasy (for the moment anyways) but with Serena's concern noticed by the anime's designated shipper character means that during Serena's second contest the roles can be reversed here and even though the undercurrent of the scene/dialogue may not be inherently romantic in subtext, but just the effort put in to write a scene like this (like the cliff scene in episode 40), shows the animators have even bigger plans for the ship imo. Even more than the ribbon episodes, mirroring concern between Ash & Serena would make this imho the biggest Ash hint yet and in turn the biggest hint in AS. But that's just me....wow what a tangent!