jinnrob
Water Pokemon Master
You are most likely right about this. I assume we may get like a scene or two during Ash vs. Leon updating us as Goh heads into whatever PM has in store, setting up his own episode or two after the finals, maybe more if this is the end of his story.The only thing I can think of that makes any sense is that whatever is to occur once the finals and Project Mew is concluded wouldn't work properly if one occurred after the other. If for example Ash were to win, it could be that they thought it would be jarring to put any related festivities on hold for Project Mew, but also thought that rushing any such festivities and then saying, "Well that's over... time for Project Mew!" wasn't desirable either. The workaround of having them part, and having their respective arcs occur chronologically simultaneous to one another (maybe driving this home with Goh learning about the result of the finals match at the end of Project Mew), followed by them coming back together for whatever happens next.
The more I think about it though, I can see him and the PKM 2019 anime sticking around for another gen.
I don’t expect any major changes till we get to Gen 10 and a 30th anniversary.
Also, just a note on the anime industry: As someone who has studied, lived, and worked in and out of Japan for more than half my life at this point, their industries are VERY slow to change.
The anime industry will eventually have its reckoning with their treatment of artists (overworked and underpaid is the general consensus), especially with the declining population and harsh immigration laws. But don’t expect it any time soon. Given the political and social projections of the country, I give it another 10 years or more before major firms like OLM, etc. give in to change.
Most likely they will eventually follow the American example and import their art from other countries like the US does with Taiwan and Korea (fyi we used to do this with Japan too back in the 80s-90’s) causing local artists to continue to undervalue their work in order to compete, sadly.