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Containment thread for LEAKS of upcoming episodes (READ THE FIRST POST, IMPORTANT)

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MetaMantis

Offline until Ash vs Leon
Sike
It’s really too bad. Imagine XY without those contraints about having things that would be too mature. XY should have been 4 seasons so that they could flesh out XYZ more, showcase Ash’s E4 run and have Ash and Serena hook up
Ash fighting the Kalos Elite Four would have been not good. I feel having him fight the Kanto elite 4 would have been more impactful.
 

Akkipeddi

All set to be a nice guy
I find it interesting that despite losing so many staff members since 2018, OLM has been taking on more projects since then, Komi, Odd Taxi and Summertime Render. And a lot of the more known staff worked on Evolutions. Seems to me like OLM might be trying to focus on newer projects since the above anime all released pretty much back to back. I'm guessing they're not really prioritizing some of their staff working on Pokémon as much. I don't think anybody can deny staff shortage as a contributing factor as well but there's still massive signs that the issues have primarily been from within.
 

Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
You literally white knight and simp for Pokémon, one of the most low quality shows out there. Komi sure as hell ain't no masterpiece but please, it might as well be top tier next to the trash known as JN.
I'd even rate Boruto higher than Pokémon...well post DP series that is
 

MetaMantis

Offline until Ash vs Leon
You literally white knight and simp for Pokémon, one of the most low quality shows out there. Komi sure as hell ain't no masterpiece but please, it might as well be top tier next to the trash known as JN.
You literally white knight and simp for Komi, one of the most low quality shows out there. Pokémon Journeys sure as hell ain't no masterpiece but please, it might as well be top tier next to the trash known as Komi.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Something I do wonder about and this no complaint about production but why were they about to bring back all of the Champions and just make them still shots and not just make the Masters 8 filled with anybody else and just give them still shots? Keep Alain and just replace the rest with normal trainers.

Some of them didn’t even give any sign they’d be there like Diantha and Steven.
 
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sutellakiara

Shirona, my beloved...
I find it interesting that despite losing so many staff members since 2018, OLM has been taking on more projects since then, Komi, Odd Taxi and Summertime Render. And a lot of the more known staff worked on Evolutions. Seems to me like OLM might be trying to focus on newer projects since the above anime all released pretty much back to back. I'm guessing they're not really prioritizing some of their staff working on Pokémon as much. I don't think anybody can deny staff shortage as a contributing factor as well but there's still massive signs that the issues have primarily been from within.
I wouldn't be surprised if at this point they're just simply sick an done with Pokemon, think it's more trouble than its worth, and just want to move on and do things for themselves.
There was the Kalos Exodus so all those people who were there since forever just aren't there anymore. New people came in, it's Alola time, and personal opinions of the series quality aside, you can tell they put in their "heart" into Alola and actually wanted to make "something" out of it. They cared about Alola and they finished and then it's like "well, what now?" and now are just going through the motions plus "Oh God what the hell did we get into by deciding to start working on this never-ending series?".
That same kind of heart? I don't see it on PM at all except when, surprise surprise, it's an Alola episode.
I'd even argue that's an issue with the franchise as a whole nowadays, there's a marked lack of "passion" behind the people making the things. The franchise schedule definitively doesn't help matters either.
 

Akkipeddi

All set to be a nice guy
I wouldn't be surprised if at this point they're just simply sick an done with Pokemon, think it's more trouble than its worth, and just want to move on and do things for themselves.
There was the Kalos Exodus so all those people who were there since forever just aren't there anymore. New people came in, it's Alola time, and personal opinions of the series quality aside, you can tell they put in their "heart" into Alola and actually wanted to make "something" out of it. They cared about Alola and they finished and then it's like "well, what now?" and now are just going through the motions plus "Oh God what the hell did we get into by deciding to start working on this never-ending series?".
That same kind of heart? I don't see it on PM at all except when, surprise surprise, it's an Alola episode.
I'd even argue that's an issue with the franchise as a whole nowadays, there's a marked lack of "passion" behind the people making the things. The franchise schedule definitively doesn't help matters either.
Yeah JN being bad is one thing, but it's how "soulless" it feels that's astonishing. And agreed, I think OLM might be sick and tired of Pokémon. It'll do all parties good if they just let go of it, either canceling it or somehow a new studio takes over the responsibility of Pokémon. I guess the most "likely" change, even if minor, is that there's a staff changeup at the top but a lot of the staff would still be the same as JN, so I'm not sure how effective that'll be.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
The alleged budget problems is probably why they had the other champions leave after the battles were done.
Possibly. More than likely they didn’t want all Champions there in the first place. Cynthia was promised because of the two Sinnoh games which is why she was relatively revealed earlier but it makes you wonder were all of them intended to be there.

When already know that Gary was suppose to come much earlier and not included in PM before COVID so I wonder whatever decisions were made during that time.

So it’s possible the PWC went through some changes as well. Some scenes depict Cynthia, Raihan, Lance and Leon as the top that Ash has to prepare for and then even adds in Flints later because giving still shots to Champions would be saddening but understandable.
 
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U.N. Owen

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night ...
I work in staffing, and to be honest, this is not surprising. Covid-19 has caused a lot of companies to lose some of their workforce. Many other companies are offering a lot of different benefits as well to attract new workers. Add all that to the fact that they most likely lost a lot of money in 2020-2022... they had to lay off part of their force. Makes me curious what their total headcount before and after is.. also, just because they lost 129 employees, doesn't mean that they didn't hire new ones to replace them.
Don’t know how Japanese labor laws work, but cutting employees and hiring a bunch of temps so you can pay them less for what you do a full time employee is standard in America. My university employs this tactic.
 

Yuugis Black Magician

Namaikina Imouto
I find it interesting that despite losing so many staff members since 2018, OLM has been taking on more projects since then, Komi, Odd Taxi and Summertime Render. And a lot of the more known staff worked on Evolutions. Seems to me like OLM might be trying to focus on newer projects since the above anime all released pretty much back to back. I'm guessing they're not really prioritizing some of their staff working on Pokémon as much. I don't think anybody can deny staff shortage as a contributing factor as well but there's still massive signs that the issues have primarily been from within.

Taking on more projects is something most studios inside of the industry do. Producers are not good at managing studios, which is why so many tend to fall a part. In this case, OLM's executives are likely taking on projects because they need to bring in the money to keep the studio going or because they're just mismanaging their resources and doing what their partners (other members of the production committee, who have the rights to make an anime) want them do.

In the Japanese animation industry the people who make the project (directors, writers, animators, production assistants, sound design team, coloring team, filming team, backgrounds team, etc.) DO NOT decide what projects the studio takes on. A studio like OLM—which is the main production studio for a series rather than just a sub-contractor working for another studio—is not usually run by an animator or director.

The Pokemon production team has likely suffered over some really major losses over the past seven or eight years. In 2016 Studio Cockpit (which had worked on the series since the 1997 series' Episode #3) closed. The studio that brought us Tamagawa, Iwane, Asada, Natsume, and Koga was no more. Iwane and Asada opened their own two-man studio to continue working together on Pokemon, which they named Studio Cockpit (written in Hiragana, as opposed to the original having its name written in Katakana). Everyone else from the studio left to join other projects. Cockpit was a pretty important sub-contracting studio that had a history of working all over the industry. They closed down because the president (Masunaga Keisuke, I believe?) decided to retire and nobody else within the studio wanted to take over running the studio. Now, Pokemon no longer had the services of Studio Cockpit to work with, a studio with a rich history of Kanada School animators.

In 2018 sub-contractor Studio Wanpack also closed down, which hurt the entire industry in general. Wanpack was a big studio that mostly handled the bulk work of the industry. It was never a healthy studio but it still essentially helped carry the industry for years, during harsh times. With the studio gone its staff either left the industry, went freelance or joined other studios (if any studio was hiring in-house staff, which is always more expensive than just using sub-contracting studios or freelancers).

So, the question you're probably asking is: what exactly is the advantage of a studio? A studio makes organizing staff easier. Right now, a big part of why the industry is in such dire straights is that production assistants (overworked, under-paid gophers) will often have to travel in-person around the country to collect an animator's work and bring it back to the studio for final approval. OLM did streamline the process a little bit during Sun & Moon by investing in digital tools (animation software, which makes simply sending a digital drawing to the main studio instantaneous), but not every animator does that. Furthermore, in terms of the industry, the industry is still mostly analogue. Animator supervisors (the people who correct animation drawings to make them look more on model or just plain cooler or cuter) wind up sitting around with nothing to do for a lot of time because they're waiting to get drawings, either because of the slow transfer of an animator's work to their location or because of nobody having been assigned those shots. This is where the large number of animation supervisors now come into play. Episodes on recent Pokemon episodes have risen from 1-2 per episode in large part because animation supervisors (people like Yamazaki Rei, for example) are receiving the key animation drawings very close to the broadcast date. Normally you'd give your animation supervisor a month to actually check an episode's key animation drawings but now they don't have that time, so they need to split the work with other animation supervisors.

So, remember I mentioned Studio Cockpit (the original one)? Let's go back and at the credits for Episode #3:

Storyboard & Episode Director: Asada Yuuji
Animation Supervisor: Tamagawa Akihiro
Key Animation:
The cool thing about this episode? Everyone working on it (the in-between animators, too) work at Studio Cockpit. They were all in the building together (well, most likely) during the production of the episode's animation. This means that everyone can actually communicate with one another to know what is needed for the episode. Many modern cartoons simply no longer have this luxury. Episodes are a mix of people working from home, OLM, sub-contracting studios or even a sub-contractor somewhere overseas, like TAP (Toei Animation Philipines).


Whoops, accidentally went nuts with this one.
 

divinepokemonXZ

ALL HAIL THE GORILLA-FROG!

Hopefully they get the help and resources they need that’s tragic
I suspect this is also part of the reason they stopped making new movies. The anime industry is dying. The age of hand-drawn cartoons is over and the age of CGI has begun. If there is a ScarVio anime then I think this may lend credence to the idea of it being CGI and Ash being retired from the show.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
I suspect this is also part of the reason they stopped making new movies.
Well the animator who flipped said that he was actually forced into working with OLM because he liked Pokémon during the pandemic and that he’s very new. Well guess it confirms it’s not cancelled because he said “he’ll try and produce better content”
 

Rohanator

Well-Known Member
I suspect this is also part of the reason they stopped making new movies. The anime industry is dying. The age of hand-drawn cartoons is over and the age of CGI has begun. If there is a ScarVio anime then I think this may lend credence to the idea of it being CGI and Ash being retired from the show.
While the industry certainly has issues this is nothing new, Pokemon just happens to be suffering the effects currently, but generally speaking there's more anime being made than ever, which tbf IS the issue, the production companies need as many projects as possible for the profits and don't care how this affects animator workloads and quality, as long as the artists are willing to work the industry won't die no matter how many shows fall from grace along the way. I'm very glad OLM hasn't been forced to make another movie after Koko, though I suspect it's more due to it not being seen as profitable as it used to rather than the executives actually thinking about the staff.
 
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