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Do you enjoy the direction Pokemon Sun and Moon anime is moving in?

Kintaro

Banned
SM only has about a year of eps left. Both BW and XY ended around 142 episodes or so, and we have titles up to SM101. That means SM only has...roughly...a little over 40 eps left. Between Ash's last Kahuna battle, the league, and maybe a small team skull arc if we're lucky, there really isn't much time to flesh out the rest of the SM characters yet.

If Lillie has no major arc planned for the last year, and just stays roughly the same as she is now, her character arc is going to turn out very disappointing. It's like the writers rushed all her development into the very first year...and then besides give her one Z crystal, barely did anything with her since. She has some role in fillers like the play episode, but that doesn't really do anything for her character arc. Considering the whole Ultra Beast arc is over and Lillie had virtually no role in it, I don't even know if they have an arc planned for her in the last year of SM. It's kinda obvious none of the SM girls are going to capture a new pokemon at this point, so I have no idea what they can do with her.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
I admit I would have liked them to capture at least their secondaries. I mean even if they were mostly just comic foils like Marowak and Charjabug, that would have been fine since SM can make good use of comical characters. Also the girls' stagnancy has limited their fleshing out, along with their signature Pokemon who don't really have anyone to bounce off of. Lillie at least got SOME development from Snowy because she got her a little way into the show and her character made it significant, but Mallow and Lana are practically in the same condition they were from the start, just with a bit of superficial power.

Hell even the premise of them being stagnant and it coming back to haunt them as threats and challenges ranked up could have been an interesting turn, but the girls are if anything least likely to ever be put out of their comfort zone with their Pokemon. Even Team Rocket's put up more of an effort than them this series, but they remain their jobbers.
 
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ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
The main issue with lillie is that she is not getting major focus since the ending of aether arc which is dissapointing and odd since all the other pokegirls started getting more attention in there second year, she was going perfectly until aether arc which was around episode 55-58, i do think she will get 1 or 2 episodes eventually during the ending of SM where she will decide her future (i hope deciding to become a full fledged trainer).
 

Kintaro

Banned
I get the feeling the last year of SM will be focused mainly on Ash, since they're introducing new rivals like Hau and the Zeraora trainer, we have the last Kahuna battle and the league, and we might get some Team Skull arc with Guzma if we're lucky, so I don't think the girls are going to get much focus. Lana's water starter is probably going to evolve once going by merch, but other than that I see nothing else. I mean I also can't think of anything else for Lillie to do now since the whole Aether and Ultra Beast arc is over, and she didn't even have a role in the latter given Gladion came in and stole all her spotlight.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
The main issue with lillie is that she has not done anything major since the ending of aether arc which is dissapointing and odd since all the other pokegirls started getting more attention in there second year, she was going perfectly until aether arc which was around episode 55-58, i do think she will get 1 or 2 episodes eventually during the ending of SM where she will decide her future (i hope deciding to become a full fledged trainer).

Part of me really hopes they're going slow with her limelight because they intend to keep her another series and want to keep her fresh, though obviously I have my doubts that would really happen.
 

Ash-Pikachu

Well-Known Member
I've only watched 10 episodes of Sun and Moon, but I do quite like its direction namely due to a lot of the sidestories and character development being developed organically rather than using a plot device or Team Rocket to facilitate these stories. I do however, disagree with people who believe battles are not linked to the very core of pokemon. It was understandable in Kanto why battles were not the focus of the series, but as the series evolved with Ash using the culmination of his experiences to battle even stronger foes, that clearly stopped being the case. For Ash's goal to even go somewhere means participating in battles that intense and thrilling to watch. For battles to not be so important means much of the development leading up to large story arcs (Battle Frontier, Ash vs. Paul, Pokemon League, etc) are pointless. Clearly battles are important. Just because they weren't then doesn't discredit the fact that battle quality is paramount given the evolution of the series.

Other than that, Sun and Moon is enjoyable to watch and I do expect some good battles to come.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
In fairness I don't think Ash's battle involvement is downplayed THAT much, just we keep having these long erratic spurts between him doing lots of training and battling and him barely doing any in favour of new approaches and past times. The Ula Ula arc had him do a short marathon of battling pretty much every episode for example, and we seem to be approaching a similar arc right now. Not to mention there's a more gradual flow of rivals from start to finish this series, rather than an overhaul of them all at once as the league draws closer. Even better each one targets a specific Pokemon in Ash's team, giving them even spotlight.

Not to mention Ash's role as the power house of the team is still consistently demonstrated this series.
 

blizzardblaze

Comp. Battler Who loves The Anime
Not exactly. Lycanroc has received more spotlight than Torracat thanks to it's arc in Ula Ula and on Akala in the episode it evolved. sure, torracat had some nice development in that masked royal episode, but other than that, not much has been happening. Also, with Rowlet...can't really say much quite yet.
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
Not exactly. Lycanroc has received more spotlight than Torracat thanks to it's arc in Ula Ula and on Akala in the episode it evolved. sure, torracat had some nice development in that masked royal episode, but other than that, not much has been happening. Also, with Rowlet...can't really say much quite yet.

Rowlet did at least play a heavy role in all the Melemele and Akala trials however, Torracat has had TWO Battle Royal episodes plus one standard Trial plus a fair amount of training focus and a very poignant introduction arc. It's admittedly not a lot but things aren't over yet and we know Rowlet's about to get his own personal rival just at this point. Thus far it's not embarrassing outright at least, they have SOME good battles to their name, just the pacing's all over the place.

Pikachu has also been doing a pretty decent amount of battling.
 
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mehmeh1

Not thinking twice!
I take it kinda like BotW (or at least what I've heard of it or watched in youtube, given I don't have the game or a switch). I like it and it's a fun and somewhat ambitious experiment, but they tried to bite more than what they could chew (companions/world size in series commonly critiziced for treating at least 1 companion per gen badly/having barren overworlds), and it somewhat but not really tried to recapture the original's feel but forgetting something (deconstruction of the franchise and adventure/full dungeons and getting more items gradually) that ended up making the progression through the show/game very janky and losing a lot of the soul or at least the core of the franchise, though on their own they could be considered among the better installements though not the best. Also like BotW, next gen should really be more traditional, but still keeping some of the improvements brought by this series (a bit more self awareness, finally having a more reactive ash after a long time, the complete revamp of the episodic plots by making them be driven by the characters' personalities, pokemon being out of their pokeballs more often, the more animation friendly artstyle though ash's design should be polished more/BotW's amazing physics engine, some but not all of the non-linearity, regular overworld bosses, A JUMP BUTTON, climbing)
 

Kintaro

Banned
I prefer SM over BW at least because at least it knows what it wants to be, a comedic slice of life series. BW was a bit all over the place, starting off with serious TR, rebooting Ash, not being sure how to develop Iris or Cilan, then the Plasma arc delayed, some terrible writing choices, Ash having too many pokemon for development, and then the whole poor league and Declora islands was a waste.

SM doesn't have much in the way of battles but at least it seems to know what it wants to be, BW felt like the writers just gave up on it as it went along.
 

mehmeh1

Not thinking twice!
I prefer SM over BW at least because at least it knows what it wants to be, a comedic slice of life series. BW was a bit all over the place, starting off with serious TR, rebooting Ash, not being sure how to develop Iris or Cilan, then the Plasma arc delayed, some terrible writing choices, Ash having too many pokemon for development, and then the whole poor league and Declora islands was a waste.

SM doesn't have much in the way of battles but at least it seems to know what it wants to be, BW felt like the writers just gave up on it as it went along.
it's like they wanted to reboot the anime but they weren't fully allowed to, so they tried a soft reboot, but then they had to bring out a bunch of past gen references or comebacks, completely defeating the point (not sure who I'm referring as "they" though)
 

Twilight-Kun

Pokemon World Champion
SM shines when it sticks to character slice of life and flounders like a magikarp on land when it remembers to adapt elements from the games

Despite setting up the side characters in the early episodes, they swiftly became little more than gag characters (Kiawe, Lana), fanservice (Mallow, Lillie), or aimless (Sophocles)

Ash is Ash, and tends to be the butt of every painful experience possible, and his pokémon have had more character development and depth given to them than he has

Maybe once every fifteen episodes we'll get something good, but it's pretty mediocre overall and its high points are almost twenty episodes apart
 

TheWanderingMist

Paladin of the Snow Queen
The worst part is them seeming to set up Lana as a battler...and then doing nothing. She's my favorite, so I'm a bit biased here, but seriously. Why give her a Z-Ring if she isn't gonna do anything besides comic relief?
 

DatsRight

Well-Known Member
The worst part is them seeming to set up Lana as a battler...and then doing nothing. She's my favorite, so I'm a bit biased here, but seriously. Why give her a Z-Ring if she isn't gonna do anything besides comic relief?

I almost feel like they gave Lana a Z Ring just to give her some token accomplishment to hide having little other direction for her, much like Mallow's Bounsweet fully evolving. They don't really get to do anything with them besides supply the odd one sided beating, while most of the others' tune ups at least have some sort of way of promoting their influence on the story (Ash, Kiawe and even Team Rocket's Z Ring have been used in some personal way).

Hell I almost feel like Mallow and Lana themselves were only included to balance the gender ratio, especially given they can't even be bothered to have them get a new capture. Sophocles is a third wheel as well, but they at least give him good episodes, likeable Pokemon and a dynamic with the others. The two girls keep feeling like dead weight, even most of the ensemble episodes it's mostly the boys and Lillie that get to do anything noteworthy while they're stuck in the background.

Stuff like the Ultra Guardian episodes or the Alolan Meowth episode I liked all clever and funny ways they use a lot of the cast and their Pokemon, but it's usually those same characters.
 
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Jeal

Well-Known Member
Definitely no. I was liking in the first 10 episodes, but my interest for SM decreased more each episode. I stopped watching, since I can not stand watching the episodes completely. I hope that the next generatio restores my interest in the anime.
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Sorry but nope as i wish that writer do better job in building up ash world without ash himself as his story end in xyz aec
 

LilligantLewis

Bonnie stan
@Ariki like you I like SM, but I certainly don't love it, and unlike you I really loved XY.

Meh, it's ok. We've had this discussion countless times but my main gripe with SM is the inconsistent pacing (takes forever to get plot progression or development but yet they speed through major arcs). Otherwise the world building is phenomenal. Not my favorite but not something I hate

I don't know that any of the new changes they've made in SM have caused the slow pacing -- even if it were in the traveling style there are still only 4 Kahunas, so essentially they're trying to take something that only took 34 episodes in OI (4 gym leaders on 4 islands) and stretching it to last 4 times as long.

It's an alright series. while I preferred XY and other series over it, the direction it took us in was fine. my main problems is the pacing and how rushed they made the different island arcs as well as the aether and necrozma arc just so we could get back to...melemele island. it was interesting at first but when you're at the same place for so long, it gets really boring, especially with some of those really dull fillers. some are good though, but not all were...yeah. also doesn't help that comedy is forced at times, but it does bring a laugh to me sometimes. OS does the best in that department though

Now this is one reason I am annoyed at SM. I hate always coming back to Melemele Island and it was most severely noticed recently on the Ula'Ula Island arc as it just finished airing in the dub like my god how was it only 5 episodes.

being able to at least know what it wants to be unlike BW's mess of ideas.

You just gave me an idea for a thread. Look for it in this forum within the next hour or two once I gather my thoughts on how I want to phrase it.

yet the most noteworthy thing she's done is still beat up Team Rocket a couple times.

She won an annual cooking competition for the whole region, and don't tell me it was her brother because she was the one who figured out how to use the sour Grepa Berries. And don't talk to me about Team Rocket dude you seem to be obsessed with them -- not every goal has to be battling.

battle/power scaling feats for Ash’s Pokémon out of a sense of obligation since I have an obsession with giving all of Ash’s Pokémon battle viability ratings.

at least you're self-aware
 
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