Do you think regression is coming?

[AshxSatoshi]

I disagree. Rica Masumoto will retire at some point and then they will have to inevitably replace Ash. Japan is very strict regarding VA's.

She's been voicing him long enough for children of OS to become adults, I don't see why she'd stop anytime soon; especially considering she's probably highly paid and still in working condition.

 

[345ash-greninja]

She's been voicing him long enough for children of OS to become adults, I don't see why she'd stop anytime soon; especially considering she's probably highly paid and still in working condition.

I said 'at some point'. At some point she obviously have to. The point is, I don't see Ash being around for another 20 years or so. So I don't see a point in regressing him now.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

I said 'at some point'. At some point she obviously have to. The point is, I don't see Ash being around for another 20 years or so.

And that doesn't mean he'll be replaced either. Japan may not be keen on replacing voice actors but that doesn't mean Ash will be replaced. He's a signature of the anime itself. We don't how Pokémon will react to a main character no longer having its original voice actor due to them leaving/retiring because the only person it's ever happen to was May who already left years ago.

 

[345ash-greninja]

And that doesn't mean he'll be replaced either. Japan may not be keen on replacing voice actors but that doesn't mean Ash will be replaced. He's a signature of the anime itself. We don't how Pokémon will react to a main character no longer having its original voice actor due to them leaving/retiring because the only person it's ever happen to was May who already left years ago.

Hmm, the reason May didn't return in XY to promote ORAS was probably because of the fact that May's VA retired. Considering how strict Japan is regarding VA's, I doubt Ash will be around after Rica Matsumoto retires.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

Hmm, the reason May didn't return in XY to promote ORAS was probably because of the fact that May's VA retired. Considering how strict Japan is regarding VA's, I doubt Ash will be around after Rica Matsumoto retires.

Fair argument but if they didn't even return IRIS who was suppose to return in XY (thank goodness she didn't because Serena beating her would of been too cringy for me), why would they return May? The only reason why they had Lyra in DP during HGSS release was probably because Kris never made an actual appearance in the show minus specials. However it's not like Leaf was in the anime during FRLG release anyway. Also May was never promised to return in XY due ORAS, it was just always speculation. And since XY holds the least continuity to date, I wouldn't of expected for May to even return.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Fair argument but if they didn't even return IRIS who was suppose to return in XY (thank goodness she didn't because Serena beating her would of been too cringy for me), why would they return May? The only reason why they had Lyra in DP during HGSS release was probably because Kris never made an actual appearance in the show minus specials. However it's not like Leaf was in the anime during FRLG release anyway. Also May was never promised to return in XY due ORAS, it was just always speculation. And since XY holds the least continuity to date, I wouldn't of expected for May to even return.

But the point still stands that Lyra appeared in DP because of HGSS promotion. So May had enough reason to return in XY because of ORAS promotion, and Mega Blaziken showcasing would've been done well(I know Meyer had one but it appeared sporadically anyway). So Sawyer(an anime exclusive character) pretty much played the role of promoting ORAS.

Japan is after all very strict regarding VA's anyway so that seems to be the plausible reason whu May didn't appear.

 

[Power Up]

If he regresses in SM then sure because frankly he's steamrolling his way through Alola.

Unless they bring back heavy hitters like Alain, Paul, Gary etc etc because there is a new league to conquer. So he actually works for his league position.

Basically if he regresses he better have some strong af opponents to lose to.

I'd actually like it if there were other tournaments in Gen 8, other than the league that Ash enters in and he gets absolutely demolished in those by very strong trainers. I'd actually love it if they made his W-L ratio completly trash in the first half/season of Gen 8 and after some serious mind and body training with guidance would have great potential for an interesting generation. Ash has always been steadfast in his optimism and beliefs. The never give up attitude is great and all, but I would really love it if Gen 8 made Ash question his goals and beliefs and whether or not he actually has a shot at becoming what he's been trying to do for a long time now.

I don't think Ash as a trainer will necessarily be 'regressed' - I agree with the majority here that Best Wishes seems to have just been a 'one-off' in terms of how poorly he acted as a trainer back then - but I think in future Pokemon Leagues after Alola Ash won't fare as well as the Final Two. I think later sagas will be written well enough for Ash to lose on high notes to worthy trainers in the Top Eight or Top Four, but Top Two seems to have been a one off and probably won't happen ever again until perhaps Gen 10 at earliest.

Anything below top 2 would be defined as regression, and seeing that SM has no continuity connecting XY and itself as of now except for Ash being a decent trainer, your post may as well end up happening.

Anything less than top two is a regression, don't care if the trainer has a freaking Zeraora and Marshadow on his team, if Ash loses before placing in the top two, it is a regression simple as that.
They can easily just let him win the Alola League and go on to lose to the one Elite Four member he never faced, Kahili.
It'd be nice to let Ash move on to facing the Elite Four each region and eventually able to take out a Champion, it'd give the Elite Four a more meaning full appearance like back in DP rather than Siebold, Drake, Lorelei, Bruno, Caitlin appearing just cuz. And it'd stop some Elite Four members from not making the cut.... poor Grimsley.

Yeah I really love that idea. I wanted that to happen in XYZ. Ash beats Alain, but loses to first or second E4. That would have been great and Ash losing would have totally understandable.

I think after SM they'll try to make another DP/XY level of serious series, so I expect his skills to not get resetted at all but maybe to introduce stronger than usual characters, rivals etc.

I hope so. I want Ash to go full out in Gen 8 and win the league with all his reserves.

Let's hope.

Regression is inevitable. Pokémon isn't exactly meant to be followed by children until they turn into adults and then some. Do I think the regression will be like BW? No probably not but they'll eventually throw a new bucket of paint on Ash to make him "newer" whenever they feel the current fans age out.




Because he was so full of personality in the last saga.

That makes no sense. I plan to make a thread on this, but the people buying the games that the anime promotes are getting older every new game. Teens and older fans make up a good portion of the game playerbase. Children shouldn't be the only people the anime is centered towards.

I'd rathe have a serious and stoic Ash for one of the top 3 or 5 arcs ever in the Pokemon anime, than an absolute bollocks Ash for an entire gen with one or two instances of seriousness.

XY Ash was full of personality, making stupid faces and acting like an absolute idiot is not personality. 10 year olds don't even act like Ash. In the west, 10-year olds are more mature than ever. They know more stuff they should't know and act more mature than their age. I should know, I have an 11-year old brother and he wouldn't be caught dead doing stuff SM Ash does. I have no idea how japanese 10-year olds act, but I imagine they would act and feel the same way.

What SM Ash does and acts like is not personality and isn't even what 10 year olds do. So, SM Ash is more " espressive " than SM Ash is a very very stupid arguement.

Fair argument but if they didn't even return IRIS who was suppose to return in XY (thank goodness she didn't because Serena beating her would of been too cringy for me), why would they return May? The only reason why they had Lyra in DP during HGSS release was probably because Kris never made an actual appearance in the show minus specials. However it's not like Leaf was in the anime during FRLG release anyway. Also May was never promised to return in XY due ORAS, it was just always speculation. And since XY holds the least continuity to date, I wouldn't of expected for May to even return.

Uhh. I'm not sure if you know this...But...





People don't like Iris. She isn't half as popular as May.

Did your mind blow?

 

[Yukki]

I personally do not care.

I'm shocked people actually still watch this anime for Ash. I am far more interested in characters surrounding Ash rather than Ash himself.

(you guys do know there is no actual end goal when it comes to Ash? He's just a vehicle moving this anime.)

Regression might as well come. It's not like the writers actually care about Ash.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

That makes no sense. I plan to make a thread on this, but the people buying the games that the anime promotes are getting older every new game. Teens and older fans make up a good portion of the game playerbase. Children shouldn't be the only people the anime is centered towards.

I'd rathe have a serious and stoic Ash for one of the top 3 or 5 arcs ever in the Pokemon anime, than an absolute bollocks Ash for an entire gen with one or two instances of seriousness.

That sounds like a personal problem, the anime is geared towards children and always has been; that's basic knowledge.

XY Ash was full of personality, making stupid faces and acting like an absolute idiot is not personality. 10 year olds don't even act like Ash. In the west, 10-year olds are more mature than ever. They know more stuff they should't know and act more mature than their age. I should know, I have an 11-year old brother and he wouldn't be caught dead doing stuff SM Ash does. I have no idea how japanese 10-year olds act, but I imagine they would act and feel the same way.

What SM Ash does and acts like is not personality and isn't even what 10 year olds do. So, SM Ash is more " espressive " than SM Ash is a very very stupid arguement.

In your opinion....

Uhh. I'm not sure if you know this...But...





People don't like Iris. She isn't half as popular as May.

Did your mind blow?

And yet popularity couldn't even get Serena a special (and ironically May), something Iris got :/. Mind blown isn't? Popularity means nothing to the writers and they even admitted an Iris cameo and overall lack of continuity was a mistake but good try.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I personally do not care.

I'm shocked people actually still watch this anime for Ash. I am far more interested in characters surrounding Ash rather than Ash himself.

(you guys do know there is no actual end goal when it comes to Ash? He's just a vehicle moving this anime.)

Same here honestly. Since it's clear that Ash is going nowhere I'd prefer that they demoted him to more of a side character role because the new characters in each new series need the screentime and development more than Ash at this point. Just give him his capture/evolution/bonding episodes and gym quest/whatever his main quest will be next and give the rest to the other main characters. Oh and also reduce the standard filler or almost filler episodes that have become so repetitive in the past series.

 

[Power Up]

That sounds like a personal problem, the anime is geared towards children and always has been; that's basic knowledge.

In your opinion....


And yet popularity couldn't even get Serena a special (and ironically May), something Iris got :/. Mind blown isn't? Popularity means nothing to the writers and they even admitted an Iris cameo and overall lack of continuity was a mistake but good try.

How tf is that a personal problem? Wtf? The anime is meant to promote the games. AND YOU CAN LITERALLY SEARCH IT UP. There are about 3-5 articles talking about how the game playerbase is getting older.

I have to this day not been able to find any info regarding the age group of people who watches the Pokemon anime. You can def assume that more children watch the show then teens/adults, but without concrete info, you can't just say the older age group of the anime is nowhere near the younger age group in numbers.

LOL. You can literally look around you if you live in America. This isn't IMO, at least about the part about kids knowing more stuff cause of Snapchat, Instagram, and the internet in general. Heck, this would be even more prevalent in Japan since they are tech hub of the world, but what do I know?

And you hiding behind IYO speaks volumes. What, you can't defend SM Ash's actions and how they are nothing like an actual 10-year olds?

Lolz. Is SM over? Have they said Serena will not get a special? Whatever, the fact that Iris hasn't got a ghost of a mention since her special itself says something. Serena still gets talked about to this day. Also, link to where the writers said that. Popularity means a lot, if it didn't they wouldn't have Brock stay for so long, or Dawn to get the longest cameo ever.

 

[DatsRight]

Truthfully I think SM has done something for Ash in finally putting him in very different trials and situations, not just a harder battle or more resilient bad guy or rival, actual different challenges and premises. Sometimes he can't even just command his Pokemon to attack and has to be inventive or just sit down and breathe. That helps get a different light out of the character, being put in something they're not used to.

While some might argue about personality depth, I do think SM is one of the series most trying to make the character's personalities the core drive of the show a lot of the time as well. It's not just their talent in battling/performing/commanding Pokemon or them being put into situations and reacting to them, their actual characters make the story in many episodes, which really adds a strength to them.

 

[Power Up]

Truthfully I think SM has done something for Ash in finally putting him in very different trials and situations, not just a harder battle or more resilient bad guy or rival, actual different challenges and premises. That helps get a different light out of the character, being put in something they're not used to.

While some might argue about personality depth, I do think SM is one of the series most trying to make the character's personalities the core drive of the show a lot of the time as well. It's not just their talent in battling/performing/commanding Pokemon or them being put into situations and reacting to them, their actual characters make the story in many episodes, which really adds a strength to them.

Yet half of the cast is still very underdeveloped and with boring personalities. Key here is personality depth.

 

[DatsRight]

Yet half of the cast is still very underdeveloped. Key here is personality depth.

At the same time you can have the most multi faceted character in the world and still make them as dull as cardboard due to never making them do anything innovative or different. When a character is more a helpless chess piece to a ceaseless formula, it's hard to make their personality matter.

This was my problem with a lot of the previous series, not a lot of new story situations and challenges for the twerps to handle differently or get to emit their personality through at last, and even times it LOOKED like they'd get one, something like Team Rocket would interfere and bring it back into their comfort zone. While Ash varies in depth each series, one thing is certain, he doesn't get much appeal from endless dilemmas where he has to do little but say 'Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!' and maybe the odd 'Dodge!'. After a while it feels like any shmuck could do that.

SM at least tries to make Ash's personality important to how things go forward at times.

 

[Power Up]

At the same time you can have the most multi faceted character in the world and still make them as dull as cardboard due to never making them do anything innovative or different.

This was my problem with a lot of the previous series, not a lot of new story situations and challenges for the twerps to handle differently or get to emit their personality through at last, and even times it LOOKED like they'd get one, something like Team Rocket would interfere and bring it back into their comfort zone. While Ash varies in depth each series, one thing is certain, he doesn't get much appeal from endless climaxes where he has to do little but say 'Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!'.

The overall core of the anime and the game is a battle between two trainers. While it's great and all that new things are being added and done, and I def agree new things should be done, it shouldn't take away from the fact that Pokemon is still an anime that promotes and has always been about trainers, their pokemon, battling, friendship, and improvement, etc...

And SM has an absolutely terrible lack of battles. Which is not a good thing IMO.

And personally, I don't like the new innovative and different things in SM, but that's IMO

 

[AshxSatoshi]

How tf is that a personal problem? Wtf? The anime is meant to promote the games. AND YOU CAN LITERALLY SEARCH IT UP. There are about 3-5 articles talking about how the game playerbase is getting older.

I have to this day not been able to find any info regarding the age group of people why watch the Pokemon anime. You can def assume that more children watch the show then teens/adults, but without concrete info, you can't just say the older age group of the anime is nowhere near the younger age group in numbers.

LOL. You can literally look around you if you live in America. This isn't IMO, at least about the part about kids knowing more stuff cause of Snapchat, Instagram, and the internet in general. Heck, this would be even more prevalent in Japan since they are tech hub of the world, but what do I know?

And you hiding behind IYO speaks volumes. What, you can't defend SM Ash's actions and how they are nothing like an actual 10-year olds?

Lolz. Is SM over? Have they said Serena will not get a special? Whatever, the fact that Iris hasn't got a ghost of a mention since her special itself says something. Serena still gets talked about to this day. Also, link to where the writers said that. Popularity means a lot, if it didn't they wouldn't have Brock stay for so long, or Dawn to get the longest cameo ever.

I'm smart enough to know every child isn't the same and has different taste. Pokemon SM is no more unintelligent than TTG yet it's the most popular show on CN but I disgress. And Serena isn't getting a special. I'm sorry to burst any fantasy you've been conducting but SM is already into its second year and it would be disrespectful to Lillie (the current Poke girl) to randomly to make an unasked episode for Serena. The writers had their chance to give her a special but decided Alexia and Sycamore deserved it more. And Brock has nothing to do with the Pokegirls since it's harder to replace him but to this date popularity has never been able to save a Pokegirl from getting the boot. If popularity decided who stays or not, Dawn would still be here and the writers would of listened to the sad numerous polls begging Serena to go to Alola.

 

[Yukki]

I like how people here seem to think popular = always good.

Spoiler alert: no, it is not.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

I like how people here seem to think popular = always good.

Spoiler alert: no, it is not.

Honestly. Or that popularity gives characters superiority over other characters.

 

[DatsRight]

The overall core of the anime and the game is a battle between two trainers. While it's great and all that new things are being added and done, and I def agree new things should be done, it shouldn't take away from the fact that Pokemon is still an anime that promotes and has always been about trainers, their pokemon, battling, friendship, and improvement, etc...

And SM has an absolutely terrible lack of battles. Which is not a good thing IMO.

And personally, I don't like the new innovative and different things in SM, but that's IMO

SM still has battles, and decent ones too. Most of the excess SM cuts off is the dull or one-sided battles like the TR ones that take up over half of the other series and add barely anything but a half hearted climax, instead using a lot of that time to make more creative character-driven stories. It's not like they aren't still using their Pokemon creatively in most of these anyway, just not in the same formulaic manner of commanding attacks against antagonists/rivals and usually winning easily or having the plot bend over for them.

People excused Serena having a lacklustre record by claiming her character wasn't revolved around good battling and performances but her actual character, so in a sense wouldn't have SM's format of personality driven stories over constant battles/tournaments/etc have worked for her too? To focus on what many consider the important part of her?

I do agree that SM's approach isn't perfect and the next series should maybe try for more of a balance, but I still think it's made an absolutely vital step in character writing.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I'm smart enough to know every child isn't the same and has different taste. Pokemon SM is no more unintelligent than TTG yet it's the most popular show on CN but I disgress. And Serena isn't getting a special. I'm sorry to any fantasy you've been conducting but SM is already into its second year and it would be disrespectful to Lillie (the current Poke girl) to randomly to make an unasked episode for Serena. The writers had their chance to give her a special but decided Alexia and Sycamore deserved it more. And Brock has nothing to do with the Pokegirls since it's harder to replace him but to this date popularity has never been able to save a Pokegirl from getting the boot. If popularity decided who stays or not, Dawn would still be here and the writers would of listened to the sad numerous polls begging Serena to go to Alola.

I'm sorry, but I don't see how it would be disrespectful to Lillie especially if it has some potential for Serena to actually get some development that doesn't directly involve Ash. Maybe it could be a build up for a Serena return arc with some changes to her character and team and maybe add more interesting character interactions with the current group (that doesn't involve a love triangle or anything like that).