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How can Journeys improve on its criticisms?

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
So, there's been a negative outlook in the anipoke fandom recently, moreso than usual. Even I have kinda fit into that cynical attitude ever since the suicune episode, coz those plot points really confirmed my worst fears of Journeys, even twitter recently experienced a hate surge after 3 prominent anipoke youtubers kinda overreacted on that 2 in one episode being revealed. Anyway considering that imo the criticisms recently are deserved, instead of doing a whole list all positive things of journeys to combat the cynical attitudes, Id rather open a more specific discussion on how Journeys could improve on its 2 criticisms, so that in the end its a more coherent and good series people love, like what happened with SM. I never could have imagined SM would be my fav series when its second year started, so Journeys deserves its fair chance too. Refrain from replying to the thread if you just wanna complain, this is for how journeys can improve to become a better series, not for you to just hate on it.

Ill start this thread with my opinion:

1) Proper Screentime for Mons

They really need to make more episodes for mons, especially ash's to get more fleshed out. For example, Gengar was initially loved coz of its prankster personality, something the anime alludes Ash's gengar has but never properly shows it. Imagine a proper Ash's team gets lost episode for journeys. Ash journeys team lineup is so freaking sick, A wannabe stoic lucario, a caring and loving but insanely strong dragonite, a prankster gengar, an aloof dracovish, a narcisstic show off knight sirfetchd (This is me guessing how Sirfetchd would be, even right now it has a great personality as a rogue street samurai farfetch'd), the ever responsible but also sometimes immature pikachu. Not only is this a STRONG team, it has such interesting personalities that dont get to shine. Like just imagine all these personalities bouncing off each other as they try and work together, fighting and eventually bonding. SM was so incredible with team dynamic so Journeys shouldnt be missing this.

Another episode idea is Ash taking all his mons on a solo training exercise, where mishaps happen and all. The mons training together in more then just opening sequences of episodes, Ash trying to calm and control his team, and giving us an actual reason to accept that this team has been sufficiently trained to be the team capable of beating Elite 4s, champions and the World Champion Leon himself.


2) Goh's storyline

Arguably the factor most responsible for Pokemon Journeys controversies, Goh has been a mixed bag. I mentioned how I want him to have had more development episodes before he caught suicune but considering that episode already happened, thats a moot point. Goh is pretty much an expert in his goal by now, so how can he be redeemed? Well first of all, the slow pace he has had recently with catching mons? KEEP THAT. 99 percent of his mons from now on should be captured by battling and not too many at once in an episode. I get there are first stage mons that dont really need that but atleast make the only throwing a ball thing fun, whether it be through meming it, Goh applying different curves to the ball, or, HOPEFULLY, actually using different balls for different situations now. Besides this, remember the Golurk goes berserk while cascoon try to evolve episode? The first episode after the hiatus? More of that as it helps give cute mon interactions while also giving Goh mons more time to shine. Also like how he recently used Raichu and Exeggutor in the Suicune episode, have him use more of his wide arsenal of mons from time to time. Put him in new scenarios in episodes like how SM did with Ash so Goh's personality can be more expanded on from time to time. Let him struggle more, not necessairly in just his goal, but make him more flawed from time to time. Also stop baiting his captures the way you did with sobble, and let him take the backseat more often.

3)More Chloe Action

Chloe has been a pretty unique character, a breath of fresh air in the anipoke 1K+ series. They have been incredibly building her up while not making her feel like fodder like they did with serena for the beginning episodes of XY by making Chloe a side character whos now being promoted slowly to a main companion role. The writers have been handling her pretty well, so now, the main thing is that they need to start delivering on the buildup. More episodes with just Chloe going pokemon are cool after all and bearing and enjoying Ash and Goh more would end up feeling stale. Deliver on the buildup, it honestly doesnt even have to be her picking up a major goal like contests or some ****, it can be relatively simple but also something that makes it seem like she has a focus on something and is making an impact on that field. The Ponyta episode looks to be finally delivering on that buildup so fingers crossed for that!

4) Respecting Ash's Legacy and PWC

This is a major point. Ash is the face of the anime and a character everyone grew up with and many watch the anime coz they are invested in his character. That isnt to say only Ash should get focus, no. But that doesnt mean he should be sidelined which he kinda has been since the 30s of Pokemon Journeys episodes. I stand by that the design for Ash this season is great and that his personality is the best of SM and XY ash combined. Ash's goal is such an amazing concept, like a worldwide pokemon battling series with rankings, as if its a sport season. How exciting is that? How amazing it is in raising the stakes after Ash won a league after 20 years, an amazing way to advance Ash much further. So imagine how frustrating it is to see such a concept that ash fans clamored more, be discarded so badly. Heck they proved PWC episodes could be great, ep51, the farfetch'd vs gurdurr one. Those are the types of PWC episodes I need more spread out for the series rather than appearing once in every 20 episodes. And not at the cost of offscreen advancement. Ash getting back to super class should have been onscreen. him getting to 400 rank should have been better built up. If they handle it better from now, nothing is ruined, the PWC can still go down as an satisfying goal. Also reduce offscreen training too, please journeys. Heck if not like ep51, let it be like ep20, with the Meganium vs Pikachu battle, it was good! Heck even the short battles like kricketina kylie (koromi) or that tauros dude would work if its with his other mons as well. Such battles spread out, with important battles like korrina, bea, upcoming wikstrom, possibly iris gary and who knows what else, will redeem it. I firmly believe Ash can still be properly developed further, if only the writers had such faith, which is surprising that they dont considering SM accomplished making Ash develop more in many ways.

5) Improving World Tour aspect by adding arcs in regions besides Galar.

This is important. Unpopular opinion, the staying in vermillion stuff doesnt bother me as much. I dont see it as kanto pandering considering its just for setting when u wanna have character based episodes. However, when they do travel to other regions, it needs to be more balanced (shoutout to unova, kalos and alola is understandable but unova is royally being screwed) and instead of them just being episodic, they need to do arcs. Instead of it just being for the pokemon, do it for the region itself and the lore it has. Imagine a Hoenn arc of a few episodes where Ash and Goh team up with latias and latios in a soaring esque adventure to deal with legendary problems in the region. Imagine a sinnoh arc of a few episodes where the mythologies come crashing as Arceus appears, a unova arc where they team up with N to investigate Kyurem and its relation to Zekrom and Reshiram, a kalos arc where Alain (whos searching for mega stones) teams up with Ash to investigate the tie ins of mega stones with Xerneas and Yveltal. An alola arc where Ash defends his title from hau to give him redemption, the aether family being reunited, etc. Imagine having Giovanni arcs again with TR, or tournament arcs like Wallace cup where we can see May dawn Serena or the driftveil PWT which was referenced in Journeys, where Ash can defeat Lance.



In the end, journeys really has so much potential thanks to its setting. The continuity aspect so far has been really good, continue that. Imagine when Ash faces Leon, the announcer does a description for Ash similar to what he got when he faced Tucker in BF series, hes accomplished so much more since then. Ash having a cape too with sponsorships considering his rise in popularity thanks to his feats, battling leon with both old and new mons, and when he wins we get cameos, heck even stills would do the trick, of all his companions watching him on the screen, maybe even a few rivals, his other reserves back at Oak, as he goes up and gets the trophy, becoming the very best, like no one ever was. That thing alone would make so many love Journeys. Have Ash face ppl like Cynthia in the top 8 instead of just Bea and Raihan please, have Ash defeat elite 4s in the hyper class. Journeys honestly still has the potential to be top tier imo. Lemme know your thoughts!
 

Zweilous

Go-ing for Gold
1) Proper Screentime for Mons
This aggravates me a lot. Ash has a great team, yet they need to do more with it. Gengar's prankster attitude being curbed by Dragonite, or having it tease the more rough Fighting types on the team? Or hell, maybe Dravovish loves its pranks or freaks it out? There's so much potential interactions. And that's not even getting into battles. Though it looks like Sirfetch'd is shaping nice, since it has Wilkstrom, Rinto and possibly Bea on the horizon.

My solution: Kill off Pikachu and Lucario. Double battles. Give two Pokemon exposure and see how they work together. Doubles are the official World Tournament format IRL, right? This could also help audiences understand and appreciate the concept more.

I'd also like to go back to the idea that each Pokemon has a rivalry: Riolu vs Grapploct, Pikachu vs Charizard, and possibly Farfetch'd vs Gallade. Let's see them develop rivals that push them, and have Ash make more strategies to counter them. The fact that we're getting Iris and Gary gives me hope here.

I gotta say though, Go's team surprised me in this regard. Not only do they have ecosystems and cliques, but we've seen several of them have unique dynamics amongst the group. But we need more Darmanitan focus because he's my boy.

2)Goh's storyline/Ash's Legacy
I don't see why Go needed more build-up before Suicune. How he caught it and earned its respect was perfectly logical and in-character. Yeah, he's still relatively new to the scene. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the Suicune story. It's not making him out to be a talented trainer, and it's not giving him some undeserved power-up.

I also don't have a problem being an expert in his goal. It's a simple goal. I had a problem with him catching strong Pokemon easily, but they've seriously cut down on that. I don't think we need to drag out captures by making him battle all the time, especially since he's usually just capturing basic Pokemon. And I miss when he caught Pokemon quickly, because I liked seeing him make rapid progress. After 20+ years of every main character moving at a snail's pace, it's refreshing.

Aaaand I wouldn't worry about him needing to take a backseat. Yeah, it's gotten a little wonky for Ash lately. They shouldn't have skipped him ahead so much in the rankings, though I see why they did it. But he has a lot of plot aspects set up: Ultra and Master Class, Leon, Bea, Rinto, Wilkstrom, and possibly more stuff with Korrina, Iris and Gary. They clearly have bigger things planned for Ash on the horizon. I wouldn't be surprised if they're pushing things towards the latter parts of a series to make things more exciting, again.

I'd be fine with them introducing different PokeBalls, but I don't see them doing it because that would give them a lot of detail they'd have to keep track of. He's already starting to incorporate Pokemon into his work, which I hope to see more of. But for me, I think his focus should be on the Pokemon after he caught them: training them, trying to help them establish a place in the park's ecosystem. They've been showing it with a few of his Pokemon already, but I want more of it. Bring Darmanitan out into the field.

I'd also like a return of his issues over making friends. I feel like they've already done a lot with it, and it wouldn't make sense for him to butt heads with people all the time. But he's shown to let small things get under his skin. He needs his own Gary to bring out that childish side of him again.

As for Ash: More PWC battles. But not those quick, 2-minute battles with Pikachu. Those suck. He needs episodes dedicated towards climbing the ranks.


3) More Chloe Action
I'm fine with her story, and I'm up for her getting more action. I feel like she's been handled very well. I just want more from her in terms of interacting with Ash and Go. The Ash/Go friendship is fleshed out, but now we need to figure out how Chloe fits into the mix. She was originally annoyed with Ash's overexuberance, but that died down and it doesn't look like that's getting a comeback, sadly. Her childhood friendship with Go is also woefully underexplored, especially since Go has had trouble making friends in the past.

Can we also get some exploration into her school life? School is important to her, and she has friends there. I know it doesn't really mean much when it comes to her arc, but fleshing out that aspect of her and Go's life would be great.


5) Improving World Tour aspect by adding arcs in regions besides Galar.

I don't know if we need full arcs. I wouldn't object to them, but the past regions all had 3-4 years of exploration. Though I want to see the regions' unique settings being explored more. Not just treating Castelia like any interchangeable city, or some generic farmland in Kanto. Give us the Abyssal Ruins, the Entralink, Flower Paradise, Scorched Slab, Mirage Islands, Fortree City, and Pokemon Village?

Also, I want
  • Game characters who have not made it into the anime before. Benga especially - he's stronger than his grandfather (Unova's former Champion) and owns legendary Pokemon. He's the perfect rival and they're sleeping on him.
  • Emma arc when?
  • Seconding that Kyurem arc. They really ****ed up with Plasma, but N is a popular character and Unova has so much lore to explor
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
My solution: Kill off Pikachu and Lucario. Double battles. Give two Pokemon exposure and see how they work together. Doubles are the official World Tournament format IRL, right? This could also help audiences understand and appreciate the concept more.

I think the reason they tend to avoid doubles is because it makes animation more complicated and expensive. They can get away with quick TR showdowns or something like the Zapdos "raid" but proper doubles full of strategies and movements? I have my doubts, honestly
 

PsychoLogical

Black and White, Yin and Yang, Light and Dark.
I think the reason they tend to avoid doubles is because it makes animation more complicated and expensive. They can get away with quick TR showdowns or something like the Zapdos "raid" but proper doubles full of strategies and movements? I have my doubts, honestly
I'm inclined to agree, double battles take more time to animate and cost more. OLM's no Toei or Kyoto Animation. I assume that's why alot of PWC battles have been 1v1s and last only around 2 mins (much to my chagrin especially for the latter part) and do major battles if they're "relevant" like with all the battles that weren't 2 min sideshows.
 

PsychoLogical

Black and White, Yin and Yang, Light and Dark.
Pikachu likely gets the most battles because it has so much stock footage. But still. Gimme Gengar focus.
Pikachu is also not a hassle to animate as well. And I assume the lack of Gengar focus is due to them not being to find something to do with it besides battles. We had a character background and I guess sort-of development from it which the latter was before capture and shown what it can do as well.
 

SerenaRulez

Well-Known Member
Having Ash use all his Pokemon more often and not just the popular ones. Yes I know that the writing staff gravitate to the popular ones even in the past but in this saga it has been a problem that has bugged me more like when it came to Farfetch'd a while back and even Gengar some times. :(

Also I want to see Ash visit Prof Oak's lab because they are both in Kanto so it should be easy for Ash to take a trip there to see his old Pokemon. :)
 
I'm happy with how it goes, they bring old colleagues from time to time and I find it funny as being a SM fanb*y you ask for more focus in the battles, but fair enough

The only thing that needs to improve is Goh, the rest is fine by Pokémon standards, I'm fine with the off-screen training, As long as it doesn't turn into another disaster like SM (except the league), I'm fine

#Dawn2021
Dawn has a chance of appearing later in the year, if the sinnoh remake Happens
 

Master Pikachu 11

Well-Known Member
They need to show more battles, we see more captures then we do battles and it needs to either be more then a 1 v 1 battle as this will allow his other Pokémon be showcased and used. Also they need to show Ash use his other Pokémon instead of seeing that he used them in off screen land.

I want to see Goh develop and evolve some of his Pokémon that he currently has at the lab instead of doing what he did with Flygon’s entire line
 

Leonhart

Imagineer
More regions should be showcased, and for more than just one episode at a time. Galar being shown more than any other non-Kanto region in this series makes sense, but I feel that even the handling of Galar has been lackluster since the writers have only included a few Shield and Sword subplots so far despite us being well over a year into the series.
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
1) Proper Screentime for Mons
This aggravates me a lot. Ash has a great team, yet they need to do more with it. Gengar's prankster attitude being curbed by Dragonite, or having it tease the more rough Fighting types on the team? Or hell, maybe Dravovish loves its pranks or freaks it out? There's so much potential interactions. And that's not even getting into battles. Though it looks like Sirfetch'd is shaping nice, since it has Wilkstrom, Rinto and possibly Bea on the horizon.

My solution: Kill off Pikachu and Lucario. Double battles. Give two Pokemon exposure and see how they work together. Doubles are the official World Tournament format IRL, right? This could also help audiences understand and appreciate the concept more.

I'd also like to go back to the idea that each Pokemon has a rivalry: Riolu vs Grapploct, Pikachu vs Charizard, and possibly Farfetch'd vs Gallade. Let's see them develop rivals that push them, and have Ash make more strategies to counter them. The fact that we're getting Iris and Gary gives me hope here.

I gotta say though, Go's team surprised me in this regard. Not only do they have ecosystems and cliques, but we've seen several of them have unique dynamics amongst the group. But we need more Darmanitan focus because he's my boy.

2)Goh's storyline/Ash's Legacy
I don't see why Go needed more build-up before Suicune. How he caught it and earned its respect was perfectly logical and in-character. Yeah, he's still relatively new to the scene. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the Suicune story. It's not making him out to be a talented trainer, and it's not giving him some undeserved power-up.

I also don't have a problem being an expert in his goal. It's a simple goal. I had a problem with him catching strong Pokemon easily, but they've seriously cut down on that. I don't think we need to drag out captures by making him battle all the time, especially since he's usually just capturing basic Pokemon. And I miss when he caught Pokemon quickly, because I liked seeing him make rapid progress. After 20+ years of every main character moving at a snail's pace, it's refreshing.

Aaaand I wouldn't worry about him needing to take a backseat. Yeah, it's gotten a little wonky for Ash lately. They shouldn't have skipped him ahead so much in the rankings, though I see why they did it. But he has a lot of plot aspects set up: Ultra and Master Class, Leon, Bea, Rinto, Wilkstrom, and possibly more stuff with Korrina, Iris and Gary. They clearly have bigger things planned for Ash on the horizon. I wouldn't be surprised if they're pushing things towards the latter parts of a series to make things more exciting, again.

I'd be fine with them introducing different PokeBalls, but I don't see them doing it because that would give them a lot of detail they'd have to keep track of. He's already starting to incorporate Pokemon into his work, which I hope to see more of. But for me, I think his focus should be on the Pokemon after he caught them: training them, trying to help them establish a place in the park's ecosystem. They've been showing it with a few of his Pokemon already, but I want more of it. Bring Darmanitan out into the field.

I'd also like a return of his issues over making friends. I feel like they've already done a lot with it, and it wouldn't make sense for him to butt heads with people all the time. But he's shown to let small things get under his skin. He needs his own Gary to bring out that childish side of him again.

As for Ash: More PWC battles. But not those quick, 2-minute battles with Pikachu. Those suck. He needs episodes dedicated towards climbing the ranks.


3) More Chloe Action
I'm fine with her story, and I'm up for her getting more action. I feel like she's been handled very well. I just want more from her in terms of interacting with Ash and Go. The Ash/Go friendship is fleshed out, but now we need to figure out how Chloe fits into the mix. She was originally annoyed with Ash's overexuberance, but that died down and it doesn't look like that's getting a comeback, sadly. Her childhood friendship with Go is also woefully underexplored, especially since Go has had trouble making friends in the past.

Can we also get some exploration into her school life? School is important to her, and she has friends there. I know it doesn't really mean much when it comes to her arc, but fleshing out that aspect of her and Go's life would be great.


5) Improving World Tour aspect by adding arcs in regions besides Galar.

I don't know if we need full arcs. I wouldn't object to them, but the past regions all had 3-4 years of exploration. Though I want to see the regions' unique settings being explored more. Not just treating Castelia like any interchangeable city, or some generic farmland in Kanto. Give us the Abyssal Ruins, the Entralink, Flower Paradise, Scorched Slab, Mirage Islands, Fortree City, and Pokemon Village?

Also, I want
  • Game characters who have not made it into the anime before. Benga especially - he's stronger than his grandfather (Unova's former Champion) and owns legendary Pokemon. He's the perfect rival and they're sleeping on him.
  • Emma arc when?
  • Seconding that Kyurem arc. They really ****ed up with Plasma, but N is a popular character and Unova has so much lore to explor
Beautifully written! An Emma arc would be fantastic yes, agree on that. As for Goh im still mixed haha, I loved him in the recent episode for example and he was fine in the suicune episode, just still miffed on the concept of it.
I'm happy with how it goes, they bring old colleagues from time to time and I find it funny as being a SM fanb*y you ask for more focus in the battles, but fair enough

The only thing that needs to improve is Goh, the rest is fine by Pokémon standards, I'm fine with the off-screen training, As long as it doesn't turn into another disaster like SM (except the league), I'm fine

#Dawn2021
Are you for real? Another SM hater who doesnt really get the concept of the series, not anything new. That series didnt need more focus in battles considering the plot it had for itself and what it set out to do and be. Even here and there there were battles and I personally would have liked more too, its really cringy how u censor the fanboy thing lmao, I love SM yep, doesnt mean i find no faults with it. This series literally set up a high stake tournament for Ash, building up a team touted to take on elite 4 and champions, obviously id want more focus in battles, esp when PWC had ash go from 1K+ rank to 400 offscreen.
 

Locormus

Can we please get the older, old forum back?
I don't think the hate for PM2019 is deserved. Mostly childish backlash.

SM sucked. They shouldn't have done the School-aspect.
 

k6666

Pikachu Fan
ash need more battling screen time, his pokemon screentime , and bring back reverse , vermilion and pallet not that far away they should treat that ash reserves exist , it need more ash pokemon on cerise lab

goh need to change his pokeball or battling pokemon before catching it

Chloe is fine
 

Ryker101

Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm not sure what they're doing with the PWC at this point. Ash keeps jumping ranks off screen and focus episodes for it are far and few between. I do like the battles we've got already, but it's all progressing so rapidly and there's so much they haven't shown us. He's already getting close to hyper class now, and although he deserves to be there, they've still gotta show the progression for it.

I liked those brief 1-2 minute battles we used to get in non PWC focus episodes (like in 21 and 33). They should bring those back. It shows that Ash is still working on his goal in the background and can even make offscreen climbs more tolerable. I'd also really want him to, you know, use his other pokemon. Even these small appearances over time makes a difference in the big picture, as right now we're hyped to even see these guys on screen. That and just showing them in cerise park training or something more frequently will really bring attention to an otherwise neglected team.
 
They just gotta focus more on the pwc side. Everything else is the same like the previous seasons. Travel > bonding with strangers > battle> depression > hair style change for the pokegirls > some crooks > tournaments > final boss who are mostly useless and weak af> same old good bye, hugs, see you again and all that kinds of stuff> ash again being clueless about his progress as a pokemon master and then repeat .
 

Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
Ash, Goh and Dawn would be make a terrific trio. Only reason I want DP remakes is just so Dawn can come back

OLM's no Toei

Which is actually a great thing if you ask me.
 
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