Pocket Monsters 2019 Anime: Thoughts before anime started vs thoughts now!

[AuraChannelerChris]

Well, I'm going to say it. I believe near-50 episodes is enough to review this show so far.

Ash has been seriously mishandled. This saga has turned him into more of a marketing ploy than ever before, and yet somehow not even the writers can't seem to give spotlight to his all-star team of popular Pokemon. Am I criticizing too soon? Maybe, but it doesn't help the first 50 episodes it felt like only Pikachu existed until Riolu came in halfway through and started latching onto battle after battle.

Remember Alola? Back then, SM Ash had the decency to show his whole team around (ignoring the fact the number of serious battles they had were pathetically low). Here, SM Ash's soul was left behind and replaced with this cool uncle archetype who barely shows up to play with his nephews because he really can't bother to show up. Not even these cheap one-minute battles make him wonder if he should use that sweet *** Dragonite he got or the abandoned Gengar with abandonment issues. Oh no. It's got to be Pikachu and just Pikachu. Otherwise, the entitled rat may toss a fit.

Then there's the fact this kid is unable to beat a single Galar Gym Leader...like, wow. SM Ash made Hala his ***** soon by literally steamrolling the old man's whole team. You seriously can't be worse than freaking SM Ash on that this soon (that or Alolans are pushovers...which seems to be a fact given how Ash screwed all the Island Kahunas with minimal issues in power).

Then we move on to the big Donphan in the room.

Goh is starting to look like a Gary Stu to me. Quick Ball genes (sure, he can't catch Legendary Pokemon yet, but everything else is fair game), lost one battle first but now is starting to win so much that he looks like he's Ash, pretty much is a better explorer than Ash only because Goh uses his stock of Pokemon to answer to any situation, and whatever his flaws are they tend to feel forced because it turned out he was a very judgmental young kid and somehow carried that reasoning to his 10s until this weirdo kid (Ash) happened to hitch a ride on Lugia and that was good enough for him to make him his first true friend (at least after Goh ditched Tim, er, Horace). Maybe this friendship was brought forth because Goh is just that awful at picking friends right? I'm surprised they didn't just kiss then. They had the magical setting and their own flying magic carpet.

It was at first somewhat tolerable to stomach Goh the first episode. Then the second episode revealed he's a huge dreamer who actually is right about his meetings with fate just because. Then after getting his bunny and realizing Mew isn't going to be his first catch...suddenly he goes ham on catching Pokemon effortlessly for the majority of the time. Then there is the fact his evolving Pokemon barely do anything to evolve (like, seriously, Raboot had like 3 real fights and he's already Zinedine Zidane).

And since this trend is never going to stop, it feels like Goh was misplaced out of a Pokemon GO anime and is now reigning supreme in an alternate universe where he can't call himself king next to the apparent real protagonist of the saga.

I'm not going to feel proud for the kid catching like 500 Pokemon when this saga ends because it's just utterly ridiculous he bends the established formula so he succeeds.

You know the real endearing character? Chloe. Even if she's a cheap younger version of Sonia, she's the only one who does show believable growth. To me, she's the only character making this series entertaining. She's the cynical believable foil to the anomaly that is Goh.

So yeah. These 50-so episodes haven't been decent.

 

[Ultra Beast Lover]

Also, I don't care much about region hopping, I thought I was gonna be excited for it but it's like they say, it doesn't matter where it is, home is where your friends and family are. Why should I care about all these old towns and cities? They don't mean anything to me if the characters we loved aren't around. They're just places with familiar names.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

I was agreeing with most of the Ash part. Then the rant about Goh started and you lost me.

Bea being OP is kind of reasonable with the reasons we are given: the Game Freak lore about Galar being overly competive, Bea being this stoic hyper-focused figure AND she being a competitor in the PWC. Is the issue just because she is a gym leader? So if she was, say, new female rival number #151 with the same goal, same personality, same pokémon and same dedicated episodes, it would have been better?

Relutanct Pikachu is just OCC and I'm really dissapointed a writer of Reiko Yoshida's caliber could misunderstand the character and their relationship that much. She can do a lot better than that. I know because I've seen it on her other works.

Goh's goal is fine in my opinion. It's meant to be disruptive since they want the current show to be a new take on the world pokémon. It just needed to set some sort of rules in itself so it won't end up as burocratic as Ash's one shot battles. It's fine Goh wanting to capture every single pokémon but not throw a pokéball the first chance. As a character Goh is a fine kid that's been showing some subtle growing during the episodes.

Ash and his (previous) friends not being crazy about catching everything on sight is more a reflection of a personal decision each took and our cast just happens to be people with similar mindsets. But that's still the same universe where getting out of home and going to capture a lot of Pokémon are meant to be a thing. Gary's done that too.

Honestly, I still think people elevate Chloe a bit too much just because WE NEED A GIRL THIS SAGA™ and she happens to be what we have now. If she was just another one of the band, I wonder if people would look at her as they looked at Lillie or, worst case, Mallow. She'd have her fans demanding more screentime for her but there wouldn't be too much neurosis about her role or the amount of episodes she is in.

I still blame execution. It's very clear that Tomiyasu can't coordinate well anything that isn't a slice of life or character-focused episode (see how one-offs like this week's episode fare against "hype" episodes like SwSh arc or even the Mewtwo episode). I've been noting this since SM - and no, it's no grudge against the guy, just something I think is a serious limitation as well as a liability - with how poor the game-based arcs end up being. He is good building characters, portraying their personalities and building their connections but he can't deliver something satisfying when it comes to bigger arcs.

 

[Master Pikachu 11]

Well, I'm going to say it. I believe near-50 episodes is enough to review this show so far.

Ash has been seriously mishandled. This saga has turned him into more of a marketing ploy than ever before, and yet somehow not even the writers can't seem to give spotlight to his all-star team of popular Pokemon. Am I criticizing too soon? Maybe, but it doesn't help the first 50 episodes it felt like only Pikachu existed until Riolu came in halfway through and started latching onto battle after battle.

Remember Alola? Back then, SM Ash had the decency to show his whole team around (ignoring the fact the number of serious battles they had were pathetically low). Here, SM Ash's soul was left behind and replaced with this cool uncle archetype who barely shows up to play with his nephews because he really can't bother to show up. Not even these cheap one-minute battles make him wonder if he should use that sweet *** Dragonite he got or the abandoned Gengar with abandonment issues. Oh no. It's got to be Pikachu and just Pikachu. Otherwise, the entitled rat may toss a fit.

Then there's the fact this kid is unable to beat a single Galar Gym Leader...like, wow. SM Ash made Hala his ***** soon by literally steamrolling the old man's whole team. You seriously can't be worse than freaking SM Ash on that this soon (that or Alolans are pushovers...which seems to be a fact given how Ash screwed all the Island Kahunas with minimal issues in power).

Then we move on to the big Donphan in the room.

Goh is starting to look like a Gary Stu to me. Quick Ball genes (sure, he can't catch Legendary Pokemon yet, but everything else is fair game), lost one battle first but now is starting to win so much that he looks like he's Ash, pretty much is a better explorer than Ash only because Goh uses his stock of Pokemon to answer to any situation, and whatever his flaws are they tend to feel forced because it turned out he was a very judgmental young kid and somehow carried that reasoning to his 10s until this weirdo kid (Ash) happened to hitch a ride on Lugia and that was good enough for him to make him his first true friend (at least after Goh ditched Tim, er, Horace). Maybe this friendship was brought forth because Goh is just that awful at picking friends right? I'm surprised they didn't just kiss then. They had the magical setting and their own flying magic carpet.

It was at first somewhat tolerable to stomach Goh the first episode. Then the second episode revealed he's a huge dreamer who actually is right about his meetings with fate just because. Then after getting his bunny and realizing Mew isn't going to be his first catch...suddenly he goes ham on catching Pokemon effortlessly for the majority of the time. Then there is the fact his evolving Pokemon barely do anything to evolve (like, seriously, Raboot had like 3 real fights and he's already Zinedine Zidane).

And since this trend is never going to stop, it feels like Goh was misplaced out of a Pokemon GO anime and is now reigning supreme in an alternate universe where he can't call himself king next to the apparent real protagonist of the saga.

I'm not going to feel proud for the kid catching like 500 Pokemon when this saga ends because it's just utterly ridiculous he bends the established formula so he succeeds.

You know the real endearing character? Chloe. Even if she's a cheap younger version of Sonia, she's the only one who does show believable growth. To me, she's the only character making this series entertaining. She's the cynical believable foil to the anomaly that is Goh.

So yeah. These 50-so episodes haven't been decent.

Well as far as legendary Pokémon go, even though he hasn’t caught a legendary Pokémon for him to own himself, he still caught Eternatus despite him sealing it away but at least he now has its dex entry. Anyway I agree with what you said for the most part. At the beginning I was getting angry with the fact that Ash was just using Pikachu a lot and wasn’t bringing back his past captures or catch any new Pokémon just so he could anything else but Pikachu for his battles. I was happy that he caught Dragonite and the others, but I will still be hopeful that we will get to see his old Pokémon be used again. I would like to see some more important battles in the second half as well.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Bea being OP is kind of reasonable with the reasons we are given: the Game Freak lore about Galar being overly competive, Bea being this stoic hyper-focused figure AND she being a competitor in the PWC. Is the issue just because she is a gym leader? So if she was, say, new female rival number #151 with the same goal, same personality, same pokémon and same dedicated episodes, it would have been better?

It's less about Bea being the first Galar Gym Leader Ash faces but more about "why her?" Where's Milo? Why put everything out of order? Is she the lowest of the food chain among her peers, or was she moved ahead of her actual big fight just to give Ash's Lucario something to do (which really is about Ash) ASAP? At this point, Ash should have already weeded Milo out and schooled Nessa, but neither of them exist yet. Already Bea has the honor of being the only Gym Leader in the anime who hasn't been beaten by Ash by the second time, but that has the consequence of making Ash look very unimpressive after not getting a clear victory against anyone else from her region. But that's okay, he already beat the freaking Chairman (using the worst excuse: mid-battle evolution).

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

It's less about Bea being the first Galar Gym Leader Ash faces but more about "why her?"

We kind of got an answer for that from inteviews: because some of the higher ups like her (a fav of the person if I recall correctly). There's no need need of an overly complicated and complex answer. It's simply the staff seeing this character and thinking "she looks great, let's use her".

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

We kind of got an answer for that from inteviews: because some of the higher ups like her (a fav of the person if I recall correctly). There's no need need of an overly complicated and complex answer. It's simply the staff seeing this character and thinking "she looks great, let's use her".

They just want her because she's a Fighting-type user, which is all the rage in anime in general. They always do this with female Fighting-type users. The fact 2 out of 3 had Lucario was icing on the cake (which is probably the other reason why they forced Riolu on Ash against Bea). Hell, even Brawly had the honor of being a roadblock for Ash. Chuck is the odd one out who didn't get as much focus for some reason, though. OLM always plays favorites with Fighting-type Gym Leaders over the rest, which now they're going all in because they're seemingly having Bea meet up with all of them.

I hardly think they would make the likes of Alistair that important.

(I totally want Tate and Liza to return and see if the writers are bold enough to de-age them to little kids younger than Max's age.)

 

[Blue Saturday]

I’m pretty okay with Koharu as a character but as a main girl not quite. I enjoy her for the foil she is to the main characters and world. When it comes to her as a trainer that has yet to be seen. I do feel like her coming to want to be apart of the Pokémon world and catching Eevee felt a bit lacking? Too much “We need an Eevee on the cast.” feeling versus it feeling like this is meant to be apart of her own growth and agency as a character. I understand people wanting a girl but at the same time I don’t necessarily feel *as* crazy about this as everyone else? Plus Wanpachi has still only used Spark? I’m not sure what storyline they’ll tell with her as a trainer or if they will focus on that at all.

Eevee’s capture didn’t particularly catch my attention heavily, felt very easy and whimsical.

 

[Leonhart]

Also, I don't care much about region hopping, I thought I was gonna be excited for it but it's like they say, it doesn't matter where it is, home is where your friends and family are. Why should I care about all these old towns and cities? They don't mean anything to me if the characters we loved aren't around. They're just places with familiar names.

I don't mind the region hopping, I just wish that the writers would have Satoshi and Gou explore more places that weren't featured in previous sagas and have them also meet characters that were neglected, instead of featuring characters like Corni and Shijima.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Well, I'm going to say it. I believe near-50 episodes is enough to review this show so far.

Ash has been seriously mishandled. This saga has turned him into more of a marketing ploy than ever before, and yet somehow not even the writers can't seem to give spotlight to his all-star team of popular Pokemon. Am I criticizing too soon? Maybe, but it doesn't help the first 50 episodes it felt like only Pikachu existed until Riolu came in halfway through and started latching onto battle after battle.

Remember Alola? Back then, SM Ash had the decency to show his whole team around (ignoring the fact the number of serious battles they had were pathetically low). Here, SM Ash's soul was left behind and replaced with this cool uncle archetype who barely shows up to play with his nephews because he really can't bother to show up. Not even these cheap one-minute battles make him wonder if he should use that sweet *** Dragonite he got or the abandoned Gengar with abandonment issues. Oh no. It's got to be Pikachu and just Pikachu. Otherwise, the entitled rat may toss a fit.

Then there's the fact this kid is unable to beat a single Galar Gym Leader...like, wow. SM Ash made Hala his ***** soon by literally steamrolling the old man's whole team. You seriously can't be worse than freaking SM Ash on that this soon (that or Alolans are pushovers...which seems to be a fact given how Ash screwed all the Island Kahunas with minimal issues in power).

Then we move on to the big Donphan in the room.

Goh is starting to look like a Gary Stu to me. Quick Ball genes (sure, he can't catch Legendary Pokemon yet, but everything else is fair game), lost one battle first but now is starting to win so much that he looks like he's Ash, pretty much is a better explorer than Ash only because Goh uses his stock of Pokemon to answer to any situation, and whatever his flaws are they tend to feel forced because it turned out he was a very judgmental young kid and somehow carried that reasoning to his 10s until this weirdo kid (Ash) happened to hitch a ride on Lugia and that was good enough for him to make him his first true friend (at least after Goh ditched Tim, er, Horace). Maybe this friendship was brought forth because Goh is just that awful at picking friends right? I'm surprised they didn't just kiss then. They had the magical setting and their own flying magic carpet.

It was at first somewhat tolerable to stomach Goh the first episode. Then the second episode revealed he's a huge dreamer who actually is right about his meetings with fate just because. Then after getting his bunny and realizing Mew isn't going to be his first catch...suddenly he goes ham on catching Pokemon effortlessly for the majority of the time. Then there is the fact his evolving Pokemon barely do anything to evolve (like, seriously, Raboot had like 3 real fights and he's already Zinedine Zidane).

And since this trend is never going to stop, it feels like Goh was misplaced out of a Pokemon GO anime and is now reigning supreme in an alternate universe where he can't call himself king next to the apparent real protagonist of the saga.

I'm not going to feel proud for the kid catching like 500 Pokemon when this saga ends because it's just utterly ridiculous he bends the established formula so he succeeds.

You know the real endearing character? Chloe. Even if she's a cheap younger version of Sonia, she's the only one who does show believable growth. To me, she's the only character making this series entertaining. She's the cynical believable foil to the anomaly that is Goh.

So yeah. These 50-so episodes haven't been decent.

I agree with many points here, disagree with others, BUT that gym leader thing makes ZERO sense
This saga is NOT galar focused, and this series does NOT focus on the Galar gym challenge whatsoever. So ash not beating a galar gym leader yet is no indication of his progress. He reached the super class is progress he has made till now. Bea being made a rival instead of just another obstacle for Ash is actually interesting. So that part makes no sense whatsoever

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I agree with many points here, disagree with others, BUT that gym leader thing makes ZERO sense
This saga is NOT galar focused, and this series does NOT focus on the Galar gym challenge whatsoever. So ash not beating a galar gym leader yet is no indication of his progress. He reached the super class is progress he has made till now. Bea being made a rival instead of just another obstacle for Ash is actually interesting. So that part makes no sense whatsoever

Milo is a wrecking machine, then.

 

[Dragalge]

The bigger issue with the Galar gym leaders is them not debuting the best gym leaders Kabu and Piers first.

 

[PsychoLogical]

The bigger issue with the Galar gym leaders is them not debuting the best gym leaders Kabu and Piers first.

Piers I agree with but Kabu? Cmon :>

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

The bigger issue with the Galar gym leaders is them not debuting the best gym leaders Kabu and Piers first.

It's genius. Piers is anti-Dynamax. Given this series' horrible handling in showing or making those battles appealing, he's the character animators want to use.

 

[PsychoLogical]

It's genius. Piers is anti-Dynamax. Given this series' horrible handling in showing or making those battles appealing, he's the character animators want to use.

As they should, he shall not be getting no disrespect.

 

[Dragalge]

Piers I agree with but Kabu? Cmon :>

Kabu is fantastic mainly because he is the only one who brings up the major and minor leagues which helps dives into how the Galar Gym Leader position is much more rigorous compared to other regions.

He also sets the bar really high for challengers as he is a hugely powerful roadblock compared to Nessa and Milo. So many challengers give up in the Gym Challenge from trying to beat him because of his level, furthering the high-competitive scene in Galar.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

He also sets the bar really high for challengers as he is a hugely powerful roadblock compared to Nessa and Milo. So many challengers give up in the Gym Challenge from trying to beat him because of his level, furthering the high-competitive scene in Galar.

Shame we're doing a really weird Pokemon Masters/Go hybrid format that keeps Kabu from doing that, because people can ignore him.

 

[Red and Blue]

I'm honestly shocked it's taken this long to introduce Team Yell. Even Skull debuted years before Plumeria and Guzma showed up

 

[Master Pikachu 11]

I'm honestly shocked it's taken this long to introduce Team Yell. Even Skull debuted years before Plumeria and Guzma showed up

Maybe because they are not really bad guys and do evil things. They are just obnoxious fans. Also another reason is because Marnie hasn’t showed up yet!

 

[Ѕhiny Missingno]

The series lacks focus and is trying to handle too many vastly different plots at the same time.

We have the more serious Galar episodes, episodes that are purely comedic and nothing else, episodes focusing on character development mostly about Koharu, a small handful of episodes where Ash gets to have a battle, fillers about Pikachu, a couple Team Rocket episodes, Gou catching sprees as well as the more typical fillers-ish episodes.

As a result of this smorgasbord of different episodes we end up with numerous plotlines that all feel underdeveloped:
- Ash has had barely any battles and his team is severely unbalanced in terms of focus.
- Gou's catches don't get any sceentime to justify their evolutions.
- Koharu's story is advancing extremely slowly and is only now starting to maybe take shape.
- We still haven't seen most of the Galar gym leaders and Ash hasn't defeated a single one yet.
- I wouldn't be surprised if the plushie sales were also down which is why the writers felt compelled to add yet another Eevee into the main cast.