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

[Rock Captain 99]

Big arcs in the anime tend to fall flat most of the time, at least in the past. So I'm cynical about what the writers would come up with in this series in terms of major storyarcs and frankly given the region hopping formula of this series, I get the feeling that we're mainly in store for one-off episodes and not that many mini-arcs.

Scorbunny became a recurring character before getting caught. It took 2 episodes for Go to catch that bunny. We already had 1st "mini arc" of the series, and it's been only 7 episodes!!

 

[Leonhart]

Scorbunny became a recurring character before getting caught. It took 2 episodes for Go to catch that bunny. We already had 1st "mini arc" of the series, and it's been only 7 episodes!!

I suppose in a way that's true, but I meant a mini-arc that has more of a purpose than just making the main characters visit a new region for two episodes. Hibanny's "arc" for lack of a better word likely isn't what most people have in mind when they think about major narrative arcs.

 

[Deleted member 384931]

I miss a direction: where is this series going?
Can Gou really catch/meet Mew if he catches pokemon?
Why is Ash here? How can he become a pokemon Master this time? Going to regions he saw before? Will he do gyms or tournaments?
Will Ash use reserves? Will he meet previous friends?

I have a lot of question that would got an awnser rn if we had proper direction

 

[Henry's Journey]

I miss a direction: where is this series going?
Can Gou really catch/meet Mew if he catches pokemon?
Why is Ash here? How can he become a pokemon Master this time? Going to regions he saw before? Will he do gyms or tournaments?
Will Ash use reserves? Will he meet previous friends?

I have a lot of question that would got an awnser rn if we had proper direction

I'm getting a bit impatient as well but the only thing we can do is wait, hopefully new titles will be interesting at least.

 

[Rock Captain 99]

I'm getting a bit impatient as well but the only thing we can do is wait, hopefully new titles will be interesting at least.

If anything that can decide the goal can be concluded from new titles, maybe episode 12 is the one where we can see what direction will the series take!!

 

[Blood Red]

I miss a direction: where is this series going?
Can Gou really catch/meet Mew if he catches pokemon?
Why is Ash here? How can he become a pokemon Master this time? Going to regions he saw before? Will he do gyms or tournaments?
Will Ash use reserves? Will he meet previous friends?

I have a lot of question that would got an awnser rn if we had proper direction

Agreed. Even if past seasons felt a bit repetitive at times, at least Ash having a concrete goal (participating and winning the League) gave that season a direction to go in. And now, here we are, so many episodes in, and not even a hint at what direction this season of the anime will take. Honestly, I’d much rather have the standard ‘Ash travels X region, wins badges and challenges the League’ formula than...whatever we have now.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

A thing that's kind of bothering me is how the series seems to hammer the idea that "Ash does battles, Go does catching". They had done the same during the DP era with "Ash does gyms, Dawn does contests".

I get they want to make the protagonists distinct from each other but I feel like they keep saying the same thing way too much. There's better ways of convincing this idea.

 

[mysticalglacia]

A thing that's kind of bothering me is how the series seems to hammer the idea that "Ash does battles, Go does catching". They had done the same during the DP era with "Ash does gyms, Dawn does contests".

I get they want to make the protagonists distinct from each other but I feel like they keep saying the same thing way too much. There's better ways of convincing this idea.

That’s true for just about every series, particularly recently (Serena does the Showcases and doesn’t battle while the boys do; Lillie and Mallow are constant background moral support and nothing else). But since Ash/Gō is similar to Ash/Dawn in how both pairs are co-protagonists, it feels worse this time. Ash and Dawn weren’t solely restricted to Gyms and Contests; honestly, the writers let them do other things not related to their goals while still keeping them consistent characters. But Ash/Gō are so firmly rooted in their own niches, making it almost annoying clear that Ash battles and Gō catches and that’s that. I hope they experiment and vary up that dynamic because so far it’s too restricting.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Me before: Huh. Retreading every region? This should be a whole lot of good call backs.

Me after a few episodes: *exasperated sigh*

Me after Go's easy captures: *grunting noises*

Spoiler: Me after the Piplup episode:

Spoiler: Me after said episode actually ended:

 

[Blue Saturday]

But Ash/Gō are so firmly rooted in their own niches, making it almost annoying clear that Ash battles and Gō catches and that’s that. I hope they experiment and vary up that dynamic because so far it’s too restricting.

Go came around to how exciting and cool battles could be literally in PM007 after losing and saying catching was better. He lost badly in his first battle but was inspired by how good Satoshi and Barrierd were and last episode was quick to enter the drift ice race and start fighting against Team Rocket. Saying they’re too rooted in their niches when only eight episodes have aired is jumping the gun a lot. Even Satoshi tried to catch Kaiross and challenged Go to get Strike before he did so he’s clearly interested in catching Pokémon. Comparing a finished series dynamic to one barely starting out is completely impatient.

 

[Kyloreywalk]

A thing that's kind of bothering me is how the series seems to hammer the idea that "Ash does battles, Go does catching". They had done the same during the DP era with "Ash does gyms, Dawn does contests".

I get they want to make the protagonists distinct from each other but I feel like they keep saying the same thing way too much. There's better ways of convincing this idea.

Being a guy, there is a small possibility Go might try Gyms. For some reason the writers were against all female characters doing Gyms regularly, but Go, being male, and as sexist as it sounds, would probably be allowed to do the Gym challenge.

 

[Red and Blue]

This is hardly anything new. I remember people were lukewarm when SM first started

 

[World Turtle]

Go came around to how exciting and cool battles could be literally in PM007 after losing and saying catching was better. He lost badly in his first battle but was inspired by how good Satoshi and Barrierd were and last episode was quick to enter the drift ice race and start fighting against Team Rocket. Saying they’re too rooted in their niches when only eight episodes have aired is jumping the gun a lot. Even Satoshi tried to catch Kaiross and challenged Go to get Strike before he did so he’s clearly interested in catching Pokémon. Comparing a finished series dynamic to one barely starting out is completely impatient.

Who is Kaiross?

 

[Leonhart]

A thing that's kind of bothering me is how the series seems to hammer the idea that "Ash does battles, Go does catching". They had done the same during the DP era with "Ash does gyms, Dawn does contests".

I get they want to make the protagonists distinct from each other but I feel like they keep saying the same thing way too much. There's better ways of convincing this idea.

I'm still not completely convinced that the emphasis on Gou capturing Pokemon in this series will mean that Satoshi won't capture Pokemon later on, though. I want to be optimistic about the odds of Satoshi forming his own team of new Pokemon in the future regardless of what Gou's been doing.

 

[Decidueye23]

Too early to say but i went from this seems interesting and has alot of potential to meh... lets wait to see if it gets better.

 

[Blue Saturday]

Who is Kaiross?

“Kailios” (got autocorrect’d) or Pinsir.

 

[Kyloreywalk]

This is hardly anything new. I remember people were lukewarm when SM first started

that was mostly due to the art style change, and Ash's new face, more than anything else. Once people got used to SM's animation they began to enjoy the series. People seem fond of the current series art style, so it's the content that bothers or bores them.

 

[Twilight-Kun]

Was hopeful before, and I'm now bored out of my mind

Nothing's happening

There's been so many moments they could've had Ash bring up previous experiences or show off his old pokémon, but NOPE, he's just as childish and naive as he was at the start of every other series

Only real highlight is Pikachu hasn't been completely reset

 

[Lord Starfish]

Go came around to how exciting and cool battles could be literally in PM007 after losing and saying catching was better. He lost badly in his first battle but was inspired by how good Satoshi and Barrierd were and last episode was quick to enter the drift ice race and start fighting against Team Rocket. Saying they’re too rooted in their niches when only eight episodes have aired is jumping the gun a lot. Even Satoshi tried to catch Kaiross and challenged Go to get Strike before he did so he’s clearly interested in catching Pokémon. Comparing a finished series dynamic to one barely starting out is completely impatient.

We live in an era where "eight episodes" is two thirds of your average anime's total duration. The show has been on the air for two months. Us still not having a clear idea of what the overall direction of the show is going to be after two months, or indeed if it's even going to have an overall direction, is absolutely a valid critique. Just because the show's total episode count is obviously going to be at least ten times that of your average seasonal show, that doesn't mean they have ten times as long to hook the audience.

From where I'm standing at least, sure, episode 2 was fairly attention-grabbing... but nothing since then has come close, even though I have found most of the episodes enjoyable enough in isolation. Yet, so far, this show feels very aimless, and it's looking like it's gonna be another full month before that might change. It's getting rather frustrating.

 

[Blue Saturday]

We live in an era where "eight episodes" is two thirds of your average anime's total duration. The show has been on the air for two months. Us still not having a clear idea of what the overall direction of the show is going to be after two months, or indeed if it's even going to have an overall direction, is absolutely a valid critique. Just because the show's total episode count is obviously going to be at least ten times that of your average seasonal show, that doesn't mean they have ten times as long to hook the audience.

From where I'm standing at least, sure, episode 2 was fairly attention-grabbing... but nothing since then has come close, even though I have found most of the episodes enjoyable enough in isolation. Yet, so far, this show feels very aimless, and it's looking like it's gonna be another full month before that might change. It's getting rather frustrating.

As someone that adored Sun&Moon, it had its stretches of time between getting things established and following through, many Pokémon didn’t even use more than one move until after 30+ episodes. The first two episodes of PM introduced the characters and world, a few have focused on the dynamic and work between Go/Satoshi and meanwhile the others focused on Go becoming established as a character. Like you said the series will be about 140+ episodes and we do have a hint of a future for Satoshi’s goals in the debut of Dande/Wataru. We’re now getting to Koharu focus as well as Wanpachi, I feel as though you’re jumping the gun especially since PM2019’s style differs majorly from previous series formula thus far. Doesn’t help that these episodes are week by week which causes fans to look at everything under a microscope.

I just think it’s silly to pretend nothing is happening when the only inconsequential episode was the Drift Race, but then again I saw people calling doom at the Hibunny episode despite supposedly adoring the first three episodes of PM2019. I felt many episodes to be pretty character-driven thus far.