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Pokémon the Series XY | Pokémon the Series XY&Z

Soniman

Break the Limit
Seriously, it's 2016, who still uses stock footage in anime? I applaud Yajima for taking the consideration on dropping it though.
Anime with a potentially infinite number of episodes that has no end and cant spring for godly animation all the time? . I'd still take XY over mainstream stuff like DBS animation wise so it's not even a huge deal

They should have went with this path. It would have made the Flare arc worth it. Alain became less and less interesting as the series go by and they totally went downhill with his character at the end.

I felt Alan was pretty dull in ACT 1 and got better as things went along. They're not saying he's a literal full copy of anakin, just that he was influenced by evil people under the guise of good intentions but ultimately saw the error of his ways and redeemed himself by the end (minus all the death)
 
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I felt Alan was pretty dull in ACT 1 and got better as things went along. They're not saying he's a literal full copy of anakin, just that he was influenced by evil people under the guise of good intentions but ultimately saw the error of his ways and redeemed himself by the end (minus all the death)

They should have went with the antagonistic part rather than the "Oh, crap I messed up big time. Sorry, everyone, let me help beat the bad guys.". It would have made a good potential for rivalry between him and Ash and it would have been a good opportunity to redeem the terrible outcome of the league match and Ash could have finally beaten Alain after all those consecutive losses. They don't really need to go Anakin-to-Darth on this one, they can always have Alain redeem himself by getting Ash beating him and go back to the good side by the end. Too bad they wasted the opportunity but then again, a lot of opportunity were wasted in the entire XY series.
 

Satomine Night

The Power of Z!
I laughed more than I should at the Alan = Anakin Skywalker line. Let's be honest, this part of the character was botched the worst. He didn't really establish himself as someone to be feared at all. Even at his coldest, he didn't really incite fear. He lacked the side effects of spiraling into evil like a spike in brutality.

The sad part is that the end of the final Mega Evolution showed a hint of what could have been Alain's slow descent in villainy - that fierce look of anger on his face when he learned Chespie had fallen into a coma. Once he debuted in the main series, we rarely saw that side of him (probably in part because he was no longer the main focus character); and in the end, he was painted as a good guy who was a victim of manipulation. However, I can see where Alain's character was inspired by Anakin Skywalker.
 

UltimateNinja

Praying for the holy relics
*When XY&Z started, Yajima knew that the series had to wrap up everything in only a year, and they did a meeting to basically set up how the events of that year would go. He also specifically says that this is the reason there's minimal filler in XY&Z, there was absolutely no room.

And that's pretty much saying to me that XY&Z filler rate is the lowest one we got and we''ll ever get in the future. A full series like XY&Z with a better league would be perfect.
 

Janovy

Banned
I find it hilarious that there was apparently no room for fillers in XY&Z and yet they bothered to include one of the worst filler episodes in Pokemon history, the Binacle episode, prior the very Master Class competition instead of going for a transition episode and fleshing out the Master Class.

Or how the pre-League episode was the random inventions episode.

Literally two bad fillers before big competitions.

If they dropped these two fillers and replaced them with build-up episodes, both the League and Master Class would have been less rushed and more fleshed out.
 
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I'll just toss this in here:

Various interesting tidbits from the recent interview with Yajima:
*The kiss scene is indeed meant to be Serena kissing Satoshi, and his reaction to it is surprised awe, any ambiguity the scene has is so they could get it on TV in the first place.
*Likewise, you're meant to hope and assume the two of them are going to become a couple later.
*The idea to have a romance subplot apparently came from producer Shukichi Kanda, who came up with the idea of portraying things through a female lead's admiration for Satoshi, which then led to the suggestion that they'd have a flashback to a childhood meeting with romantic implications.

*Yajima did not know exactly how long the series would last, only that it would have to end when the next games came out.
*Alan was always meant to be part of the main series. The reason the four Mega specials were made was because it would be difficult to set up his backstory and development in the series itself, so he came up with the idea of giving him his own episodes that could establish his character. The idea to give these episodes a mega evolution theme came later, and was also his idea (so they were not made or the purpose of marketing megas, or in order to test the water for a series with another main character or any other such theory).
*Also, Alan is meant to be an "Anakin Skywalker-type character", someone who turns to the dark side to protect those he loves.

*Satoshi's XY design was primarily Yajima's, and the idea for his sideburns were taken from "a character from the video games named Red, which Satoshi is based on".
*Yajima wanted to make the bond between Satoshi and Gekkouga a major part of the story, but felt it would be difficult to do so if it had to remain a Gekkouga, so he went to Game Freak, and they came up with the idea of a synchro transformation. It was put in Sun/Moon afterwards, but was created during this discussion between anime staff and GF.
*The interviewer notes that Okido didn't appear at all outside of episode 3, and that Okido's lecture segment getting replaced with PokeTV when XY&Z started meant that Okido didn't appear at all throughout all of XY&Z (the interview was conducted before XY&Z47 had aired) and asks if there was a reason for this. Yajima confirms this was a complete oversight, not something intentional. Presumably this goes for other callbacks to older series as well.
*When XY&Z started, Yajima knew that the series had to wrap up everything in only a year, and they did a meeting to basically set up how the events of that year would go. He also specifically says that this is the reason there's minimal filler in XY&Z, there was absolutely no room.
*Yajima wanted to drop the use of stock footage completely, but this wasn't possible to do, so they went with creating stock foreground footage that could have different backgrounds added to it instead.

So Amour is meant to be assumed as canon then? .....ok? Just my opinion here, but I tend to feel awkward when shipping people who are both 10 years old....

As for the Alain stuff, that's interesting. I always saw the specials as a way to introduce Alain's backstory without stealing Ash's screentime, but I didn't know that was essentially the idea they were going for anyway. And also, he's based on Anakin Skywalker... that's pretty cool. Even if the prequels were bad, that was more the execution of the plot than the plot itself, as the plot wasn't all bad. I think it's cool that someone from another franchise I enjoy who has a pretty interesting background inspired one of my favourite Pokemon characters!
 

Janovy

Banned
Just my opinion here, but I tend to feel awkward when shipping people who are both 10 years old....
Except for the part where 10-year olds in this anime act older than their age and look older than their age.

In fact, I think according to Takeshi Shudo's vision of the Pokemon world, kids become adults at the age of 10 (which makes sense given how they're literally allowed to travel the world inhabited by wild Pokemon by themselves).
 
Except for the part where 10-year olds in this anime act older than their age and look older than their age.

In fact, I think according to Takeshi Shudo's vision of the Pokemon world, kids become adults at the age of 10 (which makes sense given how they're literally allowed to travel the world inhabited by wild Pokemon by themselves).

Eh, still makes me feel a tiny bit uncomfortable. Probably just how I've been brought up...
 

Navin

MALDREAD
All I know is that Mega Evolution Act III was the Empire Strikes Back of the series. That episode was perfection.


Literally two bad fillers before big competitions. If they dropped these two fillers and replaced them with build-up episodes, both the League and Master Class would have been less rushed and more fleshed out.

I guess the logic is that there needs to be fillers as breather episodes every now and then, even if they're absolutely terrible.

Eh, still makes me feel a tiny bit uncomfortable. Probably just how I've been brought up...

Just think of it as one teenager (because they hardly look [maybe in height] nor act like 10-year-olds) making a promise to another that she'll come back to him one day when they're older. Whether the show writers will actually follow through with that X years from now remains to be seen.
 

Ash-Pikachu

Well-Known Member
The issue being that two of the biggest aspects of the anime (League and Master Class) needed to be expanded on, so implementing some of the worst fillers within it to compensate for that is insulting.

Or at least, that's what I interpreted.
 

Pokegirl Fan~

Liko>>>>>Ash
The issue being that two of the biggest aspects of the anime (League and Master Class) needed to be expanded on, so implementing some of the worst fillers within it to compensate for that is insulting.

Or at least, that's what I interpreted.

Agreed. They really should have kept those fillers out of it for transition episodes.
 

U.N. Owen

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night ...
I'm a little annoyed that they gave Ash the personality they did just to make Serena who she is. Of all the personalities to give, they gave him one as flat as a sheet of paper. I've gave my complaints about Ash's personality, but this new information gives a whole new level of WTF.
 

Frozocrone

Miraculous!
Clearly Ash was meant to be Luke (and Alain was secret Ash's father all along)

Interesting interview...some of it made me think 'wait...what?' though. It seems like they had all these interesting ideas but dropped them.

XYZ could have been way better without those fillers before the big competitions.
 

Mr. Guy

Banned
I'll just toss this in here:

Various interesting tidbits from the recent interview with Yajima:
*The kiss scene is indeed meant to be Serena kissing Satoshi, and his reaction to it is surprised awe, any ambiguity the scene has is so they could get it on TV in the first place.
*Likewise, you're meant to hope and assume the two of them are going to become a couple later.
*The idea to have a romance subplot apparently came from producer Shukichi Kanda, who came up with the idea of portraying things through a female lead's admiration for Satoshi, which then led to the suggestion that they'd have a flashback to a childhood meeting with romantic implications.
*Yajima did not know exactly how long the series would last, only that it would have to end when the next games came out.
*Alan was always meant to be part of the main series. The reason the four Mega specials were made was because it would be difficult to set up his backstory and development in the series itself, so he came up with the idea of giving him his own episodes that could establish his character. The idea to give these episodes a mega evolution theme came later, and was also his idea (so they were not made for the purpose of marketing megas, or in order to test the water for a series with another main character or any other such theory).
*Also, Alan is meant to be an "Anakin Skywalker-type character", someone who turns to the dark side to protect those he loves.
*Satoshi's XY design was primarily Yajima's, and the idea for his sideburns were taken from "a character from the video games named Red, which Satoshi is based on".
*Yajima wanted to make the bond between Satoshi and Gekkouga a major part of the story, but felt it would be difficult to do so if it had to remain a Gekkouga, so he went to Game Freak, and they came up with the idea of a synchro transformation. It was put in Sun/Moon afterwards, but was created during this discussion between anime staff and GF.
*The interviewer notes that Okido didn't appear at all outside of episode 3, and that Okido's lecture segment getting replaced with PokeTV when XY&Z started meant that Okido didn't appear at all throughout all of XY&Z (the interview was conducted before XY&Z47 had aired) and asks if there was a reason for this. Yajima confirms this was a complete oversight, not something intentional. Presumably this goes for other callbacks to older series as well.
*When XY&Z started, Yajima knew that the series had to wrap up everything in only a year, and they did a meeting to basically set up how the events of that year would go. He also specifically says that this is the reason there's minimal filler in XY&Z, there was absolutely no room.
*Yajima wanted to drop the use of stock footage completely, but this wasn't possible to do, so they went with creating stock foreground footage that could have different backgrounds added to it instead.


Having to get everything done in a year does explain why XYZ was so rushed.
 

volcanionmaster123

Well-Known Member
I think we can all agree on the fact that while XYZ had the least amount of filler, the ones placed before the major competitions have been some of the worst we've seen in an otherwise pretty good series.

As for the shipping thing, I don't think this interview added anything new except clarification for anyone that doubted what happened

Anyways, I was intrigued why the head honchos decided to have another romantic interest for Satoshi when they still had Misty in the backburner... but sadly I think we all know why now

"he is meant to be in surprised awe"

Well, **** lol, ok fine whatever, no use crying about it anymore
 

Soniman

Break the Limit
I'm a little annoyed that they gave Ash the personality they did just to make Serena who she is. Of all the personalities to give, they gave him one as flat as a sheet of paper. I've gave my complaints about Ash's personality, but this new information gives a whole new level of WTF.

"we made Serena admire Ash so we could explore that idea" is all that's said, I have no idea where you got that assumption other then just wanting to rant about XY Ash again

Having to get everything done in a year does explain why XYZ was so rushed.
I only ever hear that in regards to Kalos League, and that's not even the fault of the saga as a whole and more just the League as a self contained arc bring poorly paced. They could've re arranged some stuff in the 8 episodes they were given and turned out a much better League, it was less about having little time and just plain ol lousy writing

Also the idea that they had to censor the kiss to get it on TV confuses me, I didn't know kissing I'm Japan was that scandalous, it explains why you rarely see it in anime
 
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