The Future of the World Championships

[Almighty Zard]

If the writers want Greninja to come back, then they'll write the vines are taken care of because he got every last one of them. It's simple. Just like how the Johto-Kanto monorail was up and running in BW despite being scheduled for completion in about a year in OS. And Ash is still 10 years old.

Or Lei is a 3-month year old baby despite Burnet being in the early stage of pregnancy when we last saw her. And Ash is still 10 years old.

Or Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter all escaped from prison and reestablished their Team Galactic HQ with little to no issue in the Arceus Special. And Ash is still 10 years old.

Or the ultimate example. Ash is in the Master 8 and hailed as the Alola Champion after 25 years of Pokémon journeys... and he's still 10 years old.

Time works when the writers want it to work in a certain way. And the same can be said about the vines.

I didn't know that the writers had to do things "your" way. Since when do we have any pull in what they do?

This back and forth is pointless at this point, i can only hope that if Greninja does not come back, you don't get upset.

Cause that is a possibility, not a certainty.

 

[Shadao]

I didn't know that the writers had to do things "your" way. Since when do we have any pull in what they do?

This back and forth is pointless at this point, i can only hope that if Greninja does not come back, you don't get upset.

Cause that is a possibility, not a certainty.

My example is to show just how easy it is to bring back Greninja. I didn't even try that hard to write the scenario. That's how easy it was as a writer.

No amount of in-universe arguments matter because the writers will steamroll it over if they think they have a better story. It's why Zelda timeline theories are doomed to fail, because that's not how Nintendo operate with canon. Same thing with Pokémon.

To predict anything about this series, you have to look into the merchandise, narrative, and how the anime team are promoting the series right now. That's how people knew that Ash's Charizard will return for BW despite all the insistence from naysayers that it may be a different Charizard.

 

[AARTX]

I didn't know that the writers had to do things "your" way. Since when do we have any pull in what they do?

This back and forth is pointless at this point, i can only hope that if Greninja does not come back, you don't get upset.

Cause that is a possibility, not a certainty.

Well, if Gren doesn’t return (along with the battle bond transformation) for the rest of JN, it would most certainly raise some questions.

Those omissions in JN 108 would stick out as a sore thumb and Greninja returning for Gen 9 seems very unlikely, and even more so if JN really is Ash’s last series.

 

[Pokefan_1987]

Well, if Gren doesn’t return (along with the battle bond transformation) for the rest of JN, it would most certainly raise some questions.

Those omissions in JN 108 would stick out as a sore thumb and Greninja returning for Gen 9 seems very unlikely, and even more so if JN really is Ash’s last series.

I doubt they will replace Ash or Jessie and James (I hate their intros and puns a lot) Just like its unlikely that the franchise is to stop existing anytime soon. They could make more side episodes like Generations and better series like the one Ash is traveling with Goh on instead of a single region.

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

Quite excited to see that Asada Yuuji, Iwane Masaaki and Tomioka Atsuhiro are not involved in the upcoming episodes for this month. This means that they are likely working ahead on the Masters Tournament, which means that they'll be handling more than one episode. Iwane's last solo episode was #95 (he did key animation for #96) in addition to solo key animating the four Arceus episodes, so my guess is that the production decided to bend over backwards so that he could skip the rotation and work on the Masters Tournament. I hope I'm not wrong~

 

[Dephender]

are we going to ever get some solid info on these various pictures?

It says absolutely nothing of value, just summarizes the plot (Satoshi wants to beat Dande, first the needed to enter the Master Class, now he has, now he needs to fight others there) and gives some quick profiles on everyone. It's more to get newcomers up to speed than anything.

 

[Master Pikachu 11]

I guess there will be no more Pokémon speculation thread anymore since it is locked. Oh well Ash is done with captures in this series anyway so there is nothing to talk about in regards to that

 

[darkstarj13]

No amount of in-universe arguments matter because the writers will steamroll it over if they think they have a better story. It's why Zelda timeline theories are doomed to fail, because that's not how Nintendo operate with canon. Same thing with Pokémon.

To predict anything about this series, you have to look into the merchandise, narrative, and how the anime team are promoting the series right now. That's how people knew that Ash's Charizard will return for BW despite all the insistence from naysayers that it may be a different Charizard.

yes they can just ignore all 30 years of story because that's what writers can do... bad writers maybe. writers who haven't run a show for 30 years.

the "i wave my hand and it happens" arguments are only there if you can't find a good reason to do something, keep those to your fanfic and leave reasonable story driven options open because those are far more likely than "they do it cuz they can"

 

[Evstike]

Quite excited to see that Asada Yuuji, Iwane Masaaki and Tomioka Atsuhiro are not involved in the upcoming episodes for this month. This means that they are likely working ahead on the Masters Tournament, which means that they'll be handling more than one episode. Iwane's last solo episode was #95 (he did key animation for #96) in addition to solo key animating the four Arceus episodes, so my guess is that the production decided to bend over backwards so that he could skip the rotation and work on the Masters Tournament. I hope I'm not wrong~

Asada said on twitter than he couldn't work on the recent Team Rocket episode because he was already occupied with the Arceus specials, meaning that this batch of episodes was in production around the same time as those specials. Looks like we're seeing that in effect now with no Iwane episodes since #95/96 like you said. It seems to me like he didn't actually skip rotations but instead worked on the specials during this time. There's no way he could handle 4 action packed solo specials as well as the usual main series episode all at once, he's still human after all. There are a few scenes from the last special preview (Garchomp vs Dragonite, Ash standing with his team) that resemble his work and it's possible he'll help out with #112 so it looks like we'll be seeing him again soon.

 

[Bortgreen]

I guess there will be no more Pokémon speculation thread anymore since it is locked. Oh well Ash is done with captures in this series anyway so there is nothing to talk about in regards to that

It has been used for general speculation in quite a while though, idk why it was closed

Quite excited to see that Asada Yuuji, Iwane Masaaki and Tomioka Atsuhiro are not involved in the upcoming episodes for this month. This means that they are likely working ahead on the Masters Tournament, which means that they'll be handling more than one episode. Iwane's last solo episode was #95 (he did key animation for #96) in addition to solo key animating the four Arceus episodes, so my guess is that the production decided to bend over backwards so that he could skip the rotation and work on the Masters Tournament. I hope I'm not wrong~

ooh this would be epic

 

[Shadao]

yes they can just ignore all 30 years of story because that's what writers can do... bad writers maybe. writers who haven't run a show for 30 years.

the "i wave my hand and it happens" arguments are only there if you can't find a good reason to do something, keep those to your fanfic and leave reasonable story driven options open because those are far more likely than "they do it cuz they can"

Because it happened before in the Pokémon anime. If we followed this train of logic, Poipole would have been released forever and never return because of the circumstances. Yet, that's not what the writers did. They wanted Poipole to rejoin Ash's team for the final exhibition battle against Professor Kukui.

So they created a Guzzlord Crisis with Ultra Wormholes popping out of nowhere after Ash won the Alola League. One of these wormholes brought back Poipole as an evolved Naganadel, who then rejoins Ash. That's all it took for the writers to bring back a character that should be impossible to reclaim back for Ash.

That is reality. And the sooner people realize this, then maybe people wouldn't fall into the same cycle of "Ash's [Insert Pokémon Here] will not return despite all evidence to the contrary" again and again.

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

Asada said on twitter than he couldn't work on the recent Team Rocket episode because he was already occupied with the Arceus specials, meaning that this batch of episodes was in production around the same time as those specials. Looks like we're seeing that in effect now with no Iwane episodes since #95/96 like you said. It seems to me like he didn't actually skip rotations but instead worked on the specials during this time. There's no way he could handle 4 action packed solo specials as well as the usual main series episode all at once, he's still human after all. There are a few scenes from the last special preview (Garchomp vs Dragonite, Ash standing with his team) that resemble his work and it's possible he'll help out with #112 so it looks like we'll be seeing him again soon.

That's the question, though, were the Arceus episodes produced before or after #95? Episode #106 could have already been assigned at the same time Asada took on the four Arceus episodes. I'm curious, actually, because it does make sense that if they didn't have to worry about the Arceus episodes then Asada and Iwane probably would have handled #100 or #101 and then #106, so that definitely tracks. That then means that Iwane might've handled #111 or #112 (a big battle royal episode that). The thing is, though, that Iwane has been known to do animation between his regular solo episodes, so I'm curious if he did work on the Arceus episodes that wouldn't have taken him out of commission from the regular rotation, like the four Mega Evolution specials.

I definitely agree with the idea that Iwane might be on #112, though. Iwane typically provides key animation for Shinjou episodes, so this would track.

 

[Dephender]

It has been used for general speculation in quite a while though, idk why it was closed

I think it got closed on accident along with some other threads, opened it again.

 

[Broseph08]

Gonna be honest, despite the reveal that Alain is in the tournament, I actually don't think he will battle Ash. Maybe I'll be proven wrong but I'm sticking to my current predication that Ash will battle Lance and Cynthia and Alain will battle Leon in a Mega Charizard X vs. G-Max Charizard showdown.

Few reasons:
1. Lance has been heavily teased. Leon, Cynthia, Lance, Bea, and Raihan were all teased as Ash's opponents. Bea left the graphic when she was beaten and it showed the other four. It has been pretty consistent so I think he will end up battling Lance at some point

2. The anime likes to show the gimmicks as being equal to each other. In Sun and Moon, there were two z-move vs. Mega evolution battles where the result was split. Brock's Mega won vs. Kiawe's z-move while Misty's mega lost to Ash's z-move. So far we've seen one mega vs. G-max battle and the mega won. I have a feeling we will see a G-Max win vs. a mega and this is a very obvious one

3. G-Max Charizard vs. Mega Charizard is super hype in its own.

I could end up being wrong about this but I'm actually gonna stick to this prediction unless or until it's shown Alain will battle Ash.

Also since I saw discussion earlier, I think there's zero chance that even if Ash does battle Alain, it's a second round match. People only want to see Greninja vs. Mega Charizard. Imagine throwing the best champion in the games in the first round instead of a rematch where people won't even care about 10 of the 12 Pokémon battling. No way they'd even consider it

Not gonna lie, the article about Lance coming out a few hours after I wrote this just made me more confident. I know it's not specifically saying they'll battle but a puff piece about Lance and how he wants to defeat Leon while marketing it with Gyarados and Dracovish does give me a good feeling.

 

[Evstike]

That's the question, though, were the Arceus episodes produced before or after #95? Episode #106 could have already been assigned at the same time Asada took on the four Arceus episodes. I'm curious, actually, because it does make sense that if they didn't have to worry about the Arceus episodes then Asada and Iwane probably would have handled #100 or #101 and then #106, so that definitely tracks. That then means that Iwane might've handled #111 or #112 (a big battle royal episode that). The thing is, though, that Iwane has been known to do animation between his regular solo episodes, so I'm curious if he did work on the Arceus episodes that wouldn't have taken him out of commission from the regular rotation, like the four Mega Evolution specials.

I definitely agree with the idea that Iwane might be on #112, though. Iwane typically provides key animation for Shinjou episodes, so this would track.

That is a very good question, and now that I think about it it's possible he started working on some of the specials earlier and the remaining ones later (around the time #106 was in production). I noticed the characters in the last 2 specials had a slightly different look from the first 2 but I'm not sure if that was a result of being corrected or his style slightly evolving over time if there was indeed a gap between them. Remember Iwane started to have bigger gaps between his episodes starting around mid 2021 (7-9 instead of the usual 5-6) so maybe he was given more time to work on the first special or two while still keeping up with the regular rotation. Now looking at those episodes, it's also possible he was allowed more time because two consecutive rotations were major battles or to make sure they fell on those specific episodes. You also have to keep in mind the 4 Mega Evolution specials were spaced out throughout the series and didn't air all four episodes (closer to 3 when you consider runtime) over the span of two weeks. I do find it strange that Iwane didn't participate in #103 despite it being a Shinjo episode but then again half of the usual team was missing so I don't think it's anything related.

 

[Almighty Zard]

It says absolutely nothing of value, just summarizes the plot (Satoshi wants to beat Dande, first the needed to enter the Master Class, now he has, now he needs to fight others there) and gives some quick profiles on everyone. It's more to get newcomers up to speed than anything.

i'm just hoping the 1 v 1 to determine who fights who thing ain't true.

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

That is a very good question, and now that I think about it it's possible he started working on some of the specials earlier and the remaining ones later (around the time #106 was in production). I noticed the characters in the last 2 specials had a slightly different look from the first 2 but I'm not sure if that was a result of being corrected or his style slightly evolving over time if there was indeed a gap between them. Remember Iwane started to have bigger gaps between his episodes starting around mid 2021 (7-9 instead of the usual 5-6) so maybe he was given more time to work on the first special or two while still keeping up with the regular rotation. Now looking at those episodes, it's also possible he was allowed more time because two consecutive rotations were major battles or to make sure they fell on those specific episodes. You also have to keep in mind the 4 Mega Evolution specials were spaced out throughout the series and didn't air all four episodes (closer to 3 when you consider runtime) over the span of two weeks. I do find it strange that Iwane didn't participate in #103 despite it being a Shinjo episode but then again half of the usual team was missing so I don't think it's anything related.

The larger gaps between episodes are precisely why I wonder if he was already busily at work on the Arceus episodes. Additionally, I've noticed that Iwane has worked on less Shinjou episodes for the last few years, so I'm curious if that is due to the production not having the time it once did (i.e. episodes being finished five months before broadcast as was the case during DP and BW) or if he was simply working on other projects.

 

[Evstike]

I've noticed that Iwane has worked on less Shinjou episodes for the last few years, so I'm curious if that is due to the production not having the time it once did (i.e. episodes being finished five months before broadcast as was the case during DP and BW) or if he was simply working on other projects.

He's only missed #103 in JN so far and one or two Takuranke episodes from SM and XY but I may be missing a few from XY. That's almost nothing unless there's something I'm missing.

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

He's only missed #103 in JN so far and one or two Takuranke episodes from SM and XY but I may be missing a few from XY. That's almost nothing unless there's something I'm missing.

Unless I'm missing credits there's been a few rotations where he hasn't done any key animation between his solo episodes https://pastebin.com/raw/S3V282yn

 

[DuskAstral]

I can already see this scenario:
Greninja will return to Satoshi for the PWC game.
After that, we get an episode where Satoshi and Gou go to Kalos, where it turns out that the region is 90 percent destroyed and a lot of people have suffered.
(all because Greninja has selfishly left Kalos to the prey of the dangerous roots)
Everyone blames Satoshi for this, of course.