CyberCubed
Yeah, ok!
I couldn't believe how long the gaps of some Gyms were. You'd think they'd evolve Ash's team bit but they didn't do that either.
I couldn't believe how long the gaps of some Gyms were. You'd think they'd evolve Ash's team bit but they didn't do that either.
First of all, the original intent of the games was to end Pokemon with Gold and Silver
This pretty much sums it up perfectly...The saga was designed to promote the games that were centered around the Johto region at the time...And it was meant to last until the new batch of games were released. Honestly, there wasn't that much to work with considering Johto's size doesn't vary greatly from Kanto. The plot/storyline wasn't really that long and I guess people think it was an attempt at a Kanto remake for whatever reason...But that's only because Johto IS directly linked with Kanto in the games...So basically, the games don't give the anime writers a whole lot to write about besides Gym Battles and stuff like Bug Catching and what have you.
So the anime writers are left with a whole region, a few new mechanics to explore (shinyness, Steel/Dark types), but overall, it's pretty much a blank slate as far as the anime is concerned.
I know exactly where this originated from though.
About 3 months or so ago, there was a thread in GPD with some guy who was working on the games in Gen I and Gen II. He said that he felt he was finished with the games after GS and no longer wanted to work on them. And ta-da! He no longer does! Self-fulfilling prophecy! He took a position at The Pokemon Company (the company that handles the non-games aspect of the franchise), and holds that position to this day.
SOMEHOW this morphed into "OMGZERS POKEYMANZ WAS GONNA END WITH GS!!!111!1!!11!1!!"
Iwata:
You’ve just used the term “ultimate” and I feel that even in their names, Gold and Silver were meant to be the ultimate in Pokémon games.
Ishihara:
That’s right. After we released Red and Green, we began working on these titles, thinking that the ultimate in Pokémon games could only ever be Gold and Silver.
Iwata:
Not in your wildest dreams did you think that you’d be making more and more games after Gold and Silver. (laughs)
Ishihara:
The reason that I licensed so many products and developed things like the trading cards was basically to ensure that Gold and Silver were successful. I felt that this was my primary role. So at that time, I worked with the assumption that after we put out Gold and Silver, my work as far as Pokémon was concerned would be done.
Iwata:
I see.
Ishihara:
So for me, Gold and Silver represented the finish line.
They still could've done better, but the games didn't give them much to work with.
Pretty sure it comes from here, actually.
So, essentially misreading "we assumed this would be it" as "we had initially decided this would be the final game".
Pretty sure it comes from
So, essentially misreading "we assumed this would be it" as "we had initially decided this would be the final game".
Its no surprise Best Wishes is faster paced, the writers probably don't want it to be as long and drawn out as Johto was.
Johto was a fluke in terms of the time it was released. All generations after it, the anime was released at about the same time as the games. While the original saga came much later than the game. To counteract this mismatch the company did the following:
- Create non-game related filler OI saga because G/S was delayed
- Include additional filler episodes in Johto to last until the game generation cycle ends
These measures have no been necessary since then. BW might be another exception because of the change to the 3DS, which came after the official start of the 5th gen.
If G/S was released on time, which was supposed to be around the end of the Indigo League then you can expect it to have been an even longer series.
I think with this, that they wouldn't have made Johto last 200 episodes if this was the case. As it was all the original series still I think they might have had a filler saga of some sort otherwise Johto would have been mind-numbingly boring, for me at least. I don't mind the Johto saga as it is now (albeit I missed the entirety of Master Quest, unintentionally) but adding an extra 40 episodes or so would have made it much more boring, unless they really focused on the main group's Pokemon development.
Johto was probably made in mind to please a worldwide audience, unlike the original saga. The animators had no idea Pokemon was going to get that big, probably they thought it would only be famous in Japan. But by the end of '98 and beginning of '99 they had to tone down certain things. OS had quite a number of Japanese cultural references while Johto (as far as I remember) lacked these kind of things.
Also Johto is a part of OS.
Well Tracey wasn't a well liked character exactly, I mean yeah he was fun at times but between him and Brock, you would have picked Brock.