Wasted opportunities in the Pokémon anime.

[AuraChannelerChris]

I guess there's a lot of young kids on X (twitter) where they like to promote the anime every week. The audience is not entirely composed of 8 years old. Specially back in the DP/XY days when a lot of people who grew up with the anime were still watching. Otherwise Black and White wouldn't have received so much backlash.

Their stuff tends to lean much more heavily to the fantastical and lighter stuff than even the games, which also gives them an excuse to make ****** up as they go. This is why they'd never adapt something as dark as the dark side of the Aether Foundation with a seemingly abusive mother (which is why they turned Lusamine into an embarrassing mother, and her stuff was the entire backbone of SM's dark themes so changing her killed the whole plot in one fell swoop) and Arven and his backstory (which is...somehow just as similar, so...irony?).

And if they do adapt some heavy themes, expect them to be completely separated from the main plot and contained in one episode that can be forgotten easily and never mentioned by the characters ever again.

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Oh, and to add more wasted opportunities...is it somehow so very hard for Roy to call his parents over the phone? Because that flashback made it look like they died with the way absolutely no one ever got the idea to just make a phone call, and you can't just tell me their slow-***** job across the sea absolutely forbids them to make a single call. Or is this just a cheap way to make Friede look like Roy's cool uncle or something?

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

Their stuff tends to lean much more heavily to the fantastical and lighter stuff than even the games, which also gives them an excuse to make ****** up as they go. This is why they'd never adapt something as dark as the dark side of the Aether Foundation with a seemingly abusive mother (which is why they turned Lusamine into an embarrassing mother, and her stuff was the entire backbone of SM's dark themes so changing her killed the whole plot in one fell swoop) and Arven and his backstory (which is...somehow just as similar, so...irony?).

And if they do adapt some heavy themes, expect them to be completely separated from the main plot and contained in one episode that can be forgotten easily and never mentioned by the characters ever again.

---------------

Oh, and to add more wasted opportunities...is it somehow so very hard for Roy to call his parents over the phone? Because that flashback made it look like they died with the way absolutely no one ever got the idea to just make a phone call, and you can't just tell me their slow-***** job across the sea absolutely forbids them to make a single call. Or is this just a cheap way to make Friede look like Roy's cool uncle or something?

Which is strange because we’ve been some pretty dark storylines in the Anime before

Remember Hunter J and how she went out?

 

[vondecayle]

Their stuff tends to lean much more heavily to the fantastical and lighter stuff than even the games, which also gives them an excuse to make ****** up as they go. This is why they'd never adapt something as dark as the dark side of the Aether Foundation with a seemingly abusive mother (which is why they turned Lusamine into an embarrassing mother, and her stuff was the entire backbone of SM's dark themes so changing her killed the whole plot in one fell swoop) and Arven and his backstory (which is...somehow just as similar, so...irony?).

I believe we talked about this before. What is odd to me is that it is acceptable to portray this kind of stories in the games (which kids also play), but not the anime? Unless there's other restrictions that I don't know about on tv, it doesn't make much sense.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Which is strange because we’ve been some pretty dark storylines in the Anime before

Remember Hunter J and how she went out?

Yeah, that's what I meant. We all just saw her and her ship falling into a whirlpool, but not much elaboration. She became forgotten immediately after it. Her "death" was just as "graphic" as when Lysandre "died" in a very cheap low budget TRio blast-off scene.

I believe we talked about this before. What is odd to me is that it is acceptable to portray this kind of stories in the games (which kids also play), but not the anime? Unless there's other restrictions that I don't know about on tv, it doesn't make much sense.

Different demographics.

Or hell, it may very well be different writers and how they perceive what's acceptable and what's not to the same audience.

Or alternatively, several episodes depicting a traumatic event lasts much longer than in a game. They have to play things right or else they'll risk triggering another Sailor Moon anime Season 1 finale (in which every Sailor Guardian but Usagi died, which actually did traumatize children so much they became seriously depressed... and the ironic thing was that it was all filler).

 

[vondecayle]

Different demographics.

Or hell, it may very well be different writers and how they perceive what's acceptable and what's not to the same audience.

Kids are part of the demographic of the games.

The writers are different of course, but as we now know (from the leaks), gamefreak does have a say in the anime sometimes. Guess they are all happy as long as the pets are being promoted. Storytelling has never been the main priority anyway.

 

[MunchMunch]

Ambipom has always been considered ugly and hated by people so I can 100% see that being the reason it was let go.

 

[Weedle_Mchairybug]

True, but it would've been nice if professor Rowan had told them to keep the Pokemon they bonded with, if they wanted to.

This one always boggles my mind. They let May have 7 pokemon in total and she left her Skitty and Beautifly behind for her Kanto journey, so it's not like they couldn't have done the same for Dawn.

That was a great episode, minus the ending. Swablu/Altaria would've ate in contests.

I really loved their bonding, Raichu and Ash were really nice too. Especially because his personality was different than Pikachu, but that capture would've been even more unlikely bc of Pikachu.

Speaking of which, did they REALLY need to have May leave those two at Oak's Lab? Couldn't they have her leave them at Professor Birch's Lab (aka, the guy who actually GAVE her her Pokedex originally), or even at Norman and Caroline's place?

 

[Mythical-Moonlight]

Speaking of which, did they REALLY need to have May leave those two at Oak's Lab? Couldn't they have her leave them at Professor Birch's Lab (aka, the guy who actually GAVE her her Pokedex originally), or even at Norman and Caroline's place?

Didn’t May leave Beautifly with her mom or am I misremembering?

 

[MunchMunch]

Speaking of which, did they REALLY need to have May leave those two at Oak's Lab? Couldn't they have her leave them at Professor Birch's Lab (aka, the guy who actually GAVE her her Pokedex originally), or even at Norman and Caroline's place?

She left them with her mom, it was Bulbasaur she left with Oak because of Ash’s Bulbasaur.

Tbh to this day I don’t understand why they written off Gailie, Torkal, Skitty, Beautifly, Ludicolo and Bulbasaur.

 

[Lord Godwin]

She left them with her mom, it was Bulbasaur she left with Oak because of Ash’s Bulbasaur.

Tbh to this day I don’t understand why they written off Gailie, Torkal, Skitty, Beautifly, Ludicolo and Bulbasaur.

Ash Bulbasaur was eventually left by May's which evolved into Venusaur. Ash Charizard also seems to be left by Charla and now he is at Oaks. Squirlte is living his best days with the Squirtle Squad.

Bros over hoes:-D

 

[Weedle_Mchairybug]

She left them with her mom, it was Bulbasaur she left with Oak because of Ash’s Bulbasaur.

Tbh to this day I don’t understand why they written off Gailie, Torkal, Skitty, Beautifly, Ludicolo and Bulbasaur.

Okay, so it was Bulbasaur. Still seemed pointless, even moreso considering the whole reason she had Bulbasaur in the first place was to promote FRLG, and that was also partly why Battle Frontier was set in Kanto at all (and speaking of which, THAT was a HUGE wasted opportunity for actually DOING callbacks to the original series for fresh eyes. Other than the fight against Agatha, Misty's brief return, and also to some extent the flashbacks to the Kanto Starters when Ash brought them back for Brandon's third match, there was hardly ANY reference to the OS at all, didn't have a revisit of Pidgeot DESPITE Ash promising him a while back, nor do we get any cameos from Primeape or even Haunter. If they're hardly even going to mention the OS much if at all, they were better off just creating an anime-only region to set the Battle Frontier in. It's even worse of a continuity allergy than XY was, which at least had Ash interacting with characters who weren't even IN Kanto save for maybe a brief time as a pre-10 year old in Serena's case as an excuse for why he didn't bother mentioning much about Indigo, and was in a completely foreign region.).

 

[DatsRight]

Their stuff tends to lean much more heavily to the fantastical and lighter stuff than even the games, which also gives them an excuse to make ****** up as they go. This is why they'd never adapt something as dark as the dark side of the Aether Foundation with a seemingly abusive mother (which is why they turned Lusamine into an embarrassing mother, and her stuff was the entire backbone of SM's dark themes so changing her killed the whole plot in one fell swoop) and Arven and his backstory (which is...somehow just as similar, so...irony?).

Really even just having Lusamine the one who wiped Lillie's memory over Faba would have left the arc making WAY more sense and if anything made rescuing her in Ultra Space feel more impactful. She didn't have to be 'evil', just overzealous. Like you can tell from little snippets of personality they WANTED to have a bit of that personality to her, like her dark glee at seeing Nihilego, but dialling her down to the point she had NO agency in the arc felt oversoftening it and left a lot of plot holes.

In terms of a big OS call back, I think it would have been interesting if they actually went back to Kanto being a 'crapsack' in return visits. I get this was a leftover from Shudo's original plans that they dialled down as soon as they could, but I think it made an interesting contrast with the other regions that the protagonists' home town was this toxically competitive place that felt you had to make an instant success as a trainer or you were a 'failure'. Especially so since it would have made it poetic that Ash's final runs were in places like Kalos, which was advanced but still good natured and saw Ash as some superhero, and Alola, which was pretty much the total opposite of OS Kanto by being very at peace and laid back, and viewing losses as just another element of experience. I think the dynamics of these two regions would have been way more interesting with some sort of contrast (likely why Guzma still worked well in SM despite his major demotion from the games).

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Honestly the entirety of the HZ anime for me feels like a wasted potential

HZ anime for me is literally the “potential man” of anipoke

It had such a great start and premise, some really fun and intriguing characters like Dot and Amethio, a completely different and likeable main girl protagonist and a really rich no filler plot which then devolved into the current mess it is

There was literally infinite potential with the series, they could do anything go in any direction and they just kept floundering the narrative any chance they got ever since Terastal Debut shat on Liko

Really frustrates me coz when HZ is good, its reallly good and hits hard, but most of the time it feels the writers lack any sort of imagination on how to use potential and actually write a consistent engaging series

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Focusing more on the boring, battle shonen Ash clone that is Roy and his awfully colored, overrated jackal instead of the actual main character Liko. This is exactly like Serena and XY(Z) Ash all over again, lol.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Focusing more on the boring, battle shonen Ash clone that is Roy and his awfully colored, overrated jackal instead of the actual main character Liko. This is exactly like Serena and XY(Z) Ash all over again, lol.

HZ has a million more problems and issues with it’s narrative than the problems that plagued Roy after the timeskip arc

 

[Mega Togekiss]

Having Team Rocket give up on chasing Ash and Pikachu and instead being radio hosts like in this filler Episode. What was the point if Ash will never come back (most fans are not dumb, they know that he never will)? Also, disappointed that AU Ash's goal isn't trying to figure out why he has the Sixth Sense.

 

[Luthor]

Speaking of team rocket I really wasn't a fan of the whole Rocket Prize Master thing they did. Personally I think it was a wasted opportunity not to bring back their old Pokemon sooner. They then could have potentially done things like have Yamask and Woobat evolve and we could have seen team rocket's various Pokemon from different regions bonding across the series.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I do agree that Horizons isn't that much about "horizons" (even though that's just the English title, which probably doesn't work anymore) that it's devolved into another battle-fest saga that doesn't equally give the main cast equal spotlight. Something about this change seems desperate to me.

 

[vondecayle]

I think there's a lot of wasted potential in the goals that they give to certain characters. The "I want to meet/catch X legendary pokemon" is a really boring, shallow goal and something that doesn't need an entire saga. That's one of the reasons why I think Roy, Ult, Goh are characters with wasted potential. With all the attention they got, they could've given them a much more interesting and creative goal. There's so many different competitions and stuff that pokemon can participate in, it just boggles my mind that the writers can't come up with anything better. Then, can their desire to meet this creatures be something with more nuance? Oh, Roy wants to be like the ancient adventurer and wants Rayquazas approval. Ok, but why and for what? Once he achieves that, what? Ult wants to be the "strongest", ok but for what? For sports, to defend someone? They never stop to think why they want these things, they just do. Like maybe one of them wants to be a poke-scientist and that's the reason they want to meet a legendary, they want to know their origins and how they interact with the world around them and they spend time searching for clues, investigating, idk doing something other than hopping along to whenever the wind takes them.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

I think there's a lot of wasted potential in the goals that they give to certain characters. The "I want to meet/catch X legendary pokemon" is a really boring, shallow goal and something that doesn't need an entire saga. That's one of the reasons why I think Roy, Ult, Goh are characters with wasted potential. With all the attention they got, they could've given them a much more interesting and creative goal. There's so many different competitions and stuff that pokemon can participate in, it just boggles my mind that the writers can't come up with anything better. Then, can their desire to meet this creatures be something with more nuance? Oh, Roy wants to be like the ancient adventurer and wants Rayquazas approval. Ok, but why and for what? Once he achieves that, what? Ult wants to be the "strongest", ok but for what? For sports, to defend someone? They never stop to think why they want these things, they just do. Like maybe one of them wants to be a poke-scientist and that's the reason they want to meet a legendary, they want to know their origins and how they interact with the world around them and they spend time searching for clues, investigating, idk doing something other than hopping along to whenever the wind takes them.

It's basically what Sword & Shield averted with all 3 rivals. Just becoming the strongest turned out to be rather hollow because they were following on the footsteps of whatever legacy they were trying to live up to, thinking that it was all they had to be, until they all realized they could enjoy life with other perspectives to be happy.

(...Of course, this mostly happens because the player trounces all of them, but regardless of that, 3 out of 4 trainers were going to find something else better to do.)

The main difference here is that the game characters are far more open-minded than the anime characters (that get more screen time than others); all of whom are stuck with the same "I'm gonna become stronger!" mentality.