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What are your taboo opinions about the anime?

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- XY was one of the most boring points of the series, or at least the last half was. They had went back to relying on the formula 90% of the time after BW had offered them some reasonable storytelling freedom, and even worse it was largely at its most stale. Everything felt like it was on autopilot, stock/catchphrases were spammed, the protagonists lacked agency outside by-the-numbers plots, and any time it looked like they were gonna do something interesting, an old trick like a Team Rocket interruption would happen. It felt like they were using the hype train (over a fake promise no less) to excuse keeping most of the series on 'autopilot'. Even worse, since XY wanted to take itself more seriously than previous series, it lacked even the intentional in-universe jadedness about the repetition.

- Serena was kinda boring. Again she was stuck in a series she wasn't allowed to remotely break from autopilot, she was a natural winner at nearly everything she tried (or in exceptions like battling, would just be plot armoured out of proper challenges anyway) and the shipping wasn't really interesting when Ash completely stonewalled her most of the series, having very few organic interactions with her.

- SM was rather slapdash in execution, but after XY it was a breath of fresh air, largely because there was WAY more spontaneity about it. Interactions were a bigger focus and felt way more organic, fillers were no longer repetitive and were actually enjoyable, the formula was only moderately used and floodgates were opened without relying on a hype train, an almost opposite of how XY worked. I definitely understand why many don't think it worked and was poorly executed, pacing was awful and in many cases it seemed unsure what to do with itself, but I feel it was a very necessary experiment.

- SM had the best male companion focus. This isn't as controversial for Kiawe I suppose, but I seem to be one of few who liked Sophocles, who I thought had a decent if subtle character arc. Female companions did kinda get screwed over though, even Lillie.

- I tend to overlook prestige in captures and evolutions with a Pokemon in favour of if the Pokemon in question is actually interesting with their trainer. Melmetal worked fine and they didn't over rely on its mythical status to shill it. Pikachu, Rowlet and Squirtle are memorable and rounded Pokemon despite never evolving. There's actually plenty of Pokemon I didn't really favour evolving since they tend to end up losing a lot of their personality and becoming battle bots to shill their trainer, though even then if they are done well and still likeable I can approve (I miss Rockruff, but Lycanroc was done well and was a good mix of badass while still having his old quirks and interactions).
I disagree with everything here
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Disliking almost any aspect of XY or SM is far from a taboo opinion. Especially all of the stale “Ash was too serious/childish in XY/SM” jokes

Journeys doing “what fans have been asking for” is not a counterargument to criticism

DP fillers were not bad at all (for the most part).

I’d take a Galar anime with the usual formula over Journeys any day.
 

Sham

The Guardian of Ruin and Birth
Disliking almost any aspect of XY or SM is far from a taboo opinion. Especially all of the stale “Ash was too serious/childish in XY/SM” jokes

Journeys doing “what fans have been asking for” is not a counterargument to criticism

DP fillers were not bad at all (for the most part).

I’d take a Galar anime with the usual formula over Journeys any day.
Curious what's your opinion on the recent Cynthia episode since you're one of the biggest Sinnoh lovers hands down.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Curious what's your opinion on the recent Cynthia episode since you're one of the biggest Sinnoh lovers hands down.
I thought Cynthia’s inclusion made sense given that she has established knowledge on the Unown in the games. However, like Dawn, just found it to be an underwhelming return for her character after her last appearance was in BW (seriously after watching BW again I appreciate both of their returns in that season much more). I always say I don’t need a returning character to be some ultra cool badass with a team full of OP Pokémon or for them to be an exposition machine retelling their encounters with Ash to tell the viewers “Hey! We’re referencing x series from your childhood!”. Just incorporate them into the series in a more intriguing way. If I was a new viewer watching these characters for the first time, I wouldn’t think much about this from my first impression.
 

mehmeh1

Not thinking twice!
Disliking almost any aspect of XY or SM is far from a taboo opinion. Especially all of the stale “Ash was too serious/childish in XY/SM” jokes

Journeys doing “what fans have been asking for” is not a counterargument to criticism

DP fillers were not bad at all (for the most part).

I’d take a Galar anime with the usual formula over Journeys any day.
tbh at first I was like "yay, they're not constrained to the games anymore", but looking at how JN has been, yeah I'd prefer a loose SwSh adaptation.
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
Exactly. You can do something the fans asked for and still do it wrong.
It’s one of my biggest gripes with online communities. Ash getting Lucario was something most fans wanted but a lot of people have issue with its inconsistent screentime (both opinions that I can acknowledge even as someone who dislikes it). The writers aren’t guaranteed to instantly get it right because fans want it otherwise a lot of media we consume would be much more unanimously liked.
tbh at first I was like "yay, they're not constrained to the games anymore", but looking at how JN has been, yeah I'd prefer a loose SwSh adaptation.
I was interested but cautious since the beginning when we learned it was a deviation from the norm but I’ve only had my interest wane as more of it comes out. It’s not like JN is an irredeemable pile of garbage but I’m not a fan of this format
 

LazySpy

Kimty
DP fillers were not bad at all (for the most part).
I somehow missed this but hard disagree at least based on first 26 episodes of the show. It's not just that I think they have little going for them, my issue with DP's fillers is they introduced a lot of the problems for the worldbuilding and one of them straight up has a tentacle blade that damages... Like, a *lot* of Pokemon stories.
 
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Spider-Phoenix

#ChespinGang
I thought Cynthia’s inclusion made sense given that she has established knowledge on the Unown in the games. However, like Dawn, just found it to be an underwhelming return for her character after her last appearance was in BW (seriously after watching BW again I appreciate both of their returns in that season much more). I always say I don’t need a returning character to be some ultra cool badass with a team full of OP Pokémon or for them to be an exposition machine retelling their encounters with Ash to tell the viewers “Hey! We’re referencing x series from your childhood!”. Just incorporate them into the series in a more intriguing way. If I was a new viewer watching these characters for the first time, I wouldn’t think much about this from my first impression.
Agreed.

Their return arc in BW wasn't that bad. Also, Dawn was allowed time to not just connect to Iris but also have some sort of interaction with Cilan as well as reconnecting with Ash and even having one do stuff together.
1. Ash should have kept Aipom. Even if she was into contests he could have just lent her to Dawn on occasions.
This. So much.

The trade thing was what kind of turned me off the DP hype at the time.

It might have had a good build up (not sure if agree though) but I don't like the payoff. Also, I felt the only one who truly benefit from it all was Buizel.

Also, Ash's been shown to be not complete against taking contests every once in a while. And it's not like he is aiming to be top coordinator as much as just testing his skills and maybe learning new things - which HE DID - so there wouldn't be issues with he doing things more to the liking of his pokémon. Gets even weirder considering all the context and prior story he's had with Aipom. At times, I feel like the trade thing was an afterthought since they figured "well, we really should stop demonizing trading in this show since the games kind of want people to do it"
 

Ignition

We are so back Zygardebros
I somehow missed this but hard disagree at least based on first 26 episodes of the show. It's not just that they have little going for them, my issue with DP's fillers is they introduced a lot of the problems for the worldbuilding and one of them straight up introduces a tentacle blade that damages... Like, a *lot* of Pokemon stories.
Can’t speak on the world building criticism as my knowledge on DP is hazy with my most recent rewatch being awhile ago but I enjoyed them in a vacuum. From what I see online, people act like they’re the most boring in the anime when I find a lot to be entertaining (with some major duds occasionally)
 
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pardusco

"The oppression of Poké Balls."
Ash's journey should have ended in DP. He's been a different character in every series since BW and I'm sick of it. Show BW Ash, XY Ash, SM Ash, and Journeys Ash to a rando on the street and they'll say that these are four different characters.

Chloe disliking Pokemon could have been such an original and fresh take but instead they forced her to like Pokemon anyways. "You're gonna cuddle with that Eevee and you're gonna enjoy it!"

Sun and Moon was so boring. If I was a prisoner at Guantanamo and you wanted to torture me, just play SM on repeat nonstop.

Anime Lillie is a terrible character and a disgrace when compared to what the games gave to them. A victim of narcissistic abuse is now afraid to touch Pokemon (but goes to a Pokemon school lol) and her mom is a workaholic that doesn't question the sudden change in her daughter's behavior. And Gladion is still edgy because reasons.

The first half of XY was not that interesting.

Ash Greninja was a dumb idea. It has this bond phenomenon with Ash because reasons (we can't give him a mega, how do we power him up?). What was the point of making it if the frog still gets folded by Zard, and why was that shuriken orange? At least is was really good in competitive Pokemon lol.

The Kalos League loss and current nonexistence of Amourshipping are proof that nothing will fundamentally change in this show if it keeps the current format. Ash will always be a 10 year old kid with a Pikachu, Team Rocket will always try to steal Pikachu, and other characters will come and go without leaving a noticeable lasting impact unless they are used for clickbait. Ash's Alola champion status means nothing in Journeys and has had almost zero impact on the show. None of the events during the past two decades of this show actually mean anything on the grand scale of things. I think realizing this is what made me so cynical about this show and made it basically impossible for me to feel attached to any of the characters. Its like none of them matter since they will amount to nothing once the next iteration of the series begins.

The writers need to stop focusing on OCs and COTDs and start focusing on the game characters that the general Pokemon fanbase actually cares about. Twilight Wings has done Galar and its characters more justice than 70+ episodes of Journeys. C'mon bro. I was disappointed when they revealed Project Mew was led by those two edgy OCs. Mew is a rare and legendary Pokemon. What a coincidence, Peony is after rare and legendary Pokemon in the Crown Tundra! Would it hurt too much to let the dude show up instead of making another character that nobody outside of the anipoke community cares about? That reminds me, isn't SWSH one of the highest grossing games in the franchise? Yet they still choose to advertise a mobile game that hasn't been relevant since summer 16...

Journeys art style is just as bad as SM, if not worse. Sure, Ash looks slightly better, but everyone else looks flat and bad. The SM cast aside from Ash and Brock looked decent.

The writers need to realize that they can incorporate and expand on the game's story instead of just dropping in an arc and then going back to the status quo (looking at you Darkest Day). Instead of letting Goh steal Hop's entire arc, why not have Ash and Hop become rivals and show the immense pressure of being the champion's brother?

The weekly format is holding the show back and I like it when they take a break! I'm just dying for a character-driven and consistent Pokemon anime that has a clear plan. Sometimes it feels like episodes are made up on the spot.
 

janejane6178

Kaleido Star FOREVER in my heart <3
Sun and Moon was so boring. If I was a prisoner at Guantanamo and you wanted to torture me, just play SM on repeat nonstop.


Journeys art style is just as bad as SM, if not worse. Sure, Ash looks slightly better, but everyone else looks flat and bad. The SM cast aside from Ash and Brock looked decent.
Finally someone with a common sense
 
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