Pokemon Anime: 25th Anniversary Special

[sdp]

The new series has been a failure and are now soft rebooting it with a time skip to see if people are interested in it this way.

[ZariusTwo]

They're aging the characters up....the show has truly digivolved

[ZariusTwo]

Actual screen grabs from a Pokemon anniversary OVA I'm working on. I'm 30% done with it. Nintendo are going to kill me.

Spoiler:

[CyberCubed]

A.I. will destroy us all.

I used to see images like this on deviantart back in the early 2000's, but at least there people were drawing it and were real artists.

[sdp]

The pokemon anime is basically dead now, getting rid of Ash proved to be a terrible decision. AI slop will ironically be better than whatever the writers were doing.

[CyberCubed]

Pokeshippers will finally get their wet dream come true through the power of A.I.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Pokeshippers will finally get their wet dream come true through the power of A.I.

My OVA totally ends with this, I cannot tell a lie

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

My OVA totally ends with this, I cannot tell a lie

Will this be canon to the “A Day Inside May” universe?

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Will this be canon to the “A Day Inside May” universe?

My mind's never quite reached those places

But yeah, the Pokeshipping finale is done in the best possible taste, no kissing or anything, just a big emotional scene and a hug.

[MikeandRaph87]

Perhaps instead of being any and all Pok'emon's best friend Ash challenges his father who's duties as as commissioner of Poke'mon League International kept him away form home and he wins with the core four? Misty finally admits she wants Ash and we see them together as adults with all of Ash's traveling buddies surrounding them at their wedding.

It took until the penultimate episode for Pidgeot to return after he promised to return for him so why not the above?

[CyberCubed]

I really do not understand why people care about Ash's non-existent father. It was one throwaway line from episode 2 from the beginning of the series before they planned out the series trajectory, it was never supposed to be something revealed or shown.

For example Misty's parents were never shown or alluded to (how are there 4 teenage sisters but no parents?), and most of the following female companions also have a missing parent. No one cares.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I really do not understand why people care about Ash's non-existent father. It was one throwaway line from episode 2 from the beginning of the series before they planned out the series trajectory, it was never supposed to be something revealed or shown.

For example Misty's parents were never shown or alluded to (how are there 4 teenage sisters but no parents?), and most of the following female companions also have a missing parent. No one cares.

Because, deep down, we all hope Ash's father turns out to be Geovanni.

Anyway, TONS of fictional characters are either orphans or only have one parent. And we don't always get an explanation for that.

It's just often a lot easier and more practical plot-wise to not give main characters parents or just give them one parent.

[sdp]

The whole Oak being his real father meme kinda works. That's my head canon.

[CyberCubed]

Anyway, the left Ash's story rather open ended for a reason. Giovanni/Team Rocket didn't really get an ending, so I do think we'll eventually get some movie/special or something down the the road with Ash returning. You can make Giovanni/TR the main villain of a story and just result it in with them being disbanded similar to the games and/or Giovanni arrested.

I think the writers did it because they knew Ash leaving after 25+ years was a risk, they had to wait and see if Horizons was succesful before given the Ash era a definitive conclusion. I do think Gen 10 will have an all new cast again, they're clearly going the Digimon or Yu-gi-oh route now with all new protagonists every new gen.

But it's obvious Ash will get shown again eventually, along with the original iconic Pikachu, in some follow-up special or movie.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Giovanni/Team Rocket didn't really get an ending, so I do think we'll eventually get some movie/special or something down the the road with Ash returning.

I think the reason why that's the case is due to Team Rocket only disbanding in the original game and they want to be canon compliant.

Mind you, Pokemon Yellow retells the original game with Ash as the protaganist.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by sdp

The whole Oak being his real father meme kinda works. That's my head canon.

That only works for me due to the jokes that Oak is banging his mum while Ash is away from Pallet Town.

Wasn't there also a fan theory that Ho-oh was Ash's father?

Anyway, the problem is that Pokémon anime is ridiculously huge and most people aren't gonna watch 1000 episodes. It took Ash 20+ years to become a Pokémon Master. Most people quit by Johto. I was never a big fan of the Pokémon anime. Too repetitive, stale and vanilla. Every episode was pretty much the same thing. That gets old fast.

The best thing about Pokémon are the games... and even those haven't been up to par in a long time, sadly. Did Nintendo never increase Gamefreak's budget after they transitioned to 3D or something? You can't just make an open world game like Scarlet/Violet with a tiny budget. Result: Glitchy mess and largely uncooked. Comparing Pokémon Scarlet/Violet with actual good open world games is a joke.

[sdp]

They left Ash's story open ended so they could come back to him in case of emergency. Also he's a merchandise juggernaut, they're for sure going to bring back Ash for a special for the 30th anniversary this year, whether it's a movie, an OVA or just an appearane in the cartoon, he'll show up. They're not going to likely overexpose him to make his returns "mean" something but they'll use him.

Team Rocket was never disbanded because of The Rocket Trio Jessie, James & Meowth. They couldn't get rid of them since they used to be a huge part of the show and well they were Team Rocket for all intents and purposes.

Originally Posted by Prowler

That only works for me due to the jokes that Oak is banging his mum while Ash is away from Pallet Town.

Wasn't there also a fan theory that Ho-oh was Ash's father?

Yeah I remember the Ho-Oh theory as well. I think the Giovanni theory was actually part of the live tour show which helped making it popular, not a big fan of it.

The Oak meme of him being a father was funny at first but the since the anime kept putting Ash's Mother and Professor Oak in scenes together even in flashbacks that unintentionally it just lines up too perfectly.

Originally Posted by Prowler

Anyway, the problem is that Pokémon anime is ridiculously huge and most people aren't gonna watch 1000 episodes. It took Ash 20+ years to become a Pokémon Master. Most people quit by Johto.

Pokemon anime wasn't some big epic saga like say One Piece or Naruto that you neede to follow. You can easily "start" from any generation and be fine. That's how it's gathered so many new fans over the years. Yeah most people quit during Johto, it's when the pokemon fad died and the anime at its worst/most repetitive.

Pokemon Original Series: Orange Island is an ending of sorts, it has Ash winning. You can stop there. If you continue to Johto then yeah well it becomes a lot longer, since that saga is too long and doesn't improve until the last 'season'. Starting in Johto is also mostly fine since it's an episodic show, you don't really need to know "the past" of how Ash got his other Pokemon. But that also serves as an "ending", Ash defeats Gary and the trio separate to continue their adventures.

Pokemon Advanced: Starts with a new cast basically, sure Ash is now a better trainer but you don't really need to know anything about the previous shows, the only returning Pokemon is Pikachu. Even the post Pokemon League arc of going back to Kanto doesn't really have any real callbacks which was a huge missed opportunity.

Pokemon DP: Same as Hoenn, it started with basically a new cast of everything so you're good.

Pokemon BW: Same thing, this one even makes Ash a rookie trainer again basically. So in a way following the series was a punishment since now it made no sense why Ash and Pikachu were so bad at battling.

Pokemon XY: Ash is a good trainer again but again mostly starting from scratch and the few references to the past are told through a flashback with new animation so no need to rewatch anything.

Pokemon S&M: Again don't need to know anything, also the style of the show changed since it wasn't about badges. Only important parts is Ash finally wins a Pokemon League, and I guess Brock/Misty return.

Pokemon Journeys: This one actually has a bunch of cameos and references to the past. But it can be enjoyed without prior knowledge since the concept of pokemon is very simple so the appearances just won't have the same effect if you didn't follow their journeys, but they're just a "character of the day" so it doesn't matter. But yeah Ash wins the "real" League of Leagues Pokemon League in this one since well no one watched Sun and Moon to care when he won his first league and retires.

I don't think most fans of the anime have watched everything either. Most people just watched the generation they grew up with + the original series. To be honest Black and White broke me, I barely watched the anime after that one, the hard reboot Ash got was too much for me to bare. Only watched ac ouple of episodes of the other animes which to their defense were a huge upgrade to BW.

The new anime came after this one but the fandom seems to have died rather quickly. It's almost like the second half of Johto were only true fans of the anime stuck around.

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

Mind you, Pokemon Yellow retells the original game with Ash as the protaganist.

While true, it's not an actual adaptation of the anime, it's just the original game with some small edits to have references to the anime. When the game came out the anime was still airing, that's why you see less references later on in the game. Not that the game would've been modified too much, you wouldn't have Ash battling a tournament league or losing. Although I would've loved an orange islands post game but whatever.

[Prowler]

I find it odd how the Pokémon anime series just changes the main girl every single generation. It started out by replacing Misty with May. Then May got replaced with Dawn. Brock sticking around for ages made zero sense. He was a gym leader like Misty, so he should have just left after Johto as well.

As yes, I know Pokémon is not an epic sage or anything but plenty of fans of the anime series online have watched it all the way through since 1998 or so. I could never get invested like that. The anime is basically an advertisement for the video games, and the way battling and raising Pokémon is done in the anime is nothing like in the games.

What live tour show? I thought the Geovanni theory was simply the inner Star Wars nerd in some fans coming out.

Calling Pokémon a fad is absurd. Even if it was at its hottest in the first 2 gens, the property remained VERY popular and making tons of money after 2002 or so. And it became more popular again with Pokémon Go and the Switch era with the Scarlet and Violet games selling 20M+ copies worldwide.

[sdp]

The pokemon fad peaked with the release of the first movie, it was still massively popular but by mid Gen 2 in 2002 or so it was completely dead. You could find anything pokemon related for cheap. Only hardcore fans stuck with it. It slowly began to get fans again, but even Gen3 was still mostly a "recovery" phase. Sure the games sold plenty but even merch was so so. Pokemon didn't become "cool" again until Pokemon Go came out and teh original kids who grew up with Gen 1 were now old and nostalgic and the TCG became an investment.

For years all those "rare" cards sold for pennies on ebay. I know because I bought tons. Sadly I sold most of my stuff right before pokemon became a profitable nostalgic product.

[Prowler]

I have spoken to people who grew up with Diamond and Pearl. They said Pokémon was pretty big in school like it was in our generation. We took our Game Boys to school to battle and trade. They took their Nintendo DS. And they possibly watched the anime as well.