SPOILERS! General Pokémon Anime Discussion

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

So today there obviously wasn't a new episode as we reached the conclusion of Ash's story last week and Liko's story with Horizons isn't starting until two weeks from now, but today there were a lot of live performances of OPs and EDs from the many seasons of Ash's chapter of the anime, you can go through stuff like Twitter to see them, but mainly today we get a taste of the new OP song for PM23/Horizons, performed by asmi.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1641760954500169729

This definitely has more of a "shojo" feel to it than the many opening themes of Ash's chapter of the anime, imo. But I definitely like it a lot!

Looking forward to Horizons and the new story Liko has to tell! It's sad to say goodbye to Ash, he and his friends are an irreplaceable treasure for me and a big part of my formative years, but all things must come to an end someday. That said, with each end comes a new beginning, and we're entering a new beginning for this show. Can't wait to see what Liko's story and journey is gonna be like!

 

[DreamPrince]

shojo" feel

Shojo?

 

[XaCez]

I'll be honest, the song isn't doing anything for me. Maybe it'll be different when I get to hear it in conjunction with visuals in two weeks.

Shojo?

In this context, Shojo, sometimes spelt shoujo, refers to anime targetted towards girls.

 

[R_N]

It'll sound better when it's not a recording of a recording of a live performance

 

[precita]

All the previews of Liko so far feel like the writers are trying to promote her similar to Dawn in the early DP era. Remember how Dawn got nearly all the first ep of DP to herself? Liko and the way she's being promoted so far gives me the same feeling, along with getting the most marketable starter (the cute kitten), and Roy feels like he'll be secondary. Only this time there's no Ash coming back to bud in on the spotlight, so unlike Dawn, Liko basically has this whole series to herself without Ash taking over.

It'll be interesting to me if Liko doesn't do Gyms, since there's been no indication the Paldea Gym leaders will be featured. If not, this could be a more plot driven series since they'll have to make episodes about things other than gym battles and no Team Rocket around to steal Pokemon in every episode.

I really wonder how they can write a 100+ ep series out of this, if it were a shorter 26-52 ep anime I could see it. But this series will assumingly air all year round like Ash's did, so the saga is bound to be 100+ eps and run almost 3 years till the next gen comes out.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644740886449000448

I know we're all looking forward to a new story in the Pokemon anime starting next week, as am I (I'm looking forward to Liko for sure!), but as for the dub, we got the final part of Ash vs Leon out in dub.

And they played the original English Pokemon theme during that final clash of Ash vs. Leon! Absolutely amazing moment here!

Behold!

 

[Perriechu]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1644740886449000448

I know we're all looking forward to a new story in the Pokemon anime starting next week, as am I (I'm looking forward to Liko for sure!), but as for the dub, we got the final part of Ash vs Leon out in dub.

And they played the original English Pokemon theme during that final clash of Ash vs. Leon! Absolutely amazing moment here!

Behold!

Haven’t rewatched this full episode since it aired because I wanted to have it fresh for the dub and honestly, this is such a top tier episode. The animation is so on-point.

That segment with Pikachu running down the literal building and deflecting hits? The direction of it all is stellar.

The OG opening being used was just the the cherry on top. My only disappointment was the fact not every Pokémon in the dream sequence had their voices heard (several move their mouths w nothing coming out lol) but eh, I’m satisfied with what we got considering how much the dub likes to mess with music and such

 

[pika pal]

I gotta admit I'm not too used to the ending cut and the conclusion being a flashback in the aftermath, since I got so accustomed to a friend's edit that syncs "Advance Adventure" with the sequence after Pikachu wakes up, and includes Charizard fainting to keep things in Sync.

 

[RocketSurgery]

I'm glad that after murdering the hype music of the Kalos and Alola finals the dub finally figured out how to pick a fitting theme for the climax of a battle. A very nice choice to bookend the series.

 

[Valoo]

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Did not expect this!

 

[Pikachu315111]

Did not expect this!

Did not expect it but makes sense

 

[R_N]

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View attachment 507685

Did not expect this!

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Guessing its a pre-evo of Terapagos (or a weaker form, but it's got enough differences to come off as a pre-evo.

 

[RocketSurgery]

Looks like the animation in at least the first few episodes is pretty nice:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1646837105262223366

Friede seems pretty cool too.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1646831718253359105

I hope they just give Friede all the popular mons. Lucario, Greninja, Eevee, Gholdengo. Just see how far they can push it before people turn on him. :P

 

[Mova]

Why Gholdengo? Is it because it's popular on Smogon?

 

[RocketSurgery]

Ran out of non-starter ideas for popular mons and mon #1000 seems like a natural candidate for the anime to push at some point. :P

 

[pika pal]

Ran out of non-starter ideas for popular mons and mon #1000 seems like a natural candidate for the anime to push at some point. :P

I feel like there are two "Popularity" types, those the company knows and markets (Charizard, Lucario, Greninja), and those that just kind of happened when they were put in the fanbase's hands (Gengar, Gen 4 Com Mons Staraptor and Bidoof, Snom, and most recently I would argue Clodsire and Tinkaton). Some of the latter obviously started seeing official marketing when their popularity became apparent (like the short animation the Pokemon Channel posted to YT), but in many of these cases these Pokemon snowballed in popularity after being seen in-game and the promotion came after.

Gholdengo I don't feel has had too much of a push from either angle, mostly having the Gimmighoul preview in Go and then just kind of settling into the roster, and its gimmick essentially telegraphs far in advance a character will be adding it to their team if they want to show off its unique trait.

What I'd find amusing is if Friede has the "Marketing Push" Pokemon on his team (imagine a bunch of the ones in Smash for example), and then someone else has the (then) unmarketed Popular mons. Like someone recurring with Quagsire, Flygon, Tinkaton, Amoongus, etc.

 

[KaenSoul]

First two episodes were quite good, the plot may be a bit generic so far but seems alright for Pokémon standards.
I wonder if every episode will try to push the plot somewhat or if it will become episodic after a few, and Roy not appearing yet could mean this is mostly Liko story or could be that their storylines are distinct enough that having both from the beginning would get things too messy.
Anyway, with Liko being directly tied to Terapagos it could mean that they have this planned to directly promote the SV DLC, which is fine and all but means that they may have to take a completely different direction as soon as the next game is announced and that's a good reason to believe these characters may be staying only for this gen, they could still try to continue their story each gen but if it is tied too heavily on promoting the next product it may have bad consequences for whatever story they want to tell, but may not be a problem if this become an episodic show.

 

[ScraftyIsTheBest]

Finished watching the first two episodes of Horizons.

This story is off to a strong start. Liko's character is already very compelling, albeit distinct from Ash, in her own right and she's definitely setting up to be a very interesting protagonist. The animation of the episodes is great and the characters are all setting up to have interesting things going for them.

We're just beginning, but this new era of the Pokemon anime is going to be an interesting one. Can't wait to see Liko's story unfold.

 

[pokemon4eva]

Just watched both episodes, pretty interesting start with Liko's and Sprigatito's journey. I wonder if we're going back to the school setting sometime to meet with her roommate again. Friede and his Pikachu have a lot of charisma, and I hope we get to see more of the crew later on. The Explorers (lame name tho) are intriguing, Amethio doesn't seem to be the leader judging from the dialogue.

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And did we just see an early Terapagos stage??? They pulled a Ho-Oh, goddamn...

Kinda weird Roy hasn't appeared yet, and it looks he's not showing up in the next episode, I guess he's going to be the less focused of the duo.

 

[Magcargo]

The first episode was perfect. Seeing Friede kick ass with the #1 greatest Pokemon in existence, Charizard, was an exciting return to form for the true Pokemon Mascot. Does not make up for the disservice of having Charizard losing not once but twice in the league last season (which would never happen given that Charizard is the strongest Pokemon) but baby steps. Sadly in the second episode, they just had to ruin it by having Friede use the phony mascot Pikachu instead so the bad guys could win. If he used Charizard, he would have completely obliterated those guys and send them blasting off again. I'm hoping the remainder of the season takes what works in these first few episodes (Charizard) and cuts out what doesn't (Pikachu).

 

[Pikachu315111]

The first episode was perfect. Seeing Friede kick ass with the #1 greatest Pokemon in existence, Charizard, was an exciting return to form for the true Pokemon Mascot. Does not make up for the disservice of having Charizard losing not once but twice in the league last season (which would never happen given that Charizard is the strongest Pokemon) but baby steps. Sadly in the second episode, they just had to ruin it by having Friede use the phony mascot Pikachu instead so the bad guys could win. If he used Charizard, he would have completely obliterated those guys and send them blasting off again. I'm hoping the remainder of the season takes what works in these first few episodes (Charizard) and cuts out what doesn't (Pikachu).

It's funny to me that in recent times Charizard has slowly crept its way into yet another niche: Ride Pokemon. While we've seen characters ride on a Charizard in the early years (notably Ash during the 3rd Movie and, which also calls back to Liza riding on her Charizard's back; though thinking about it I don't remember if we ever saw Leon or Alain ride on their Charizard), the number of Ride Charizards have seen a boost: Alola had Charizard as the Fly PokeRide replacement (and in the anime had Kiawe the owner of the Ride Charizard), Let's Go had you ride Charizard if it was your "Following" Pokemon, there was that Special Delivery Charizard Promo Card during Gen VIII, and now in the anime we once again have a main character who uses Charizard as a Ride Pokemon.

Move over Lapras, Charizard is now the mount Pokemon of choice.

 

[XaCez]

Kinda weird Roy hasn't appeared yet, and it looks he's not showing up in the next episode, I guess he's going to be the less focused of the duo.

I like that they didn’t show Roy yet. There’s more than enough going on these first two episodes, with Liko, her relationship to Sprigatito, the pendant, everything with the Brave Asagi, the Explorers, etc.. Since he doesn't seem to be directly involved with the pendant business it's better to introduce him later so they can give him proper screentime and focus on something more directly related to him, like whatever that ball is.

 

[Mex]

though thinking about it I don't remember if we ever saw Leon or Alain ride on their Charizard),

Leon does ride his Charizard at least once as part of a training session with Ash in the Journey's Anime. Honestly was a pretty fun episode as well

 

[precita]

Hoping they actually don't bring in the Gym formula into this, the show actually has to have a plot if they don't cover 8 Gyms anymore. Doesn't seem like Liko is interested in challenging the Paldea Gyms anyway so I guess it's not happening.

 

[R_N]

It's their story so if they want to suddenly pivot to doing any part of SV's story they have free reign to do whatever in how it integrates into the meta plot. If Roy wants to do gyms while investigating some area there's nothing really stopping them from making that work. Or just play it straight or whatever.

That said they probably won't do it just because it seems like we're still setting up for another world traveler type deal.