Unpopular opinions you have about the anime(READ THE FIRST POST)

[Cresselia92]

The problem is the anime has gone on 5 generations with the same plot of Ash collecting 8 badges every saga. Which is probably the reason it feels more repetitive now because we've seen the same thing for 5 series in a row.

The only thing that really makes each saga different is whoever Ash's travel companions are, the Pokemon on the group at the time, and the rivals of each series. Other than some of the unique fillers or villains, its been the same formula since day 1.

I know that, but I think that even if they change main character it will be always the same goal: collect badges and win the League. Unless they'll change this route in the games, they will show us the same thing over and over and over.

Besides, remember that at this point we shouldn't even be watching the anime. What is a repetitive thing for us, it's a "new" concept for the newer generations. I guess that's what matter to them.

However, Ash's goal can be put on the background and the writers can focus more on the other goals. In that way, they keep promoting the games, while giving a more original and exclusive story.

I don't think they will try something like that, but I believe that if they really want they can do that.

[pokemonsquared]

Or they could make Ash competent and scrap all the fluff distracting him. AKA his sidekicks and everythint they do.

I suppose its unpopular. I want him to be a lone wolf.

[Dwail8023]

The problem is the anime has gone on 5 generations with the same plot of Ash collecting 8 badges every saga. Which is probably the reason it feels more repetitive now because we've seen the same thing for 5 series in a row.

The only thing that really makes each saga different is whoever Ash's travel companions are, the Pokemon on the group at the time, and the rivals of each series. Other than some of the unique fillers or villains, its been the same formula since day 1.

Yeah, that's exactly it.

Besides, remember that at this point we shouldn't even be watching the anime. What is a repetitive thing for us, it's a "new" concept for the newer generations. I guess that's what matter to them.

That's the sad truth about the series.

[fer92]

The problem is the anime has gone on 5 generations with the same plot of Ash collecting 8 badges every saga. Which is probably the reason it feels more repetitive now because we've seen the same thing for 5 series in a row.

The only thing that really makes each saga different is whoever Ash's travel companions are, the Pokemon on the group at the time, and the rivals of each series. Other than some of the unique fillers or villains, its been the same formula since day 1.

For the newer fans, Satoshi isn't an older character. The writers care aout the children who watch the series during 2-3 years, not to the small % of fandom that cares about quality and want to see progress on Satoshi's character.

You must know that if you want to continue watching the show, Satoshi and Piakchu are going to do another badge quest to promote another gen for new kids.

Scott, an advice If you feel that the anime is too repetitive, don't watch Pokemon and don't post in Pokemon forums. I know that the anime is repetitive for people who watch the series for many years but that doesn't mean that Satoshi will leave soon because we aren't the target audience.

[Dwail8023]

For the newer fans, Satoshi isn't an older character. The writers care aout the children who watch the series during 2-3 years, not to the small % of fandom that cares about quality and want to see progress on Satoshi's character.

You must know that if you want to continue watching the show, Satoshi and Piakchu are going to do another badge quest to promote another gen for new kids.

It's true, but it's pretty disappointing at the same time. Eventually, the older fans who want to see more good come out of the series will out grow the number of younger kids that watch the series if this pattern continues. That's the flaw I see down the road if this keeps up with Ash/Satoshi and Pikachu.

I still like the series myself, but I can see it's not as fresh as it once was to the older fans (which, of course, makes sense since children are the target demographic). I've also felt it's lacking in the emotional moment area in recent years. Sure, some events like Dawn's goodbye in "Memories are Made of Bliss!" are genuine, but others fall flat these days in a lot of ways their predecessors really didn't.

[matt0044]

-I hate this notion that a badass, smart main character from the get-go is inherently bad. Like most things, it depends on the writing.

[gliscor&yanmega]

Yeah, that's exactly it.


That's the sad truth about the series.

I don't see what's so "sad" about it. No matter what writers do(Not only for Pokemon), they are going to face "criticism", due the the fact no show can appeal to every single person, even within the fanbase of a show.

Any time a show goes on for a while it's going to face the inevitable, people will start complaining, the show's going to start dieing, some shows die slowly others don't last much longer after a certain point, Pokemon is of the former.

With Pokemon, there really is nothing the writers can do that's going to change anything, it has nothing to do with the show though, people just are going to always complain, and what's the real sad truth is that it gets out of hand far too much far too often(Again, not only for Pokemon, I've seen this kind of stuff happen with every show I watch and look at discusses of).

With other shows, they replace main characters, but then people complain about these new main characters. Pokemon keeps Ash, people complain about that, there's no doubt in my mind that if the writers ever do consider changing Ash for someone new it's just going to cause a new complaint to come into the picture, and this really isn't something that hasn't already happened with Pokemon, they might not replace Ash but they have replaces members of the main cast before, and people complain about it.

As for plots, if a show follows the same plots throughout, reusing them and all that, people complain. If a show tries something new, people complain and say how it's too different now and not like the original. To me, Pokemon has down a mix of this, they reuse plots but they also do new things all the time, of course it still leads to complaints.

No matter what, all shows are doomed to getting this kind of complaining whenever it reaches a certain point(And even shows that don't go on for a long time will get some kind of complaint anyways, usually "It's a ripoff of *enter show here*"), there really is no type of show that's excluded from it either, even cartoons with no real overall plot get the same complaints.

With 7 billion people in the world, it's just not possible for a show to ever be created that wont end up being complained about, writers know this and they aren't going to even try to bother with it. Instead, writers create a show that they believe will appeal to a large group of people(And to make sure it does, they pick a demographic to appeal to, although generally they'll try to throw in a little something for everyone).

Pokemon wants to create a show that's enjoyable, they don't care to make the world's greatest story ever written, they want to create something that can be loved throughout the years. If they were to just focus on the original fanbase they'd likely end up dieing much sooner, people will grow tired of shows regardless of what they do, trying to get new people all the time is more wise for long running shows, it's more reliable. And it's not like the original fanbase are completely out of the writers minds, they aren't priority number one but regardless, keeping Ash is a form of nostalgia, reusing plots is a form of nostalgia, past characters cameos is a form of nostalgia, there's plenty in the show that can be seen as nostalgia, obviously it's not going to imply to everyone, but not everyone is so critical on shows.

In the end, it really doesn't matter what the writers do, people are always going to complain no matter what, Pokemon is still very popular to this day(Whether it's as popular as before or not is irrelevant, plenty of things die over time as I mentioned), the writers are doing a good enough job to keep Pokemon going, if they weren't it'd be canceled by now.

For me, I have been watching Pokemon since the start, I haven't always kept up with it(More of the issue of getting the time to watch the episodes every week, it's easier now), but I've watched every series of it thus far, and I still enjoy it to this day. I always anticipate each week for the new episode, and I'm sure I'll continue to do as such for as long as Pokemon goes or(Or as long as I live, whichever comes first). Pokemon is one of my favorite shows, and again, I'm sure it'll be as such forever. I don't think that's really "unpopular", since I'm fairly certain plenty of people enjoy the show a lot as well; some more; some less, but I have a hard time seeing any opinion/perspective on the show as "unpopular", it has too large of a fanbase for such a case.

[Ciccone]

I find Piplup cute. It's round head. Proud personality.

I just realized that this also describes Oshawott. Why not become a member of his fanbase instead? Join us, OceanicLanturn.

Or they could make Ash competent and scrap all the fluff distracting him. AKA his sidekicks and everythint they do.

I suppose its unpopular. I want him to be a lone wolf.

Ash needs sidekicks though. I mean I don't particularly care for his currents ones, but I still think the show needs other characters to balance out Ash. I know I've complained about Ash getting too little screen-time in BW, but I never wanted the anime to focus solely on him; that would be really boring in my opinion. I just think Ash should take precedence over his companions, but that would be pointless unless Ash's personality changes again, which I desperately hope happens in the next saga 'cause BW Ash bores me.

[Spin Attaxx]

With other shows, they replace main characters, but then people complain about these new main characters. Pokemon keeps Ash, people complain about that, there's no doubt in my mind that if the writers ever do consider changing Ash for someone new it's just going to cause a new complaint to come into the picture, and this really isn't something that hasn't already happened with Pokemon, they might not replace Ash but they have replaces members of the main cast before, and people complain about it.

I'm sure the main problem people have with Ash is that he as a character hasn't been handled well in recent years. I think most find his companions more interesting than him, which isn't a good thing for what is meant to be the central protagonist of the series.

In the OS, he was hot-blooded, and that would often cause him to make mistakes. However, in AG, he became wiser, and acted as a mentor of sorts to May. Then he pretty much became static after that and was kinda boring.

And then came BW. I'm sure most people will not deny it when I say that his character development went backwards. He made mistakes that he had absolutely no reason to make:

He threw a Poké Ball at a Pokémon without weakening it, causing Iris to berate him for it - when he himself had berated May and Dawn when they did the same mistake.

He went into Elesa's gym planning to one-shot it, only to get that plan blown up. After 40-something Gym Battles, surely he should know by this point that one-shotting a gym is nigh impossible?

And I'm sure that there are more cases of the writers duct-taping the Idiot Ball onto Ash and degressing his character than what I put down, but it's almost as if everything he did prior to BW never happened, and he was starting out for the first time. I'm sure this, coupled with the fact that he isn't going to be a Master anytime soon is why most are asking for a new protagonist.

[TheFonz]

I agree with the backwards development except VS Elesa though. It is possible to sweep a gym match, he did it before and so did Tobias. Ash just got over confident....although it was stupid to not bring anything besides Palpitoad and Pikachu

[Dwail8023]

I don't see what's so "sad" about it. No matter what writers do(Not only for Pokemon), they are going to face "criticism", due the the fact no show can appeal to every single person, even within the fanbase of a show.

Any time a show goes on for a while it's going to face the inevitable, people will start complaining, the show's going to start dieing, some shows die slowly others don't last much longer after a certain point, Pokemon is of the former.

With Pokemon, there really is nothing the writers can do that's going to change anything, it has nothing to do with the show though, people just are going to always complain, and what's the real sad truth is that it gets out of hand far too much far too often(Again, not only for Pokemon, I've seen this kind of stuff happen with every show I watch and look at discusses of).

With other shows, they replace main characters, but then people complain about these new main characters. Pokemon keeps Ash, people complain about that, there's no doubt in my mind that if the writers ever do consider changing Ash for someone new it's just going to cause a new complaint to come into the picture, and this really isn't something that hasn't already happened with Pokemon, they might not replace Ash but they have replaces members of the main cast before, and people complain about it.

As for plots, if a show follows the same plots throughout, reusing them and all that, people complain. If a show tries something new, people complain and say how it's too different now and not like the original. To me, Pokemon has down a mix of this, they reuse plots but they also do new things all the time, of course it still leads to complaints.

No matter what, all shows are doomed to getting this kind of complaining whenever it reaches a certain point(And even shows that don't go on for a long time will get some kind of complaint anyways, usually "It's a ripoff of *enter show here*"), there really is no type of show that's excluded from it either, even cartoons with no real overall plot get the same complaints.

With 7 billion people in the world, it's just not possible for a show to ever be created that wont end up being complained about, writers know this and they aren't going to even try to bother with it. Instead, writers create a show that they believe will appeal to a large group of people(And to make sure it does, they pick a demographic to appeal to, although generally they'll try to throw in a little something for everyone).

Pokemon wants to create a show that's enjoyable, they don't care to make the world's greatest story ever written, they want to create something that can be loved throughout the years. If they were to just focus on the original fanbase they'd likely end up dieing much sooner, people will grow tired of shows regardless of what they do, trying to get new people all the time is more wise for long running shows, it's more reliable. And it's not like the original fanbase are completely out of the writers minds, they aren't priority number one but regardless, keeping Ash is a form of nostalgia, reusing plots is a form of nostalgia, past characters cameos is a form of nostalgia, there's plenty in the show that can be seen as nostalgia, obviously it's not going to imply to everyone, but not everyone is so critical on shows.

In the end, it really doesn't matter what the writers do, people are always going to complain no matter what, Pokemon is still very popular to this day(Whether it's as popular as before or not is irrelevant, plenty of things die over time as I mentioned), the writers are doing a good enough job to keep Pokemon going, if they weren't it'd be canceled by now.

For me, I have been watching Pokemon since the start, I haven't always kept up with it(More of the issue of getting the time to watch the episodes every week, it's easier now), but I've watched every series of it thus far, and I still enjoy it to this day. I always anticipate each week for the new episode, and I'm sure I'll continue to do as such for as long as Pokemon goes or(Or as long as I live, whichever comes first). Pokemon is one of my favorite shows, and again, I'm sure it'll be as such forever. I don't think that's really "unpopular", since I'm fairly certain plenty of people enjoy the show a lot as well; some more; some less, but I have a hard time seeing any opinion/perspective on the show as "unpopular", it has too large of a fanbase for such a case.

I still like the show myself, but I feel it's just not as awesome as it used to be, that's all. I mean, sure, any series faces criticism over a long duration of time, and it does make sense that the creators will try to target the target demographic (children). That's understandable. It's that it hasn't really progressed over the years that I think many fans are saddened by. I guess we tend to want the series to evolve into something greater and something more powerful, when it really hasn't.

I have been watching since the start myself. Glad there are a few of us left here. I'm like you in that I don't watch every episode anymore, but I watch a few of them nowadays. I feel the earlier arcs have something much more genuine to them, though (it could be because I grew up with them, though).

[pokemonsquared]

I just realized that this also describes Oshawott. Why not become a member of his fanbase instead? Join us, OceanicLanturn.


Ash needs sidekicks though. I mean I don't particularly care for his currents ones, but I still think the show needs other characters to balance out Ash. I know I've complained about Ash getting too little screen-time in BW, but I never wanted the anime to focus solely on him; that would be really boring in my opinion. I just think Ash should take precedence over his companions, but that would be pointless unless Ash's personality changes again, which I desperately hope happens in the next saga 'cause BW Ash bores me.

He lacks the little cape.

I've lost faith in that after BW2 where iris stole all that precious training time ash needed for the league.

[Spin Attaxx]

I agree with the backwards development except VS Elesa though. It is possible to sweep a gym match, he did it before and so did Tobias. Ash just got over confident....although it was stupid to not bring anything besides Palpitoad and Pikachu

Tobiased only did so offscreen and with hax.

Also, which episode did he sweep a gym match in? And it still doesn't excuse the fact that he brought ONLY one Pokémon. And that over-confidence thing might have worked if this was OS Ash, but it's not. It's Ash who has over four regions' worth of experience. There is no excuse for that other than making him hold the Idiot Ball at gunpoint and then welding, supergluing and duct-taping it to his hands.

[pokemonsquared]

Tobiased only did so offscreen and with hax.

Also, which episode did he sweep a gym match in? And it still doesn't excuse the fact that he brought ONLY one Pokémon. And that over-confidence thing might have worked if this was OS Ash, but it's not. It's Ash who has over four regions' worth of experience. There is no excuse for that other than making him hold the Idiot Ball at gunpoint and then welding, supergluing and duct-taping it to his hands.

People say Wake, but in reality Ash just had the brains to switch out after a pokemon got the win instead of making it fight a battle it had no chance of winning.

COUGH PIGNITE VS SAMUROTT COUGH COUGH

[CyberCubed]

Here's one based on recent events, I don't understand why people make a big deal out of flashback episodes. Sure its nice for continuity but that's about it. The other thing is flashbacks have existed in the anime since day 1 anyway.

[Janovy]

Here's one based on recent events, I don't understand why people make a big deal out of flashback episodes. Sure its nice for continuity but that's about it. The other thing is flashbacks have existed in the anime since day 1 anyway.

Mostly because of continuity, as from what we've seen, people feel as if BW has been completely cut off from the rest of the series. Thankfully, season 2 changed that. Nostalgia might also play a role, since, based on recent events, we haven't got a flashback related to Kanto in a long time. And Misty is involved in that flashback and so are some other Charmander/Charizard episodes, so you can't really blame people for getting excited. The lone animation upgrade of the said scenes makes me excited, the scenes just look so good.

[TheFonz]

Tobiased only did so offscreen and with hax.

Also, which episode did he sweep a gym match in? And it still doesn't excuse the fact that he brought ONLY one Pokémon. And that over-confidence thing might have worked if this was OS Ash, but it's not. It's Ash who has over four regions' worth of experience. There is no excuse for that other than making him hold the Idiot Ball at gunpoint and then welding, supergluing and duct-taping it to his hands.

Watson(which doesn't count really but worth a mention), and there were a few 2 on 2's that he won with one Pokémon taking out both. He almost did it with Misty (context context context). Then he did with Chuck and Roxanne. As said before, he won without losing a Pokémon against Wake. It's a sort of sweep, but it's still special because it NEVER happens besides that one time

Also, I still agreed with you. It was stupid to only have Palpitoad and Pikachu. What I'm saying is that was out of character and not thinking he could sweep

[CyberCubed]

*I love Bianca to a fault(not sure if this is unpopular tho o3o )
*I miss Jessie's Dustox and Arbok
*I thought AG was the best
*I loved contests
*May was Ash's best companion
*Max is adorable
*I loved Harley
*I hate all of Ash's bird pokemon besides Pidgeotto

I agree with a lot of this, although I do like the Sinnoh and BW characters too. Aside from the Hoenn group getting a bit stale during Battle Frontier, it probably had the funniest dynamic. Only the Kanto portion of the original trio, (not the Johto portion), and early bits of the BW trio were as fun.

If Barry was part of the DP trio though, I think that might have been one of the best groups.

[HokkaidoMaster]

Let's just face it guys. This entire anime rarely does anything right, or compelling, or deep. It's so obviously geared toward 4-7 year olds that when deep or mature things happen, they make no significant changes to the overall dynamic and it just heads to the next episode like nothing ever happened. Some characters are treated well, others aren't. Some pokemon are treated well. And others are not. Some battles are exciting, but most are not.

I just get sick of the same thing over and over and over again and I wish the series would try something fresh. It's just too stale to watch anymore. Some of these episodes have less emotional depth than a McDonald's commercial.

I'm pretty sure that is the most unpopular opinion.

If there were a sense of an overall conflict 90% of the time, like the Team Galactic story-line (one of the only standout things about DP) but revved up like 500%, then the pokemon anime would become watchable again.

[pokemon fan 132]

I agree with a lot of this, although I do like the Sinnoh and BW characters too. Aside from the Hoenn group getting a bit stale during Battle Frontier, it probably had the funniest dynamic. Only the Kanto portion of the original trio, (not the Johto portion), and early bits of the BW trio were as fun.

I actually find original trio still had overall more engaging and fun dynamic than any other cast had. Hoenn was good and my second favorite group, but i enjoyed more in original group interactions with Ash naive, impulsive attitude, Misty wide range of emotions being hotheaded, snarky and vibrant having many quirks and interest being encompassed with Brock wise, eccentric and humorous personality playing of great. There was lot of cleverly designed humor, drama and spontaneous interactions going on between them both in Kanto and JOhto capturing emotions in unforced, genuine way.

Which came to expression even more in Johto building up on bond they created in Kanto becoming much closer to each other as friends, still involving lot of tension, comedy and alacrity in more subtle, lighthearted manner acting like group of comrades which passed through many things together growing attached to each other.

When i look back and see how much it was hard for them to leave each other in "Gotta Catch YA Later", moments of mutual instigating between Ash and Misty as well arguing at times, humorous interactions between Misty and Brock who used to pull her by ear or talking about love and Ash stupidity joking with him im not sure how can anyone try to deny chemistry they had there.

If Barry was part of the DP trio though, I think that might have been one of the best groups.

I doubt, because unbalanced repartition of focus with most getting Dawn and Ash would mean his character ending neglected in similar manner like Brock was.

Although since he had more active goals i suppose writers could have fit him in more competitions and episodes where Ash or Dawn played some role, while increasing his spotlight through battling and training.