Pokemon XY's rating

According to Anime News Network website. The ratings for Pokémon XY (as of October 30) is 4.3 right behind the anime series Dragonball Z-Kai and way behind the current anime series Sazae-san (which is rating at 15.7) , Chibi-Maruko Chan ( 11.0 rating) and even Doraemon ( 9.6 rating). Any comments about the latest ratings for the anime and how it will impact the anime are welcome.

Hoo boy... This is definitely not good. If DP (which amounted to a 7), AG (which at the beginning was about an 8 or 9), even Johto (which was about an 11 by the time it started) weren't bad enough to cancel the anime altogether, this most certainly is. I doubt even bringing Misty back to the cast will save the show now, especially not after the mess that was Best Wishes. NCIS is on its 12th season, and even with online streaming of episodes on the official site when it airs, it definitely got much higher ratings than that. At least DBZ Kai is already on its way out of the door anyways (being a filler-free version of the DBZ manga, or a heavily cut version), so it's low ratings are excusable. Not XY, though. And honestly, you'd have to be hard pressed to cite low birth ratings as a reason. Japan may be having some trouble with replacing its population (though not as much as China right now), but even its target demographic numbers aren't THAT low.

All I can say is, the writers had better put their affairs into order, make sure to give as much closure as humanly possible, especially for Misty, probably the only character to not actually gain any closure regarding her goal of Water Pokémon Master, not even changing goals of her own free will instead of being forced to by circumstances, get Ash to become a Pokémon Master, actually have Team Rocket be shut down once and for all, and all of that, because at this rate, the writers simply cannot afford to continue the show to Gen 7.

For the record, how did all previous sagas do in their first year? First year only, as that's what we're comparing to. And I'd appreciate sources cited for these numbers.

Anna said:

For the record, how did all previous sagas do in their first year? First year only, as that's what we're comparing to. And I'd appreciate sources cited for these numbers.

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I know DP started off with a 8 or 9, about the same as the second season of AG, or seventh season overall. As far as AG, I definitely know it ended with a seven, and given the four years it had, I think it had a 10 at the first year. This was based on Pokeani's ratings, at least according to a link on Bulbagarden Forums by one of the users (I think the user was a Team Rocket fan). I know the site in question was in Japanese and featured brown wallpaper at the time, and at the time they showed the ratings, we were just about halfway through the first "season" of DP.

I definitely know the Original Series, specifically Kanto, had about a 17 maximum at the start, since the highest rated episode in Pokémon history was the Ponyta episode (this is confirmed on Bulbapedia, or at least was. It's probably gone now), which was stated to be roughly that number. Either that or 15.

The ratings have mostly been fluctuating between a score 4 and a score of 7 since 2010. Even Best Wishes had its moments of receiving a score of 9+ :V
(Source: Anime News Network)

Considering less people are buying the newer games, it's understandable that less people would be watching the newer series. Yes XY has low ratings, but millions of people still watch it. The fate of the anime depends more on the success of the games than its ratings.

Besides, if Queen of the Serpentine really does have the lowest ratings out of all the episodes of AG, then I find the correlation between ratings and episode quality to be questionable.

if they bring back Misty I am sure they will gain some old viewers.Atleast for Nostalgia.
Actually IMO pokemon just needs to end and die and just needs to go.

whoa!!! actually who cares about my opinion anyway. Its just my opinion.
just glad about the low ratings.huh! What a great way to express frustration lol.
I know it wont change a thing but still!!!.
Only Ash can help Misty.
Please Ash marry your true love Misty and bring her back to the show and increase ratings.

At one point, Naruto have less ratings than Pokemon BW. And that is big. Naruto is one of the most popular animes ever.

As they said, ratings for the show don't mean much when the show is just advertising the games. Until Japan stops showing movies in theaters, there is nothing to worry about.

Wobbu said:

The ratings have mostly been fluctuating between a score 4 and a score of 7 since 2010. Even Best Wishes had its moments of receiving a score of 9+ :V
(Source: Anime News Network)

Considering less people are buying the newer games, it's understandable that less people would be watching the newer series. Yes XY has low ratings, but millions of people still watch it. The fate of the anime depends more on the success of the games than its ratings.

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Hmm, good point regarding the above.

I will mention this, though, I'm doubtful the success of the games will have any real impact on the anime compared to the ratings, even IF the Anime is nothing more than an advertising wheel for the games now. Don't forget, DiC had animated adaptations of the Legend of Zelda, Mario, and Mega Man under its belt, yet Zelda got cancelled well before Adventure of Link, Mega Man got cancelled before we got a true adaptation of Mega Man 3, and even Mario basically ended by Super Mario World. Oh, and there's also SATAM (aka the Sonic cartoons made by DiC), which also got cancelled in rapid order. Did the cancellation of those shows have any impact on the games? Heck, no! They still managed to sell well despite cancellation with Zelda, Mario, and Sonic (and in the case of the last one, this is despite an anime adaptation that eventually floundered despite being released in the West first [Sonic X], and even has Sonic Boom coming out, plus a lot of comics by Archie Comics )actually getting new games up to the present and even Mega Man, the only one of DiC's Big 4 who at the present isn't doing comparatively well (not having a new game come out in quite some time), is nonetheless getting a debut in Super Smash Bros. and even getting his own comic serial from Archie Comics.

Besides, if Queen of the Serpentine really does have the lowest ratings out of all the episodes of AG, then I find the correlation between ratings and episode quality to be questionable.

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Maybe, but on the other hand, there wasn't exactly much factors stated for why it was given such bad ratings (and in terms of the overall anime franchise, it's probably going to be eclipsed anyway).

As they said, ratings for the show don't mean much when the show is just advertising the games. Until Japan stops showing movies in theaters, there is nothing to worry about.

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Yeah, and after the first XY movie turned out to be a dud (for goodness sakes, it lost to a Doraemon movie, of all things, at least according to Dogasu. I think it was the one with the blue fat cat with the googly eyes?), we've got plenty of reason to worry. I think Famon even mentioned that Pokémon's number 1 spot on its usual channel was even taken over recently as if this hadn't happened before.

And like I said above, just because the anime is advertising the games doesn't mean the games need it or that the anime is in any less danger of being cancelled, ratings loss or not. Don't forget, the 4 franchises made into DiC shows (Mario, Zelda, Sonic, and Mega Man), were meant to advertise the game franchises as well, yet when those shows were cancelled, guess what, they had absolutely no impact on the popularity and sales of the games they advertised. If those four could do it, the Pokémon franchise most certainly can as well.

Ratings decline because the original fad of pokemon died circa 2001/2002 and younger generations of kids are either not getting into the anime as much or just watch it online.

Each passing saga has done worse in ratings than the one before it so it has nothing to do with the content of the episodes.

precita said:

Ratings decline because the original fad of pokemon died circa 2001/2002 and younger generations of kids are either not getting into the anime as much or just watch it online.

Each passing saga has done worse in ratings than the one before it so it has nothing to do with the content of the episodes.

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NCIS is on its twelfth season right now, not to mention also streams its episodes online and it actually isn't even aired at a time when kids would be awake, yet last time I checked, it's got a lot higher ratings than Pokémon, even being one of CBS's most dependable lineups (and keep in mind, being restricted to teenage or adult audiences means an extremely limited viewer base compared to unrestricted access between the age bracket, meaning the viewership per it being for teens and adults only is significantly less than children and especially people of all ages like in Pokémon's case). Had your logic been sound, NCIS would have about the same ratings right now especially when its time as a fad had long gone.

Not to mention a decline in ratings is generally a reason why executives either demand changes to boost ratings (which rarely are a success and often accelerate its decline) or otherwise result in the show's plug being pulled, and it would be impossible barring the target audience of children being significantly less in numbers than a few years ago (sharp decrease, not gradual) to have less ratings when the target demographic is children, since they are easily replaceable.

1) Rating boost attempt: BW refresh. Also game sales boost attempt. No idea how it affected the game sales for that and this gen, but the disappointment in ani was high.

2) Rating boost attempt #2: XY restoration. Again, don't know how it has affected ratings thus far as compared to BW, because nobody has mentioned that. And that's actually the key figure.

3) Pokémon has a much smaller demographic than NCIS. There are also very few places to legally stream it online, if any from Japan.

4) I would like to see comparative rating figures from shows in the same timeslot as Pokémon because like. Is there a significantly better show out there at the same time? Or are people just not watching TV at this time? etc etc. more factors than just numbers yo

weedle_mchairybug said:

Hoo boy... This is definitely not good. If DP (which amounted to a 7), AG (which at the beginning was about an 8 or 9), even Johto (which was about an 11 by the time it started) weren't bad enough to cancel the anime altogether, this most certainly is. I doubt even bringing Misty back to the cast will save the show now, especially not after the mess that was Best Wishes. NCIS is on its 12th season, and even with online streaming of episodes on the official site when it airs, it definitely got much higher ratings than that. At least DBZ Kai is already on its way out of the door anyways (being a filler-free version of the DBZ manga, or a heavily cut version), so it's low ratings are excusable. Not XY, though. And honestly, you'd have to be hard pressed to cite low birth ratings as a reason. Japan may be having some trouble with replacing its population (though not as much as China right now), but even its target demographic numbers aren't THAT low.

All I can say is, the writers had better put their affairs into order, make sure to give as much closure as humanly possible, especially for Misty, probably the only character to not actually gain any closure regarding her goal of Water Pokémon Master, not even changing goals of her own free will instead of being forced to by circumstances, get Ash to become a Pokémon Master, actually have Team Rocket be shut down once and for all, and all of that, because at this rate, the writers simply cannot afford to continue the show to Gen 7.

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There is a very very simple reason for XY Series rating Drop--

--> 1) AG series end with Ash beating Legendary Pokemon and becoming the conqueror of Battle Frontier So it made fans more excited about this more powerful Ash in DP Series. Thats why DP series got high rating at beginning.

-->2) DP series End with Ash beating Legendary and nearly winning the league . So it make Fans even more excited about this improved and Powerful Ash in BW series.

-->3) However , BW Series end with Ash suffering a humiliating Defeat against a Rookie Idiot and spend rest of the series in having Happy Happy Adventure with his funny little Pokemon.
It killed all the excitement & hype A fan should had for a New Series .

Thats the secret ! Excitement , Hyped and Expectation.
BW series killed them all .
What the point of watching the rest ? Its would be same old Ash making new friend , getting 6 pokemon & 8 badge , Getting Ass-kicked in the League and then saying farewell to his friend to go on another adventure.
Thats how most fans thought .

Anna said:

3) Pokémon has a much smaller demographic than NCIS. There are also very few places to legally stream it online, if any from Japan.

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No, Pokémon actually has a much bigger demographic than NCIS (remember, NCIS is geared towards adults and has a far more restrictive rating, while Pokémon is geared towards kids and families, and besides which doesn't have a very restrictive rating. Mathematically speaking, you find more people in the latter category than the former, thus more demographics, and hence, the latter is larger). In case you've forgotten, the target demographic is actually much smaller when you restrict the ratings by age than if you leave the ratings unrestricted (eg, a PG movie always has smaller amounts in attendance than a G-rated movie, because its restricted for parents taking children with, while G-rated doesn't require the kids to actually go with their parents, R is more restricted than any of the prior ratings (including PG-13) because it doesn't allow for any kids or early teens to see a movie, only allowing 16 years or older to see it. And then there's NC-17 or even Adult). Also, the time NCIS airs is at 8:00 PM, at which point most kids are already in bed, while Pokémon airs after school hours, meaning there's plenty more access to kids there than with NCIS, especially when they are still awake by that point.

4) I would like to see comparative rating figures from shows in the same timeslot as Pokémon because like. Is there a significantly better show out there at the same time? Or are people just not watching TV at this time? etc etc. more factors than just numbers yo

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Considering the only real time there may be some conflicts regarding ratings that don't deal with quality is during the Baseball season (which is extremely popular in Japan, arguably even moreso than here in America), I doubt it, and most kids would be home by that point, barring possibly any extracurricular activities they are involved in or even their getting detention, meaning there's little chance of their not watching TV at all by that point. Not to mention it airs after school hours, making it even less likely that they don't watch it. Now, if it aired during school hours, that's one thing, and that would explain its fairly low ratings (since airing it during school hours is the worst time to air it as most of its demographic is busy at school), however, airing at Family Hour (or at least, Japan's equivalent of Family Hour) definitely could not allow for that.

EDIT: Okay, considering October is generally the endpoint of Baseball season, at least with MLB here in the states, that might explain the low ratings, though I'm not so sure if that's the case.

However , Fans would be hyped about Megevolution .
But The Writer/Director are spending their time in killing all our ''Expectation'' for Ash Processing Megevolution.
Specially after Shalure Gym ! There wasn't a single hint of the possibility for Ash to get Megevolution .
Its like Writer/Director saying ''Sorry But we will never let Ash to get something cool like Megevolution ! Our Alain will be the Megevolution guy.
Seriously , Doesn't those Damass Writer/Director understand that Ash processing Megevolution is one of the Driving force of the XY Series ???
There so obsessed with Ash being a everyman Character . They doesn't know that Everyman character only exist in Show like Doreamon Or Harem Visual Novel.
''Korrina ark'' did nothing for XY ranking .
Furthermore , A New Anime like Youkai Watch reach the Top of Bandai sales despite new Pokemon & Megevolution.
Is it Gamefreak Fault or the Animes Fault .
Obviously , ''Keeping Megevolution away from Ash'' isn't working for Rating or Merchandise Sales .

Honestly , I'm glad XY series getting low rating . Those Anime Stuff are too overconfident and they think Pokemon will last forever even if they do a craapy job So I want them experience downfall .

Can we bring keeping up with the kardashians into this conversation too?

This is a sticky on serebii regarding ratings:

TV ratings in general are relatively meaningless in this day and age when recording and streaming shows has gained popularity. In addition, people watch less TV in general. A show getting lower viewer ratings than it did 15 years ago doesn't mean anything. ALL shows experience such drops in ratings.

The rating of any individual episode has no impact on anything, and nothing of value can be read from them. Ratings primarily fluctuate based on what else is going on at that time that people might spend the time on instead. Likewise, people who only watch an episode now and then instead of trying to catch the show weekly typically don't make their decisions on which episode to watch based on whether some preview of it looked exciting or not. And of course, a person's enjoyment of the episode is utterly irrelevant - they won't know if they liked it or not until after they watched them, and viewer ratings show how many watched it on live television, blind, when it aired.

Also, no matter what anyone tells you, the ratings Pokemon gets, as irrelevant as they are, are incredibly high.

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TV ratings in general are relatively meaningless in this day and age when recording and streaming shows has gained popularity. In addition, people watch less TV in general. A show getting lower viewer ratings than it did 15 years ago doesn't mean anything. ALL shows experience such drops in ratings.

The rating of any individual episode has no impact on anything, and nothing of value can be read from them. Ratings primarily fluctuate based on what else is going on at that time that people might spend the time on instead. Likewise, people who only watch an episode now and then instead of trying to catch the show weekly typically don't make their decisions on which episode to watch based on whether some preview of it looked exciting or not. And of course, a person's enjoyment of the episode is utterly irrelevant - they won't know if they liked it or not until after they watched them, and viewer ratings show how many watched it on live television, blind, when it aired.

Also, no matter what anyone tells you, the ratings Pokemon gets, as irrelevant as they are, are incredibly high.

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4.3 is NOT a high number, never mind incredibly high. It would need to be in the tens digits to be incredibly high.

And honestly, NCIS gets a lot higher ratings than Pokémon does, definitely being in the tens digits, if not the 20s, even in the current 12th season, and that has a more restricted audience of adults onward.

And besides, West Wing ended up losing its show due to bad ratings, which were made worse by showing Diana and Josh having sex twice in what was clearly a cheap ratings grab (my mom even noted that when she saw the episode, as did I, and I didn't even know they weren't married). Heck, Heroes tried to boost its ratings with the Redemption arc by making Claire Bennet into a lesbian after really low ratings hit it due to the fairly bad third season (composed of both the Villains arc and the Hunted arc) as well as a prematurely-ended second season due to the Writer's Strike, and look what happened, the show ended prematurely with little to show for it (and in my case, by being alienated from the series from their deciding to make her into a lesbian despite her never being hinted to have any same sex attractions at all and more evidence of her having attractions to the opposite sex). And keep in mind, this was definitely not 15 years ago (heck, West Wing's final season was in 2006, about eight years ago to this day, and Heroes' final season was four years ago). So yes, even today, ratings do still mean something significant today, even if it isn't as meaningful as fifteen years before. After all, how exactly can they judge a show's quality and survivability if not for ratings?

weedle_mchairybug said:

And honestly, NCIS gets a lot higher ratings than Pokémon does, definitely being in the tens digits, if not the 20s, even in the current 12th season, and that has a more restricted audience of adults onward.

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I honestly have no idea what your point is and why you keep bringing up NCIS. Like, yes other shows can have higher ratings than Pokémon; Pokémon is not the most viewed show in the history of television. We could spend all day making a list of shows that received higher ratings than Pokémon, but we could also spend all day making a list of shows that received lower ratings and shows that were cancelled. Not to mention that Pokémon and NCIS are two completely different shows.

Also NCIS is not restricted to adults lmao, I remember watching that show back when I was 13 years old.

Wobbu said:

I honestly have no idea what your point is and why you keep bringing up NCIS. Like, yes other shows can have higher ratings than Pokémon; Pokémon is not the most viewed show in the history of television. We could spend all day making a list of shows that received higher ratings than Pokémon, but we could also spend all day making a list of shows that received lower ratings and shows that were cancelled. Not to mention that Pokémon and NCIS are two completely different shows.

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The point of bringing NCIS up is because that Serebii post implied that the ratings don't even matter because all shows have far low ratings, and I was trying to prove that to be false, not to mention it claimed that Pokémon had incredibly high ratings, even though you can't say that 4.3 is even remotely high, never mind incredibly high, and keep a straight face. NCIS was meant to compare the high ratings. I could have cited several other shows that are currently on (I can't cite shows that are cancelled, because, really, that's not current data).

Also NCIS is not restricted to adults lmao, I remember watching that show back when I was 13 years old.

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Maybe it's not strictly for adults, but it definitely wasn't geared towards little kids either, unlike Pokémon. Hence the comparison. Besides, why would they air it late at night if it wasn't forbidden to kids?

Nothing is ever forbidden to watch for anyone. Not recommended or geared, sure. And of course there are 'R' rated things that you need permission to view. But I watched plenty of shows that was "for adults" when I was a kid.

Anyways, I still have to agree with Wobbu in that NCIS is kinda of a strange show to compare Pokemon to. Honestly, if you want to throw a better comparison you ought to compare it to another anime or at the very least another kids show. Comparing an "adult" show to a "kids" show when it comes to well... anything is like comparing peanut butter to ketchup. Your point is there, but it can't make an impact because frankly they're in different worlds.

Sora said:

Nothing is ever forbidden to watch for anyone. Not recommended or geared, sure. And of course there are 'R' rated things that you need permission to view. But I watched plenty of shows that was "for adults" when I was a kid.

Anyways, I still have to agree with Wobbu in that NCIS is kinda of a strange show to compare Pokemon to. Honestly, if you want to throw a better comparison you ought to compare it to another anime or at the very least another kids show. Comparing an "adult" show to a "kids" show when it comes to well... anything is like comparing peanut butter to ketchup. Your point is there, but it can't make an impact because frankly they're in different worlds.

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The "R" in the R rating means "Restricted access," though, which is as close to forbidden as one can get.

I guess you have a point there. I'll try looking up ratings for Arthur (since that's another kid's show), though unfortunately, unlike NCIS where they at least post the amount of viewers on Wikipedia, Arthur doesn't have that (don't understand why). Do you have any suggestions of where I can look up TV ratings? I can't find it on there.

As far as other anime, well, Famon has it covered well.

PS. If you're going to bother that Pokémon is lowly rated because the Nielsen ratings are out the door, you can forget it, because these are Japan's ratings numbers, and Japan doesn't even use the Nielsen ratings system. That is exclusive to the United States, so Japan would have a completely different rating gathering system.