As long as the game continues the anime will most likely continue as well. They will probably find a way to make the show go on, whether the ratings are bad or not. Also the show is still somewhat popular, even if the ratings aren't that good, there are still many people who still watch it and love it. The show will most likely still continue to Gen 7. Unless they announce the show is ending, it will still go on. No matter what crazy theories you come up with about why and how the show will end, I doubt it. >_>
Except unlike AG where it at least had marketing of merchandise to salvage it, with XY, it's marketing of merchandise is actually pretty poor (and BTW, according to Irregular Maverick Z, the games actually play very little role in the anime's existence). And even IF you are correct and they somehow need the anime to promote the games, need I really remind you that the DiC cartoons for Mario, Sonic, Zelda, and Mega Man also were made to promote the games, yet when they got cancelled they didn't even impact the games even a small bit? Pokémon's much of the same. And XY's not just doing terribly in regards to TV ratings, it's even doing poorly in regards to online viewership if Poke245 is anything to go by. There is literally nothing indicating it's even popular. At best, it's a niche group.
Ok,I did say,about AG I'm neutral.I didn't say that it was a awesome series with awesome ratings(not even decent).Dude do you even watch the anime?Because if you did,this amount hate wont be there.As for the gym leaders,they just completely messed it up.Ash had one of the most awful teams during the gym battles,but finally over all it was pretty good with Sceptile Toarkoal and others."The entirely pointless introduction of Contests"now thats a thing,that no one will ever agree with.Leave alone gameplay,they were just fun-to-watch and pretty awesome.May was an excellent and funny character.
Battle frontier was pretty awesome,Ash had a pretty good overall developed team,which aside from DP and OS,isn't seen(XY might be the same too).The battles were good enough,except a few.And Ash defeating Brandon was a great achievement,I mean c'mon,he has to win something.
I agree with DJdave till a point,as games are a major point of their income,and the the anime is used to promote the games,they will just continue.There are a lot fans still out there,that love the show,it includes me.No matter how awful the battles are,Pokemon is already an exciting prospect.And for DP,if you did watch till Roark battle,it was just the first one.Nothing special(ALMOST NOTHING)was really possible.Ash didn't even have a real "team" then.Rest of the game battles were awesome,and the writers finally decided to give Ash some awesome Pokemon and mature Ash.DP Ash was probably the most mature and actually knew what he was doing.As far as I know,he had Infernape,Torterra,Gliscor,Pikachu of Course,Staraptor and don't really remember for DP team and this is the best team Ash ever(EVER)had .He also used old Pokemon for the league.And if you judge by ranking,he also increased to Top 4.And got defeated by a unbelievable team made up of Legends.Even he defeated Latios and Darkrai,which our dear Tobias used through the whole region undefeated,pretty awesome,aint it?
Even ignoring the gameplay of Contests for just a second, the mere fact that they decided to have May replaced with Dawn just to have the latter do the same goal and go through the same steps as before made the entire idea of contests entirely pointless. They can't even replace Ash for the new region despite his technically not even being in the new games, so why can't they keep May and have her do Contests? And for the record, I hate May, so don't think I'm just saying this because I like her.
And I'll agree that DP's Gym Battles were a major improvement compared to AG (at least Ash isn't winning on the first try, and even the times Ash does technically beat the Gym Leader without losing beforehand, it's because Team Rocket interfered and interrupted the match, forcing them to postpone until later). Granted, there were still some problems with the Gyms (namely, Pikachu really getting the short end of the stick, and albeit to a far lesser extent the Gym Leaders still seemed somewhat weak enough to lose to Ash's rookie team), but still... And DP's league turnout was definitely far better than the prior time (actually increasing in rank this time around, which, you know, is the entire point of participating in the region).
And while I do agree that it was a good accomplishment in the Battle Frontier, the problem is that he then got beaten by Gary and Paul (the latter being twice, and the latter being to what was a rookie Pokémon, Ursaring. Pikachu really should have lost to his Torterra, at least that's closer to his experience level), not to mention his Pikachu lost to the first gym leader (And believe me, what ticks me off more than having rookies beat the Gym Leaders on the first try is a veteran like Pikachu basically losing to characters he most certainly can handle. Anyone who can beat a Regice with little effort can most certainly breeze the Gym Leaders), which effectively meant that, if he's going to lose to people far below his paygrade so to speak, then what meaning does the Battle Frontier truly have in the grand scheme of things?
And as I mentioned above, the ratings on both online and tv viewings, plus a diminishing merchandising marketing for Pokémon, is actually placing Pokémon in the red. Even AG at least had marketshare to sustain it. And BTW, as I also noted above, the DiC cartoons for Mega Man, Zelda, Mario, and Sonic also served the same purpose as Pokémon, and yet when those shows got cancelled, it didn't even put a dent on the franchises they represented (and Mario was especially notable, as it covered SMB2, SMB3 and SMW before it kicked the can).
It's the ratings for a kids cartoon show... Honestly I don't think they matter as much as people think they do
Executives would think otherwise, actually. I know a few shows that got cancelled due to very poor, unsalvageable ratings, like Heroes, or the Love Hina anime. In fact, in those particular instances, they were cancelled prematurely.
