Here's what PokéFan has revealed about the Kalos League so far:
In addition to Satoshi, the other major competitors are: Shōta, Tierno, Trova, Alan, Ayaka, and Louis. For anyone who doesn't remember them, Ayaka and Louis both appeared in TSME Act I as opponents for Alan. Ayaka also appeared in the Diance movie, battling Satoshi.
Well, THAT's proof enough that the movies are canon, at the very least the Diancie movie anyway.
Shōta has Mega Jukain, Alan has Mega Lizardon X, Ayaka has Mega Absol, and Louis has Mega Gablias. Trova is the one to debut Mega Lizardon Y (*braces for the inevitable *****ing*).
Two episode titles have been revealed already – "The Kalos League Begins! Mega Lizardon Showdown: X vs. Y!!" and "Mega Jukain vs. Raichu! I Received Some EXP!!".
Satoshi will battle either Ayaka or Louis, if not both, and will eventually make his way to the 6-vs.-6 battles. His sixth team member will show up during the League, but we don't know who it is yet.
We'll see either way. We definitely know the league would need to wrap itself up before... ohh, boy... Yeah, I just remembered that the Volcanion movie is premiering on July 16. This is going to be a bit difficult to resolve, because it may mean the league is going to be cut extremely short just to ensure Ash isn't still at the league by the time the movie premieres. Looks like the directors of both the anime and the movie hadn't exactly thought this one out. Basically, they've got three episodes tops to get through the league. Hope they do manage to do well with it, because otherwise, if they really rush through the league (not to mention rush the Team Flare element) like I suspect will happen, they're going to have Ash stay at Top 8, if not get a worse ranking like Top 16 or even be cut off.
Some things to speculate on:
The Team Flare climax hasn't happened yet and, with the League being held in Miare City, some are theorizing that the League and Flare/Zygarde plots will converge. Alan (who is directly connected to Fleur-de-lis) is appearing here, despite having no stated interest in the Kalos League. Suspiciously enough, he is on a mission to collect Mega Evolution data, and the League is full of Megas…
If he is, I fear the conclusion's going to be extremely rushed like the league itself thanks to the fact that the Kalos League is literally three episodes away from the Volcanion movie (and Ash is nowhere near the Pokémon League in the movie). If they don't rush through it, I think it might be the first Pokémon movie to be aired out of order from the Japanese anime episode releases since... well, ever, I guess (Pokémon: The First Movie would probably have been first if it weren't for the Electric Soldier Porygon episode causing a four month hiatus).
Trova is battling Alan in the first round and showcasing the two Lizardons, but he will lose. Because Alan is a much more important character to this series, and to Satoshi, than Trova – who appeared all of once, not counting cameos, after the Summer Camp – is. Tierno, who has a Raichu, will lose to Shōta, who has Mega Jukain (and XY&Z033's title refers to Shōta's catchphrase). It looks like Tierno is the only major character here who has neither a Mega Evolution or a "Satoshi-Gekkouga"-esque Pokémon.
Satoshi will obviously battle both Shōta and Alan, as he has an unsettled score with the both of them. XY&Z023 had Satoshi and Alan wanting to finish their interrupted battle once Satoshi mastered "Satoshi-Gekkouga". Now that he's done that, they can continue on. Satoshi was defeated by Shōta in XY&Z026 as part of a narrative low-point for the character. Now that Satoshi has bounced back and mastered the Gekkouga transformation, the two can battle each other at full strength.
Yeah, most likely they're going to fight it out.
Interestingly, there's no mention of the usual "League rival", the Takuto-esque character who shows up at the last minute to knock Satoshi out of the League.
Seems to me the writers are dedicated to making sure that Ash wins the league this time around. I guess they learned their lesson from DP and made SURE that Ash wins it well before the games premiere (could explain why there seemed to be a long gap between the Kalos league and the games), or at the very least they realize they've got the perfect opportunity to do so. Let's hope the fact that they have at most three episodes to do the Kalos League before airing the Volcanion movie if they wish to avoid airing the movie out of order doesn't have them utterly blowing it, though, because that would just be bad and a clear sign that they didn't plan things through.
Satoshi's sixth Pokémon is most likely Numelgon. There's been no mention of Satoshi calling on the Pokémon he has back at Masara Town, and we already know Satoshi meets Numelgon in XY&Z030. The focus is on both that "sixth Pokémon" and Satoshi-Gekkouga as Satoshi's main powerhouses for this League.
I guess the writers realized that kicking Goodra out was a mistake. Still, at least they actually learned their lesson regarding Pokémon leaving coming back, unlike a certain OTHER Pokémon he has yet to revisit (*cough*Pidgeot*cough*).
My personal opinions:
I'm always excited for Pokémon Leagues, and this is no different. Bit disappointed that Satoshi isn't calling on his older Pokémon this time, but at least his Kalos team is pretty good. I hope that, with all the "Satoshi-Gekkouga"/sixth Pokémon focus, that Pikachu, Fiarrow, Luchabull, and Onvern can get some moments to shine, too. Gekkouga's special arc is over, writers, and Satoshi does have other Pokémon.
Hopefully, the Kalos League is well worth it, because Ash definitely needs to redeem himself after the disaster that was the Unova League.
Poor Tierno, though. He's the only character without a Mega (or, in Satoshi's case, a 'synchro') Evolution. Even Trova gets one. And, on top of that, he's reduced to being nothing but fodder to show off Shōta's brand new Mega Jukain. I can't feel as sorry for Trova. He's been such a non-factor over XY that giving us the battle of the Lizardons is about all he's good for, anyway.
Eh, oh well, as long as Ash actually wins this time around, I could handle it.
And since a certain someone is likely to start complaining, no, Trova isn't being favored here just because he has a Mega Lizardon Y. He's still going down in the first episode of the League.
Yeah, Ash is still most likely going to fight the Alain and Sawyer.
The lack of a "Hiroshi/Tetsuya/Takuto/Kotetsu"-trainer here makes me a little more hopeful for Satoshi's chances. Maybe he can win. Or, should Team Flare interrupt the whole thing, at least he doesn't officially lose. I mean, who are his main opponents? Shōta and Alan. There's no narrative reason for Satoshi to have to lose to Shōta again. And, going by the way the story has been set up, he's going to have to beat Alan at some point, too. Maybe this is the place.
Yeah, he definitely is going to need to beat them. Hopefully, though, they don't make the battle rushed, though.
One thing I worry about is the quality of the battles. XY and XY&Z are usually pretty good with creative battle strategies, but when Megas are involved, the anime usually just goes with visually-impressive clashes of power as opposed to moves with thought put behind them. With so many Megas around, I worry that we won't get the interesting, strategy-filled battles like Satoshi vs. Kaede, Kouhei, or Shinji. A good, well-animated Mega brawl is enjoyable, but it shouldn't be all the Kalos League has to offer. Here's hoping for some great strategies, too.
That's not even getting into the fact that, including the beginning of the league, we've got at most three episodes dedicated to the league before the Volcanion movie is to premier, and... well, unless they want to air the movie out of order (which would be a first for the Pokémon anime as a whole since Movie 1 aired in the appropriate time ironically because of the Porygon incident), I fear that they're going to do a heck of a rush job on the league and possibly the Flare arc just to get them out of the way for the XY movie. Either way, it doesn't sound too good (even if Ash is most likely going to win this time around), especially with the implication that they're going to juggle the Team Flare arc conclusion at the same time as well. I smell a disaster.
