Shouldn't the Anime show more 'competitive' battling?

[OreoMaster]

Okay aren't you sick of watching Pokemon battles in the anima that are so ridiculous? It would be far better imo if they would,at least in the big Pokemon Leagues, make trainers battle each other but in a higher level of battling. Not the usual attacks that are useless in competitive battling. I don't know how to explain it but I hope you get me. For example, I really liked the final battles in DP before it ended. Where Ash battled Paul and all. They had a higher level than the battles he had been doing before. I mean they used new, original moves and attacks. Mean Look, Trick Room etc They battled with actual strategy not just throwing attacks like that. Also, their Pokemon movesets were much better. As I said new moves were used like Trick Room and Mean Look and others(I can't really remember others now). They were tougher and longer battles. Just try to remember!
When Ursaring battled Hitmonlee(Paul vs Barry). The Close Combat, The Torrent ability of Empoleon that got activated, Hi Jump Kick, Guts ability of Ursaring which was activated and of course Skarmory using Spikes. This has never been seen before. It was cool, intense and more professional.

And of course the battles between Ash and Paul in the last DP Episodes. Generally, all of the Gym battles in DP were of a higher more professional level.
Who would guess so many new moves and good Pokemon would be used? Shuckle with Power Trick, Drapion with Toxic Spikes, Infernape with Blaze activated and Flare Blitz etc etc I miss them so much, I will actually go watch them again after I post the question.

Now my question is, wouldn't you love it if it was like that all the time? I mean those battles were so amazing. But they could do it even more intense and interesting.
Use OU Pokemon in the anime at Pokemon Leagues using very competitive battling movesets. Like, have a Gyarados use Dragon Dance and then sweep with Waterfall. Or introduce new items in the anime, like a Scizor with a Choice Band or a Flygon with Choice Scarf using U-Turn and switching out. Or a Blissey using Wish to heal teammates and then Heal Bell. They should really use Blissey much more in battles. Actually they have never shown it battling.

Imagine a battle between Ash and someone else in a Pokemon League.
Ash would have his DP team. Torterra, Staraptor, Infernape, Pikachu, Gible and Buizel (He also had Gliscor).
The other trainer though would have a great team that would raise the bar. It would be a stall team that has never been shown in the Anime. Skarmory using Spikes and Whirlwind - Blissey using Wish to heal teammates, Softboiled for herself, Heal Bell to heal status and being utilized as an actual Sp.Wall - Tentacruel scattering Toxic Spikes - Rotom using WoW and Rest - Hippowdon raising a Sandstorm and using SR and Roar and even Clefable with Magic Guard and Cosmic Power. Like, using Infernape using Flare Blitz on her.burning her yet she would not get damage etc

It would be so nice.

 

[Xander Olivieri]

Not really no...the Anime targets young children and is simplistic. Game Meta would Ruin it further that what most think it is already. Anime's battle style is fine the way it is. If they want to bring in some more tactics they will, near the end when the trainers have gone through the proper learning phases and can pull off tricky maneuvers and extra attacks like that.

 

[Morning Sun Espeon]

I'd have to say no. for what the show is worth, it does a fairly good job with battling, though the whole commanding your pokemon to dodge has always irked me...I mean I'm sure they could do better with the field changing moves and status type of moves but *shrug*

 

[torchickensandwich]

Regardless of whether the anime is aimed at young children, plenty of young children play the games as well. Even if they don't understand the whole meta game or things like EV's and IV's they at least understand items like the OP mentioned such as the Choice Scarf, etc. If they play the games enough they should also understand how natures affect battles.

One thing the anime really needs to do is make sure attacks do what they're supposed to do. No more Will-o-Wisp doing damage. When an attack is super-effective, show the results of that! Show the same for not-very-effective moves. And attacks that have no effect at all SHOULD HAVE NO EFFECT AT ALL, unless of course a certain move is used, such as Foresight being used so a Normal or Fighting attack can hit a Ghost type. Also abilities such as Lightningrod or Scrappy should be shown to do what they actually do.

Xander0, you made an interesting point when you said that certain tactics shouldn't be brought into battles until the trainers have learned to pull of certain tactics. That makes sense as the main characters of the anime are typically 10 years old (Ash/Iris) or in their teens (Cilan). Although Ash's experience should make up for his age the anime writers have said time and time again that each region is like a brand new start for Ash. Sort of like he forgets everything he learned in past regions but remembers what happened there as well as the people he met. I wish this wasn't the case but apparently it is and always will be. Ugh. I'm not saying I want a more mature anime with older characters and attacks doing real damage (like with blood and what not), I just want to see the Pokemon anime stay true to the games.

The battles in the anime are also extremely lackluster and anticlimactical. There are definitely exceptions such as Ash's battle with Paul or one of my personal favorites Ash versus Gary in the Silver Conference. We see the same thing over and over and over again. It's getting old and that's nothing new to fans. I don't mind all the lame jokes and puns. Pokemon has always been about the battles and the anime can't even do a good job representing something that is such a huge part of the games.

It's amazing to me that a little 5 minute trailer for Black and White 2 put the entire 15 year existence of the Pokemon anime to shame. The Pokemon Company makes so much money of off all the various merchandise it puts out, yet it can't produce a quality anime. I can only hope that trailer is a sign of things to come for the anime.

 

[Charicific]

I only could wish. Though I would love to see the more sophisticated battling in the anime, I would also like to see it to certain extent. Now that you mentioned it, we don't even get to see much battles originally in the anime =\. Most episodes are simply fillers where Ash and his pals need to help someone....no battling.

So the least they can do is increase the frequency of battles, that's why I do appreciate the purpose of Don Battles in B/W.

Pokemon revolves around battles, if it doesn't exist, I can't see the purpose of the show. Also, I can't explain the excitement I get when a battle start...a serious one, like in the DP League (Ash vs Paul; Ash vs Tobias) Those were the real deal. Without throwing hyperboles, I can say my heart "races" sometimes with the battlers.

So advanced battling, with more frequency that's all I can say. But above all that, I can see the anime is still being handled well for it's target audience. I didn't hear much people complaining about this...but it can be a very nice improvement.

 

[OreoMaster]

Anyway. The only thing I know is that they should do that.

And Torchicken, yeah, I agree. I remember watching an episode where Pikachu hit Marowak with Thundershock and KOed him. So I suppose they really should think better about the battles and the attacks' effectiveness.

 

[torchickensandwich]

Anyway. The only thing I know is that they should do that.

And Torchicken, yeah, I agree. I remember watching an episode where Pikachu hit Marowak with Thundershock and KOed him. So I suppose they really should think better about the battles and the attacks' effectiveness.

I find it amazing that the writers can make such simple mistakes.

Another thing that's a problem is the constant bad type matchups. The writers almost always seem to have Ash (for example) use a pokemon who has a weakness to whatever pokemon the other trainer is using. Not just that, they constantly have Ash's pokemon use attacks that are not-very-effective against the other pokemon. And then they have the other trainer's pokemon use a move that is super-effective against Ash's pokemon again and again. Then, despite being hit dead-on by super-effective attacks over and over Ash's pokemon is eventually able to win by hitting the other pokemon with its own barrage of not-very-effective moves.

I apologize if that's a bit confusing, but if you've watched the anime even just one time you probably know what I mean. I do understand that even in the games if you constantly attack another pokemon with not-very-effective moves you can win. But if the other pokemon is attacking you with super-effective moves it makes victory for you much more unlikely.

 

[OreoMaster]

I completely understand and agree. This is very frustrating.Ash once battled a Grass type with Pikachu >.>

Anyway something that is EVEN more annoying is the fact that Ash always wins due to an unexplainable bond between him and his Pokemon. Okay. When opponents' Pokemon use a move that lowers Accuracy or raises Evasion and Ash's Pokemon just concentrate and always manage to hit the opponent's Pokemon even if it is attacking Ash's Pokemon from behind. I don't know, it's just so annoying. They always make Ash win.

Or when the opponent's Pokemon and Ash's Pokemon both use a neutral attack at each other. Then, they both stand there still and for unknown reason Ash's Pokemon always are the ones surviving.

 

[CliveKoopa]

I'd have to say no. for what the show is worth, it does a fairly good job with battling, though the whole commanding your pokemon to dodge has always irked me...I mean I'm sure they could do better with the field changing moves and status type of moves but *shrug*

I agree with the dodging part. Common sense should let the pokemon know to dodge the attack, they shouldn't have to wait for the trainer to tell them that.

 

[Kenshin5]

Over emphasizing things takes away from the ambiance away from how battles in Anime are conducted. Battling in anime isn't about always been conventional some times what makes it interesting is things that we don't expect or don't happen in the games. Things like Thunder Armor, Counter Shield, recently a sort of Rock throw with Bianca Emboar and Ash Krokorok show the improvisation they use in anime that set it apart.

The quality of battles hasn't been that great, but like Charicfic if you are going to look for worthy while battles then try Don Tournaments. And the gym battles has been some of the worse. Anticlimactic would be what the gym battles are this region. When you have evolutions in not one, not two, but three gyms then that is quite predictable as too the outcome.

 

[Ho-Oh]

Well, if there was a level of competitive in the anime it might make me want to watch it more. However, randomly changing everything to competitive now would kinda make every other series look dumb in comparison due to not being so competitive :x

 

[torchickensandwich]

Well, if there was a level of competitive in the anime it might make me want to watch it more. However, randomly changing everything to competitive now would kinda make every other series look dumb in comparison due to not being so competitive :x

Just wondering, how so?

I personally think if the pokemon anime upped it's competitiveness in the battling aspect, it would bring it on par with most other series. It would take a whole lot more than more competitive battling to make the pokemon anime superior to other series.