We're talking about art, so it's ok to have an image heavy post y/n?
While like I said before I haven't had time to watch XY, from all the gifs I've seen I think the animation is pretty up there! A lot of issues I have with pokemon animation is that the character don't move very well or interact with each other much. You'll get a lot of shots of 'three characters walk into the scene from the same direction. One talks with mouth flaps, then the other talks with mouth flaps.' sort of deals where you don't have characters interact as much or show as much nuanced emotions.
Examples being, Ash tilts his hat down, stands still as tears go straight down his face x many.
But in XY we see more nuanced crying, with more small movements and complex expressions.
I like the art style in general, but I don't like when they use too many shadows.
This is touted as 'look at how much better kalos ash is' but I really don't like the top picture?? The point of styles are to create a visual short hand so you are more free to work within those confines. When you start trying to define his cheeks, lip shape, and his muscles with shadows it just gets
weird. I don't think it does any favors to the animation because the shapes used as the outlines aren't defined enough to capture the details the shading is trying to provide. The shot is boring too, it's just a straight on view of ash's face. In the newer picture, the angle and tilt of Ash's face and expression tells me more about the roundness of his face more than the shadow on prev Ash's cheek could ever convey.
In general, the pokemon art style is
TOO on model at all times.
An example is the show Steven Universe. While they do have general character models, each storyboarder doesn't have a strict set of rules, heights, width they have to follow. It's inconsistent, but it's
good.
A more 'typical' Pearl.
A Lauren Zuke Pearl. Obviously the same character, but Luke tends to give rounder faces and outward tufts of hair.
For those of you just aghast at how 'weird' Ash looks like in the new Sun & Moon style from under 20 seconds of screen time, this is what Pearl looked like in the first few episodes.
I also want to make a note that if shading is used in Steven Universe, it rarely has many levels. If it's used, it's usually for a specific purpose. To create
mood. Shading Ash with just local color down to 4 levels is just kind of overkill and doesn't really add anything other than some details. The pokemon anime has never been much more than literal and safe with it's lighting choices.
are you seeing a pattern here
OK BUT ENOUGH ABOUT STEVEN UNIVERSE
The reaction to the new style for Sun and Moon is that it looks 'weird' or 'bad'. I really don't see it. It looks rounder and more childish and that doesn't mean it's bad. Ash looks different, but he looks like if he were adapted to a different style. I think my major annoyance is that I see similarities to other anime that I really really like. I regard these as very good works of art, and these also use more simplistic line art, fluid movement, less shadows. They are ""simpler"" but express so much more than the typical shonen style can.
Some examples being:
TL;DR
It's too early to tell much about the Sun Moon anime style, but
simpler/less detailed or childish animation =/= bad.