What if the Pokemon anime never existed?

Started by Crunch Punch October 14th, 2013 10:12 AM
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  • 15 replies

Crunch Punch

fire > ice

Age 25
Male
England
Seen March 18th, 2019
Posted January 16th, 2017
1,374 posts
10.2 Years
Was just going on with my day when suddenly a thought popped on my head. What if the anime never existed in the Pokemon franchise? How different would the series be? Would there have been as much interest in the series from fans? Would the games be significantly different then they are right now?
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Europe
Seen February 14th, 2017
Posted July 24th, 2016
404 posts
9.7 Years
I for one would not even know about the games/manga until a much later age.
In my opinion it would be a lot less popular.
Some Pokemons wouldnt be that popular if the anime didnt exist(Like Charizard).
But the storyline and gameplay wouldnt be too different, since the storyline isnt that close to what happens in the anime.

Hiatus

Seen 1 Day Ago
Posted July 24th, 2021
12,283 posts
10.8 Years
The anime is one of the things that helped Pokémon games bring this much popularity. By seeing what the characters did on TV, kids wanted to do the same themselves, and playing the games was their only way. If the anime had never existed, then Pokémon games wouldn't be as popular as they are today. And not just the games, this would have affected Pokémon as a whole, including their TCG and other merchandise aspects. d: There's a good chance that Pokémon would've went downhill a long time ago if it wasn't for the anime, and as mentioned before, be overtaken by some other franchise (such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Digimon, or maybe even Duel Masters).

Brendino

The Ruins of Alph
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Posted April 6th, 2023
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13.4 Years
I feel that if the anime had never existed, Pokemon would likely be a smaller franchise than it is today. I know I was personally drawn in by the anime, then the TCG long before I actually cared about the games, so I don't even know if I'd have started collecting the cards without the anime.

How well the franchise would be doing is tough to guess, as there are many long-running, successful game series that haven't branched out to other forms of media. I'd like to still think that Pokemon X/Y would've happen with or without the anime's initial and on-going success, but I just don't think I'd be here to talk about it.

Satoshi Ookami

Memento Mori

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Posted July 3rd, 2018
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14.8 Years
Pretty much what others said. If anime did not start, Pokemon wouldn't be so popular globally and maybe not even in Japan.
This might be drastic view but... if Pokemon anime weren't made, we could have less games or even Pokemon games would cease to exist...
What is 99% sure is that games wouldn't be released so quickly.

Heck, if Pokemon anime never existed I wouldn't even know about Pokemon games.
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Ireland
Seen October 26th, 2013
Posted October 26th, 2013
6 posts
9.6 Years
I think if the anime never existed then only gamers would know about Pokemon. Casual gamers and anime fans only probably wouldn't be bothered by the franchise. It would be a thing that would only be popular by a small group of people, I think.

I know that for myself, I was only drawn into Pokemon because of the anime, so if the anime never existed I wouldn't be a fan.

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Posted November 24th, 2013
133 posts
9.8 Years
Agree with everything above about if the anime didn't exist, the franchise wouldn't be as popular.

However, people wouldn't believe that all Pokemon speak their name as communication and wouldn't confuse game logic with anime logic anymore.

But then again, I wouldn't really be here :P I used to watch the Sinnoh episodes of Pokemon, but then I heard of the games.
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Male
Seen October 26th, 2013
Posted October 21st, 2013
16 posts
9.6 Years
Admittedly the anime has a lot to do with the popularity of the franchise. But at this point I'd prefer they shelved it and gave Origins a full series treatment, because it has a much better tone (as well as being truer to the game world).
"You know that dragons are mythical Pokémon! They’re hard to catch and raise, but their powers are superior!" - Lance


Digimon. Digimon would be happening
Haha, maybe. I don't think that though, because Digimon actually is so much different and in some ways more mature and with more story than pokémon. The Digimon animes were fine as they are but I doubt they would have gotten more popular even if pokémon didn't branch out into the anime world.

I feel that if the anime had never existed, Pokemon would likely be a smaller franchise than it is today. I know I was personally drawn in by the anime, then the TCG long before I actually cared about the games, so I don't even know if I'd have started collecting the cards without the anime.
All of this, I can agree on and the TCG and anime before games apply to me too. Without the anime, many in-jokes and childhood memories for me and friends wouldn't exist. Just think about the original pokémon theme song ;3

It shouldn't exist now, as all it does is give the franchise a bad rep, but it needed to exist at the dawn of the franchise.
I kind of agree with this, in conjunction with:
Admittedly the anime has a lot to do with the popularity of the franchise. But at this point I'd prefer they shelved it and gave Origins a full series treatment, because it has a much better tone (as well as being truer to the game world).
I really think so too. Origins could have been so much more. Maybe they knew people would love it too much and didn't want it to overshadow the current anime? :x

In any case, I believe the most well known pokémon wouldn't necessarily have been the same as now. Pikachu, Lucario... pokémon that had great roles in anime or movies and might not have been as visible otherwise. Maybe Cubone would be the mascot from its special role in R/B/Y? Or maybe Mew and Mewtwo would be even more prominent. Pikachu wasn't special at all in the games, really. Overworld appearances in later games were mostly callbacks to the anime.

Decimosoma

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Seen February 13th, 2014
Posted February 9th, 2014
268 posts
9.7 Years
Back in the day, I was constantly watching Pokémon on TV and my family knew that I was a fan of it, so they brought me a Gameboy color with two Pokémon games on my birthday, dunno which age, though. That's how it all started with me.

If the anime never existed, then I would either not discover Pokémon at all or discover Pokémon in my later teens probably.

SaniOKh

Too old for this stuff

Age 35
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Posted October 22nd, 2021
591 posts
16.9 Years
The anime not happening could have been both a good thing and a bad thing.

The downside, as people have already said, could be the fact that Pokémon would have been a rather obscure franchise, and not end up as popular among gamers as it is today. But then, obscure games can very well make it by word-of-mouth.

However, I think that remaining in obscurity would be tons better than the rep it has now. In the collective consciousness, Pokémon should have been put on the same shelf as other classic franchises for all ages by Nintendo. Instead, thanks to the anime, it is widely considered by people not in the know as a game that no self-respecting person over twelve should play, because certainly it's all cute critters, Pikachus, singing Jigglypuffs, comically inept villains, and cheesy messages about friendship from start to finish. When I talk about gaming in public, I can freely admit I play Mario, Zelda, Sonic... even Kirby! But never Pokémon.

So here. Without the anime, the game could have become a much more respected franchise on its own merit, it would have been more difficult, but in the end result it would have a much better rep. Instead, it is something I must keep as a guilty pleasure to avoid a potential social suicide.

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Age 32
Male
New Zealand
Seen November 12th, 2013
Posted November 12th, 2013
23 posts
9.6 Years
Well the only reason I like Pokèmon is because I enjoyed the Anime when I was younger. I am 24 now and have only been playing Emerald for less then a year. If I never got that urge to find out what happens in the next episode, then, assuming that only the video games existed, I would have never have noticed it.
The Anime was my childhood.

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