Is the XY Anime worth Watching?

[weedle_mchairybug]

But Pokémon Anime is meant to promote games, not to blindly follow them. We had breeder before they introduced it in Gen II and even after that, Anime still treats breeding differently than what games are doing. We had watcher, which is not present in any game to this date. We had Pokémon unobtainable in that region to be seen or even caught. We have Anime-exclusive Pokémon Showcase. And I rather not talk about how much different Battle Frontier was in Anime from the ones in games. Contests are yet another great example of things Anime writers took from games and expanded significantly for us to watch something different than just the usual battling. And that was, IMO, their biggest contribution to the show and biggest loss when they decided to retire them in BW. Yes, I agree it was something for the main girl to follow, but Ash is boy, main hero and battler, so he has to have girl to gender-balance it (honestly, I doubt anyone would be happy with boys-only main cast) and than it is great for the main girl to have something to do than simply be there as Misty and Iris were. And then it is better to expand something already presented in games and make it enjoyable for show audience (or at least part of it), than make up anime-only Miss-like show and give it fleshy name (TriPokalon in Japanese; Pokémon Showcase really is not that fleshy).

I agree that it being boys only is not going to cut it, but the problem is there's literally no reason why May and/or Dawn can't just, I don't know, actually challenge gyms or something. I mean, it's not like gyms are only relegated to boy characters. In fact, having girls challenge gyms would also bring about some balance right there. And you do realize that IS promoting the games, right? By "blindly following the games" as you put it, that means they ARE promoting the stuff EXACTLY as the games did them.

Now, I have to go against you once again, since I feel the only point Pikachu being overpowered was for TR trio to have reason to follow ten years old boy without it being too creepy. Though I understand the rest of your point and I think you are right here.

Granted, they could just have JJM actually do stuff that doesn't directly involve Ash's Pikachu (in fact, for their debut series that makes clear that JJM wanted Pikachu for its power, a lot of their goals had surprisingly little to do with Pikachu, and IF Pikachu DOES get captured it's more of a bonus than their actual objective. For example, their debut episode doesn't even have them focusing on Pikachu at all and just trying to rob a Pokémon Center, there's zero indication in Episode 4 that they were really going to capture Pikachu at all and seemed more content with attacking Ash himself. Episode 6 had them focusing on trying to steal the Moon Stone, Episode 7 had them trying to rob Cerulean Gym of its Water Pokémon, Episode 8 (or was it 9?) had them trying to just one-up the school, Bulbasaur's debut had them trying to capture the Pokémon Village inhabitants, the episode with Bill just had them trying to rob Bill, the Vermillion Gym episode, if anything, had them HELPING Pikachu beat Raichu instead of capturing him, the St. Anne episode had them trying to steal Pokémon for their boss, etc., etc.), but still... And yeah, the bit about veterans is pretty much the reason why I was not impressed with the Anime's depiction of the Hoenn gym leaders at all. Honestly, I'd rather Ash get badges without winning if it at least meant the gym leaders aren't rendered pathetic by being beaten by a rookie team. Johto at least had the right balance regarding the Gym Leader, and to a lesser extent Sinnoh as well, where Ash does beat the Gym Leaders without at the same time making them look as incompetent as JJM.

 

[DBZ fan]

I said Misty had nothing MUCH to do. True, she had her moment, but for most of Johto, she was in the background with Ash being the only real hero. And that's the same thing that was wrong with BW, though, arguably, it was even worse there since Misty and Brock at least had some small character development in Johto, while Iris and Cilan had none through the whole BW.

I wouldn't even say Misty was so much background. After all her strong personality, various jokes, sarcasm, a bit of hotheaded nature and lot of passion often embellished many episodes in terms of character dynamic. So at least in that aspect she would be noticeable.

It was more so that she wasn't given enough opportunities and ways to shine on her own and receive proper character development and much more to be explored out of her agenda and ambitions.
Although Master Quest did her big favor receiving lot of character development, Not just regarding her water pokemon master career which was especially featured during Whirl Islands, but in emotional sense as well. In proving herself to gym leader Dorian overcoming complex of feeling inferior to sisters and revealing how she accepted her Psyduck to point of risking life to save it from TR mecha). Revealing from where her love for water originates becoming more accepting and tolerant toward those she disagree with like fire trainer Egan. Bonding with her pokemon like Poliwhirl encouraging him to reach higher potential leading to his evolution. Etc, etc. If she was handled through whole Johto like in Master Quest there would be no problems. Than again Hoenn had lot of water themes to rectify this but she was already decided to be removed.

But unlike BW at least Johto had excuse of this being writers very first 3 years long region they had to stretch out being inexperienced. Back in those days pokemon producers were still searching themselves in what they wanted from anime to become. And many of initial Johto plans like GS ball, making TR more prominent, for Misty existing ideas to dive deeper in her water master quest judging by Takeshi Shudo words or original ideas for third movie featuring prehistoric T rex were scrapped. Due to lack of communication and disagreement between writers and director.

In fact during BW main problem wasn't so much in how much Iris and Cilan did. They did entered several tournaments, there were quite a lot of episodes paying attention to Iris dragon master wishes or Cilan hobbies. They actually did things.

Problem was that focus they were given was utilized in wrong way. Since out of everything they did, either they got no character development and sense of progression(especially applicable to Cilan). Or if they did gained some it came of in rushed and in many situations forcefully done way.

 

[Horn]

DBZ Fan, that is actually quite great description of what was problem of both sagas, though IMO the biggest problem of Johto was Ash's Pokémon team, but I'll get there.

I agree that it being boys only is not going to cut it, but the problem is there's literally no reason why May and/or Dawn can't just, I don't know, actually challenge gyms or something. I mean, it's not like gyms are only relegated to boy characters. In fact, having girls challenge gyms would also bring about some balance right there. And you do realize that IS promoting the games, right? By "blindly following the games" as you put it, that means they ARE promoting the stuff EXACTLY as the games did them.

Can you really imagine having two gym battles with the same Gym Leader? How that would be balance if the girl would've done the same exact thing as Ash? Wouldn't that be too much? Ash was already established as Gym Battler so they had to give the girl different goal or else there would be too many battles to follow and nothing much else to watch and so far, Contests were the best goal for girls they came with.

And yeah, the bit about veterans is pretty much the reason why I was not impressed with the Anime's depiction of the Hoenn gym leaders at all. Honestly, I'd rather Ash get badges without winning if it at least meant the gym leaders aren't rendered pathetic by being beaten by a rookie team. Johto at least had the right balance regarding the Gym Leader, and to a lesser extent Sinnoh as well, where Ash does beat the Gym Leaders without at the same time making them look as incompetent as JJM.

Johto had the right balance? Sorry, but no, it didn't. Ash's Hoenn team was MUCH stronger than his Johto team, yet he beat every single Johto trainer, except Falkner, against whom, Ash used Charizard, quite easily with that team. That was even worse for those Leaders than what we saw in Hoenn IMO. And the same problem actually was in Unova, though not as big as it was in Johto.

 

[Jessie]

I have really enjoyed the XY series. Here recently it's been one of my favorites. I'm not too snobby about my anime, though.

 

[kartöflur]

Besides the few annoying things and some pretty bad filler episodes, the XY (and XYZ) anime has been the first one I've bothered to keep up with since the time when I was 10 and in fourth grade and there would always be an episode of Pokémon on in the morning before school. Just the fact that everyone in the main party is a closer in age than in the past (excluding Bonnie) makes the chemistry between them all so much better. Even some of the episodes featuring Team Rocket (especially recent ones) where they're trying to do good (but still pretending to be bad) are heartwarming. I've cried probably 4 times watching some of the episodes which is really lame considering it's still a kids show. There's not much action up until recently with the XYZ series picking up (the Clemont/Bonnie relationship episodes were so sweet omg) but I think that personally, Pokémon XY and XYZ are really worth it.

 

[Famon]

Currently it feel like Pokemon writers doing everything I would do if I was the writer of Digimon Tri series.
If I was the writer of Digimon Tri series then I would create a new DigiDestined and favor him over all original 8 DigiDestined which makes me a bad writer for Digimon Tri series ! Currently , I feel that Pokemon writer doing exactly the same by creating Alain & Shota in XYZ series.

Off course , I was a pokemon writer then I won't favor other character over Ash.
My mentality toward Pokemon & Digimon are different!
Anyway , If you hoping for a series filled with Gags where Ash get Megevolution then XY is not the series for you !
Because , XY series focus more on avoiding Ash from getting Megevolution.
Writer probably made Ash experienced and mature to distract people from Megevolution.