Woah what did I miss? this thread suddenly exploded :D
First off why are you comparing pokemon to the legendary harem comedy Love hina? that show didn't get cancelled because of poor ratings (Where did you even get that info) It was an anime with a 25 episode run with a couple of movies and OVA's that for the most part completed the manga's story, we didn't get another season because of the lack of material... Please don't spread false information such as it getting cancelled because of low ratings it didn't.
I'm pretty sure that the Love Hina anime got cut short because of an unexpected loss of money. At least, that's what I read a while back on here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Love_Hina&type=revision&diff=63236915&oldid=63183154 (and for the record, the anime ended significantly long before the end of the manga, at about Chapter 40 if I've done the research right. We didn't get a proper ending until that OVA Love Hina Again which adapted the final chapter of the manga). Besides, it makes little sense to have it end there when it isn't even half-way through the whole manga, especially if it's as popular as you claim it to be: Dragon Ball, for example, was a very popular manga and, and its anime adaptation makes every effort to continue alongside the Manga, even including filler elements specifically to ensure it doesn't accidentally overtake the manga. If Love Hina were even HALF as popular in Japan or even overseas as Dragon Ball, we would have gotten a LOT more than 25 measly episodes from it.
You mentioned Sonic X and the Kirby shows that got cancelled... but didn't even mention shows like Beyblade, Yu-gi-oh, card fight vanguard, and gundam shows that still get series every year and yet rarely even hit the top 10 ratings.
So why were Sonic X and Kirby, which WERE popular with both the international market AND in Japan, cancelled, then?
Japanese animation studios aren't like American studio's whom, pressure new shows to perform in ratings or get taken off the air several episode's due to poor ratings and reception. American shows lives and dies off their ratings...
Do you know why most popular Anime don't get into the top ten ratings as much? that's because most anime that the international market consumes are shown late at night... as in shows that air around 11 - 4 pm... well unless the anime is on Fuji TV... Like Dragon Ball, Assassination classroom and Your lie in April (If I recall all of them hit the top ten ratings at a point in their airing). Most shows hailed as the savior of anime get laughably horrible ratings because of this but do the Studio's care? heck no... why is that you ask?
Well it's because they make their money elsewhere.
Shouldn't that be 11 PM-4 AM? That's late at night. 4PM is the afternoon, meaning that's during school hours or the middle of the day. That would if anything be a big ratings booster and make it a whole lot WORSE. Besides, America also gets a lot of sales from outside America for the shows as well. At least in the case of Super Mario World, that STILL didn't save it from cancellation. Heck, technically, Super Mario World was an anime since they had to get direction from the actual creators from Japan (at the time it was being made, Super Mario World was still under the process of being localized by NOA). And bear in mind, Super Mario World's game success never stopped the show from being cancelled. And in either case, even if they do air late at night, that doesn't explain why Pokémon is getting such awful ratings, since it if anything is being aired in the early evening, when most people are still up, or at least during the morning when people are either just getting up or are already up.
Here's how it works...
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Eichiro Oda makes one Piece for Shonen Jump. Oda and Shounen jump spits the profits off the tankabon (A volume of manga), merch, video games, and the volume of shounen jump itself.
With the money made from that, Shounen Jump now contracts Toei animation to make an Anime to boost the sales or raise awareness of the said work, so they can earn more money off Shounen Jump sales. Note that the studio gets paid upfront and gets a budget to produce the show.
Toei animation then gets paid in ad rev (Since One piece doesn't air on midnight) not to mention they get a split off the blue rays and DVD's (Most studio's just rely on really expensive Blue ray's because they don't really get ad rev, they do have a lot of additional content tho; from uncencored scenes, OVA's, or a volume of the LN it's based on).
Also this is why low budget slice of life/comedy shows aimed at the entire family like doreamon and shin-chan that have been running for decades have thousands of episodes. Not to mention these shows are extremely popular often pulling 14% - 20% of the active tv viewers when they air These are the shows that rely on ratings,and given how cheap they are to produce they make bank.
And this model of production is why there are less original shows... Studio's Gamble on Original shows which they fund themselves. Have no existing fan base and don't have the backing of gigantic corporations. And why most anime adaptions often end after 12 episodes and don't get a season two (They just exist to provide awareness for the original work)
Original Works kill studio's just look at Gainax
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I can name a few anime, especially manga adaptations, that actually last a LOT longer than 12 episodes, or 25, even. Like Naruto, or Dragon Ball (it only ended when the Manga ended, and even there, it restarted when Toriyama made more manga as evidenced with Super), or Cardcaptor Sakura, even, so no, don't buy it at all, especially not regarding Pokémon, where it's pretty obvious from the writers' actions that they are panicking, making completely irrational decisions.
Just like how Konami keeps giving money too Studio Gallop to produce Yu-gi-oh anime. Nintendo will keep throwing wads of cash onto OLM's face to produce episodes of the Pokemon Anime that's a fact.
In the end the ratings have nothing to do with the show getting cancelled or not. It's the company or whom ever owns the IP, if they decide to keep giving studios the budget to make a show. They'll keep making them...
If that were truly the case, they clearly wouldn't have revamped Pokémon in a clear attempt at competing with Yokai Watch by making it a slapstick show and turning Ash into an idiot. Nor, for that matter, would they have made some changes in how they market the movies with the Volcanion Movie due to how much of a box office disaster the Hoopa movie was. Heck, they wouldn't have gone so far as to put Marshadow, the only Gen VII Mythical Pokémon unaccounted for as of now, into Movie 20, instead waiting for Movie 21 to actually debut it. Just face it, Pokémon is DYING as a show, and even the writers know that. Why else would they debut Marshadow now despite not having ANY other Gen VII Mythical Pokémon to debut and distribute in potential future films, especially when Ash's Pikachu and Ho-Oh would have sufficed for Movie 20 distributions?
Well, in any case, even though I am not at all optimistic about Pokémon's ratings, lets see what last week's episode's ratings turn out.
