Before I proceed, I don't see how 7am slots are bad. Networks give death slots (on network television, that's usually prime time 7pm-10pm on Friday) in an effort to get declining ratings so they can cancel a show.
But 7am for a show aimed at hyperactive little kids hopped up on ADD meds and sugary cereal? I had NO trouble getting up that early. My parents hated me for it. You put on a kids show too late in the day, then you risk airing it when many are doing extracurricular activites or during family time.
I could be wrong, but 7-8am slots doesn't seem too bad, or at least not a death slot, for a show aimed at kids.
I usually slept a little later than that, so I would have missed a bit of Pokemon when I was that age if that was indeed the timeslot back then. I usually only watch it if it was a school day, since I have to be up early by then anyways. On weekends, it's a very different story.
First off, where are these numbers coming from?
2.1 and 2.2 came from THIS thread. As for 8.8 and 5.5, those were from Pokeani.
Remember, Pokemon outside of Japan was still in it's Fad status where it was everywhere. In movie theaters, lunch boxes, t-shirts, etc...
Yeah, but in Japan, which was never a fad to begin with (If it was, I doubt that it'd air movies in theaters anymore, since that's what happened here in America when the fad died down), apparently, it still succumbed to ratings. Trust me, knowing how the new fanbase replaces the old, that means that the new kids would also replace the old in numbers as well, and Japan certainly isn't going through a recession. I'm pretty sure if AG did truly "save the show" that the vast minority claim, the ratings would receive a significant boost exceeding Johto overall in the Japanese ratings, at the very least.
Also, again, it doesn't matter how many total watch it, but core demos.
the total IS the demographics, though. Kids are watching this, their watching it is recorded onto the ratings system we've got now, which only proves it.
Also, THE SHOW IS 10+ YEARS OLD. It's incredibly unrealistic to expect a show to maintain it's same success year after year after year. Network standards change. Look at other long running shows like ER. ER was never in danger of getting canned, but the # of people dropped. 33million tuned into season 1 finale, whereas about 16 million people tuned into it's final episode 15 years later. (
link)
Really? I recalled how West Wing panicked when it's ratings were on the verge of collapse in Season 5, and so they tried to put Josh and Donna together and have them sleep together twice in one episode in a bid to regain viewership, and evidentally that never worked.
FIGURE OF SPEECH
Look it up.
Figure of speech? No, that's an Insult. A figure of Speech is more like "I can't wait!" "Check out my latest toy" or "I'm so hungry I could eat a Horse." What you said is definitely not a figure of speech by any definition.
Less commerical stuff?
lol
You do know the entire point of the anime is to promote the franchise. You can't get much more blatant than Pokemon. Where every Pokedex looks pretty similar to the current generation of the Game Boy or DS. The games themselves usually start in the player's bedroom which has a NES/SNES/Wii/whatever.
Even still, that doesn't mean that they should try and make it a carbon copy of the games. At least with Johto, they tried to come up with very original plotlines. I'll admit now that the Gym battles are just horrible (though they were not as horrible as in Hoenn, where Ash had basically trounced the GLs far too easily especially for the time period.). In Kanto, we had quite a few things that, while still ultimately an advert for the games, was at least done in such a manner that it actually felt like its own show. Johto and even Hoenn had also had similar things done there. Now, Sinnoh is almost a carbon copy of the games in virtually every respect. So much that you're going to think "Why am I wasting 30 minutes of a day of my life watching this when I can easily spend a few bucks and achieve the same result with the games." I mean, they keep the Gym Leader's pokemon exactly the same as the games (Even Roark), among other things, when they could diversify the Gym roster.
See, the main problem is balance. I know it's most likely going to be an advertisement anyways (pretty much every adaptation is ultimately just another advertisement of the original source.), but they could have just done it in a way that, while still an advertisement, at least makes it seem like it's own show as well (like adding in anime-only plots.).
Those who love Johto are far and few. Even among the people who think Pokemon (everything, not just anime) sucks after Gen II hate Johto. You want a saga where you can easily skip 90% of the episodes and not miss anything, including evolutions, go ahead. Heracross stayed around for what, 12 episodes?
To me, I am very meticulous with details, so missing any episode of Johto, or any episode for that matter (that includes reading summaries and scripts) is like missing a very crucial plot point. And actually, going purely by Japanese ratings, it's far more accurate to say that people who have loved Hoenn and Sinnoh are few and far between, given the fact that apparently Pokeani's rating system has Johto's overall ratings being an 8.8, and AG overall is a 5.5, and DP at best managed to get a 6.5 if not even lower than that, despite the fact that this is the most basic of audiences. I mentioned this to my aunt and uncle and they agreed (They also work in the advertisement industry, my aunt directly, and my uncle as a professor teaching the course relating to it at UNC Chapel Hill.).
