News: Two Familiar Faces Appear in the Pokémon Sun and Moon Anime!

[jjc927]

I think it does make sense, given it was where the franchise started and they also don't want to cram too much into the current gen game and anime because it has to have it's own identity also. At least they included every gen when they did Pokémon Generations instead of just using the first gen.

 

[Rad Dudesman]

As PRB said in the video, Alola was a region that became boring too quickly. Both the game and anime fans agreed together on that.

But yes, like you I am also concerned about the writers being biased towards Brock and Misty and therefore shove the Alola group into the background. I have concerns about nostalgic fanservice and how much it gets overdone when it comes to pandering of Kanto in Pokemon media.

Anime episodes have a six month turnaound which means this would have been finished being worked on back in February. Realistically speaking, this would have been planned from either close to the start of this saga or even as far back as when XY&Z was still airing. Factor in that this year is the anime's 20th anniversary and it becomes very clear that this is a continuation of the celebration that Movie 20 started.

This isn't some spur of the moment thing or ratings stunt; they had this planned all along. It has nothing to do with fans being bored of Alola. Not that fan reaction matters for a show that gets a new audience every generation.

 

[Hikamaru]

Anime episodes have a six month turnaound which means this would have been finished being worked on back in February. Realistically speaking, this would have been planned from either close to the start of this saga or even as far back as when XY&Z was still airing. Factor in that this year is the anime's 20th anniversary and it becomes very clear that this is a continuation of the celebration that Movie 20 started.

This isn't some spur of the moment thing or ratings stunt; they had this planned all along. It has nothing to do with fans being bored of Alola. Not that fan reaction matters for a show that gets a new audience every generation.

I can understand your point since episodes get produced months in advance, and this was likely their attempt at honouring the anime's 20th anniversary. But you have to admit over 30 episodes spent on Melemele Island did get the viewers bored a lot due to slow pacing.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Anime episodes have a six month turnaound which means this would have been finished being worked on back in February. Realistically speaking, this would have been planned from either close to the start of this saga or even as far back as when XY&Z was still airing. Factor in that this year is the anime's 20th anniversary and it becomes very clear that this is a continuation of the celebration that Movie 20 started.

This isn't some spur of the moment thing or ratings stunt; they had this planned all along. It has nothing to do with fans being bored of Alola. Not that fan reaction matters for a show that gets a new audience every generation.

As much as I want to agree with you, the fact that the Anime is doing very poorly in ratings right now indicates it actually gets less of a new audience every new generation, even as early on as AG. And it also doesn't help that Movie 20 didn't even bring Misty and Brock in, and they definitely would have at least known about fans' outrage in leaving them out of the film since they were swamped with Twitter posts denouncing it.

Besides, technically, the change in animation would probably lessen the whole development period, anyways.

That is what I think as well. The writers only care about promoting Kanto and no other previous-gen regions, hence causing a lack of continuity with AG/DP/BW/XY. I know when the writers make bad decisions which won't resonate well with fans, and the promotion of Kanto is clearly becoming a huge problem.

The games overdosed with Kanto pandering, such as the player character's old home and the Alola Forms all being Kanto Pokemon, coupled with 1st Gen taking up the most slots in the Alola Dex, ahead of the 7th Gen Pokemon.

Eh, at least the anime's giving more focus to Kanto and Ash's journey there anyways this time around. The last time there was an anniversary for the franchise was back in Battle Frontier, and they barely even acknowledged the events of Ash's first journey in there (other than the first few episodes of Battle Frontier and the flashback episodes for Charizard, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur's return, when have they ever done a direct call-back to Ash's journey in Kanto? If anything, they treated it as just another region). If they're barely even going to acknowledge Kanto at all despite him travelling through it, well, it's better off if they just travelled through a different region altogether. Compared to Battle Frontier, this is tolerable, since they're actually giving appropriate focus to Kanto since, you know, he's actually travelling through it soon. I'd also expect the same with Johto and any other region he returns to as well.

Besides, even if Misty's return was just for nostalgia, as long as it means Misty actually returns to her Water Pokémon Master goal for good and doesn't result in her being shoved back in the gym once this is over, I'll take it. It was already very stupid of the writers to just cast off Misty like that. They could have had her decide to try to train for her goal by herself, or heck, maybe even come up with the idea of becoming a Gym Leader by herself and volunteer if that's what it takes. But no, they forced her into the gym via her sisters, and they did so TWICE. Misty is one of only two characters to really get a crappy send off when she left, the only other being Max (and she had it worse than Max because unlike Max, who really shouldn't have been on the cast due to being underage and then there's the whole aversion to having the cast actually age, so a broken promise was the inevitable result, Misty was literally forced off the show in ways that actually could and should have been averted). And believe me, after how the writers had her forced back to the gym twice (GCYL and A Real Cleffa-Hanger), not to mention DP setting up a potential return ultimately to fail to deliver it at all, didn't even bother to bring her back beyond Charizard's flashbacks in Best Wishes DESPITE the existence in the games of that Pokémon World Conference and that actually posing a good way to grant actual closure to her at the very least due to the show not even bothering to focus on the Pokémon World Conference, she DEFINITELY needed that return, nostalgia factor or not.

 

[Unown Seer]

Technically, Misty's Gyarados is non-OS, considering she got it AFTER she left, and we also know that Misty's definitely going to have Mega Gyarados there as well, meaning that AG most likely happened. And if Charizard is at Professor Oak's lab, we can safely assume that Best Wishes occurred as well, since Charizard last we saw of it was sent back to Charcific Valley. Heck, Brock having a Pokémon Doctor goal, as made VERY explicit in his character bio blurb in Televi-Kun, strongly suggests that DP happened since... well, he was still a Pokémon Breeder when he left and returned for AG, and didn't consider getting the doctor gig until he left in DP.

1. The Hoso specials are pretty much independent of AG (except for how Brock's ended). Besides, there was always a Gyarados in the gym and Misty could have decided to train it in any number of ways.

2. To be honest, I doubt we'll see Charizard. Wouldn't the preview be focusing on Kiawe meeting it rather than Rapidash?

3. Brock's goal was tacked onto the end of DP. He could have changed his goal at any time, really. We're talking about a potential new timeline.

4. A more valid point is that Togepi is missing, but then so is Azurill. We'll see which one is explained, if any.

Just for the record, I don't think that the staff actively decided to create a new timeline, but the show's continuity is so loose that I personally like using this kind of theories to account for the holes. If the staff decide to acknowledge other sagas later on, then so be it.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

1. The Hoso specials are pretty much independent of AG (except for how Brock's ended). Besides, there was always a Gyarados in the gym and Misty could have decided to train it in any number of ways.

2. To be honest, I doubt we'll see Charizard. Wouldn't the preview be focusing on Kiawe meeting it rather than Rapidash?

3. Brock's goal was tacked onto the end of DP. He could have changed his goal at any time, really. We're talking about a potential new timeline.

4. A more valid point is that Togepi is missing, but then so is Azurill. We'll see which one is explained, if any.

Just for the record, I don't think that the staff actively decided to create a new timeline, but the show's continuity is so loose that I personally like using this kind of theories to account for the holes. If the staff decide to acknowledge other sagas later on, then so be it.

Let's not forget that Gyarados appeared in the Mirage Togepi arc of AG as well, and in fact, that was the first time Ash even saw Misty use a Gyarados, so we can count the Misty-related hosos as directly related to the anime as well, or at the very least the Cerulean Blues one (also, no, there were no Gyarados in Cerulean Gym prior to then). And here's another point to consider: In the same Televi-Kun scan, Brock was also seen using a Mega-Steelix, and the last time I checked, Brock didn't have a Steelix, he had an Onix. Onix reappeared as a Steelix in Battle Frontier, however.

As far as Charizard and not appearing in the trailer, technically, the trailer never showed Misty and Brock having a Mega-Gyarados and a Mega-Steelix, either, yet we know they have them because the Televi-Kun scan revealing their return outright spoiled it.

And as far as Brock's goal change, technically, at the end of the Original Series, he had to return to the gym to take care of some trouble there as well. EVEN if he WERE to change his goal from Pokémon Breeder in the new timeline, it wouldn't have been to Pokémon Doctor, it would have been restoring Pewter Gym.

I just remembered something else that I needed to point out to Rad Dudesman as well: Back during Best Wishes' first announcement, they had neglected to show Ash in many of the promotional materials for Best Wishes, something that Pokémon Sunday even noted repeatedly. And they only showed Ash in promotional materials AFTER he lost to Tobias. That implies that him losing was a last-minute decision, and would conflict with the whole six months planning.

 

[Unown Seer]

This discussion is pretty pointless when we haven't watched the episodes yet. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Hikamaru]

I just remembered something else that I needed to point out to Rad Dudesman as well: Back during Best Wishes' first announcement, they had neglected to show Ash in many of the promotional materials for Best Wishes, something that Pokémon Sunday even noted repeatedly. And they only showed Ash in promotional materials AFTER he lost to Tobias. That implies that him losing was a last-minute decision, and would conflict with the whole six months planning.

I did remember early BW promos not showing Ash, but I don't know if they deliberately wanted to wait for him to lose the Sinnoh League before confirming he was going to Unova, since episodes tend to be made months in advance.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

I did remember early BW promos not showing Ash, but I don't know if they deliberately wanted to wait for him to lose the Sinnoh League before confirming he was going to Unova, since episodes tend to be made months in advance.

They didn't seem to wait regarding the OS or AG, and correct me if I'm mistaken, but I don't think they seemed to wait regarding XY, either. They did pull something similar with SM, though.

 

[Rad Dudesman]

Summary for SM42 is out now:

"The teachers have taken Ash, Lillie and the other students at the Pokémon School to the Kanto region in celebration of the school's 20th anniversary. Ash is back in Pallet Town for the first time in ages, and is overjoyed to see the Pokémon he's missed again, as well as Brock, Misty, Professor Oak and the others. But in the middle of all this, the Pokémon from the Alola region get lost in Oak's Lab."

 

[Hikamaru]

Summary for SM42 is out now:

"The teachers have taken Ash, Lillie and the other students at the Pokémon School to the Kanto region in celebration of the school's 20th anniversary. Ash is back in Pallet Town for the first time in ages, and is overjoyed to see the Pokémon he's missed again, as well as Brock, Misty, Professor Oak and the others. But in the middle of all this, the Pokémon from the Alola region get lost in Oak's Lab."

The Pokemon School in Alola was established in 1997? What?

Now I do hope we see a lot of Ash's old Pokemon, not just the Kanto ones because you know my stance on Kanto pandering, and that it doesn't deserve to overshadow other regions.

 

[CodeHelmet]

The Pokemon School in Alola was established in 1997? What?

Now I do hope we see a lot of Ash's old Pokemon, not just the Kanto ones because you know my stance on Kanto pandering, and that it doesn't deserve to overshadow other regions.

Coincidental nod to the show being twenty years old I think. Nothing more than that unless it's their way to foreshadowing the creation of the Alola League and the Trial format we've come to know in the games where graduates become Trial Captains and eventually Kahuna's themselves.

In any case, I want the Silly Psyduck theme when they get lost.

 

[jjc927]

I'm thinking it's just echoing the franchise's anniversary,

After reading this summary and thinking about the I Choose You movie, I wonder why they had the movie just be a retelling of the first episode instead of having the movie be what will happen in these two episodes. They could have included Ash telling the Alola group about how he started out along with what's going to happen in these two upcoming episodes without replacing Brock and Misty with new characters and making the other changes in the movie. I mean it's cool they're doing these episodes, but why not as the movie? It probably would've done better in the box office with Brock and Misty's return as the big draw.

 

[CodeHelmet]

I'm thinking it's just echoing the franchise's anniversary,

After reading this summary and thinking about the I Choose You movie, I wonder why they had the movie just be a retelling of the first episode instead of having the movie be what will happen in these two episodes. They could have included Ash telling the Alola group about how he started out along with what's going to happen in these two upcoming episodes without replacing Brock and Misty with new characters and making the other changes in the movie. I mean it's cool they're doing these episodes, but why not as the movie? It probably would've done better in the box office with Brock and Misty's return as the big draw.

You know their initial idea for the 20th Anniversary movie was to have all of Ash's companions return in one big meeting but I don't think that would quite work. If we used your idea regarding the movie, why not do it a campfire or slumber party type setting with everyone retelling personal stories about their characters(thereby learning a bit about the Sun and Moon gang that we don't already know like who Lana's father is(we know her mother), Lillie's father(he doesn't appear in the photo with Lusamine) and so on). When it's Ash turn, it goes on for a long time where he goes into vivid detail of his past adventures(first bringing up Misty and Brock when he was first starting out and then advancing to Tracey(Orange Islands), May and Max(Hoenn), Dawn(Sinnoh), Iris and Cilan(Unova) and finally Serena, Clemont and Bonnie(Kalos)).

As Ash is telling his story, they ask Ash questions regarding his former companions and perhaps they can one day meet them(hence foreshadowing their eventual return in the Anime).

 

[Rad Dudesman]

Summary for SM043 is out

"As part of an extracurricular lesson, the School's students have come to Cerulean City to experience a Gym match. While the classmates are receiving a lecture from Brock and Misty, who are serving as guest lecturers, the battle-crazy Ash and his classmate Kiawe are unsatisfied with this and ask if they can have an actual, serious Gym battle. Thus it's decided that Ash will battle Misty and Kiawe will battle Brock."

So instead of Ash battling both, it's Kiawe vs Brock and Ash vs Misty.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Summary for SM043 is out

"As part of an extracurricular lesson, the School's students have come to Cerulean City to experience a Gym match. While the classmates are receiving a lecture from Brock and Misty, who are serving as guest lecturers, the battle-crazy Ash and his classmate Kiawe are unsatisfied with this and ask if they can have an actual, serious Gym battle. Thus it's decided that Ash will battle Misty and Kiawe will battle Brock."

So instead of Ash battling both, it's Kiawe vs Brock and Ash vs Misty.

Well, at least Ash is going to be using Pikachu this time around instead of one of his rookie Pokemon based on the Televi-Kun scan. I'm still sore about how AG had Ash's rookie team members beat the majority of Hoenn's Gym Leaders in a pathetically easy manner (and in the case of Wattson, how both sides apparently resorted to cheating), so anything that doesn't involve Ash humiliating Misty and her Mega-Gyarados with one of his Alola Mons would be good for me. And let's hope that after this battle, Misty pursues her Water Pokemon Master goal again and doesn't have to stay at the gym (like I said, how AG treated the Hoenn gym leaders as downright incompetent made me extremely sore about how they forced Misty into that gym, even ignoring that she was literally forced by her sisters to go back to Gym Leading, twce, instead of allowing her to pursue her Water Pokemon Master goal. Say what you will about the Original Series gym leaders, at least most of them didn't lose easily to rookies save for maybe Misty's sisters, and were established to be very credible pros.). And considering she's listed in her blurb as simply being a Water Pokemon Specialist instead of being the Cerulean Gym Leader, this is looking extremely promising regarding her potential future (especially considering that Brock isn't a gym leader in that blurb either).

EDIT: BTW, sort-of new information. You know that artwork of Misty, Pikachu, Ash, Brock, and the Rotom Dex running on a field? Well, a colored version just popped up: https://twitter.com/kato_olm/status/904997051489853440

反響の大きさにペイントと背景を発注？してみました。
安田くんのイラストが、20周年カントー編アート的な感じになってしまいましたね。
ロゴ入れたら怒られるかな。

9/14、21 は、カントーに行きます。見てください！

https://tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/pokemon_ …
#アニポケ

 

[Rajas20]

Misty and Brock are lecturers while Ash is a student. Kinda funny in a way to me seeing that Ash has beaten so many gyms. I expect Brock to win but if Ash loses I'lll be disappointed but then his Pokemon may not be on Misty's level bar Pikachu.

 

[Alexander18]

I knew it. I knew SM is canon to the older seasons and regions. Misty and Brock sealed the deal on that. The movie was non-canon as i suspected. Glad they brought misty and brock back. Too bad their new anime design is not good.

 

[weedle_mchairybug]

Misty and Brock are lecturers while Ash is a student. Kinda funny in a way to me seeing that Ash has beaten so many gyms. I expect Brock to win but if Ash loses I'lll be disappointed but then his Pokemon may not be on Misty's level bar Pikachu.

Honestly, I'll be glad either way since it's a win-win situation for me, especially considering that Pikachu's definitely going to be fighting against at the very least Mega-Gyarados. If Ash wins, at least he won using Pikachu, an established veteran. If Misty wins, it shows her Mega-Gyarados is very powerful. Either way, it certainly won't showcase her as being a weakling who loses easily to, if not rookie trainers, then certainly a rookie team barring the starter, which would come close to redeeming the writers after how they depicted Hoenn's Gym Leaders in AG, and to a certain extent the DP gym leaders and BW gym leaders (Hoenn's Gym Leaders, with the exception of Brawley and possibly Roxanne, came across as grossly incompetent, about as pathetic of trainers as JJM, and it doesn't help that this was the same saga that came after Misty's removal by forcing her to become a Gym Leader against her own will. And BW was arguably even worse due to how much Ash was depicted as an idiot in that series. For DP, technically, the Gym Leaders were depicted better, but it came at the cost of making ASH, and especially Pikachu, seem grossly incompetent in the process especially after the latter's effortless win against a Regice). Personally, I want Misty to actually LEAVE Cerulean and pursue her Water Pokémon Master goal again, whether it's with Ash or without him.

I knew it. I knew SM is canon to the older seasons and regions. Misty and Brock sealed the deal on that. The movie was non-canon as i suspected. Glad they brought misty and brock back. Too bad their new anime design is not good.

Glad Misty's back. Not sure about Brock, though. I will say this much, though. Misty had better return to her Water Pokémon Master goal with this appearance (I was not happy with how they forced her into a Gym Leading position, especially considering the crap hand the AG Gym Leaders were dealt, alongside the BW Gym Leaders. The closest we ever got to the Gym Leaders being depicted as they should have been dating since Johto was with XY). And as far as the designs, Misty's design is definitely better than Ash's, and either way, as long as Misty returns to her rightful goal of becoming a Water Pokémon Master (whether it be with Ash or without him), I can tolerate a different design that isn't to my taste.

 

[CodeHelmet]

So they do Gym Battles in Cerulean? How may I ask does Brock do a Gym Battle in a Pool with Steelix(a Pokemon who is still part Ground type, hence doesn't like Water). Granted Kiawe has Fire Types who also don't like Water so I suppose it's an even matchup. I smell Brock and Misty winning. Why? Because it will be a teachable moment and will spur Ash to keep trying harder because he has much stronger opponents ahead of him(Tapu Koko and Gladion for starters).

With them going back to Cerulean, I hope Psyduck makes a reappearance(with the signature theme) with Lana going bonkers on all the Water type Pokemon. Might also mean a reappearance of Tracey(if he hasn't returned in the previous Episode) and Misty's sisters.