Headscratchers / Pokémon Journeys: The Series

• Is the World Coronation Series the Champion League mentioned in Diamond and Pearl?
  • Not quite. The Champion League would be for battling the Elite Four and the Champions for the title of Champion and probably the Elite Four. The World Coronation Series is an international competition without titles in mind: if Ash defeats Leon he's not the Galar Champion for example, and if Leon defeats Cynthia he's not the Sinnoh-Galar Champion.
    • The World Coronation Series is competing for the international title of "Monarch" aka World Champion. It has no bearing on a regional Championship. This is the same reason why Leon didn't become Alola Champion for defeating Ash. He would have to compete and win in the Alola League, defeat the Elite Four, and then beat Ash for the title.
  • No. Diamond and Pearl's league was called the Sinnoh League or Lily of the Valley Conference. The World Coronation Series was first mentioned in Episode 12 of Journeys.
• How in the name of Arceus did Iris get to the Masters Eight before Ash did? The last time we saw her, Ash had beaten her to advance to the Ultra Class. It only took Ash 5 matches to enter the Master tournament (all of them wins as well), and matches in that rank are pre-scheduled. I like Iris and all, but this like a contrived way to have the champions of all the regions (and Alain) in the Masters 8 (yes, I include Ash).
  • She's just right above Ash in terms of rank, so it's likely she wasn't that far behind when he got into the Ultra Class. Assuming she had the same amount of battles and won them all, it's possible her opponents happened to have higher ranks which bumped up hers a lot more when she won. Also consider how Ash went on a losing streak, which means he would likely be 7th-6th if not for all those losses and catching up.
• If only three Challengers can become Chasers in Project Mew, what would've happened if there was a tie for 3rd place by the end of the final trial mission?
  • Likely a tiebreaker will be held, or if both have great potential they will both be accepted.
• Something's been bugging me for a while about Journeys, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who hates this: the scheduling of episodes. Does anyone know why they sometimes take a week or two long break between episodes? I'm not talking about the COVID hiatus, or even the break for the new year, no does I understand. I'm talking about times like the 3-week break between episode 115 (the start of the Master's Tournament) and 116 (the battle between Lance and Diantha). Seriously, what's up with that?
  • The animation studio, as well as Japanese animation in general, is not in the best place. Covid and a lot of animators and producers being stretched everywhere do not mix well.
    • Original poster here, thanks for the explanation. Honestly, the only reason I even bring it up is because of how random these breaks seem to occur.
• Is there a reason why Chloe didn’t get many opportunities for her to get other Pokémon rather than Eevee? (I.E. the Kanto starters, the Galarian Ponyta, etc.)
  • Who said Chloe needed more Pokemon other than Eevee to get into Pokemon or be a Pokemon Trainer? It all comes down to context; Episode 2 still had Chloe in her aloof persona, so she likely would've refused. She could have caught Galarian Ponyta but the idea was to help its Rapidash parent, not to add it as a trophy in Chloe's collection. Taking care of a Pokemon Egg is different from having an actual Pokemon and much more time consuming, which could've taken time away for Chloe to do other things. Finally, Yamper is a family pet; he may like Chloe more than the rest, but he's supposed to be there for the family. Having him become Chloe's starter would essentially be monopolizing someone meant to be with everyone for a single person.
    • Chloe’s arc was about figuring out where she wants to go and what she wants to be when she grows up. Adding too many Pokemon would distract from that and put more pressure on the poor girl. Besides, Quality over Quantity: would you rather have Chloe get only one Pokemon that allows the two of them to have a clear arc, or would you rather give her multiple Pokemon that the writers now have to try give focus to all at once to not feel like afterthoughts?
    • Also, let’s not forget that Lillie essentially only had Snowy for the entire Sun and Moon anime (and it took her a dozen episodes just to get that), and this troper firmly believes she had one of the better arcs of anyone in the series. It seems more fitting to have Chloe have only one Pokemon and stick to a consistent goal (i.e. helping Eevee find out what she wants to evolve into, if she even can) than have her catch a bunch of Pokemon and do nothing with them.
• So in episode 145, the trio splits up after failing to catch Pikachu again and blaming eachother...and leave all their Pokemon behind? Meowth will probably be fine, but I doubt Jessie or James will make it far.
  • Luckily, they reunited in the final episode and Jessie uses Wobbufett and Gourgeist and James uses Carnivine in another unsuccessful attempt to capture Pikachu.
• Something just occurred to me: when we're first introduced to the World Coronation Series in episode 12, it's during the finals of the previous season...but the match is a 1 vs 1, but when we get to the Masters Eight Tournament at the end of the series even the first round is a 3 vs 3, before going to 6 vs 6 in the final two rounds. Even most of the matches between then were at least 2 vs 2, so why was the first match like that?
  • It's entirely possible that what we first saw was merely an inter-bracket bash before the Masters Eight to see if anyone could possibly move up their rankings within the top 8 before the actual tournament, which could potentially get he or she who moves up enough into a better position by the time the main battles actually roll around.
• Why did the final episodes have to end with the original cast? Couldn’t the cast also have more screen time to May & Max too?
  • May and Max's absence is an unfortunate case of circumstance. KAORI and Fushigi Yamada have both retired from the anime industry (the former because of vocal chord troubles), and unlike in the US, where the two simply would have been recast (as it was the case when Veronica Taylor and Amy Birnbaum were replaced with Michele Knotz and Kayzie Rogers respectively during the TPCI dub change), Japan holds their voice actors in much higher regard. Rather than replace their voices, May was retired until KAORI is able to return, and it would be almost impossible to not have Max around without May. That's why neither character has been back since Diamond and Pearl, despite it being unfair to international audiences to deprive the characters of a farewell. As for everyone else, the point was to focus on just Ash's final tenure, and Misty and Brock were the only two that were there since the beginning. Is it unfair to Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Serena, Bonnie, Clemont, Lillie, Kiawe, Sophocles, Lana, Mallow, and Goh for their stories to more-or-less go unfinished as all but one of them hadn't accomplished their true goal? Sure. But in the end, in saying goodbye to Ash, only Misty and Brock got to join him for one last adventure because the two were there to see him start; it was only symbolic for them to see him off one last time.
    • We did have Cilan for a bit.
• Why is Ash the only one to Narrate the Who's That Pokémon segment? Couldn't we have like a Couch Gag like in SM
• In "To Train or Not to Train", why didn't Jessie and James use Wobbuffett to fight Chloe? Given Chloe's limited experience in battling, she would never be able to stop Wobbuffet from using Counter against Yamper's Spark. And even if Eevee joined in with Copycat, again, Wobbuffet could counter it.