I actualy liked Serena, but my reason for it is strange, since my shipping conflicts with her existence. Anyway, I like her because she's trying to figure out what she wants to do for herself. She's not just following what her mother did like Dawn, which I like. I think she might decide to become a stylist, actually - it seems like something she'd end up doing. But yeah, I like Serena. Anyway, yeah. Ash was well-deserving of some competence. Maybe he'll finally win something. I'd be pretty depressed if I'd lost that many Leagues... How is he so cheerful most of the time?!
~Life is lonely but unlikely, too~
It's okay to like Serena, while I personally don't find her interesting (I don't think she really tries that much to figure out her goal), I can understand why people like her. As for Ash and his cheerfulness... well, maybe he just likes adventuring and doesn't actually care about winning.
man this is really cool dude you should make more who no you might come you like this guy https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJWittz
Why do people still bother with the Pokemon anime? What else can anyone get out of it?
It depends on who you ask, really. Me personally because it's kind of a guilty pleasure (though I mostly just watch it for the pettiest of reasons, like finding out what new Pokemon Ash and/or his companions catch and stuff). But there are some people, even older fans, who enjoy the anime unironically and genuinely. Other people watch it to mock and make fun of it.
Personally, I have almost no interest in anime, and the culture related to it baffles and sometimes disgusts me. But I can't deny that there are a few diamonds available in the mountain of anime shows, and the original Pokémon anime was that to me as a kid and even today. While I'm now sick of the ever-popular "I want to be the very best" theme tune, I honestly think the first anime was very strong and doesn't feel dated at all. It balanced comedy, action, emotion, adventure and cuteness very well, few of the episodes were forgettable, and the original trio of Ash, Brock and Misty worked perfectly as a team, all characters having positives and negatives to their individual personalities that anyone could relate with. And while I never played Red/Blue/Yellow (or indeed, any of the games before Diamond) the anime still brings a smile to my face, as cheesy and gleefully indulgent as it looks today. It wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be, and I'm so glad that I watched it during my childhood, as much as it annoyed my parents.
When I look at the new Pokémon anime however, I cannot help but see it as incredibly weak and disposable on every level. For the new generation of kids, it's good enough of course. But the writers have seemingly made no changes whatsoever to the anime's formula. Ash has no desire to stop collecting Pokémon, settle down, and get a job. He's apparently still 10 years old, which means he's trapped in what he's doing, unable to mature and instead obnoxiously deluded in believing that endless Pokémon training is an irreplaceable lifestyle. Pikachu is still his top Pokémon, even though by now he should have grown tired of being used as a weapon of mass electrical destruction. The travelling buddies keep changing, but none of them feel as genuine or memorable as the dim-witted but lovable classic Ash, the hotheaded and sassy Misty, and the wise, hopeless romantic Brock (though I remember May and Max being somewhat likable). And as for Team Rocket, they're completely worthless as characters. Their role is find the twerps, annoy the twerps, get their asses kicked by the twerps, blast off again, repeat. They'll never amount to anything more. In the original series, they had an excuse - that was still early in their career.
It's very likely because Pokémon is a kiddie show and I've grown out of it, and I have nothing against people who still watch it, but it baffles me that some of the fans actually continue to watch each and every episode, even the filler episodes. I could sit down and watch classic Pokémon anyday, but watching any new episode from mid-Hoenn upwards would be like watching a cheap, unsatisfactory two-star movie pulled out from a supermarket bargain bin. It has nothing to offer me anymore. Sorry...
Well, if the show doesn't do anything for you, then why are you here, why bother hanging around in a section where you are guaranteed to find fans of it? I understand what you mean, though; the reason I call this show a guilty pleasure is because I myself see more flaws than good stuff about it, yet I still watch it. Yes, the show is at best severely mediocre in every aspect; the protagonist is excruciatingly bland, the friendship between Ash and his companions feels fake and forced because we know the latter will be replaced and forgotten about save for the occasional cameo, the storylines are recycled, the outcome of nearly every conflict is laughably predictable, and what things the games offer that could make things more interesting are always either watered-down, shortened, or otherwise not focused on as much as they should (for example, just about every villainous Team ever). Yet... I can't hate it. No, it's definitely not one of my favorite shows out there, but I can't hate it. I guess I just feel a strange sort of like-dislike towards it.
Regardless, if the Pokemon anime doesn't do anything for you, then don't bother with it at all: stick with the aspects of the franchise that you DO like, be it the main games, the TCG, the manga, or whatever floats your boat. Unless you would like to join those who snark, mock and shame the anime, in which case be my guest.
@TT 454 somehow I knew you'd pull the Animation Age Ghetto card...
That said, this is more of a problem with Long Runners. As they get older the chances of Seasonal Rot and Dork Age increase (Comics are a prime example, especially if you have the misfortune to know about Superman Red and Blue) and as the Nostalga Filter kicks in people tend to think that the Glory Days are over and that current incarnation is mediocre at best regardless of what is actually the case (To make an example, as an inherent effect of being dubbed by 4Kids, the early seasons of the anime were Bowdlerized)
Leave a Comment:
XY season, another BW? Or something better?
After BW ended I now had a least favorite season: the mistakes that the Unova arc did were either much more glaring than in past seasons or there just wasn't enough upsides to compensate for the downsides.
Now that XY is ongoing many people -myself included- are hoping that it is not a repeat of BW, and while so far it does seem like a mild improvement, it still has a few issues, namely that it still has that BW feel to it: too watered-down and cutesy, there is a large saturation of filler episodes at the beginning (though arguably it is better in the long run to get the fillers out of the way early so that we don't end up with a filler arc at the end of the saga like last time), and I'm sorry, but Serena is so far incredibly uninteresting: all that she has done is be shipping fuel and not much else; heck, even Bonnie has done more than Serena has and the kid is what? Six years old? It doesn't help that Serena is just a stereotypical girly-girl (yes, I know that there have been countless girly-girls in past seasons, but at least those had an actual personality beyond just being girly).
On the other hand, the good stuff has been quite satisfying: Ash is competent again, Clemont and Bonnie are, while not excellent, pretty decent characters so far; the Mega Evolution arc seems interesting so far, Korrina joined the group recently and is so far entertaining, and some fillers have been pretty fun, particularly the Malamar episode.
Personally, I'm going to keep up my guard, however: just because this saga seems like an improvement so far doesn't mean that it will be an improvement in the long run. Hopefully, it will be a good arc. This being the Pokemon anime, I gave up long ago in anything truly spectacular coming out of it, but hey, surprises do happen occasionally.