An Alternate More Serious Pokémon Anime?

Mitja

Mitja

veteran smartass
Member
I'm not a fan of the anime (I used to watch it sometimes just to make fun of all the errors, silliness and stupidity you can spot in each episode) and think its one of the main reasons Pokémon looks "childish" as a franchise to most people (who from my experience rarely even know there are games, let alone that the games are what fuels the content so to say). But before I go on too many tangents....

This thread is about "What if" and what you would like to see, if the Pokemon company decided to make a second Anime 100% separate from the current one.

Personally, for me to enjoy a Pokémon anime (and I really would love for there to be an anime thats worthy of representing Pokémon), it would have to include the following things

-No Ash, no annoying Pikachu
Protagonist should accomplish something and then be changed to a new one every now and then.
-not hundreds of meaningless episodes with boring stories and repetitive elements
It shouldn't feel like 90% of the episodes are fillers just to keep the show going with the same >meet random person, get tricked by team rocket, defeat them, bye<. I prefer quality over quantity. So seasons having like 30ep with great content would be awesome.
-no pokémon calling out their names (makes no sense and is purely an invention of the anime "to help kids remember their names")
I want proper monster cries/sounds appropriate for each species.
-Not making up its own logic everywhere
The battles should work as close to the games as possible, and even show off cool strategies that can actually give watchers ideas for ingame-use and work. No stupid "dodge" crap.
-possibly follow the game story more closely
and have plenty of references to stuff from the games.


So basically, Id imagine it like this:
30 episodes for each region, following its protagonist (in some cases two simultaneously even) from beginning of journey, to the league, covering how they build their team, defeat gyms, do some side-plot involving local villains, a climax relating to main legends, and taking on the E4. Then have the protagonist reappear every now and then in future seasons as a strong trainer etc.

It should have more interesting dialogues, and delve into some deeper questions about the pokemon universe, and how it works.
Not making it up mind you, but rather asking people from gamefreak to give some relevant input. Input from the people who make the franchise would be absolutely necessary if the anime is supposed to be about the same thing.

That would be very interesting, although probably not happening any time soon lol.


What do you think?
What core things would you want them to do differently if they did a separate anime?
 
I still watch the anime, because I enjoy watching the animated versions of Pokémon. But I no longer watch it for Ash, since he is obviously not going to accomplish anything the way things are now.

I would love to see each region being traveled through by the playable characters from the game and watch them accomplish their goals. And I would love to see Ash progress rather than being stuck in the same endless cycle.

I hope for more specials, like the Legend of Thunder, to see other playable characters.
 
Well, in the games you can miss an opponent so I see no reason not to have that in the anime.

I definitely agree with the point though I do like an unconventional victory from time to time.
 
Mitja said:
The battles should work as close to the games as possible, and even show off cool strategies that can actually give watchers ideas for ingame-use and work. No stupid "dodge" crap.
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Everything else sounded good but this seems iffy. Exactly how close to the games are we talking about? Having each Pokemon just stand on each side of the field and take hits? In the games, you're obviously restricted to certain mechanics, but I don't see why it's a bad thing for the anime to deviate from those a bit as long as it's not something blatantly contrary, like Pikachu's Thunder hitting Golem in the first movie. Dodging doesn't even go against anything in the games, since attacks can occasionally miss/be avoided.
 
Some of the old episodes didn't make sense but they were golden. Remember when they thought Team Rocket drowned and tried to shove them off the life raft, but at the last minute they proved to still be alive, and Pikachu snapped its fingers and frowned as if saying 'so close' (such a morbid little Chu).
Or the Ninetales that lived for hundreds of years and was Psychic? Or the creepy episode where Sabrina turned them into dolls.

Even though Ash hasn't changed, I'm sure newer generations enjoy the show just as much as I did when I was younger. It's a great way to introduce young kids to Pokemon, to keep the franchise going. I really don't mind the show. But that teaser trailer for Black2 and White2 did make me wish for more.
 
The big thing I have a problem with is the sheer amount of filler, it makes the majority of the series pointless to watch. What they need to do is include more conflict with the evil team, something significant to their motivations and goals, and could potentially last several episodes. Tone it down on these random character of the day plots, no one really cares about them.
 
Oh and all the huge explosions resulting in dramatic 2 minute smoke clouds...
two energy beams collide=explosion
a beam and leaves collide=explosion
a beam and punch collide=explosion
...

there are other options for over the top action sequences without using explosions

Frezgle said:
Mitja said:
The battles should work as close to the games as possible, and even show off cool strategies that can actually give watchers ideas for ingame-use and work. No stupid "dodge" crap.
Click to expand...

Everything else sounded good but this seems iffy. Exactly how close to the games are we talking about?
Click to expand...

I get that it cannot be the same way. But it could be way closer. Its not like the current approach makes that much more spectacular and dramatic than if they tried keeping it more true to the games. Its probably 90% due to laziness, like they didn't even try.

Frezgle said:
Having each Pokemon just stand on each side of the field and take hits?
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Do you realize that this is what they've been doing already from the start? Its like the pokemon don't have any instinct to move out of the way unless their super intelligent trainer tells them to and it freaks me out.

Frezgle said:
In the games, you're obviously restricted to certain mechanics, but I don't see why it's a bad thing for the anime to deviate from those a bit as long as it's not something blatantly contrary, like Pikachu's Thunder hitting Golem in the first movie. Dodging doesn't even go against anything in the games, since attacks can occasionally miss/be avoided.
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Its not the fact that they dodge, its the fact that the pokemon need that as a command like they are person (maybe their supernatural defensive and fast recovering capabilities make them care less about getting harmed or something I missed?)

dodging should be natural and dependant on how focused/clustered/spread out and how fastly executed a move is. That's essentially what the ingame accuracy is supposed to encompass. Something with 50% accuracy can miss because the opponent sees it coming while something with 100% can only be really avoided with extra accuracy buff.

I'd be fine if they automatically tried avoiding things flying their way (or not be able to when something is directly in your face like a Flamethrower, unpredictable like Faint Attack etc.), just get rid of the whole 10 second sequence of
>attack incoming
>pokemon stands like a robot
>attack still on its way
>trainer tells pokemon to dodge
>attack almost there
>pokemon dodges just in time
well no shit, that surely gave the pokemon THE incentive it needed to jump out of the way
 
I have wanted a serious Pokémon anime since after the second movie. I was only 10 at the time, but I was tired of the cutesy schtick that was done in every episode (as you mentioned ">meet random person, get tricked by team rocket, defeat them, bye<" then rinse and repeat).

The only reason I still watch the anime is to see the Pokémon in action, interacting with one another, and to see their personalities. I haven't cared about what Ash does since the Johto League (though I will say it was utter Tauros crap that he was put up against Tobias in Sinnoh - he should have won that league).
 
Inferchomp said:
I have wanted a serious Pokémon anime since after the second movie. I was only 10 at the time, but I was tired of the cutesy schtick that was done in every episode (as you mentioned ">meet random person, get tricked by team rocket, defeat them, bye<" then rinse and repeat).

The only reason I still watch the anime is to see the Pokémon in action, interacting with one another, and to see their personalities. I haven't cared about what Ash does since the Johto League (though I will say it was utter Tauros crap that he was put up against Tobias in Sinnoh - he should have won that league).
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I did watch that it was funny, Tobias won with 2 Pokemon!!
 
Fortunately, the mangas are good enough to read them if you're interested in the story. "Pokémon Adventures" has a MUCH better storyline and deeper characters than any other mediums. In fact, for me, "Pokémon Adventures" is the deepest vision of the Pokémon World. Even the creator of Pokémon, Satoshi Tajiri, admitted that this is the best adaptation of the world he imagined.

Also, "Pokémon Pocket Monsters" can be a good choice if you're interested in a more comical point of view (most Pokémon can speak human language). That blockhead Clefairy is a good mascot along with Red's Pikachu, who's a much better version of the Pikachu from the anime.
 
Things I would love to see in a Pokémon anime:

Length: Ideally, 26 episodes per generation. Each generation should be treated as a separate show, with new characters and situations and a clear beginning, middle, and end. I'm not adverse to stand-alone episodes, if they have a clear purpose, such as characterization.

Characters: Characters should be the main focus of the show, as they are in any good show. I'm still debating whether or not I'd like to see the game's PC as the main character or not, though I'm leaning towards no. Would still love to see gym leaders, elite 4, champion, and other trainers as actual characters, possibly recurring. Put a strong focus on characterization and build that into the plot. Which leads me to...

Plot: I'd like to see about 30-40% of the show's plot to come from the game. Too much closeness to the game and there's no point to watching the anime at all, but if you distance it too much, you lose your game connection entirely and the generational connection becomes harder to justify. At the same time, I think it needs to be acknowledged that the games' plots are rather weak as a whole (as a game, Pokémon shines for its gameplay, not its amazing story) and should be beefed up for an anime to give it more of a conclusive whole. There are so many different, cool ways that you can explore the Pokémon world.

Battling: I would like it if battles followed the game's rules a bit more while still keeping their cinematic flair. Pokémon should be able to act on their own initiative and follow some of the basic typing structures of the games, while still looking cool and staying more realistic than the turn-based approach the game gives.

Pokémon: Am I the only one who likes it that the Pokémon call out their names? >_> I admit it's ridiculous in some instances, but I think they need something more than barking or growling which doesn't really make them seem any more different than animals. Of course, I've only seen the very early seasons, so I don't know how terrible this gets as the show goes on. I think I might try to make the calls more natural-sounding while still keeping some aspect of the name, or at least finding someway to distinguish them.
 
Artemis said:
Things I would love to see in a Pokémon anime:

Length: Ideally, 26 episodes per generation. Each generation should be treated as a separate show, with new characters and situations and a clear beginning, middle, and end. I'm not adverse to stand-alone episodes, if they have a clear purpose, such as characterization.

Characters: Characters should be the main focus of the show, as they are in any good show. I'm still debating whether or not I'd like to see the game's PC as the main character or not, though I'm leaning towards no. Would still love to see gym leaders, elite 4, champion, and other trainers as actual characters, possibly recurring. Put a strong focus on characterization and build that into the plot. Which leads me to...

Plot: I'd like to see about 30-40% of the show's plot to come from the game. Too much closeness to the game and there's no point to watching the anime at all, but if you distance it too much, you lose your game connection entirely and the generational connection becomes harder to justify. At the same time, I think it needs to be acknowledged that the games' plots are rather weak as a whole (as a game, Pokémon shines for its gameplay, not its amazing story) and should be beefed up for an anime to give it more of a conclusive whole. There are so many different, cool ways that you can explore the Pokémon world.

Battling: I would like it if battles followed the game's rules a bit more while still keeping their cinematic flair. Pokémon should be able to act on their own initiative and follow some of the basic typing structures of the games, while still looking cool and staying more realistic than the turn-based approach the game gives.

Pokémon: Am I the only one who likes it that the Pokémon call out their names? >_> I admit it's ridiculous in some instances, but I think they need something more than barking or growling which doesn't really make them seem any more different than animals. Of course, I've only seen the very early seasons, so I don't know how terrible this gets as the show goes on. I think I might try to make the calls more natural-sounding while still keeping some aspect of the name, or at least finding someway to distinguish them.
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I agree so much with everything you wrote (except for calling out names bit).

I've been thinking in the past if the current anime could "get better" with the right changes, but I realized the issues I have are crucial things that just wouldn't happen, and it would make more sense if there really was a separate anime (although I'm confident this isn't gonna happen either sadly..).

I'm sure some part of the other 60/70% could come from all kinds of stuff thats in the games but never explained or really touched upon. Take the Mossdeep space-center for example, we barely get any info about what they're doing or what kind of missions they've already accomplished. Or some more legit hints about what the Alph ruins were built for and by whom...

But boy, just imagining some parts from games being featured in an anime make me feel excited. For example the protagonist finding a Claw fossil in Hoenns desert, then taking it to Petalburg and resulting in an addition of Anorith in their team O:...
Stumbling upon the deep icy part of Shoal cave and finding a family of Snorunts there pretending to be a primitive society or something xDd


Oh, another thing, how legendaries are treated. They are rare powerful pokemon, not untouchable mother nature or some shit. I wouldn't mind if the protagonist caught one of the ~600TBS (Articuno, Heatran..) non-event ones towards the end or in some special episode.
 
I'm actually planning on touching the legendary thing in an upcoming fanfiction of mine, but fanfiction don't count, so I guess I might as well just say here that I think that legendary pokémon could and should appear in the anime and be used. I think it could go in some many different ways... imagine a trainer with a legendary they own but can't control (akin to Ash and Charizard), or even one they can control but use it for semi-ambigiously-moral purposes. You have a lot of things you can do with it.

I think a lot of the non-game stuff could also just come from characters having different goals. What if one of the MCs really *did* want to catch them all, and spent some of his time combing all over the various areas to find pokémon? Doing such in the game isn't exactly exciting, but in a more storytelling-focused environment, you can play around with it a lot. I would really like to see MCs with different motivations; obviously the gyms and battling would be a focus no matter what, but MCs focused on winning contests, or breeding, or being a gym leader of their own, or, well, any one of the many other goals and character motivations aside from "beat gyms and become a Pokémon Master."
 
The thing I find interesting is that the casual legendaries are actually even weaker than Dragonite/Tyranitar/Salamence/Metagross/Garchomp/Hydreigon. If those are fine, then certainly an Entei that cant even learn a decent STAB move naturally should be okay.

I'm tired of all the people with the notion that using legends makes u a bad person, and while I do understand that for the epic mascots/mewtwo, I'm certain the anime is responsible for this popular black/white viewpoint in regards to this topic.
 
The anime does tend to put legendaries on a pedestal, at least from what I've seen. Not sure how much that actually influences people's opinion of them, but it would be nice to see them used and acknowledged more.
 
Thinking again, if Im not mistaken theres been some trainers who used them more casually in the anime already. The pyramid guy from battle frontier had regis and someone in a league a latios or something, so maybe that was my memories from gen 1 episodes speaking lol.
 
Mitja said:
Thinking again, if Im not mistaken theres been some trainers who used them more casually in the anime already. The pyramid guy from battle frontier had regis and someone in a league a latios or something, so maybe that was my memories from gen 1 episodes speaking lol.
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Legendaries are treated kind of... Oddly in the anime.
Off the top of my head I can think of three separate Articuno (one was even from an episode which mentioned that they're not quite legendary so much as just borderline-extinct), three Lugia (including a baby!), two sets of Regis, three possible Raikou, two possible Suicune, two Entei (not counting) the mirage Entei from M3, two Mews, I don't even know how many Latis, I think several Celebi (though those could all be from alternate timelines like M4 states)...

From what I can tell, some legendaries are treated as extremely rare and powerful but otherwise normal Pokemon, whereas some are treated as deities. The deity-status legendaries are things like Dialga/Palkia/Giratina and Arceus. Actually, Arceus is treated as LESS god-like in the anime, since it's only shown to be able to give life to one area of land, and it is implied that it can be killed. In the games, it creates entire UNIVERSES, even going as far as to create and destroy a universe just to give the player some baby legendaries to choose from.

It's... kind of a hodgepodge, really, the way the anime handles it, but I don't really mind it.
 
Artemis said:
Pokémon: Am I the only one who likes it that the Pokémon call out their names? >_> I admit it's ridiculous in some instances, but I think they need something more than barking or growling which doesn't really make them seem any more different than animals. Of course, I've only seen the very early seasons, so I don't know how terrible this gets as the show goes on. I think I might try to make the calls more natural-sounding while still keeping some aspect of the name, or at least finding someway to distinguish them.
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No I actually like that they say their names, but it'd be nice if some of the voice choices weren't so annoying and that the Pokémon did not do this as often. More animalistic growling, purring, screeching, what-have-you, would be better as long as it too is not overdone.
 
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