Thread: What is your biggest complaint about the Pokemon series?

Originally Posted by Caseydia

I don't understand the complaint about Ash's age. If they didn't say it, will we believe he was 13 or older? Probably not because of his height. But my complaint was always about Team Plasma not appearing and Team Rocket taking over as the criminals of this region. I didn't like it one bit when they didn't even made one reference to Team Plasma yet. But yet Bianca, the gym leaders and everyone else get perks. I still don't see how that's fair.

Well yeah, alot of people assumed that Ash was getting older, due to things like his VA (originally Veronica in the dub) making his voice deeper and him seeming to act alot more mellow and mature as time went on, just like maturity that comes with age and experience.

Them saying he was 10 screwed it all up beyond recovery, not to mention his skill being reset and erased.

As for Team Plasma, they were going to appear obviously but their plot has been dropped IMO. If they appear again it will likely be for a short special that includes Team Rocket and hopefully deals with the climax of both teams.

As much as I love the show, i have no complaints against any on-going issue except for the constant abandoned Fire starter/I'm gonna evolve all the way sob story.....=_=" W/ Charmander being the orignal, i can actually understand the writers' motives behind the sob story. To me, I figured that raising a Charmander can be difficult as proven to the games that if you were to start out w/ Charmander, you're gonna have a hard time facing w/ the first two gym leaders unless you capture a Pokemon w/ the type-advantage so the writers somehow apply the difficulty raising one onto the show in a way that the trainer wasn't skillful enuff well okay maybe he's more than unskilled so he abandoned Charmander. Then when Charmander evolved, surely he evolved b/c Charizard was more popular than Venusaur and Blastoise.

Cyndaquil was on the verge to be captured by the abusive trainer and I'm glad he didn't since it would been overkill if Ash did caught a Cyndaquil that was abused. torkoal was another fire Pokemon that Ash owned and despite not being a starter nor was abadoned by previous trainer, yet he was attacked by wild Pokemon.

W/ Chimchar, the writers wanted to show the audience about Paul's harsh treatment towards his Pokemon but coincidentally he released a fire Pokemon whose a starter. Now I really don't have an issue w/ that b/c in Sinnoh, there's barely any fire Pokemon apart from the Magby evolution line so the writers simply gave Ash Chimchar. The difference between Charmander and Chimchar's sob story was that Chimchar's storyline, it was more well-defined since the writers had improved since OS.

Then w/ Tepig, idk....maybe I do have issues w/ the capture episode.>_> It seems like the writers just thrown the same old plot yet this time, we never really see the old trainer but c'mon...I was thinking that the writers should have introduced Team Plasma b/c in the games, we get to see them in Accumula Town so it makes sense, right? So w/ Team Plasma, maybe they order trainers to "liberate" their Pokemon, maybe it can idk make the old trainer be more reasonable and nicer rather be some over raged n00b who released it for some dumb reason.

I guess that's my nitpick w/ the series....

My complaints is the poor handling of some rivals and every gen has a main character shafted. Can the writers not be capable of even screentime?

Originally Posted by El_

Originally Posted by Caseydia

I don't understand the complaint about Ash's age. If they didn't say it, will we believe he was 13 or older? Probably not because of his height. But my complaint was always about Team Plasma not appearing and Team Rocket taking over as the criminals of this region. I didn't like it one bit when they didn't even made one reference to Team Plasma yet. But yet Bianca, the gym leaders and everyone else get perks. I still don't see how that's fair.

Well yeah, alot of people assumed that Ash was getting older, due to things like his VA (originally Veronica in the dub) making his voice deeper and him seeming to act alot more mellow and mature as time went on, just like maturity that comes with age and experience.

Them saying he was 10 screwed it all up beyond recovery, not to mention his skill being reset and erased.

As for Team Plasma, they were going to appear obviously but their plot has been dropped IMO. If they appear again it will likely be for a short special that includes Team Rocket and hopefully deals with the climax of both teams.

Exactly. I feel that the age thing with Ash got so screwed up that even to me, most of the anime' history was all black-hole into oblivion just by that one little statement. It's stupid what they did. The writers.

And TP, by this point, as said by @Gliscor'd, has obviously been Porygon'd. It's the start of the new season, Battle Destines, so TP's appearance has possibly became gone forever and to make sure people forget about it and that it never happened, like with Porygon.

Originally Posted by johnr754

And TP, by this point, as said by @Gliscor'd, has obviously been Porygon'd. It's the start of the new season, Battle Destines, so TP's appearance has possibly became gone forever and to make sure people forget about it and that it never happened, like with Porygon.

Except that Porygon DID have an appearance, but the stupid Pika caused thousands of children to get sick, almost making Pokemon get cancelled.

I didn't see these last few pages so:

-Absurdly powerful baby Pokémon: As much as I like Hikari's Hinoarashi/Magmarashi, how the f*ck a day old infant manages to go even somewhat go toe-to-toe with Satoshi's Hayashigame, one of his earlier captures? Especially considering his movepool is really, really bad. Eh, at least, it mostly battled with other Pokémon and never got a KO, unlike Haruka's Zenigame, who somewhat has a decent movepool but my god. Same goes for Haruka's Eievui to some extent, but then again, it didn't appear much, and then came Mikuri Cup.

-Battles against random opponents and fully evolved Pokémon with some CotDs: Wakana's Vibrava defeats a Sirknight! Whut. Koharu has a Barujina! Double whut. Langley's Tunbear smashes a Bachuru! Hehe, funny whut. J's henchmen got their asses kicked by Pochama and Pikachu! Pathetic.

-Merchandise driven nature of the series and anything that comes with it: Except Fukamaru and writers being forced to give some Pokémon like Buoysel and Pochama new moves and new tactics through non-BS methods, but including Fukamaru's late capture and lack of funny characterization for Pochama during most of the episodes during the middle of D/P beyond looking cute. Pikachu's Electra Ball barely counts, while it is completely pointless, Volt Tackle's recoil damage was barely ever shown, so yeah.

-Recoil damage: They could very well give Mammoo Return instead of Take Down. And I don't even want to discuss the other times, because there is too many.

-Shoddy characterization: This is mostly for Pokémon, though many human characters do count too. If I were to go whos and whats this post would be longer than my semester essay, so yeah.

-Various screentime issues.

-Weather conditions: They are either repelled by a Pokémon's counterattack, last for too small time(Hikari's first GF battle), or characters wait for it stop(Pikachu vs. Yukimenoko). But hey, at least they are including them.

-The way how most Pokémon just have mainly have moves of their types and not much diversity: Except Glion, but then again, because Earthquake was banned, he could only be somewhat good with a varied movepool.

As much as completely and utterly BS they are, since the battles of Pikachu against legendaries have been pretty awesome, I don't have much complaint about them.

My Biggest Complaint toward
1)Writer's poor treatment toward Ash & Pikachu.
I mean Ash is Battle frontier champ & Pikachu is a pokemon who beaten a legendary pokemon
Treat them like that ,will ya !
How Do you feel if a trainer & pokemon like that lose to some 3rd grade Trainer ?
Like Trip and Servine . They just started so they doesn't suppose to be in any Grade.
Also time to time Ash lose to other 3rd grade trainer. (like Chili , Kenny, Drew)
Ash is the main character . Do they ever think what gonna happen if his image get ruin by his multiple defect against 3rd grade trainer.
The main character are important. Kids like strong main character whom they admire & whom is their Idol.
Even if he start as a weak boy first.
Do anyone of you wish to be like Ash who can't even beat a new kids despite defecting the Battle frontier.
''Ash doesn't have his old pokemon''- isn't a good excuse because he still has his achievement & experience.
If writer think its okay for Ash to lose to some low grade trainer because he doesn't have his old pokemon mean that only his pokemon grown , not him !
Give Ash & Pikachu more reputation , Make them respected & feared, Treat them like a formidable pair !
2)No Shonen Feeling
you know, It a feeling you have when you watch a anime where a boy start from starch but soon become really strong and he make some friend and later with them he reach his goal.
Basically A feeling you have when you watch anime like Air Gear , Beyblade, Hitman reborn, or Prince of tennis.
A young boy rising up to the top.
I guess Pokemon doesn't provide that cause Ash barely see the top rather reaching it.
3)No Progression
For 14 year, there isn't any progressing in Ash's story.
I mean, it's always same. ''Ash start a new journey in a new region with new girl & a male. sometime he have a cold rival who's better then him. Ash keep losing to him again & again. Ash finally reach's the league where he finally gain one victory against that rival. That rival leaves for good while Ash get knock down in the next round. Then Ash goes home & start his new journey. If its a Filer saga then he has his old friend but if its a new generation then he ether have a new girl or boy.
And whole circle start all over AGAIN.''
I Mean, SHOULDN'T IT'S TIME ASH WIN THE POKEMON LEAGUE AND THEN MOVED TO CHAMPION LEAGUE AND THEN TO WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ?
In all other imaginary sport anime , the main character already became a legend in the time when Ash merely become a Best 8 in a pokemon league.
4) Each league Saga's are too long
Kids are impatient so they can 4 year for one league saga to end.

I wish the writers would stop making characters so similar to previous ones. Example: Bianca is kinda like a female version of Barry personality-wise. I know, they have their differences, but their similarities are right there too. Paul and Trip are very alike too. The only difference is that Trip doesn't mistreat his Pokemon like Paul did.

Adding on to that, It'd be great if the main rival didn't have the same repetitive attitude towards Ash. I'm sure Ash would still work just as hard even if his rival isn't constantly bickering at him.

Also, Sharing is caring. Some even screen time wouldn't hurt.

Poor handling of characters goals. What was Misty's water pokemon goal? Did she even make any progress to it at all over the entire span of her run? By the time she left the series, did her water pokemon actually do anything unique or memorable?

Brock's breeder goal was also ignored far too long, probably why they changed it. Then there's Iris' dragon goal...what happened to that again?

Team Rocket acting as the main villains, resulting in limited appearances from the other evil teams. For one thing, Team Rocket should still be in Kanto and/or Johto. If they're trying to "advertise" the current games, then why use villains from past games? It's just baffles me. Could they've capped off their story in Johto in an epic arc? It'd make up for the loss of the GS Ball and SOOOOOOO many fillers.

Another thing, it's always just Jessie, James and Meowth and occasionally Bitc-I mean, Butch and Cassidy. Why not show more of the other members too like in a major operation such as the St. Anne heist? Or how about like the showdown at Silph Co. WHICH THEY SKIPPED? Hell, what about Giovanni? Why hasn't he faced Ash properly yet?

Also, if they utilized the other evil teams in a different way than Team Rocket, like having recurring members and, perhaps, commanders who don't always appear in every episode but when it's important to their arcs, it would've been much better and maybe create a linear storyline. Just not to often or too sparsely.

Plus, and this might be pushing the envelope, but I'd like to see members from the other evil teams like Magma, Aqua, Galactic and Plasma with gray personalities that you can't exactly define as evil since they're misguided and trying to recreate the world in their image for what they believe is the greater good. Unlike Team Rocket who are criminals. It'd give Pokemon a cool recurring theme of "conflicting beliefs" which would be a neat thing for kids or any viewer. Especially if done correctly.

Also, I wish that Ash's story ended in Kanto so the Anime could emulate the games' tradition of changing the characters each region while taking place in the same world. Old character would return to show how they are now and interact with the current main cast. Plus, I'd likes it if Hilda was the star of Best Wishes and that she'd appeal to boys and girls. Girls since she'd be a strong-willed female type. Not a tomboy but not exactly girly either. A little bit of both and a bit vivacious. Boys since she wouldn't be girly like they'd expect and they might get an secret crush on her (oh, don't tell me that never happened to YOU). I mean, Bianca's one of the few female rivals for Ash and... well, I think you know.

In my opinion, one of biggest disappointments which pokemon anime does is character treatment. In most cases they dont get developed as much as they could be, with writers getting rid of them in middle of development never to be seen again.

Most past traveling companions like Misty, Max, May(to smaller extent) etc can be agreed had several unfinished plots in their stories, room to be developed more and unexplored things on which writers could expand. But instead of developing characters more being taken in new/fresh directions, giving them proper closures and well fleshed out storyline what they do instead?

Replace them like garbage leaving stories unresolved, with lot of potential ending up wasted or unused. Just to introduce new faces which receive same faith as well leaving after few years becoming forgotten and abandoned, like they never left any impact on Ash and anime in first place. Rinse and repeat. BW is prime example of that.

When comparing with other shows like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach,Inazuma Eleven go etc pokemon fails . They introduce new ones,but they keep older characters relevant as well, developing them further and giving chance to viewers to learn more. In other words sequels are made.

Personally i dont see any point in constantly adding new characters just to end up forgotten anyway, when there is left room to do more. Formula is stale, predictable and repetitive and judging by past characters which are basically erased from existence i fail to see any appeal in this.
Well at least in my opinion.

I think rotation would do wonders. We would still get new characters, but at same time all time favorites would be kept relevant(coming for let say one to two seasons) being interesting to see mix of old and new and what kind of dynamic this would bring to cast.You can refresh older cast through new outfits, pokemon and subplots doing fresh things with them making further progress, and people would be interested in something different with more continuity being added to show.

When comparing with other shows like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach,Inazuma Eleven go etc pokemon fails . They introduce new ones,but they keep older characters relevant as well, developing them further and giving chance to viewers to learn more. In other words sequels are made.

I do agree that Pokemon does a poor job at keeping characters relevant, but it cannot be compared to the likes of Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. Those shows have a sense of time; events are dated and the characters age. Pokemon doesn't. You could make a logical assumption about the timeline in Pokemon but one is never acknowledged to exist. Therefore they are incomparable examples.

On top of that, those shows have over-arching plots and mini-plots that can help keep characters relevant. Pokemon does not. It's simply advertisement-in-narrative, thus I feel it's actually a good move on the writer's part that certain main characters are replaced. If you leave them in for too long without having them get any closer to their goals (see Ash and Brock) they will eventually become stale and uninteresting.

They can, of course, bring back Pokemon Chronicles to focus on some of the older characters and give them a bit more development and closure, but personally I was satisfied with the way the stories of older cast members ended.

To elaborate more on my gripe, my biggest complaint about the Pokemon anime is its tendency to shaft certain characters, human and Pokemon, aside in favour of other characters. I can fully understand that giving every single character equal development and things to do is a very difficult, perhaps even impossible, task but when those characters are appearing on the screen every episode, it's inexcusable. One of the more blatant examples I can think if the current trio in Best Wishes. Ash and Cilan receive the bulk of the screentime and get to do things often, while Iris has seemingly become the third wheel who does little more than just commentate from the sidelines and get the odd episode-in-twenty focused on her. Then there's the group's Pokemon. While they're busy shoving the starter Pokemon in our faces, some of the others aren't even being let outside their PokeBalls.

This isn't a case of me being bitter about my favourites not receiving enough attention. I just feel that characters on the main cast absolutely must get a good amount of screentime and development, otherwise they've no business being main characters.

My only complaint is the narrator at the beginning of BW getting Ash's age wrong. He really should be around 13.

There are way to many to list...

Saying officially that Ash is 10
Resetting Ash all over and making him stupid.
Deleting all of Pikachu's past experience.
Neglecting important game plots and game characters - Cheren, Team Plasma, N & Ghetsis.

Originally Posted by VTP-Dawkins93

I do agree that Pokemon does a poor job at keeping characters relevant, but it cannot be compared to the likes of Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. Those shows have a sense of time; events are dated and the characters age. Pokemon doesn't. You could make a logical assumption about the timeline in Pokemon but one is never acknowledged to exist. Therefore they are incomparable examples.

Im aware of difference, and while pokemon was never some show with deep and complex story when i think about it there are couple of scenarios which could work imo, involving older characters and still moving story forward. Just like new characters can contribute to pokemon story, there is nothing to say previous ones couldnt too. Most Ash traveling companions which left have room to be done more and this could allow us to see them developed to more significant degree gaining more depth and mystery being taken to new directions, strengthening continuity.

Thats not to say new characters wouldnt still come in, but at same time people would be given opportunity to see their older favorites in action again being updated and growing more. I believe coming for some arc with length of OI or Battle Frontier would be possible to accomplish becoming relevant again .Writers already proved how anime has liberty to stray away from games abit ignoring several game characters in favor of older characters stay.
Imo it would be certainly better than leaving them forgotten and abandoned, bringing some unpredictability and new twists in show.

Regarding timeline well pokemon referenced how time pass several times, but problem is that main cast doesnt grow older. They are stuck in some kind of loop with writers not wanting them to age. Some say how its because anime is aimed for small kids,and such move could turn them of. But after taking in account how there are other kids show which age characters, somehow i doubt thats main reason.

On top of that, those shows have over-arching plots and mini-plots that can help keep characters relevant. Pokemon does not. It's simply advertisement-in-narrative, thus I feel it's actually a good move on the writer's part that certain main characters are replaced. If you leave them in for too long without having them get any closer to their goals (see Ash and Brock) they will eventually become stale and uninteresting.

True,but if you ask me better solution instead of replacing such characters is fixing mistakes writers did with them and giving them justice and proper development. Instead of doing sloppy job getting rid of someone leaving him underdeveloped. Even if character becomes stale, with good writing he can regain his purpose back and become enjoyable again providing writers get him back on right track.

For instance many fans thought TR was boring in Johto, but after writers had Jessie starting to do contests in Hoenn with writers increasing her role aside from only continuing to apply overused scenario of trying to catch Pikachu, people regained interest in characters again.

Besides i really dont mind Ash, he is still intriguing.

I respect your opinion,but personally i would rather had pokemon forming stable and consistent cast, instead of constantly cycling though characters. Its ridiculous in my opinion,and doesnt serve much purpose when current or previous companions could bring same entertainment value having already potential.

They can, of course, bring back Pokemon Chronicles to focus on some of the older characters and give them a bit more development and closure, but personally I was satisfied with the way the stories of older cast members ended.

Chronicles would be great way to bring back older characters to life. They were important part of show history and should be acknowledged getting some recognition. I would welcome this just as much as i would return of some of them to cast for awhile.

Only character which was in reality done and wrapped up was Tracey, considering how he accomplished his goal of becoming prof. Oak assistant finding this is what he wants to do in his life, in other words finding his place.

Brock still didnt become doctor and writers left several things unanswered not knowing if he will become traveling doctor or open center. Likewise we dont know what else beside studying he needs to do to become doctor,so i would say there is left room to do more. Seeing how writers changed his career opens window of new directions in which character could be taken.

Misty story never in reality received closure. Goal of water pokemon master was left unfinished never coming to any significant realization how to achieve her goals, taking gym only because of obligation and incompetent sisters with writers making clear how this isnt among her dreams. Further more several things were left unexplored and unanswered about her past,dreams, pokemon and ambitions not being fleshed out enough as character. She certainly has untapped potential to expand upon.

May still didnt won Grand festival not becoming top coordinator having unfinished business with rivals . And character itself still didnt developed her own style as coordinator never leaving out of Ash influence completely. Same for Dawn.

To elaborate more on my gripe, my biggest complaint about the Pokemon anime is its tendency to shaft certain characters, human and Pokemon, aside in favour of other characters. I can fully understand that giving every single character equal development and things to do is a very difficult, perhaps even impossible, task but when those characters are appearing on the screen every episode, it's inexcusable. One of the more blatant examples I can think if the current trio in Best Wishes. Ash and Cilan receive the bulk of the screentime and get to do things often, while Iris has seemingly become the third wheel who does little more than just commentate from the sidelines and get the odd episode-in-twenty focused on her. Then there's the group's Pokemon. While they're busy shoving the starter Pokemon in our faces, some of the others aren't even being let outside their PokeBalls.

This isn't a case of me being bitter about my favourites not receiving enough attention. I just feel that characters on the main cast absolutely must get a good amount of screentime and development, otherwise they've no business being main characters.

This is one of my biggest complaints too. If character is going to leave cast, writers should before that give them proper development and screen time finishing up what they started. I can understand that some characters have bigger importance in anime than others like Ash for example who is show driving force, so its pretty much a given how he is going to get biggest piece of cake. But for good development you dont need a lot of focus,as long writers do it on consistent basis and there is no excuse for certain characters ending up shafted so much. This is main reason why people were disappointed with Brock,Max and nowadays Iris treatment. Sam goes for Misty, while she got some good development its obvious writers never fleshed her out as much as they could be leaving several things unexplored. I reckon this is one of main reasons why many fans want her back(to get proper closure and more development).

Repartition of screen time was never really problem either,because plenty of times there were episodes where writers could engage such characters in action doing something with them,instead of wasting it on pointless fillers from which no on didnt benefit. Or dedicating too much focus to certain characters,while leaving others to remain neglected. Like it happened in Sinnoh, some of those episodes which focused on Ash and Dawn training werent necessary for their growth, being perfect opportunity to do something with Brock story but writers unfortunately had wrongly set priorities.

They did acknowledged mistakes they did with his character though,but instead of restoring him they rather choose to fix that through Cilan. Which is just slap in face to his fans.

In earlier seasons lack of experience was one of main factors behind some characters not being properly developed, so writers can be partially excused for some of their misplays. They were just starting out and didnt had required knowledge and experience not knowing how to properly handle several things, which were fixed in future upcoming sagas learning on past.

Eh if only this anime had more thought and quality out into it, no wonder why people lose respect for it. Older characters are treated like trash, continuity is basically nonexistent and main hero advance at snail pace speed.