In fact this is what i think: they should make a pokemon origins for every region, with the main character being the male/female protaganist in the game (of each region) each season should be at least 12 episodes.
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Does the anime give a bad reputation to Pokemon?
- Thread starter Shiny Magikarp
- Start date
I think a lot of us though are part of the video game and anime generation. That's not to say when video games started coming on that it wasn't popular, but it was mostly seen as a fad back in the 80s. The likes of our fathers and mothers actually played arcades and consoles quite a bit, but most of the grew out of it eventually because it was simply the new thing and created a large culture, but a small permanent one.
I'd say to those of us born in the mid-late 80s and afterwards have lived in a pretty lively culture of constant gaming and more recently things like anime. Older generations typically pressure the younger ones to conform to what they find to be normal at typical ages, so when we get to be in our 20s and 30s, of course we have this expectation from them to drop them in a nod towards childishness. The anime is not the epicenter, though; more like a visible and apparent side effect to an otherwise booming society that enjoy these things. Of course it doesn't help that both the games and the anime of something like Pokemon sport a lot of things consumers would consider to be an otherwise childlike ambiance. For instance the cute mascots, the designs of most pokemon advertised, the commercials we see on TV, and the people who advertise them (oftentimes kids). If anyone has gone to business school and taken a class in marketing, you would probably learn that these sorts of things are targeted items.
It goes into psychology too. The things we see, like color, a happy human-like face, the names of the characters all build up a subconscious appeal that it is something that belongs in the domain of children. I don't consider this instance to simply be a question of only Pokemon - because there's a lot of examples that people in this thread have already pointed to and things you could probably think of as I allude you to them. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Digimon, Yugioh, Spiderman, Batman; the list goes on. You might say after that short list, woah wait, but the original TMNT was serious and dark and stuff. To which I reply; I know. A lot of what is considered childish actually tackles adult themes, but nonetheless has been viewed in the past or is still viewed as a childish endeavor. A good parallel to this is comic books and the entire culture surrounding that. A good discussion you might have is with someone who is your parent's age, and I think you'd be surprised how similar of a discussion there would be.
I'd say to those of us born in the mid-late 80s and afterwards have lived in a pretty lively culture of constant gaming and more recently things like anime. Older generations typically pressure the younger ones to conform to what they find to be normal at typical ages, so when we get to be in our 20s and 30s, of course we have this expectation from them to drop them in a nod towards childishness. The anime is not the epicenter, though; more like a visible and apparent side effect to an otherwise booming society that enjoy these things. Of course it doesn't help that both the games and the anime of something like Pokemon sport a lot of things consumers would consider to be an otherwise childlike ambiance. For instance the cute mascots, the designs of most pokemon advertised, the commercials we see on TV, and the people who advertise them (oftentimes kids). If anyone has gone to business school and taken a class in marketing, you would probably learn that these sorts of things are targeted items.
It goes into psychology too. The things we see, like color, a happy human-like face, the names of the characters all build up a subconscious appeal that it is something that belongs in the domain of children. I don't consider this instance to simply be a question of only Pokemon - because there's a lot of examples that people in this thread have already pointed to and things you could probably think of as I allude you to them. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Digimon, Yugioh, Spiderman, Batman; the list goes on. You might say after that short list, woah wait, but the original TMNT was serious and dark and stuff. To which I reply; I know. A lot of what is considered childish actually tackles adult themes, but nonetheless has been viewed in the past or is still viewed as a childish endeavor. A good parallel to this is comic books and the entire culture surrounding that. A good discussion you might have is with someone who is your parent's age, and I think you'd be surprised how similar of a discussion there would be.
Yeah, I believe the anime does kind of put a 'dumb-ass kiddy game' vibe to Pokémon in general, but once humans get out of that 'hormonal, everything is stupid' phase as teenagers, they either still have their opinions or just plain don't G-A-F. But it does seem like Ash is getting more immature as the years go on. In the first series, he was an idiot, then he slowly began to mellow down in Johto. Hoenn, he was doing okay, then Sinnoh and Unova just kinda made him go back a few steps or somethin'. The fact that all of the other protagonists are irritating doesn't help its' case. IMO, from the episodes I've seen of BW, Iris is the most irritating female protag that's followed Ash yet, and I kinda thought Cilan was annoying as well. But I'm sure that Bonnie will usurp that title from her soon. :I But yeah, anyways, it does, but it doesn't at the same time.
I do agree that the anime does give Pokemon a bad reputation, mainly because the main protagonist, Ash, is like the worst character in existence and he tells you that its basically just for younger ages, which made some people view it as "all old gens are good", "the new ones are terrible" mainly because he stayed at 10.
Remove the anime, and moer people would play pokemon ;p
Also, I liked Iris, never thought she was that annoying.
Remove the anime, and moer people would play pokemon ;p
Also, I liked Iris, never thought she was that annoying.
All the characters in the anime are wannabes. Ash never achieves his goal at becoming master, iris doesnt achieve her dream.
Neither does Dawn or May. Cilan is just a gaylord (who still doesnt have simisage yet). Brock always wanted a girlfriend, though he never does get one. Team Rocket wants money and respect from their boss, but they fail too. Overall all the characters in the anime are lame, unrelateable, and overall just unlikable. And dont get me started on the story -_-
If you get rid of the anime, Pokemon is still a game about battling cute monsters. Pokemon designs aren't like the monsters in Monster Hunter. Cute monsters suggest a younger target audience. Things that have lasted for generations (like Disney's stuff) might be loved by adults but they're STILL seen as primarily targeted towards kids... because they are.
Also, I know many adults that think of all video games as childish. They usually have a pretty limited knowledge of video games but think of Nintendo first. And in fact, anything Nintendo usually gets viewed as childish...
So I don't think the anime really makes a difference. I don't think I know anyone that refuses to play Pokemon because of their impression of the anime.
Also, I know many adults that think of all video games as childish. They usually have a pretty limited knowledge of video games but think of Nintendo first. And in fact, anything Nintendo usually gets viewed as childish...
So I don't think the anime really makes a difference. I don't think I know anyone that refuses to play Pokemon because of their impression of the anime.
That is true, but you do have to look at the overall demographics for Nintendo itself. They have an extremely big demographic to keep, both young and old. It really irks me that people view Nintendo as kiddy when they are simply trying to create as much consumers as possible with their wide-demographically made games, such as Pokemon.
It really makes me angry when people overlook Nintendo's true audience, which is for the young and the old, and then proceed to call them...ahem..."for babies." But that is a rant for another time...
I know, I never said you said that. I was just speaking about everyone else that might say that.
A game made in storybook example would seem to back that point up, sword thrust through forehead or not. I mean, even Disney has its dark moments.
What did you expect from the anime? There's no real passion in it because the anime is trying to make money rather than trying to be a good show, whereas with the games, they're actually trying to make good games. The anime succeeds in what it wants to do, just not what we want it to do. However, as a shameless genwunner I can happily watch the anime from an ironic/nostalgic standpoint, just as long as nobody else is in the house...
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The anime is also contradictory in its morals. When a trainer abandons their pokemon, they are seen in a bad light. I, however, have seen the recent X/Y special premiere, which stated Froakie abandoned its starter trainers because it deemed them weak, but Ash still felt bad for Froakie, still demonizing the trainers. I'm like, what? There's a glaring double-standard to the anime, completely losing sight of its moral of "people and pokemon are partners". Goes to show how poorly written it is.
^Still doesn't beat the first movie, where the moral is "Pokémon shouldn't fight" (what?!?), then after spending an hour and a half realizing this, the protagonists' memory gets wiped, so they forget all about it ten minutes later.
EDIT @below: Seen it several times. Still gets me every time. Classic!
EDIT @below: Seen it several times. Still gets me every time. Classic!
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Don't get me started here. I started the anime a little bit later than everyone else, but I caught up to speed quickly. I will always LOVE the anime, because of my loyalty to the franchise, but loyalty is the ONLY reason I continue to watch it every Saturday morning.
The anime, in all truth, kind of cripples the rest of the franchise, due to how childish it is compared to the games and the manga. I don't see it as an accurate way to portray Pokémon. It just breaks so many rules of the games that it's embarrassing. (I did hear that XY: The Series is better, but don't hold your breath).
The anime, in all truth, kind of cripples the rest of the franchise, due to how childish it is compared to the games and the manga. I don't see it as an accurate way to portray Pokémon. It just breaks so many rules of the games that it's embarrassing. (I did hear that XY: The Series is better, but don't hold your breath).
Stone RG
Megas are broke
This goes to anybody who has read Adventures: Do you guys think that the storyline in the manga is enough to make an anime adaptation (similarly to FullMetal Alchemist Brotherhood) for a more dark and mature series? Objectively, Adventures is pretty comical most of the time rather than serious (tho i still love the storyline and the characters, i never got bored of the manga once, but some arcs couldve definetely been doen better *cough* Emerald *cough*), so, personally, i would like it better off taking a darker side and expanding on the characters more. However, one could always argue that the manga would just be treated as another marketing business due to its childish nature at times, but i digress since, lets say, the infamous pokeball in chest scene, or the development for Silver in HG/SS are examples of scenes directed to the more mature readers.
You might be surprised by by the number of adults that play Pokemon. Adults out of college - out of grad school even. Adults with careers and spouses and children.
You might be even more surprised to that find that features such as PokeAmie are quite popular with the adult demographic (both male and female). And perhaps most most interesting of all is the fact that competative battling isn't that popular with the majority of adults that play Pokemon. (Not to say there aren't adults, such as myself, that enjoy competitive Pokemon.)
Why is this? To bring up a rather famous quote:
You might be even more surprised to that find that features such as PokeAmie are quite popular with the adult demographic (both male and female). And perhaps most most interesting of all is the fact that competative battling isn't that popular with the majority of adults that play Pokemon. (Not to say there aren't adults, such as myself, that enjoy competitive Pokemon.)
Why is this? To bring up a rather famous quote:
"Childish" and "Poorly written" are two completely different things.
Of course they are. Nobody said any different.
dwarfstar
mindless philosopher
This would be a fantastic idea. Pokemon Special doesn't have many of the problems of the anime - the comparative lack of character development in the anime and the perpetual idiocy of the main characters come to mind here. The PokeSpe protagonists all end up maturing to some extent, and resets in the maturity levels of the protagonists are perfectly fine because they're ACTUALLY NEW CHARACTERS whom we watch as they themselves grow, as opposed to the apparent amnesiac Ash. The protagonists are also not completely incompetent when it comes to battle strategy - they START OUT knowing what they're doing to some extent, and even the ones who dislike battling (I'm thinking mostly of Yellow, Ruby, and Diamond) start coming up with innovative and effective strategies as time goes on (although the lava-surfing Substitute is completely off the wall). Then, of course, there's the humor factor. I stopped seriously watching the anime midway through 4th-gen, when Ash's idiocy and the generally annoying Dawn drove me away, but I'd have stuck around if we had more funny things than just Piplup on a consistent basis. (The BW arc was completely unsalvageable, but I'm getting off track.) PokeSpe, on the other hand, has humor in spades, including delightfully cringe-inducing puns, although the English translation of the DPPt arc demonstrates that some of Diamond and Pearl's manzai acts are difficult to pull off outside of the original Japanese. Bits like Blue's Pokeball chest stunt, Gold's borderline-harassment (hell, sometimes more than borderline) when it comes to hitting on girls, and maybe even some of Emerald's adorable schmuckdom would be censored in the dubs, unfortunately (VIZ recently re-released translations of the early PokeSpe chapters, and a fair bit of stuff was missing or bastardized), but even with that taken into account, a PokeSpe anime would be MUCH better than the real one. Pokemon Special never even came close to losing its charm, and the fact that it's so much more mature than the current anime would help the perception of the series as a whole, I think.
Stone RG
Megas are broke
I love this guy, and btw, Golds harassment in GSC is completely justified, its Blue, hello?
Just coming in here to say that Pokemon Special/Adventures/whatever people are calling it nowadays is amazing and I would KILL to have it animated. That manga right there demonstrates the Pokemon world better than any other adaptation. Oh man, if the Firered/Leafgreen arc was animated, with the final battle and Mewtwo and Deoxys and all that... it gives me chills just imagining it.
I'm amazed no one is pointing out the multiple deaths in the RS arc. There's no way something like that would fly with English censors but I guess it'll be okay if it was magically deus ex'd by Celebi and Ruby in the same episode as when they died (Jamming all the content inbetween the deaths and the deus ex is literally impossible, btw).