Pokemon XY and XY&Z. Did the Pokemon Anime get better?

ty_taurus · August 13, 2016

I don't watch the anime very much, but something that always irks me is how a lot of people tend to complain that the anime doesn't follow the rules of the games very much. Things like Pikachu being able to take out a Tyranitar and a Metagross, where in the games, Lightball Pikachu wouldn't have enough damage, and its defenses would be too low to let it survive the beating it receives from Metagross.

I want to flashback to an old episode from Season 1 of Pokemon, The School of Hard Knocks. Basically, Ash and co. arrive at a private school for Pokemon training. The students use a simulator that looks identical to Pokemon Red and Blue to gauge what outcomes a battle will have. Ash, Misty, and Brock argue with some of the students about how it's more than just type matchups, and Misty proves that to one student by defeating his Weepinbell with her Starmie. Then the top student shows up, agreeing that it's more than types, and proceeds to defeat Starmie with a Graveler. While the top student agrees that it's more than Typing, she explains that it has to do with things like levels and stats. Ash then beats her Cubone with Pikachu, despite Pikachu being considered to be "low level" according to the top student's analysis.

I think the point of this episode was to showcase that the simulations, i.e. the Pokemon Games, aren't accurate to what Pokemon would be like in real life. The anime is trying to explore the fantasy of real world Pokemon, and things like levels, stats, IVs, and EVs just aren't real numbers. They're used in the simulator to give upcoming trainers an idea of how Pokemon will perform in a battle, but the reality is that living, breathing creates are a lot more than 1s and 0s.

In essence, it means that the games are inaccurate to what Pokemon would actually be like far more than the anime is, simply because games need hard rules and lines in order to function. In the games, there's a hard limit to how much damage Pikachu can withstand, but with the Anime, Pikachu is allowed to break those rules because he's a living creature, and not a robot. He doesn't have limitations in the way that in-game Pikachus do.

Masquerain · August 13, 2016

I don't watch the anime very much, but something that always irks me is how a lot of people tend to complain that the anime doesn't follow the rules of the games very much. Things like Pikachu being able to take out a Tyranitar and a Metagross, where in the games, Lightball Pikachu wouldn't have enough damage, and its defenses would be too low to let it survive the beating it receives from Metagross.

I want to flashback to an old episode from Season 1 of Pokemon, The School of Hard Knocks. Basically, Ash and co. arrive at a private school for Pokemon training. The students use a simulator that looks identical to Pokemon Red and Blue to gauge what outcomes a battle will have. Ash, Misty, and Brock argue with some of the students about how it's more than just type matchups, and Misty proves that to one student by defeating his Weepinbell with her Starmie. Then the top student shows up, agreeing that it's more than types, and proceeds to defeat Starmie with a Graveler. While the top student agrees that it's more than Typing, she explains that it has to do with things like levels and stats. Ash then beats her Cubone with Pikachu, despite Pikachu being considered to be "low level" according to the top student's analysis.

I think the point of this episode was to showcase that the simulations, i.e. the Pokemon Games, aren't accurate to what Pokemon would be like in real life. The anime is trying to explore the fantasy of real world Pokemon, and things like levels, stats, IVs, and EVs just aren't real numbers. They're used in the simulator to give upcoming trainers an idea of how Pokemon will perform in a battle, but the reality is that living, breathing creates are a lot more than 1s and 0s.

In essence, it means that the games are inaccurate to what Pokemon would actually be like far more than the anime is, simply because games need hard rules and lines in order to function. In the games, there's a hard limit to how much damage Pikachu can withstand, but with the Anime, Pikachu is allowed to break those rules because he's a living creature, and not a robot. He doesn't have limitations in the way that in-game Pikachus do.

They are not even consistent with that much for the pikachu. Sometimes it faints to pokemon that have never battled before, when the plot demands some armor, pikachu can tank legends and KO pseudolegends. In fact, they are not even consistent with anything in the anime. Many times over, the anime makes a note on the fact that "x pokemon has a lot of defense/speed/whatever" , the same way its game counterpart does, and they adjust the battle against accordingly, to match those stats . Other times, they retcon any form of stat distribution. Many times over, they retcon the fact that pokemon have abilities or that moves have secondary effects, when it suits the plot, they bring out abilities and secondary effects. I believe people's frustration is also majorly about the inconsistency and the blatant plotconvenience writing rather than the individual cases. Also, it seems that more often than not, anime-invented stuff happens in favor of Ash, which in itself is also inconsistent, and at some point, it does start pissing people off

Edited August 13, 2016 by Masquerain

ArmoredGuardian · August 13, 2016

I don't watch the anime very much, but something that always irks me is how a lot of people tend to complain that the anime doesn't follow the rules of the games very much. Things like Pikachu being able to take out a Tyranitar and a Metagross, where in the games, Lightball Pikachu wouldn't have enough damage, and its defenses would be too low to let it survive the beating it receives from Metagross.

I want to flashback to an old episode from Season 1 of Pokemon, The School of Hard Knocks. Basically, Ash and co. arrive at a private school for Pokemon training. The students use a simulator that looks identical to Pokemon Red and Blue to gauge what outcomes a battle will have. Ash, Misty, and Brock argue with some of the students about how it's more than just type matchups, and Misty proves that to one student by defeating his Weepinbell with her Starmie. Then the top student shows up, agreeing that it's more than types, and proceeds to defeat Starmie with a Graveler. While the top student agrees that it's more than Typing, she explains that it has to do with things like levels and stats. Ash then beats her Cubone with Pikachu, despite Pikachu being considered to be "low level" according to the top student's analysis.

I think the point of this episode was to showcase that the simulations, i.e. the Pokemon Games, aren't accurate to what Pokemon would be like in real life. The anime is trying to explore the fantasy of real world Pokemon, and things like levels, stats, IVs, and EVs just aren't real numbers. They're used in the simulator to give upcoming trainers an idea of how Pokemon will perform in a battle, but the reality is that living, breathing creates are a lot more than 1s and 0s.

In essence, it means that the games are inaccurate to what Pokemon would actually be like far more than the anime is, simply because games need hard rules and lines in order to function. In the games, there's a hard limit to how much damage Pikachu can withstand, but with the Anime, Pikachu is allowed to break those rules because he's a living creature, and not a robot. He doesn't have limitations in the way that in-game Pikachus do.

I kinda agree with this. I completely forgot about that episode.

Jmanultrax1 · August 15, 2016

true, but they should follow some things to an extant and break things to an extant, not randomly change them as they please

Masquerain · August 15, 2016

true, but they should follow some things to an extant and break things to an extant, not randomly change them as they please

^ the inconsistency is the biggest issue

Jmanultrax1 · August 15, 2016

exactly. which needs to be made a little consistent at least.

ArmoredGuardian · August 16, 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFg8-u5h24M

Found a different preview. What do you guys think??

Tringus · August 16, 2016

Okay, if Ash Greninja has THAT big of a giant orange shuriken? Yeah, Charizard is DEFINITELY going down, unless it can somehow avoid it, but it's very doubtful, seeing as Ash might use it when Charizard is cornered and weakened.

Masquerain · August 16, 2016

What I think? I think that pikachu is even more unrealistically tanking a third powerhouse before finally fainting.

Also, it looks like the frog is tanking flamethrower with its almighty cut kunai -facewall- , after that we see it get into a whirlpool and form a giant orange doughnut. It's so huge, i can't imagine it being super hard to dodge, but, make no mistake, it's probably not the finisher (note the frog isn't even bruised), but it does mean it will create more than 1 orange doughnut, the last one will prob be finisher

Jmanultrax1 · August 17, 2016

we cant forget that ash-greninja was barely before he defeated shouta. so maybe its the same for alain(highly doubtful) But how does it go form blue to orange, like whats going on here

Masquerain · August 17, 2016

I can only hear that Ash is saying sumt like "100% power!" whenit happens so..I suppose his frog is going max bond or some sh*t. I'm gonna be really disappointed if they make Bisharp lose to an immobile biding goodra tho. There's no world in which a guillotine can miss an immobile giant dragon that isnt using attacks but is charging bide.. Inb4 the writers make bisharp forget it knows guillotine just like they made mega sceptile immobile or made slurpuff spam flamethrower despite having dazzling gleam

Monochrome_Complex · August 18, 2016

Ash loses,and Alain thus cements himself as one of the most hated characters among the fanbase. Thanks for ruining something that could've been great, writers. Because it's not like losing to the guy more than once before was enough.