Recently we got new about the newest Pokémon series announced. Unfortunately we will not see Marnie as a protagonist or even one of the Galar people as companions yet the series will revolve around an interesting concept which could save it.
Ash is Back
Let’s first address the elephant in the room, the series opted for the safe route and decided to let Ash and Pikachu make their return. Something I expected but really rooted against. It remains unclear if we get a rebooted Ash or a continuation who once more left his pokémon behind. In the teaser that was revealed we hear him yelling he wants to be a pokémon master, which he kind of became already so softly I hope to see a rebooted version. The concept of the series however seems to make this unlikely. It seems more to become more akin to a legacy season. However looking at his design Ash looks younger once again. His eyes have become a lot brighter and bigger, his hair spikes upwards rather than horizontal, giving him a more playful and energetic look. He wears a vest that closely resembles his vest in season one, similar as how the title changed back to pokémon, without a subtitle. Similar to when he first began. The white sleeves of the vest are gone though.. instead it is sleeveless and he wears a white shirt underneath.. to produce a similar look still. His shoes also look look like an updated version of Gen I Ash. For some reason though they chose to replace his jeans with shorts. Which this reporter doesn’t find that fashionable. It makes him look like a Youngster. It’s weird because his buddy walks around in skinny jeans. His Rotom Dex will become more smartphone like.
Let’s Go
This time Ash will be accompanied by an androgynous boy named Go. Dark skinned, blue eyes with some bobby pins in his hair and somewhat feminine eyes he appears to be a fully original character. Whose design I find very agreeable. Having a cool demeanour around him he comes across as a confident young trainer of his own. Not something like the throwaway followers like Max or Bonnie and more passionate than Gym Leaders like Cillian or Clemmont. In fact by the looks of it it almost seems as if the series will focus slightly more on Go.
This time Ash will be accompanied by an androgynous boy named Go. Dark skinned, blue eyes with some bobby pins in his hair and somewhat feminine eyes he appears to be a fully original character. Whose design I find very agreeable. Having a cool demeanour around him he comes across as a confident young trainer of his own. Not something like the throwaway followers like Max or Bonnie and more passionate than Gym Leaders like Cillian or Clemmont.
In fact by the looks of it it almost seems as if the series will focus slightly more on Go. The teaser makes it look like it will be a two protagonist series, yet Go’s goal seems to be very central in the story. When he was a young boy Go met Mew and he wishes to find him again. Featured both on the poster and it being an adorable sound bite at the end of the short teaser, this search seems to be an extremely relevant aspect of the plot. More so than Ash potential gym challenge. Yes I am saying potential gym challenge because it may not even be about it at all. Could this be a series in which we pass the torch? Moving from Ash to Go? It would be very interesting and a very open ended way to handle Ash departure. Pleasing both his supporters as those who wish to see him retire. In the japanese version he will be voiced by Daiki Yamashita who is best know , at least recently, for his voice portayel of Deku from My Hero Academia The only thing I do not like about Go so far is giving him a Scorbunny as his partner pokémon. Making it seem like the best pick! Cleary that honour should go to Sobble!
Traveling across the lands
What makes this series potentially interesting is the concept. On the reveal poster we saw a globe featuring all the regions and they will all be visited in this anime. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn , Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos , Alola AND Galar. A trip across the world to find Mew. This is where a non rebooted Ash comes in. It would be a lot more rewarding to see everyone Ash has interacted with in those regions to react to his championship title and to reminisce , it would validate Ash alongside Go for this story. It would be nice to see May again, if we found out that Max has tragically died (I really hated him in the anime) it would even be nice to see Ash and Serena catch up that way.
Yet it would also make sense to let the rebooted Ash travel alongside Go.. picking up after Ash first saw Ho-Oh they could travel together to find the legendaries who influenced their lives so much. The concept has potential but makes it hard to be focussed around a gym challenge. Without a rebooted Ash this makes perfect sense though! He already is a champion so he would pursue other goals, with two protagonists it would also prevent us from having to look at a double gym battles should Go be into similar endeavours. It would make for an interesting show if we deal with other teams rather than getting stronger and stronger but instead focus on the more mysterious side of the pokémon world. Questing for other goals than a simple competition can lift the series much more into a exciting serial anime with less of the ‘filler’ content the other shows had. There definitely is potential in this one but a lot of dangers too.
A birthday gift
The new series will begin airing on the seventeenth of November. The day of my birthday. Now this series could be a lovely gift or something I trade in immediately it remains to be seen. I am getting a Sylveon rug for my birthday as well and I will gift myself the Pokémon Sword game of course, so it has a lot of great gifts to compete with. Sun and Moon got a lot of flack for its art style..but the fluidity it brought to animations was actually great, with the developments in style it looks a bit more crisp as well. While the main character might not appeal to me all that much anymore this would be the way to make him more appealing.
If the other regions however turn out to be filler in between Galar gym badges this show will be dropped faster than a bungee jumping Snorlax. Since I am a little social bug I might be quite busy around that day but reviews will be coming and they will be honest! The transition from Kalos to Alola was to much of a drop-off for me to fully follow the series. Yet this time we don’t see a badass Ash reverting back into a kid. This might be something I can get behind. Keep following me up until december at least to find out if this show is any good.
Question to my Readers:
Do you like the concept of this new series?
While I feel incredibly mixed about the idea, there is potential to build the show out in a new way, yet if they do not innovate this will turn out to a big dud. Either way we either will have a Gyarados of a series or a Magikarp of a series.. no in between for this one. Let me know what you think in the comments.
The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again
XO
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