Pokemon XY

Satoshi and Pikachu have arrived in Lumiose City of the illustrious Kalos region to capture more Pokémon and continue their journey toward becoming the very best. Meanwhile, a genius inventor named Citron and his little sister Eureka wander the city when they run into Satoshi who quickly challenges them to a battle. However, they are soon caught up in a dangerous incident when Team Rocket, following Satoshi into Kalos, cause a Gaburias to rampage through the city.

Far away in the quiet Vaniville Town, a young girl named Serena slogs through daily Sihorn riding practice at the behest of her mother, a professional Sihorn racer. After practice, she sees the events unfolding in Miare City on television where she recognizes a boy from her childhood. Having left a significant impact on her life, the sight of him stirs in her a desire to meet him again; and so, Serena sets off to Miare City, determined to find the boy from her past.

Pokemon XY follows the group as they travel throughout Kalos in pursuit of their ambitions—Satoshi challenging Pokémon gyms, Citron learning from Satoshi, and Serena searching for what exactly her dream is. Along the way, they meet new friends, face new rivals, and continue to thwart Team Rocket's schemes, all the while discovering a little about the mysteries of mega evolution.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Satoshi Main

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Pikachu Main

Ootani, Ikue Japanese

Serena Main

Makiguchi, Mayuki Japanese

Citron Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Eureka Main

Kanai, Mika Japanese

Fokko Main

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Kojirou Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Musashi Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi Japanese

Nyarth Supporting

Inuyama, Inuko Japanese

Lucario Supporting

Namikawa, Daisuke Japanese

Hosoya, Nobuyuki Producer

Tanaka, Shigehiro Producer

Yuyama, Kunihiko Director

Yajima, Tetsuo Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 7, 2023

User-Name

Recommended

A fans memory is very important one judging anime. However, memory is not always shed of the true subjective, but more of what the fans remember fondly. Pokemon XY is one good example of that. Fans considering the XY series as one of the best in the longtime Pokemon anime, and I did too. However, when I rewatched the series, there were parts where my memory failed me. Were this series were THAT half baked? People tends to remember the good stuff, and that’s why fans might not remember the half baked parts of the XY series. It also can be that they remember more ... of the XY-Z series, which is another case.
Do not get me wrong, XY series did a lot of things RIGHT. But it doesn’t mean it was perfect one hundred precent all the way through.

In this review, I will try to pinpoint where XY succeeded, where it failed, or wether, it was just half baked.

Let’s start with: Plot.
The plot of Pokemon XY is the same as almost most of Pokemon anime - Ash starts his journey in a brand new region, Kalos, which inspired by France. It doesn’t take so much time to see, though, how XY differs from other seasons. Already on the first episode, you can see how XY try to renew things. As a matter of characters and plot, XY presenting more mature and different line of story. Not THAT different, but enough so it will make Ash journey in beating gyms and collecting badges a unique experience.
With that being said, I’m referring to more character development stories, as Ash, once again, feels much more like the senior trainer in his group. Much like his treatment from DP. And there’s also a great story of Ash and his Froakie, which takes much more room than even Pikachu in the series plot.
But all that doesn’t remove some bad stories that XY have. While the pace is essentially better than other seasons, the quality dropping a lot when fillers starting to appear. And it seems that the creators really had bad time thinking of those. Do not get me wrong, I do not think there’s “good” fillers on Pokemon, last time I watched the Johto season, it was dreadful watching. The whole format of “Ash and gang meeting a Pokemon and its trainer” had lost its taste long time ago. But in previous seasons, you could still feel there’s some creativity in them. in XY you can feel how the creators lost its creativity and struggle making those.
That’s actually where fans memory is bad on, mostly because Pokemon is not used for rewatching. But when rewatching the series, when I got into those episodes, I felt cheated by my good first impression of the series. While those fillers ARE common, the plot of the canon episodes is just BETTER, and that’s probably the cause for the XY fillers to be forgotten from people hearts.
Truly enough, the story is getting better as the series is coming to its last third. Mostly it’s due giving Serena a plot to revolve on. And also for giving more themes and plot for the series to rely on. You can really feel how the writers change of heart toward the last third of XY. But utterly, this gave XY the half baked definition. The ups and hills of XY feels like a game of minds of the writers, as you can really feel how the canon episodes are much better, and maybe the best in the Pokemon overall anime. While the fillers feels like an afterthought, losing any creativity the writers ever had in previous seasons. But then, closing to its end, the plot quality getting a real 90 degrees change.

Next is the character.
To be honest, some the characters in XY could be hit or miss, and mostly, it’s hit.
Ash returned from its infamous childish nature in BW to it mature nature of DP. His confident coming alone with great ideas for pokemon battling, and his bond with his Pokemons are one of the greatest. With almost any Pokemon he catch in this series he have great plot and theme, and the one most importantly is Froakie, who leaves Pikachu in much more side character than main one. Ash and Froakie plot can be felt as a reminder of Ash and Chimchar for the most part, but toward the end of XY, their relation feels like entire different story of trust and bond.
Clemont is probably the best Brock replacement up to date. Where Cilan tried to copy Brock girls thingy to other area of expertise, and Brock with his girls stuff, were anime original, Clemont gimmick is game original materials. Yes, he can annoy sometimes with his inventions, but those can be much more fresh than what Cilan or even Brock could offer.
The hit or miss character is probably Bonnie, Clemont’s little sister. Last time we had fourth character for the gang, and also in the shape of child and sister/brother, was Max in the Advance series. At that time Max felt fresh at start, but his affection over the series had been fading slowly into being side walk character. Now, it’s not only because Max was filler character, while Bonnie is actually based on her game appearance, that her character succeeds in the series. But in the way of her introduction and characteristic, she were much more fitting into the group. Truly enough, you can feel how this was hit or miss, but in the overall she’s just a hit. It’s something about how - even in the episodes the focus is away from her - she felt much more natural. Truly she can be pushover sometimes, but unlike Max, where I just wanted to punch him in the face sometimes, Bonnie was more native. This great and delicate balance the writers gave her, that makes Bonnie little more memorable.
The half baked character in XY, is actually Serena.
Truly enough, Serena is another Misty replacement, and the writers seems to push her in a different way to makeover that rule in a brand new way. And so, Serena is much more like May in the sense that she didn’t went out to her Pokemon journey due her love for Pokemon or something. However Serena had been given a twist - she wanted to take that route because of Ash. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m one of Serena X Ash shippers as well. But in the long time test, you can feel how her character falling apart slowly. Where the writers gave a lot for her to follow Ash as a fellow trainer, something that resembled Misty, it fails where they wanted her to shine. Her emptiness in that area lead the writers, only in the last third of the series, to give her a gimmick similar to May and Dawn, in the shape of Showcase. No, you didn’t got it wrong, Showcase, not contests. While it felt once again more like a side story, as much as May’s contest, than Dawn’s. It did gave Serena the right push to her development, even to change her design and characteristic a bit. While this change was lovable to see in her, the fact the it took her so much time to get there, is enough for criticism. Truly, the writers gave her a lot of depth at the start, but until they didn’t fully used it in the last third, her character were just that, half baked character. And also where fans memory might failed them, as they remember Serena fondly due to her start and end of the series attitude, but forgotten most of her middle one.

But that’s not all where fans remember fondly the XY series, and that is coming to this review last part - Art and animation.
Truly enough, the animation in the XY was probably one of the bestest the Pokemon anime could provide. Finally gym battles felt realistic and freely, and maybe even more shounen’ish. Despite trying to fit the game mechanic, this is truly where XY series got lot better. While it’s not “too bad”, this animation improvement wasn’t through the whole series, but in the important battles. This isn’t making the animation of XY anyway wrong, but it’s also support why fans may remember more of those parts better than other.
The art, on the other hand, is probably between BW to SM treatment. I won’t deny that XY had good art, but compare to the BW more “round” design, XY feeling little more “square”. That’s probably what OLM tried to fix in SM designs, only to squashing the design to feel not square at all, and where SM art felt lacking. And where XY succeeded little more in that area than SM, though the more fresh and stylish designs - square design isn’t necessarily bad. And as I could think of, XY art is Probably the best the series had ever was before going Journeys style (where it fixed SM art. but on that, in future review).

While all that being said, it’s only for the XY series. The XYZ series, on the other hand, is entirely different issue, because it improved and fixed a lot of where XY hadn’t fixed, as I mentioned in this review. So as for XYZ, it deserves its own special review in the XYZ entry.
On that note, see you in the XYZ review.
To be continue.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jul 17, 2019

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

Yes, we're back to talking about Pokemon, a franchise so long running that there are adults who weren't born yet when it started. I was, but I'm old and crabby. Any way, I was asked to review this particular part of the anime. So, all of you get to read me ranting about all the aspects of this anime franchise that get on my nerves. Besides, with Sword and Shield coming out soon and eliminating the Megas, it seems a good time to talk about when Game Freak was super proud of that element. 

Story:

We open with Satoshi travelling over to the Kalos region leaving Unova ... and all the Pokemon he "befriended" there behind. He meets the siblings, Citron & Eureka, and begins his journey to beat all the Kalos gyms while catching new Pokemon he'll inevitably leave behind when he moves on to Alola. Unfortunately for him, Musashi, Kojirou & Meowth are still following him to steal his Pikachu. 

I should note, the anime does not follow the game's mechanics as much as it makes nods to them. Which I can't really complain about. It would be even more boring if Pikachu had to dodge every attack because any hit would smash its frail defences and knock it the fuck out. 

The biggest problem with the series is just that it's all very repetitive and formulaic. You can pretty much tell exactly what's going to happen in an episode the moment the scenario is introduced. Satoshi will even say he hasn't decided which gym to go to next after every gym match, even against the 7th gym when there's literally one option left. 

In all fairness, the series can have a real sense of fun to it. And Team Rocket's goofy schemes can be entertaining even if we know every one is going to end with them getting blasted into the air and saying "this feels bad." 

Characters:

This is where the big problem in the series lies. The main characters are dull. Really, excruciatingly dull. Satoshi has no personality whatsoever. He's just vaguely amicable. Which is part of the problem with the franchise keeping the same protagonist from region to region. The dude can't learn any lessons without repeating old territory. He also can't develop as a character because every writer who works on the anime has a cemented image of him and what he's supposed to be. And it is hard to see him as having a real connection with his pokemon when he has a long history of saying goodbye to them at the slightest provocation. 

Then there are his companions. Citron is a boring sciencey boy who makes machines that blow up and is vaguely nice. Eureka is an excitable child who thinks every Pokemon ever is cute. Even the shite ice cream cone no one likes. And tries to get her brother a bride whenever she thinks a woman is pretty. Serena is a girly girl with a crush on Satoshi because they met once in camp when they were all of eight. 

The best characters are Musashi, Kojirou & Meowth. Just because they're allowed to be bad and revel in that but there's also a real attempt at making them sympathetic. Every member of the group gets some episode or other that showcases the better part of their nature. This also serves to make them more enjoyable than the main cast as well as more complex. 

Art: 

The artwork is fine. There are some pretty cool battles. The characters look fine. And the Pokemon look like their game counterparts. I don't really care for most of the 6th generation Pokemon personally, but that may be because I'm old and grumpy. You damn kids and your cotton candy pokemon and your slime dragons and your key rings and your pogs and your street sharks. 

Sound: 

The acting is fine. Everyone is perfectly competent but most of the characters are so boring they don't have much in terms of complexity to convey. Which is why our best performances come from Hayashibara Megumi, Miki Shinichiro & Inuyama Inuko. The music is decent enough too. Not great but functional enough. 

Ho-yay:

There are some moments with Serena and Sana. Eureka's obsession with pretty women also seems to be a strong indication that she won't be dating men when she gets older. 

Areas of Improvement:

Ditch Satoshi as the main protagonist. Honestly, I think the Pokemon anime franchise would be a lot better if each region featured a new protagonist. You could get more complexity for the character without having to undermine their bond with their pokemon to show off the new region's creatures. 
Have some surprises. I get it, this is a children's anime and they can't get too complex with it. But at least have some events that are mildly against the grain or that subvert expectations. Maybe even let the villains win in some minor way that isn't too bad for the heroes. 
More personality for the protagonists. A big part of the issue with them is that the writers try to make them too squeaky clean good. Give them some real flaws to overcome that can lead to some interesting interactions. It would make the series a lot more interesting. 

Final Thoughts:

Pokemon XY isn't a bad series. However, it's not a good one either. It's like that last Pokemon film I reviewed. It's a mediocre series that's probably enjoyable enough for the target audience, but doesn't provide much for anyone older. Even slightly older like teenagers. I'll give it a 5/10. 

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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May 28, 2021

SlavicIndo

Not Recommended

Many people will disagree with my low rating, but the fact is - when you watch too much of an anime (this anime has 93 episodes, and still has an XYZ season after it) it becomes it really boring, especially when there's a formula to an episode. I remember dropping on this anime at about episode 60, then a few months ago I went so far as to watch the XYZ version. The reason for all of this is because every episode, while they do something new, team rocket comes and annoys the hell out of them, then they get their Pokemon back, beat the ... hell out of them, and finally - continue whatever they were gonna do. It gets really repetitive as episodes go by. That's the reason behind my low rating on the show, even though when I was first watching it I thought it was amazing. You can't deny the great animation and sound, which carries the anime to 4. Without them I wouldn't have it at more than 2, or at most - 3.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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