Pokemon Sun & Moon

[Watching the subbed version.]

So yeah, this is Pokemon...and the reason you love it? Mouse with red cheeks? Cute looking creatures? Well that is the reason why pretty much most people got attracted to Pokemon GO and now it's dying. But seriously, I am not going to weep over the art style like the entire Internet. This is a legit non-salty review so give it all the hate you want.

Story
Oh, there is a story? Despite removing the gyms and making something more complicated like trials? Well that is a pretty stupid reason. There is little to no plot in this entire thing except fillers and more ... random and stupid little things that no one literally cares about. This is a very cheeky strategy, to make their viewers watch a hell load of stuff and then fill them with hype for an "epic battle". (Since the very beginning, but atleast the old fillers were bearable and fun to watch)

Art
I have nothing to say since you people are smart enough to figure it out. Remember how people were crying on Facebook and telling everyone to boycott Pokemon? Yeah, you should get an idea.

Sound
Nothing to say here either. I guess the OP and ED is good for kids below 13 but there's literally nothing I can do if you like it because it is kiddish and all that. But trust me I am not judging anyone.

Character
Ash
Completely dumped down to the very midst of nothingness. Well it was a stupid decision to send him to school and seeing his maturity get crushed is okay and all that but not at this level. Remember the "fun" we had watching Misty, May, Dawn and Iris fight with Ash? Yeah, it's nothing at that level.

Mallow
Interesting character, For the least I would say she's okay and she knows what she is doing. Most people think that she likes ash and all that stuff so they have started shipping. (That reminds me Amourshipping is dead.)

Lillie
My favorite character due to various reasons. I thought she was a tsundere but bad luck fell upon me with the release of the game. It wasn't what I expected. She's related to a major plot point so I would avoid any further discussion about her.

Lana
Seriously too cute. I would say the second reason why I keep watching S&M but yeah, she's a kuudere I guess? Not sure what to say but she's the silent type. And she's flat..

Kiawe
The only character who has a serious attitude. He is cool and he knows the stuff he is doing so he was the first "serious" character I guess?

Enjoyment
It has some funny moments but mostly the jokes are not that funny for an adult but it might be sufficient enough to make a kid laugh. (below 13)
I seriously would have give the enjoyment a 1 rating but there were some parts that would appeal to the younger audience so I let it slide.

Conclusion
Maybe they are trying to oblige the new fans by showing them something new but seriously they never think once about their older audience and we are just overlooked because we turned old. (Just an empty assumption) Well whatever the case may be Reverse Psychology can be a real pain.

If you're looking for nostalgia then you should probably wait for the 20th Movie because the animations look promising somewhat but I wouldn't pre-hype if I were you.

Please think twice before reporting my review. Not hate but my personal opinion.

Pokemon is becoming like that drunk brother you keep hoping would get sober someday, but never did, so you stuck with him for years like a fool. Then one day you realize that things will never change.

Even with its best season, Pokemon XY, I was still reminded constantly of just how little substance there was in the plot. It could be summed down to, "Bad things happen. Protagonist doesn't give up. The power of hope and love wins." Basically, every typical shounen plot, ever. The repetitive formula became even worse when mixed with the slow-paced slice-of-life genre in Sun & Moon, a genre which doesn't ... work for many people, myself included. Do note that I'm not saying shounen anime in itself is bad; it just so happens to not be the kind of anime I could enjoy or tolerate any longer.

Pokemon Sun & Moon sees our never-aging protagonist, Ash Ketchum, landing in yet another new region, Alola. He meets new friends and Pokemon, but this time, he's no longer pursuing his childhood dream of "being the best that no one ever was," and instead chooses to settle for a more peaceful school life full of hijinks and quirky comedic antics. Basically the perfect plot for 7 year olds. So don't be mistaken - Pokemon is essentially a show for kids, now more than ever. In spite of its TWO episodes with more mature themes (which are still family-friendly parables designed to teach children about the meaning of death anyway), it's not really the "darker and grittier" kind of show some have exaggerated. It's Pokemon, a shounen show where the power of friendship triumphs over logic. Whereas the previous seasons had the excuse of being entertaining with its more fast-paced battle scenes, those moments are now few and far between, replaced by cutesy moments of Ash and his friends fooling around with whatever Pokemon they wish to market for the day. Basically your average filler episode of Pokemon filled up to 90% of the season.

The characters are written decently enough, but I didn't watch Pokemon for some deeply complex characters; I watched it for the epic fight scenes that were once prevalent in XY. Decent and functional character writing just isn't good enough to cut it for my entertainment. Most of the characters are written in such a way as to teach about familial bonds and not giving up in the face of failure anyway; basically your average shounen moral lessons for 7 year olds. They are characters designed to educate children about the most generic and basic form of humanity, the kind that have been seen many times over in thousands of other shounen anime. Unless you're some Pokemon superfan, you'd find yourself spending your time much better watching far more quality and original writing elsewhere.

I told myself not to do this but I'm going to do this anyways. When reading this, please keep in mind the following:

I've skipped around a lot with what episodes I watched. I did however watch all of the last 30ish episodes. All my current thoughts are directed towards the ending of the league and how I feel about it versus what happened/should have happened (imo) with XYZ and D/P.

So due to that, obvious spoilers for D/P, XYZ, and Sun and Moon incoming.

I'm part of that group that really feels like the writing ruined Pokemon as a whole with not only the conclusion of XYZ ... but also Diamond/Pearl. With D/P, we saw Ash at probably his best he has ever been at. He was proving to Paul over and over again how important love and care was to battling and his team was extremely well-balanced. Him losing that league was not a huge issue but some would argue it was. I'm neutral about it; the big win was him overcoming Paul.

In XYZ however, EVERYTHING pointed to Ash finally having everything he needed to win. The writing in this season pointed to Ash being calm and collected. It was obvious to anyone watching that he was on a bar much higher than anyone he was encountering leading up to the league. I will say that one fault he had was his over reliance on Greninja. It reminded me of the first season when Ash failed in the Pokemon League due to his over reliance of Charizard. However, it is not a completely apples to apples comparison since Greninja showed respect towards Ash while Charizard did not. Getting back on point, the writers gave clear indication that Ash was in the state of mind with the resources needed to win the league. Then out of left field, some dude with (at least) 3 legendary Pokemon wipes him out in the final. There is no poetic answer here; the writers decided to crap on all the character development Ash had leading up to this point. I would argue that there was 20 YEARS of character development leading up to this point.

To add onto this, in this season, we saw arguably the most cannon relationship you'll see in Pokemon with Serena. The way they concluded their time together as well as the childhood friend plot point just hammers the notion that the show should have ended with them, at least in some way, showing that they'll stick together. In my opinion, what makes the most sense given the writing I've seen, is that Ash should have won the league, finally finishing his quest. With that, he sticks with Serena as she continues on with hers becoming a full support role. Serena was there for Ash all this time, he would then do the same for her since his quest was finally over.

Now moving onto the crux of all of this, Ash winning the Sun/Moon league. I had been loosely keeping up with the show, watching episodes here and there. I however for the past couple of weeks have been keeping up with the league episodes for Sun and Moon. Ash winning this league feels like a huge cop out. All of this character development is gone, he didn't even have a full team, and he is arguably at his worst battle sense wise in the series. I don't understand why the writers would give him this achievement now. The moment that makes the most sense is in XYZ and if not there, D/P.

Let me take the time now to talk about the drastic change in visual style this show employed. Leading up to Sun and Moon, we had arguably the best comprise of animation versus artstyle in XYZ. The studio had achieved gorgeous and model accurate artwork while allowing the scenes that really need movement (the battle stuff) to have that fluidity. Yes the stuff outside of could and usually was pretty stiff. However, it was by no means hard to look at. It was a great comprise. With Sun and Moon, the studio decided to go into a bold and new direction. The artstyle was, in my opinion, downgraded to be more simple and expressive. This allowed the studio to go "off model" more often which speeds up the animation process. However, like with something such as Konosuba season 2, it is not to my liking because it can, in many instances, look like utter garbage. Yes it is expressive because that's one way to gain that effect; make the characters go over dramatic and really show their emotions. However, there needs to be a baseline that is present. Sun and Moon went too far into this new direction and it really hurts the brand in my opinion. The studio was working towards this drawn and cgi hybrid system for the past 10 or so years and it came to its apex in XYZ. With Sun and Moon going completely in a different direction, I cannot help but believe it was a silly mistake. If you like it, great. However it is an eye sore to watch.

The VAs are annoying but that's because the show is targeted to kids. Kids love loud, in-your-face type stuff. I don't. When there is suitable emotion, I liked it.

I'm not going to say something silly like I'm legit mad about this. I just find it so disappointing that all the pieces were there in the last series to have a seriously amazing conclusion to a +20 year journey. The state of mind was there, the team was there, the hardwork was there, and the (and I cannot believe I am saying this about Pokemon) romance element was there. It was all there in XYZ to give Ash the ending he deserved. Instead, we got this. It makes more sense to have had Ash win XYZ then act the exact same in Sun and Moon since, hey he just won the league time for a vacation. It seems like a pretty big dickslap to the fans.

As a '90s kid, I have watched Pokemon since Episode 1 of season 1. I have seen almost all of the hundreds of episodes that have been released. Sometimes I loved it, sometimes I hated it.
One thing about the Pokémon anime : we actually CAN'T talk about it as a single show. Each "cycle" has its own art style, its own atmosphere, its own style of storytelling.
Sometimes it's a hit, sometimes it's a miss. None of these shows are perfect but some of them are huge fails and some of them really are surprisingly good.
What about Pokémon Sun&Moon, then? I'll be blunt : imo, it ... is a HUGE fail in every way.


STORY
Satoshi decides to stay at the Pokémon School in Alola region because it seems fun. He meets some new friends, including Lillie who has a terribly sad background, which is unveiled across the first part of the anime.
Just like the games, the story revolves around Lillie and her family, around the tragedies that they met in the past. That story is different from the game though.
In the anime, Lillie got traumatized by a Pokemon when she was a kid and was never able to touch any of them again since then. After this, her brother Gladion left the house to train, while their mother runs her business, leaving her children aside.
If that story is less tragic than the equivalent in the game, it is still really enjoyable to watch.
Lillie's evolution is progressive and the mysteries around her story are good.
So, what's wrong with the story of this show? Well, aside from Lillie and her family, the rest is empty. Almost each episode is a filler unrelated to the previous ones, and almost none of them actually bring something to the story or the characters.

Also, as there is no Pokemon League and the Alola Tour is barely present, there is no actual story except for Lillie's past and the Ultra Beasts' attacks. This is why most of the episodes are fillers : as long as they don't fit in any of those two stories, they are useless.

Long story short, the story is good but the storytelling is terrible, because most of the episodes are pointless.


ART
I'll be honest, I'm from those who hate the new chara-design. There is just no denying that it is many steps backwards compared to XY. It's way less detailed than before, way less neat than before (there are countless drawing mistakes, like deformed bodies, dirty frame transitions and ugly motion blur).
The worst thing is, Pokemon kept getting better and better when it comes to art style. It came from very far (the original Pokemon series was ugly, even back then!), but it kept getting better, UNTIL Sun&Moon. This show is the very first step backward that Pokémon took, regarding art style.

That said, does it deserve all the hate it gets? I don't think so. Because it is still enjoyable to see, especially thanks to the light effects and the environments. But it is undeniably a flaw when compared to the previous shows.


SOUND
Pokemon has always been quite memorable when it comes to music. I love the openings, I don't really like the ending, and the OST is cool but not as memorable as before, imo.


CHARACTERS
Except Lillie, all the other characters are barely developed and are pointless, at least for now. They're just here to fill in. Even Satoshi isn't very important to the story (which is hilarious, considering it's the MC).
Most of those characters have very few episodes dedicated to them, and even those episodes don't teach us anything that really matter. Actually, the whole characters don't really matter as they don't have any story (thus, no progression towards any goal).
Even Satoshi, who has ever had a goal, kind of stopped his progression. Some say it's because he is kind of on vacation... and I actually like that idea. In Pokémon SM, Satoshi takes a pause in his journey. It doesn't change the fact that he doesn't progress at all in this show though.


ENJOYMENT
Personally, I really hate this show. After Pokemon XY which was serious and epic, we get one of the dumbest shows in japanimation EVER. There is a lot of brainless comedy, which is not even for kids : it's for babies, or retarded.
No, I did NOT enjoy Satoshi jumping on an aquarium's glass. No, I did NOT enjoy the dozens of funny faces per episode. No, I did NOT enjoy "Black Oak" 's Pokemon puns.
That said, I really like the battles. The animation is not as good as before, but it is still quite good!

Finally, there's the worst point: if the Pokemon anime has always been here to advertise the games, all the previous series didn't do ONLY that. Even BW, highly criticized, didn't do all its choices based on marketing.
But Pokemon SM does. Almost EVERYTHING they do, it's for advertising. Want some examples? They bring back Brock and Misty in a few episodes. Story-wise, there's LITERALLY NO REASON. So why bring them back? Because the Let's Go games have been released.
The same for everything: they keep throwing Z-moves in our face, like they're desperate to show what can be done in the SM games. For the sake of comparison: when they made Contests in the 3rd generation, the series version of the Contest barely had anything to do with the games version. Of course it introduced that new functionality, BUT the Contests in the series were their own thing. And they were developed. They weren't thrown to say "look, you can do that in our games, please go buy them right noooow!". The Contests were creative and the story of May (and Dawn later on) were developed.

Honestly, the Pokemon SM anime is JUST an obvious advertizing showcase. Something even BW was not.


OVERALL
Many people consider Pokémon is "for kids" (meaning : "not really clever"). Well, it's not always the case. Some of those shows are deep enough to be enjoyed even by adults, namely Pokemon DP and Pokemon XY. Even Pokemon AG can be fun for older people.
Why's that? Because Pokemon can be watched as a SPORTS ANIME. Pokémon Battles and Pokemon Contests are some sort of sports after all, with the competitions and the training sessions.

But Pokemon SM is definitely, with no doubt, stupid as hell. There is no competition to follow like in the previous show, there is very few story to learn, and it is plain stupid most of the time.
Pokémon is not supposed to be dumb. Hell, "kids shows" in general are not supposed to be dumb!