Forum - View topicThe Other Pokémon Anime
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1799 |
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Where's the bidoof short tho?
In all seriousness though I've enjoyed a good deal of the shorts, I'm pretty 50/50 on the evolutions shorts with my least favorites just retelling a part of the game with no added perspective, but loving shorts like the hoenn, jhoto and kanto ones. Twilight dreams and the colorido Poketoon shorts are absolute delights and I can watch them at anytime and feel great. I personally did like the snorunt show a good deal more than you though, I kinda dug it's more slower pace. I'm not sure what exactly has happened in the past few years to make the pokemon animated content be this good (the show, movies and these extra shorts/music videos) but I'm loving it and hope they're able to keep making new cool stuff like this. |
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Sleipmon4
Posts: 54 |
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The mainline Pokemon anime sucks pretty terribly. The shorts are definitely better but they're still middling at best, mostly good for meta jokes and some nostalgia trips. I think they're a bit overrated because the bar for Pokemon anime has been set so low.
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Everlasting Coconut
 Posts: 316 |
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As someone who has never watched Pokemon, I gave Twilight Wings a try when I found out it was produced by Studio Colorido, and I gotta say those shorts were lovely! They were very wholesome, feel-good 6-minute stories.
I tried giving Evolutions a chance but it lost me in the first episode. I felt like it was taking itself too seriously. Maybe I would've liked it better if I'd played the games. |
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Thatguy3331
Posts: 1799 |
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I would recommend the last 2, the Jhoto and Kanto ones as even if you haven't played the games you can enjoy those on their own terms. The rest rely pretty heavily on having known what goes on in the games, for better or for worse, but are otherwise self contained. |
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Siegel Clyne
Posts: 201 |
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A major reason why all these different types of Pokémon animation exist is that Pokémon is the world's highest-grossing media franchise of all time by a considerable margin, with an evergrowing gap between it and the rest of the global media franchises. This has been reported in The Hill, Business Insider, Statistica, TheRichest, Work + Money, Visual Capitalist, ComicBook, Screen Rant, Game Rant, The Motley Fool, and numerous other media outlets.
No. 1 Pokémon is followed by another Japanese IP (intellectual property), Sanrio's Hello Kitty, as the No. 2 highest-grossing media franchise of all time. Here are the current Top 20 highest-grossing media franchises of all time, with the latest figures in total revenue (est. US$), year of debut, and country/countries IP: 01. Pokémon. $110 billion. 1996. Japan. 02. Hello Kitty. $88.5 billion. 1974. Japan. 03. Mickey Mouse & Friends. $82.9 billion. 1928. The United States. 04. Winnie the Pooh. $81 billion. 1924. The United Kingdom and The United States. 05. Star Wars. $69.4 billion. 1977. The United States. 06. Mario. $55.1 billion. 1981. Japan. 07. Disney Princess. $46.4 billion. 2000. The United States. (And technically a number of other countries, given the Disney princesses usually foreign, non-U.S. story origins.) 08. Anpanman. $44.9 billion. 1973. Japan. 09. Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). $38 billion. 2008. The United States. 10. Wizarding World (Harry Potter). $32.2 billion. 1997. The United Kingdom and The United States. 11. Spider-Man. $31.5 billion. 1962. The United States. 12. Transformers. $29.6 billion. 1984. Japan and The United States. 13. Barbie. $29.2 billion. 1987.* The United States. 14. Batman. $27.7 billion. 1939. The United States. 15. Dragon Ball. $27.7 billion.** 1984. Japan. 16. Call of Duty (COD). $27 billion. 2003. The United States. 17. Gundam. $25.3 billion. 1979. Japan. 18. Toy Story. $25 billion. 1995. The United States. 19. Cars. $21.8 billion. 2006. The United States. 20. Middle-earth (The Lord of the Rings). 1937. $20.4 billion. The United Kingdom and The United States. *"Barbie became a media franchise starting in 1987, with the debut of the Barbie animated film series. Earlier Barbie toy sales prior to 1987 are not included here." **"Estimates for the Dragon Ball franchise's lifetime revenue go up to $30 billion" - which would place it at No. 12 instead of No. 15. As noted, "The Pokémon Company no longer mentions how much the franchise has earned on their website, as of May 2019." According to a November 3, 2021 article in Screen Rant, Genshin Impact Beats Fortnite, GTA 5 Revenue In Best First Year Ever: Genshin Impact's estimated revenue of nearly $3.7 billion in its first year is reported to be the highest ever for a game in its first year. In 2020, on the other hand, according to License Global's Top Global Licensors, Pokémon made $5.1 billion in licensed merchandise internationally, outside of Asia, ALONE. It covers what The Pokémon Company International made in licensed merchandise in 2020. About the Pokémon Company International
Every AniTuber's (Anime YouTuber's) favorite Japanese anime company <sarcasm>, Toei Animation, according to the same License Global report, made $3.8 billion in licensed merchandise in 2020. And Pokémon has been around for over a quarter of a century. What do you think Genshin Impact will be making 25 years from now? Will Genshin Impact even be around then? Pokémon undoubtedly will be around 25 years from now. Numerous Japanese media franchises - a few them, such as Transformers (formerly Diaclone and Microman / Transformers) and Super Sentai / Power Rangers are now considered joint Japan-U.S. IPs***, which originated in Japan, and licensed and adapted by American companies - including a number of familiar manga, anime and game properties, have been around for decades, as you can see in Wikipedia's List of highest-grossing media franchises. Many still make money to this day. ***This is not too disimilar to Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings being considered joint UK-US IPs, which all originated in England, created by English authors (well, the last one's author, J. R. R. Tolkien, was born in South Africa to English parents and had paternal German roots; Tolkien is a German family name), and helped popularized globally by American companies. The highest-grossing British media franchises, including the aforementioned, as well as Grand Theft Auto and James Bond, needed American assistance. The American game company Rockstar Games, co-founded in New York City by the English-born and -raised Houser Brothers, Dan Houser and Sam Houser, helped make the Grand Theft Auto video game series, created by Scottish game developers, globally popular. Based on the James Bond novels by British author, journalist, and naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, the James Bond films, which helped popularize the franchise globally, have been produced by American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Chinese media franchises, such as Genshin Impact, have to show that can survive and sustain themselves for many years and decades. While it has grossed only $3.45 billion so far, the Japanese media franchise Godzilla, which debuted in 1954, is a global icon, well known around the world. The suffix, "-zilla," derived from its English name, "Godziilla" - created by Toho themselves - has been used to coin countless words, such as "bridezilla," Mozilla," "Clonezilla," etc. The Pokémon Company stopped reporting what the franchise has earned in Asia in May 2019. Some or all of Pokémon sales in Asia, let alone in Japan, are now NOT INCLUDED in Wikipedia's List of highest-grossing media franchises. Therefore, its total revenue of $110 billion so far is LOWER than it should be, probably by at least a few or several billion dollars now. Most of Pokémon's revenue now comes from outside of Japan (and has been so for some time now). According to a January 1, 2022 Game World Observer news article, Genshin Impact reaches $3 billion in player spending on iOS and Android, the Top 3 countries in terms of mobile game revenue for Genshin Impact are No. 1 China, its country of origin, 30 percent; No. 2 Japan, 23 percent; and No. 3 The United States, 20 percent. Yes, Genshin Impact is highly successful in Japan. On a number of occasions, Genshin Impact's Shanghai-based developer miHoYo and their Chinese co-founders have expressed their debt to and love of Japanese ACG (Animation or Anime, Comics, Games). ACG is an English-derived acronym - reportedly originating in Taiwan in 1995 - widely used in Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.). Last edited by Siegel Clyne on Sun Feb 20, 2022 11:08 pm; edited 16 times in total |
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FireChick
 Subscriber Posts: 2496 Location: United States |
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As an ardent Pokemon fan who's been into the series for pretty much my entire life, I love the fact that the franchise is taking more risks like this and going on this creative hot streak. I absolutely love Twilight Wings, Evolutions had its great episodes but do agree that its misses hold it back, and the PokeToons are an absolute gem, with my absolute favorite being the Tsubomi short. I really hope there'll be more PokeToons in the future! Also, the recent barrage of Legends Arceus commercials that are parodies of live-action shows and genres are pretty great too. I love the Hisuian Growlithe commercial that's basically a full-on parody of Mexican soap operas.
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Thatguy3331
Posts: 1799 |
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Oh man I love the Munchlax commercials for legends!
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Juno016
 Posts: 2433 |
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While this is definitely a part of it, on the creative side, the main anime itself is animated by OLM, which has invested in pioneering a lot of animation improvements for long-running weekly anime since DP and especially BW, though it got really ambitious in particular since XY. The newest series, like Sun&Moon, is more disliked for its pretty aimless story (though I stand by its great characterization), but even its critics think its animation is definitely much better than it has been in the past. But that's the main series. These side anime are creatively a result of the overall industry getting really interested in jumping on the Pokemon anime train that started with the attention BW got. Origin was animated primarily by I.G., which had a history with the Pokemon films from the beginning, but Generations hired animators and studios for individual episodes from outside their normal circle while Studio Wit joined the movie team. Overall, I'm excited for Pokemon in the anime industry to see where it'll go next! I just really want the main series to go back to doing a full-fledged adventure that involves character growth and a foreseeable endgame. |
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Siegel Clyne
Posts: 201 |
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It is interesting to see how much revenue Japanese manga, anime, game, card, and other media franchises actually make, based on data available to the public, not in only in relation to each other, but to the rest of the world. (Basing what one feels it ought to be, what one thinks it ought to be, and what exists in one's brain often can get one very different results from reality.) Debuting in 2016 with the manga, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba media franchise, according to the latest figures, has a total revenue so far of $9.50 billion. It is also interesting to see how much the media franchises of other countries actually make. South Korea's highest-grossing media franchises are not its music acts - sorry, K-pop fans - nor its movies, but are instead its video game franchises. While, as a whole, in contrast to their Japanese counterparts, nearly all are little known in the West, Korean game franchises, many of them MMOs, actually rake in billions of dollars every year. Games exports outstrip K-pop 10 times over: report, by Kim Byung-wook, The Korea Herald, published July 8, 2020:
You can see a few of them in Wikipedia's List of highest-grossing media franchises: Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO), Lineage, MapleStory, and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, or PUBG. Produced and developed by the South Korean video game company Krafton, PUBG was created by Irish game developer Brendan Greene, aka PlayerUnknown, who was inspired by the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale, which in turn is based on a 1999 Japanese novel of the same name. Dungeon Fighter Online has hundreds of millions of players worldwide, many, if not most, who live in China. It is a South Korean MMO, 2D side-scrolling action game inspired by classic Japanese arcade games such as Golden Axe and Double Dragon. Video games just make more money than music. And film. Put together. Aimed at toddlers (1-3 years old) and preschoolers (3-5 years old), the huge Japanese media franchise Anpanman, which debuted in 1973 as a Japanese children's superhero picture book series written by Takashi Yanase, has grossed $44.9 billion so far, according to Wikipedia's List of highest-grossing media franchises. Little known in the West, after the introduction of the Korean adaptation of the Japanese Anpanman anime series there in 1996, Anpanman also enjoys great popularity in South Korea. The South Korean boy band BTS, K-pop's biggest music act, even paid homage in song and dance to Anpanman, 방탄소년단 - ANPANMAN (BTS - ANPANMAN) │BTS COMEBACK SHOW 180524. Money makes the world go around. As long as a gigantic multimedia media franchise like Pokémon continues to generate 8, 9, 10, or more billion dollars in revenue a year, and has hundreds of millions of fans, viewers, players and whatnot around the world, be happy they once in a while create something different like Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Last edited by Siegel Clyne on Sun Feb 20, 2022 12:50 am; edited 12 times in total |
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AmpersandsUnited
Posts: 633 |
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I did not enjoy Sun & Moon much and the current anime isn't any better. I'm not a fan of the way the anime has gone these past few generations of being more episodic, light-hearted and simplistic art style. I get why they went the way they did, but it's unfortunate to see something like XY come along and then the mat gets pulled out from under it right as it seemed like the anime was finally evolving.
Shorts are hard for me to get invested in. I want an long series focused on storytelling and battles. Eight five minute episodes of random segments of Sword & Shield can only go so far to sate that kind of interest. A full length anime in that style would have been much more interesting. Maybe one day it will happen. Legends Arceus proves there are still people with passion and vision working on the franchise. |
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Thatguy3331
Posts: 1799 |
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My guy, I get you didn't care for em but you can't look at any of those works and think to yourself "Man none if the people working on this had any passion or vision." Because you'd be lying. |
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13626 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Interesting "Anpanman" is that big monetarily yet doesn't seem to have ever gotten an official Eng. dub. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1860 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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anime#1158 Apparently there was an English dub shown on Cartoon Network India. Hong Kong-based voice actress Candice Moore sang a dubbed version of the theme song, going by an audio clip I heard on a website (forgot which). |
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager
 Posts: 531 Location: PH |
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@Siegel Clyne A very impressive key takeaway on Pokémon! It is not a surprise that Pokémon will be here longer, or as you have said, "will [undoubtedly] be around 25 years from now". You have also explained how economically successful it is. The bigger reason as to why it will stay for the longest time (as it is connected to your point) is that it is one of Japan's tools under their 'Cool Japan' initiative.
References: Japan’s Gross National Cool by Douglas McGray Cool Japan, Soft Power By Asger Røjle Christensen |
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