"Ash was the worst part about the SM anime"

The SM anime was a divisive one for fans. Some people hated the art style. Some people hated the slice of life tone. But I feel like the complaints against it wouldn’t exist had Ash not been there.Because there’s nothing wrong with Pokémon going comedic/slice-of-life. Heck, it’s probably what a ton of fans would like to see. Real 10 year olds wouldn’t travel a region with a fire breathing pig and challenge legendary creatures responsible for building the world, they’d go to school, go to parks, eat dinner with their families and watch tv. Maybe singe the curtains and get grounded. And Pokemon could have a series that does that. But it DOESN’T work when the main character has had a 20+ year theme of traveling the world.It doesn’t matter what Ash does in a region; what Pokémon he catches, what legendary/mythical Pokémon he affects, or what friends he makes, his story must ALWAYS end with him leaving said region. That doesn’t fit in the SM anime where he suddenly has a home, goes to school and is basically Kukui and Burnet’s son. The memories he makes don’t feel genuine because he’s destined to leave and will probably never recall them. The lessons he learned in school? Forgotten. The Pokémon he met? He won’t remember, whip out the dex.Imagine if the SM anime was about “Sunny”, this new kid from Kanto cheesed off about having to move to Alola with his Mom. Even his partner Pikachu is bummed. His Mom suggests he check out Hau’Oli City where he comes across the school and the trial captain classmates. His Mom enrolls him at the school, much to his dismay and his Mom secretly tells his teacher Kukui that he’s been acting out since they started packing. Kukui agrees to keep an eye on Sunny, offering to have him be his second assistant in addition to Lillie. While Sunny acts like he’s cool and better than those Alolan Loafers, he sees his Pikachu having fun with the captains’ Pokémon and he slowly starts to bond with everyone. The events of the anime are still the same save for Brock and Misty, but the kids still visit Kanto where Sunny geeks out before feeling homesick until his Mom points out how happier he’s gotten since the move.This all cumulates into Sunny’s victory at the league, where he happily accepts Alola as his home. He decides to stay as Kukui’s assistant, wanting to learn even more about the region and become the best trainer in Alola.Instead, we get “Congratulations Alola, your first champion of the Alola League is a kid who only came here because his butler won a lottery and now he’s gonna bounce and leave his Pokémon for you to feed”.This also hurts the new series. At the end of SM, Ash announces that his newest addition to his current dream is to travel. Aside from that being a weird dream, he’s BEEN traveling, that dream is utterly tarnished because the next time we see Ash, he’s sleeping in again. The idea of Ash becoming a research fellow doesn’t come from Ash himself, Cerise gives him the job and it conveniently involves him traveling. We don’t even get a moment of Ash going “OMG, that’s what I wanted to do!” If we took a break from Ash at the end of XYZ, which ends with him arriving home, it would make more sense to open Journeys with him STILL at home, helping Oak and tending to his old Pokémon, but perhaps listless until Oak invites him to Cerise’s lab. Imagine how awesome it would be if Ash and Goh went to Alola and met Sunny, like he did with Alain.TL;DR I think Ash was the worst part about the SM anime because he’s been written to travel, not go to school and watch tv. They should have introduced a new character if they wanted an accurate 10-year old kid. via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/3fnJsNY