Hi, I like making text walls. Mind if I spare some?
REMINDER: there might be spoilers.
Dogasu has translated the Animedia interview Ash's, Goh's, Leon's and Raihan's VAs as well as the series director Daiki Tomiyasu
An interesting bit is that Tomiyasu finally sheds some light on the nature of Ash's Pokémon Master goal. Just like that!
Animedia: Satoshi's added another dream, hasn't he? "I'm gonna battle Dande again!"
Daiki Tomiyasu: I had always thought that, personally, the whole "Pokémon Master" thing was really quite vague and so one day I went up to the show's supervisor, Mr. Kunihiko Yuyama, and asked him "So what does Satoshi's "I wanna be a Pokémon Master!" dream mean, exactly?" His response? "It's just the silly dream of a child. It's something for him to idolize." I don't know yet if Satoshi's "have a battle with Dande" thing is going to end up going down as some kind of pie in the sky or not. But I think maybe seeing someone appear in front of you put in so much effort, and then having that be what gets you to get up and give it everything you've got toward your dream is a huge step toward achieving something great. Gou's "I want to capture Mew" dream is similar in that the adults who make this show set up this big, ambiguous goal for him and then spend each episode working to fill in the gaps.
You can read the rest on Dogasu's site. It's good stuff.
What is really good in that is that the reveal isn't Tomiyasu's own words but rather something he had found out from Yuyama.
That's important since Yuyama is one of the highest-ranking figures in the show as a whole and has been around since the beggining.
Tomiyasu's finding confirm the vision of Ash's goal still match what Takeshi Shudo had planned for Ash.
Yeah, I know I like mentioning the man a lot, but look at it from this angle: I really like behind the scenes info. And I really like the pokémon anime. And I really like Ash's character. And Shudo's had a part on all that. So of course I like to remember his ramblings!
It's interesting how whenever we get to hear a staff talking about show, we get stuff that points to major key points about Ash's and TRio's persona as characters are still following Shudo's vision.
Which will make me go on some random ramblings!
- Hidaka had said in the interview for PokéBeach way back the DP era they only want to bring Ash's dad back if they feel they need to mature. That fits Shudo's vision of Ash's dad being a loser who never accomplished anything and haven't come back because of shame (not sure if I recall that last bit as I should)
- Shudo had also said about how the anime's main point would be Ash's and Pikachu's friendship and bond. The 20th anime was all about that and during the show's 20th anniversary we got a whole episode about Ash and Pikachu spending quality time just the two of them
And now Journeys is blowing it by making an episode where Pikachu gets jealous of... Freaking Riolu. The more time passes the more I hate this thing
- Shudo had stated Ash's goal was meant to be vague so the show can keep going. He's implied in the novel adaptation of early episodes and his blog entries the notion was something Ash came up with so he'd make his name known and wouldn't be a loser like his dad. Yuyama's explanations to Tomiyasu confirm that.
The last bit was a big speculation on my part but...
Lavacut content had brought some translations of the blog - read it, it's good stuff - and we find that somewhere around the time of movie 2-3, Shudo's asked about how long they planned to have the show going and then was told like 10 years. If I'm guessing the timetable correctly, that brings us up to DP era.
Now, think about. How DP at times felt like it could be a closing chapter to Ash's journey. How BW felt a reboot to some and seemed to lack direction overall.
Reason: they thought they wouldn't be able to keep going more than they were already, tried to go out in a bang with DP but since the show was still making money, they had to continue.
And they had to keep Ash.
With Game Freak wanting BW to be sort of a fresh start, right to the point of routes' numbering being reset and we moving away from PokéJapan to PokéUS, the need was created to make the show feel like all-new. Thus they were forced that Ash's Unova journey HAD to feel like relaunch (a reboot that's not quite a reboot. DC Comics came up the idea and they have no idea how to explain that)
That's why BW could feel like a mess and lacking a direction - even if I like it for what it was. It's all because of a mix of circunstances:
Thinking they'd be done after DP was over. Having to make BW feel like a fresh start. All while dealing with the chaotic deadlines they have. Tetsuo Yajima - the director for XY series as well as movies 21 and the upcoming 23 - has said they only found out they had to warp up their show 1 year in advance.
That's actually kind of crazy for them to deal with thus why BW probably could feel like a rushed job.
Now, back to Shudo and his statements:
Some might ask why and how could Shudo appear to have such influence in the show. I mean, for all we know in an anime it's normally the director who has any say over the direction, not a head writer/series construction writer. So why does it feel it's more Shudo's show than the director?
Think about kind of anime Pokémon is.
No matter how much it eventually deviated and become its own thing, it was a still an adaption. Of a video-game. In the 90's.
The way I see - and that's my theory - the director normally treated it as just a short lived stint they had to do for money and just charged Shudo with the world-building bit only course-correcting stuff so it could still be a kids' show. That's why it feels like Shudo had control.
Also, as noted in the Lavacut's translations, back in the day they thought the show would be over after the Porygon incident and that's why Shudo had such liberty with the Mewtwo movie to the point that he owns that specific version of Mewtwo. Yes, that's true and it's been confirmed by an anime staff PokéBeach interviewed during Detective Pikachu's premiere.
Shudo even revealed on his blog that after Mewtwo's movie made them money, he was given more control/criative liberty to make the Lugia movie.
I feel - here's an opinion piece again - that despite the success they thought their luck would eventually run out and the show would warp-up. I think only somewhere during Johto - probably after Shudo got the reply "we are going for at least 10 years" they figured the show might be a long-running after all and that's why it end up being so formula-heavy and repetitive during that period so Shudo started losing influence with spiralled into everything we see today.
Of course, that's my interpretation of all the pieces of information we've been given by Shudo and other staff members mixed with my own guesswork
Now for the long awaited TL;DR version!
Pokémon Master is vague because it's vain child dream. Ash won't fullfill it even in the scenario of him being World Champ because he won't be satisfied.
It must be a big stress working on this show. God bless the people who work with and give us episodes we can complain about.
