Sign a petition for a more mature Pokemon anime!

[The Funslinger]

An online petition...for a gritty reboot...of a cartoon aimed at children.

May you never change, internet.

Remember the old Adam West Batman show?

Sure glad THAT never changed into a darker and gritter version, huh?

Adam West Batman was the shit!


But yeah, it's irritating me how people are automatically equating "less cheesy, more mature" with "grimdark edgy, etc".

Nothing wrong with giving something decent writing and character development. It means both audiences would enjoy it (I feel on some level, the young'uns would just feel it as being "cooler" than current pokemon).

It sounds interesting.

 

[The Funslinger]

"mature" is probably the wrong word, but I wouldn't mind for a Pokemon anime spin-off that took itself I little more serious. Watching Ash time and again defy all logic with the power of love gets quite silly after a while, I still really enjoy the anime and when Team Rocket finally got serious in the new season I got the nerd chills, but I really think a more serious Pokemon anime would be quite enjoyable to watch. Even if it just ended up as a spin-off with just a few episodes it would still be interesting.

For hopefully obvious reasons, I don't watch the anime anymore, but...

Team Rocket got serious? I'm intrigued!

 

[blizzaradragon]

The Pokemon anime is supposed to be targeted to kids, and as such I don't think it should become darker or edgier. Besides, the more mature audience already has something for them: it's called Pokemon Adventures, and is a manga series following the game protagonists in a more mature light. It's a really good series, and I highly recommend it to Pokemon fans. Plus Red is by and far much cooler than Ash ever will be.

That being said, I think if they were to learn anything from this trailer it'd be that these kind of cutscenes or even an anime-style Pokemon game period would be a hot seller. Hell, if they had those included I'd for sure pre-order the first day it's available(I already would, but this would give me even more incentive).

 

[SuperBelkar]

I posted the same damn trailer a week ago.

I loved it then And I love it now.

Though I don't feel that we should focus on it.

If we did it though:

I would want to see a more naruto-level maturity, but....it must be handled carefully. Ironically, If I could find my old script, you people are welcome to look at a PG-13 leveled from scratch episode I wrote. The idea being that the Pokemon were the main characters who talked, humans were on the side. Also it was a new team, new characters, and Jennifer Anniston was the voice of a Garchomp......with an attitude.

And before anyone calls fanfiction on my ass. New city, and no shitty love scenes, not even a mention of that crap. The Human was 20, had a job, and was barely on the damned thing.

Naruto... Maturity??? Uhh,ok, anyway. I think it would be cool to see maybe a pokemon thing with an older character with real issues. Not like with psychopaths or mass murderers but something other than how friendship saves the day yet again. Adventure time pulls this off rather nicely so I know it is possible.

 

[The Floating Nose]

I think its a Awesome idea, plus its not like the other anime will just be stopped all together.

plus its not like Dark and Edgier is exactly bad

No but Dark and edgy is definitely overused.

 

[LilithSlave]

Why does everything have to be darker and edgier? Can't we just have happy things?

No offense to the Escapist, but I'm refreshed to hear something like this on the Escapist and didn't expect it. A lot of users I came across seemed to consider my preferences along those lines as being "childish" or embarrassing somehow. I don't much care for dark and gritty, and seeing the way a lot of people treated my preferences and the cute and cuddly and happy and bright was, well, yeah.... The only times I'd ever heard of people, say, making fun of adults who play Pokemon, as an archetype to make fun of. Kind of like the "I only play M rated games for mature gamers such as myself", I'd never actually heard someone say this. And it was more of a caricature of a mentality that some people may partially believe but not actually say. But here, I actually heard people say that people who play Pokemon need to "grow up", I was dumbfounded that people actually said this in a non-ironic fashion. I'd been to many gaming sites, but never seen something like that said before.

I also got the feeling among some people that they might find it odd that I'm such a fan of feminine and cute material and be a feminist. Like I'm supposed to be so obsessed with female empowerment that every woman much fit the archetype of a macho badass by society. And that I devalue "femininity" and especially in women because of this. Believe me, I am as supportive of the gritty female "Amazon" type warrior and strong, independent badass woman as much as anyone. Certainly that is empowering, and that image is positive and needs to be more normalized. But equally do I challenge the idea of masculinity as superior. Feminism is not about trying to make women one of the boys. I love cutesy stuff and it doesn't make me any less of one. And now I get the feeling that I brought up the F word in topics not about it one too many times. Sorry, just thought I needed to get that out there.

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with Pokemon being cute and fun. And normally, I'd agree with this sentiment. However, just like I think a lot of gritty stuff needs to lighten up(or even go away completely, sometimes), I'm going to have to somewhat be different here. In that I think that Pokemon needs a change of pace. Pokemon has always had an older demographic, and Satoshi needs to stop being 10 forever. For goodness sake, you can't be 10 for 10 years. And that video looked really good. I'd love to see that as an anime, personally. Like, they don't have to cancel the original, but a secondary anime series would be a nice change of pace.

Why not a petition for a fully 3D pokemon on one of the 3 main consoles, use the power to include every single continent, all the pokemon, that would be awesome

Now that, on the other hand, I would like even more. An actual, actual Pokemon game, on the Wii U? Yes please.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

It's not going THAT far, just more of what we saw in the trailer, and something that follows the game's plot nowadays.

Also, isn't Spiderman targeted at kids? Even the comics? In the 60's it was strictly kids thing. Later in the 80's, it got a bit more mature, with adding new looks to some villains and introductions of serial killers Venom and Carnage(along with adding supervillains actually killing civilians). Spiderman suddenly became attractive to an older audience and it made the product better and it brought a wider audience (until that Maximum Carnage debacle).

Another example: Wolverine. He was introduced just to look cool. He had metal claws, but never killed anyone. Another "just for kids" character. Then the 80's gave him a new look, a tiny bit of backstory, and was suddenly gutting soldiers and robots(with a horrifying panel showing Magneto ripping the metal from his flesh). Another product that matured with its audience, and with that, the fanbase got larger and the product's quality increased.

Also, X-men. No explanation needed there.

This is actually a major f---ing problem now as some kids aren't able to buy/read comics. My locals had to turn down kid's buying comics because it was a Batman story where a guy gets his face cut off. Batman's one of those extreme examples and Spiderman has (despite the 80's-90's and that One More Day... event) been dropped down so it's appropriate for kids, at least in general. Adding graphic violence and mature themes actually shrinks your fanbase as adults (until recently) saw comics as being too childish to read, only people who read them when they were younger were still interested and kids couldn't join because they'd see people get blown up. Still means the average comic readers starting age is bumped up to being 14-19.

I believe they still do do kid versions of comics, I know Spider Man and Wolverine have one, it was just the way the medium evolved, I know I wouldn't be reading them if they hadn't gained at least a little substance, as it wouldn't appeal to me if it was purely kids entertainment. It's just one of those niche markets with a specialist customer base that's awkward to break out of in the current age of TV and Games, most kids don't want to read comics, let alone books. The best you can do is make them watch (yes make) Batman TAS, Superman Tas, Justice League, X-Men and the 90s Spiderman show, they have the perfect balance of adult/kid entertainment value.

The problem is outside of comic fans (and Batman), people still have the opinion of comics being for kids, when 90% of them are actually pretty mature, let alone stuff like Preacher and The Boys, it's one of those cases where the general consensus is almost the opposite of the truth, but I do agree with you that there should be a Kids line of the iconic dudes like the DC trinity and Marvels popular dudes.

See, I'm pretty sure I agree with all that, I do like the more mature stuff it just annoys me that it isolates kids from reading them. I used to work in the same comic shop I mentioned before and the best we could do for the kids were cheap reprints of silver age stuff, because all the newer material was too grimdark. There are a couple we could maybe sell if the kid looked like he could handle it, but how do we sell them FF when it's one of the conditions "Oh, one of the four is going to die soon".

Basically, I still read comics and think they do a good job, but they have gone Grimdark and made it more of an adult's thing. Hell, the 70's Tomb of Dracula! It's allegedly a horror story but I would have no beef with a 7-8 year old reading it, but something like Blade now or I, Vampire I'd really steer them clear.

And I don't think it's fair to do that with Pokemon (OT) as it just isolates the new fans to pander to those who (in the majority) will have outgrown it.

 

[Cpu46]

What.

It's a kids show, why does it need to be edgier?

Maybe not edgier but more mature for sure. The average age of fans has moved up considerably while the TV show is still marketed to 5-10 year olds. Dropping the cookie cutter plotlines, adding in a more compelling overarching story, and making the main character at least a bit smarter and more savvy than Ash would do wonders.

Not asking for Evangelion or Ghost in the Shell level maturity but at least step to The Last Airbender levels.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Why does everything have to be darker and edgier? Can't we just have happy things?

No offense to the Escapist, but I'm refreshed to hear something like this on the Escapist and didn't expect it. A lot of users I came across seemed to consider my preferences along those lines as being "childish" or embarrassing somehow. I don't much care for dark and gritty, and seeing the way a lot of people treated my preferences and the cute and cuddly and happy and bright was, well, yeah.... The only times I'd ever heard of people, say, making fun of adults who play Pokemon, as an archetype to make fun of. Kind of like the "I only play M rated games for mature gamers such as myself", I'd never actually heard someone say this. And it was more of a caricature of a mentality that some people may partially believe but not actually say. But here, I actually heard people say that people who play Pokemon need to "grow up", I was dumbfounded that people actually said this in a non-ironic fashion. I'd been to many gaming sites, but never seen something like that said before.

Seconded to f*ck and back, Grimdark has it's place and I'm all for it in certain game but it can't ALL be gritty and dark. Hell, my favourite games on PS1 Were Resi 2, FF7, Silent Hill, MGS and Crash Bandicoot 3. One of these things is not like the others~

4 all 'adult' games (FF7 squeaking in, its in the middle ground), and they were all good, the plot to Silent Hill in particular was dark and pretty profound for me when I played it. But at the same time Crash motherf*ckin Bandicoot! Because a bazooka which fires Wumpa fruit is the closest thing to an FPS I played on the PS1. Grimdark in its place, fun and hopeful in its. And so the world keeps turning without being blown into a world of greys and browns with cover based shooting.

Thank you and good night.

EDIT: DAMNIT DOUBLE QUOTE!

 

[Terminate421]

I posted the same damn trailer a week ago.

I loved it then And I love it now.

Though I don't feel that we should focus on it.

If we did it though:

I would want to see a more naruto-level maturity, but....it must be handled carefully. Ironically, If I could find my old script, you people are welcome to look at a PG-13 leveled from scratch episode I wrote. The idea being that the Pokemon were the main characters who talked, humans were on the side. Also it was a new team, new characters, and Jennifer Anniston was the voice of a Garchomp......with an attitude.

And before anyone calls fanfiction on my ass. New city, and no shitty love scenes, not even a mention of that crap. The Human was 20, had a job, and was barely on the damned thing.

Naruto... Maturity??? Uhh,ok, anyway. I think it would be cool to see maybe a pokemon thing with an older character with real issues. Not like with psychopaths or mass murderers but something other than how friendship saves the day yet again. Adventure time pulls this off rather nicely so I know it is possible.

I meant by uncensored violence and swearing on a PG13 level, naruto attempts these things but normally fails and usually fails harder at "emotional" scenes when it plays sad music and 1000 flashbacks.

Actually, not Naruto, go with Korra levels of maturity but not be afraid to say "damn" or have some blood and scratches dragon ball z level.

What I had written was relatively well done. At least I thought it was.

 

[Dfskelleton]

Man, that's a GREAT idea! Here's another GREAT idea; we remake He-Man so that He-Man goes about his adventures in a manner similar to Kratos, and let's have Skeletor's plans usually revolve around genocide. It would be so good.
Alternative, shorter answer: No.

 

[Wintermoot]

what about Pokemon adventures? AKA the manga.
also the Pokemon Anime should stay kids entertainment.

 

[DeltaEdge]

what about Pokemon adventures? AKA the manga.
also the Pokemon Anime should stay kids entertainment.

Exactly, if you want this so-called "edgy-mature" pokemon, then just read Pokemon Adventures. It kind of loses that after yellow version, but is still pretty good up until the end of 4th gen imo. And I doubt what people are looking for in the pokemon anime is dark and edgy, but rather, for one that takes the series more seriously and doesn't leave a giant opening in the story for an entire new region every couple of years, for ash not to swap pokemon and become progressively stupider each season, and for pikachu to not drop from level 80, to level 4 at the start of each new season. Oh and for good touch, swap out the anime pokemon battle cries for the video game battle cries. People probably just want a pokemon anime that works with what it has, rather than trying to stretch the story painfully to keep ash 10 years old and accessible to a new audience each year with new pokemon, and a new, cheesier personality. And also, if they really did come out with a more mature pokemon anime, I wonder how many people would watch it... Would probably be another case of "fans not showing up for what they beg for"

 

[Ruedyn]

Dark and gritty is what Yu-gi-oh tried to do. Do you WANT pokemon battles on motorcycles?!

 

[aattss]

We don't necessarily want "mature" as in blood and guts, but more like a good plot. You know, an actual one. We don't need to make it darker to make it edgier and good. Look at MLP.

 

[Marik2]

Dark and gritty is what Yu-gi-oh tried to do. Do you WANT pokemon battles on motorcycles?!

That actually sounds pretty badass....

*Imagines*

 

[Mr. Omega]

My issue with this isn't the petition or the idea (there has always been a more violent and "darker", for lack of a better word, Pokemon series, just never adapted to anime.) Plus, a protagonist switch might be a good idea...

My issue is with the mentality behind every single petitions like this; the series I like need to grow up with me, otherwise they suck. Not everything needs to cater to you and you exclusively.

 

[Ryotknife]

I....dont see a more mature pokemon anime series working.

i mean, here we have a universe where every Jim and Bob (sometimes even Jim-Bob) controls extremely powerful monsters and nobody dies or really gets hurt and are bound by arbitrary rules.

I'm sorry, if pokemon existed in this world the streets would run RED with every yahoo fancying himself as a warlord, even worse these people who have the same firepower as a small army.

 

[Don Savik]

Yugioh wasn't originally about cards??? Like at all?? I'm confused why people are making the comparison. The Yugioh tv show WAS to sell cards as much as Pokemon and Digimon and all that jazz. I like Yugioh (both the early shows and card game) but cmon, lets be real. I was in a hobby store the other week, and I saw a massive amount of children there (odd because usually its comic book geeks and wargamers or MTG players) and what where they doing? Playing Pokemon cards. There were so many of them they took up almost all the tables in the back area. It then made me realize that those kids are the target audience. Little kids eat pokemon shit up like its candy. Why would Nintendo cater to something other then their tried and true target audience?? I mean, it could work, but like I posted earlier, the aesthetics of everything are just too family friendly. THERE IS A POKEMON THAT IS ICE CREAM. Even if you gave it a serious plotline I couldn't take it seriously with creatures like Mr.Mime and Jigglypuff.