For better or worse, GameFreak has made sure that the games are played in the same way as they did when Red & Blue came out. Yet, the anime is not following in the same manner. The problem here is that Pokemon thrives through it's sameness.
This may have been true up to a point, but since Sword and Shield there's a growing sentiment that Pokemon's sameness is a millstone around the series' neck; that its adherence to conventions and ideas established in the late 90s is actively holding the series back from developing into something greater than it is.
Meanwhile, fans have been weary of the anime's sameness for a far longer amount of time. In fact, after the initial boom died down, Pokemon's ratings were suffering to such an extent that the staff at the time decided to remove Misty from the cast and introduce a new character (which you can read about more here.) Pokemon's "decline" has been occurring for nearly two decades. It's far from a recent event.
They have changed the anime so much that they failed to recognize the reason that the anime has lasted all these years in the first place was that it NEVER CHANGED! The original series, Hoenn, Sinnoh were all the same. Best Wishes and XY had varying tones, but the core goal was the same as well.
Attributing the anime's longevity to its consistency in pumping out the same content feels tenuous to me. There's a danger here of assuming that the reason you continued watching the show over the years is the same reason everyone else had for watching the show, when in reality there are a myriad of reasons.
- This is coupling all the previous points together into a clear argument. OLM needs to make the show adeptable for all ages; i.e., return to the formula that EVERYONE CAN ENJOY. Pokemon XY was considerbly more popular than Sun and Moon and POKEMON 2019 in the west. Considerably more popular. And the reason for this is because of it's tone. It was a children's show, but anyone could enjoy it. Dragon Ball is huge in the west. In fact, it's more popular than ever because it was able to stick to it's formula. It did not change and it did not need too. Pokemon did not need to change as well. XY was hugely successful, yet OLM were so afraid of the Yokai Audience that they went ahead and changed it anyway.
- Final Point: People in here may have their ideas of what works and does not work in the anime these days, but let us be clear here. Pokemon cannot grow anymore than what it has in japan. With the aging population, and the slight decline of video game sales we know it has reached it's peak. The growth for the brand is coming from the west. and it's coming from all ages. OLM needs to recognize that and give us something that we all can enjoy
The problem I have with your argument is your idea of what a product "everyone can enjoy" is. As I referenced above, it's more like you're advocating for the show to return to the state you enjoyed more, which is fine, but you're then assuming that what you want is also what "everyone" wants, which is blatantly untrue. And I can say that because I enjoyed Sun and Moon more than XY. The show returning to how it was would not be for "everyone", by definition, because I wouldn't enjoy it. Similarly, the idea that Sun and Moon can't be enjoyed by "everyone" is also untrue because I, a full-grown adult, enjoyed that series even though it was supposedly doubling down on its kids audience. For what it's worth, I'm not enjoying PM 2019 as much, but that has nothing to do with how adult/kid friendly it is and everything to do with how it's handling its premise and characters.
If you have the facts and figures to substantiate your claims that OLM made a mistake, then you need to provide them, otherwise a lot of your claims feel empty. If you're arguing on qualitative grounds - that you believe older Pokemon is better and therefore should stay around, then that's different. But when you make a claim like this:
"With the aging population, and the slight decline of video game sales we know it has reached it's peak. The growth for the brand is coming from the west. and it's coming from all ages. OLM needs to recognize that and give us something that we all can enjoy"
You need the hard evidence to back that up. As it is, it's just a massive assumption and a weak justification for wanting the show to be tailored specifically to what you want.
Aside from that, and this is only my personal opinion, but OS-XY was the most kid friendly/safe the show has ever been. Slapstick and comedy that relies more on exaggeration and contrast doesn't make the show any less mature than comedy based around repetition. Plus almost every conflict that ever happened in the formulaic era of the show was often, if not almost always, extremely cartoony anyway. And let's stop pretending Pokémon before SM wasn't most frequently seen as an outright terrible show by older non-fans of the the anime. I saw way more people that dropped the show for good years ago come back for SM than for any other series.
It's worth mentioning that people came back for XY, too.
That aside, I agree with what you're saying. There's this persistent idea that shows like DP and XY were "serious, mature shows" while SM was "too goofy and for kids", when in reality every Pokemon season has always been a mix of the two.
