Facts bro. The XYZ series was so good that that the old characters never returned until Pokémon Journeys and you literally had to wait like 5 or 6 years just for the old characters to come back into the anime
The XY/XYZ series animation was so good that it was perfect for the entire series. The camera angles was so perfect, the art style was legendary, the 3D style was absolutely amazing and from the art style, the animations, the characters, the battles, and all the awesome and legendary things that has happened throughout the entire series, it actually felt like an actual anime instead of an normal regular cartoon show
@@Pokiiii62 Yes I even forgot about the impact frames. The creators and the writers absolutely cooked making the XY/XYZ and this was a big time huge upgrade since Black & White was a total disaster. Everything about the XY/XYZ series was perfect. Even the ending was better because you know how in other Pokémon animes where the last episode is ending and the narrator would give out his particular speech, well when the XY/XYZ series ended, it showed an amazing flashback and showed many many great memories throughout the entire XY/XYZ series and giving us memories to last forever
XYZ was my very first pokemon anime, and it being the best one, it hit the hardest, I remember crying in the finale episodes when ash leaves all of the friends he made in kalos
Tbh I was a Yu-Gi-Oh guy, never cared much for Pokemon. XY came out, hooked me, and I had the same reaction at the end. Honestly, it felt like the only Pokemon anime where Ash and his friends acted like real people. They weren't stupid, they had real feelings that changed over time, their Pokemon had real character progression, everything. There weren't "flat characters," but instead people I went to school with, or even people I saw when I looked in the mirror. This felt like a grown-up (more so teen, but older than 11 at least) Ash. His unique relationships with Serena and Clemente made him seem like just another guy going through high school. Even had a little sibling dynamic. They need a movie or episode arc where Ash just goes to meet all his old friends in each region. Would have been a great idea after the most recent arcs.
@@TheyZeeYuen666 Agreed! BUT you still can't deny how good the XYZ japanese opening was too. Literally Ash singing! It's like a Young Pop star doing his debut performance.
@@PyroManiac753 Well actually it only had one good battle imo which is the Sawyer vs Ash battle idk why but i feel like Alain vs Ash was not that good of a battle but Kalos is still the best league for me
The step up in animation really fit the grandeur they where going for in their story. Where as Sun and Moon was more laid back by nature XYZ wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without absolutely amazing looking battles. I’m not saying other series wouldn’t have benefited too but I’m glad that the stars aligned to give this series a good story and good animation.
@@Pokiiii62 But it's so disappointing since I really liked how matured ash was in xyz, like bro actually felt like a 16 y old. Journeys literally made him turn into a 9 y old. And the serena reunion in journeys was just sad, it used to be 2 teens walking together, in the journeys episode, it felt like ash was 6 years younger than serena in terms of attitude. The part I liked of that episode was that we got to see how much serena improved
@@TheyZeeYuen666 dude was the most immature child in xy, sm and journeys actually had him be mature and develop. age isn't tied to maturity btw and he is 10 years old in every series
I half like this video I half don't, XYZ has amazing animation but elevating it by sun and moon was bland and didn't have EXPRESSION is just strange, SM didn't have the same camerawork but the squish and squash and the impact frames were absolute bangers, literally just watch the Battle between ash and Hala, they're going for something completely different here
Its because the west always had a misconception on what is anime. Pokemon was always been an anime. Its just targeted for kids like doraemon, digimon, yokai watch, etc.
Anime is cartoon in Japanese so all of the pokemon series can be called anime, but honestly among all of the pokemon series xyz's animation and story line is in a whole different level that it can probably keep up with those other anime who has great animation just like naruto, one punch man and etc
I feel like it's only slept on because it was so underutilised in its debut generation and thrown in as an annoying fetch quest side gimmick in sun and moon. Hopefully, legends Z-A will give Zygarde the respect it deserves.
When sawyer screams at sceptile to use leaf storm if you look at his eyes you can see some shadows at the bottom half of it, when I was a child i thought he was tearing tears out of how stressed/emotioned he was, due to the battle's intensity. And since i was also emotioned by the fight, as soon as i noticed that, i started sobbing really hard lol I was mesmerized
One thing I'd like to mention about the how section is fight choreography. While good animation is very important to making fight scenes fluid, fight choreography is very important as well, and i think that's a big part of why the average xy fight is so much more intense than previous and later pokemon series average fight, the pokemon don't take turns waiting for the other to attack, they're constantly on movement countering each other's movements with their own movements, this along with the camera work creates something that is almost like a dance and very enjoyable to watch. A good example of why choreography is so important is jojo. All of the jojo series have good animation, however due to the nature of jojo fights, the fights are never engaging in the same sense that pokemon xyz fights are, this is because jojo, similarly to the previous pokemon seasons, have characters almost taking turns at each other rather than being constantly on movement.
Gen 6 (the Kalos region) is saved by the anime version because XY in the games got rushed feeling that is a incomplete game, unfortunately that Pokemon Z got canceled to go into Nintendo 3DS (aleast we're getting Legends ZA in 2025), the animation is so great that saves alot of this region having Greninja, Serena, Alain and others to be very popular in this fandom (hopefully Legends ZA gets a really good storyline for the game aswell like it was in the anime)
XY was the perfect storm of having enough lead time to allow them to get quite frankly more done. The Pokémon anime always felt like it lagged behind other anime being released at the same time, and that might come down to how much they had to work with, Sinnoh and Unova were massive games with 107 and 156 new Pokémon that they would have to cover respectively, on top of the events that were likely to take place. Kalos doesn't really suffer this, it's story is really quite simpler and there were only 72 new Pokémon, not counting Mega's that would have to be in the story somehow. One of the massive reasons why XY looks so much better is the backgrounds, during fight scene they actually have the arena that they are fighting in, and not the wall of energy, which makes sense considering what was being introduced, Gen Six was the perfect time to have more investment in the anime, the introduction of Mega's is really a pretty Shonen idea. The power of friendship gives massive boost of strength, so you have Pokémon getting a massive boost, it would look bad if their fighting wasn't dynamic, so you have investment into choreography, okay we can't have them streaking about in energy rooms now so full background, okay we have full environments and interesting movement choreography, how can we put those together to make the fights better. So couple these together you get these absolutely stunning shots of Pokémon using the environment to attack, now Ash has always done this sort of thing augmenting his Pokémon's attacks by using crazy Battle IQ plays, See Buizels Ice Aqua Jet, but with full environments there was potential for some absolutely insane strategies, and you really see this in moments like, Goodra using Dragon Pulse to catapult itself onto a plane, Frookie climbing up Draco Meteor, Pikachu taking out a sandstorm by fill the air with water, or when Pikachu again cut down trees and jammed Aegislash into attack mode. XY tapped into the secondary abilities that the Pokémon posseted and used the environment to better the fights, which is why the Kalos League had the changing battlefields. Had any of they strats been used in say Diamond and Pearl or Black and White they would look laughable, or simply not happen, but because XY had backgrounds and a 3D camera that could follow them around which leads to some stunning visuals. The Battle Dynamics of XY felt far more anime simply because of the use of actual backgrounds, which meant that they could do so much more interesting thing with the animation.
honestly my assumption is that the new directors and stuff wanted to create a more comedic approach (cuz of yokai) and switched to a more cartoony-like anime style to fit it, and honestly I think journeys was cuz of covid and just trying to find a balance between the art styles made it a bit more difficult, though in all honesty I am not entirely sure why, this just seems like the most logical explanation to me. I think horizons though is like the balance between xyz and journeys which honestly is really nicely done and ngl has really compelling and good story too, I just wish journeys had gotten the same treatment horizons has right now
I agree honestly, the amount of great animated battle episodes are much more in horizons than journeys. Look at the captain pikachu backstory, capn vs the 2 explorer captains, charizard vs ceruledge, shiny rayquaza reveal and the three kids confronting spinel. Hopefully more super good animated episodes in the future!
I feel like the animation quality dropped because of the "Vibe", XYZ was more of a "get stronger, trainer, win battles" vibe but Sun and Moon was more chill, so having serious cinematic fights in a series which is laid back doesn't fit, JN is kind of a mix of XYZ and SM so some fights are not cinematic but for example Ash vs Leon was
I became a Pokemon fan because of watching XY and later XYZ on my cable TV. While i didn't mind all the other show that came before and after this show is just a banger.
I wished the Sun and Moon anime had peak battle scenes like XYZ. Man Decidueye, Turtonator, and Golisopod would have benefited from the XYZ battle scene treatment.
There is so many fights in Pokemon sun and moon anime that have peak battles animation like ash vs kukui,gladion vs kiawe, kiawe vs Brock andash vs misty,
The animation itself is better in future series. It’s the art direction and the fact that X and Y were the first major step up in animation in a long time meanwhile, all future generations only had gradual steps up
This came out of nowhere just for the notification btw can i request you make a video on you rating every pokemon league? I think i know what would be on top but im always interested in seeing Anipoke youtubers making those videos.
As of current episode of Pokémon Horizons i'll say the animation with the battles have been really entertaining they arent up there in terms of XY animation but it comes close
i might be spreading misinformation rn because i don’t have a direct source for this lmao but im pretty sure horizons has the same director for their battles as xy so that doesn’t come as a surprise
U are right! Tensuo Yajima (lead director of XY/Z) is now back to Action Director for horizons. No wonder why some fight scenes are so fired up and incredible like XY/Z. It's so great to have him on the anipoke team. He sure knows how to cook!
Animation wise the anime has always been pretty simplistic. They have had to follow a set schedule. But other series such as the Twilight Winds and Paldean Winds dont have too. I wish Pokemon would branch out from their main anime and make other series instead of limited mini series. Like I would give anything for a full Pokemon anime with the budget and animation of Paldean winds😭🙏
I think I heard this from reddit or something but a reason they may have changed the art style after x&y was because they found it harder to display expressions on characters faces ( I found kind of the opposite) plus sun and moon was going to be kind of more slice of life then big battles so having an more soft and round art style kind of fit
I feel like the shift in art style from XYZ to Sun & Moon was made, not only because of time, but also to fit the vibe of each series. With Kalos being much more focused on the spectacle of battling and Alola being essentially a comedy/action show.
Before watching the video, my guess is that there was a different director for this series who was really good at their job. The scheduling was done heavily in advance and a lot of freelance animators were used for battles while being scheduled in advance so they had enough time.
I think it’s not only cause of these reasons but also because we got to see new pokemon forms we never saw before. Ash Greninja and Zygardes forms being originally from the anime took the new twist on the story as a whole. Not only that but we also got a limited time demo (2016-2023 RIP 3ds Eshop) for one of these forms which gave us Greninja. Even sycamore gave us an explanation on how this form came to be. Not only that regular squishy form is not even in the games. Zygarde transforms way differently in the games. In the anime there’s 4 stages of zygarde while there are 3 stages in games through the cubes and cells. That season of xy not only impacted Pokemon games but it also even impacted smash ultimate which is a pretty good flex in my opinion.
I feel like the animation quality dropped because like you said after Black and White a series I loved very much by the way. They must of had to get back on that tight deadline and when they heard the switch was coming I’m sure production for a newer gen Pokémon game and they just wanted to focus more on the games and expanding the anime to the Galar region picking up from Alola. Ion know tho what do you guys think?
The Why is Tetsuo Yajima. Wish vids like this talked about the people that make this possible. He was brought on by the prior director Kunihiko Yuyama because he believed in Yajima’s artistic approach
Of course, but it's important to know that not everyone knows every animator that works on a project. And it also seems kinda unfair to mention one specific guy since a lot of other amazing people worked on xyz as well, so that's why I didn't talk about it.
The best animations in Pokémon anime, the best moment especially the Pokémon battle and Pokémon preformer. Also the keep and improve the art style BW, the anime didn’t feel the same when the art style change like you said.
NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE VIDEO, IM SO EXCITED FOR TALE OF ZYGUARD.TALE OF GRENINJA WAS DOPE I CAN'T WAIT POKEEEE PLEASE UPLOAD IT QUICK IM SUBSCRIBED AND PUT THE BELL NOTIFICATIONS ON.PLEASEEEE
Pokemon NEEDS to start taking their time go from a new generation every 3 years to every 4 years. This allows for them to not only make better games, but give more time to developers of the tcg and everyone working on the anime. I’m glad that’s likely what’s to happen with gen 9. Gen 10 should shift Pokémon’s focus to Quality over Quantity. (Gen 10 is also likely to release after the “Nintendo switch 2” so they also have increased hardware)
I know it's about the Animation, but also to the Soundtrack for this was👌 I'm not just talking the main themes I'm talking even background music every aspect of Xyz was perfect
I do not care what anyone says pokemon xyz is the best series out of all of them it made my childhood so much better and i enjoyed litterally every second of it and i remember being so hyped during ashs and sawyers battle aswell as ashs and alains battle
I liked Pokémon but XY and then XYZ but they made me just love Pokémon on a whole other level. it will always be the Pokémon in my opinion. The new series aren't bad but XYZ will always be my favorite and childhood Pokémon.
Sun and moon was ment to be the same as XY but at the time there was a popular anime called yo-Kai watch which was Pokémon’s only competition. So Pokemon wanted to copy their animation style (tale of zigard in so excited)
Also I didn’t know that Komi can’t communicate is by the animators of Pokemon I seriously loved the manga for Komi can’t communicate they I’m so happy managed to change it to an anime so well!!
Dawg, their are a ton of videos like these on youtube, some of which are recent. If you want to make it go for it, man, don't just give up because someone else already did it. You can make it even better than mine. STOP DISCOURAGING YOURSELF!
@@Pokiiii62 maybe i overreacted, thank you man for your words! Your right i will make that video and than i will come back here to tell you what i achieved by it. Annnd thats gonna happened in like 6 months soo...
@@Pokiiii62 You know, i have watched videos about xyz and non of them really talked about what i want to, everybody is talking about plot and charaters but nobody have dived deep into the animation like you did. And how i want to talk about it.
The driving claw in Pokémon XYZ looks so much better than it does now like he used to be a cool big claw that was intimidating now it’s just their claws orange like bro
@@Pokiiii62 yo dude I started watching your videos and I love the editing and video style it's pretty sick! I subbed and I'm going to watch the tale videos!
It's because they decided to lock in after the lackluster delivery Black & White provided 💀 *but in all seriousness, I wish they stuck with this animation for Journey's or Horizons cause it actually makes Pokémon feel like a mainstream anime*
Looking back on it, I'm getting genuinely certain that the XY/XYZ anime single handedly held Gen 6 up on it's back and kept a hyp train going into Gen 7. I remember at the time everyone being hyped and questioning if Ash might genuinely beat the Pokémon League. I myself remember speculating so much on whether Ash would beat Alan and bring absolutely heartbroken when Ash lost. It was *fantastic* and much media surrounding Pokémon at the time wound up focused on it instead of the games. This continuing going into Gen 7's announcement, with even a certain theory channel of the time which has since transitioned into full time pokétubing releasing a somewhat popular conspiracy theory regarding the games, using the Anime's current status as a genuine point in their argument! Albeit a small one.
Ash should have won the championship change my mind. One of the best fights in the anime that I can think of which isn’t in XY is Electivire and Paul vs Infernape and Ash
Great video overall but towards the end you seemed to be having things backwards? XY art style is NOT simple especially compared to SM and JN and in SM's case it had more consistent animation at a higher level due to this simpler art style. Great video still though!
Until this day, Im still salty Ash got robbed of the champion title, I actually stayed up the whole night to wait for the final battle episode after not watching pokemon for 10 years just to throw my phone again
They spend so much budget.... But what about their income? I mean yeah deadline also important, in past XY era sometimes you see the battle with XY budget, SM, JN, HZ, so yeah not only money but also budget (i heard that XY income is lower than SM in JP, i dunno if its true)
Your touching on time as a kind of budget allotment is good, but I largely disagree with the portrayal that XYZ, and to an almost exclusively degree, has a level of animation quality unmatched by those after it. 0:48 "How good was XYZ's animation?" Very largely decent, with standout moments when it counts. This, in general, comes down to scheduling, and giving the cycling between each great animators as much gap as possible. I'm not privy to the specifics of this, so someone else may be able to tell better. However, this isn't specific to XYZ, but to the larger Pokemon series anime as a whole - It is arguably the most consistently animated (relatively speaking) mainstream anime, aside from maybe Naruto. In general, the quality of Pokemon's animation, as well as direction, storyboarding, compositing, etc. has gone up series by series, it's just largely not until towards the end of B&W that the truly good animation is seen paired with the modern-ish character and color design. 1:14 "Camerawork" This is largely a directorial and storyboarding decision, although some animators can be given leeway to act as they like - I am unsure if the studio animating those specific scenes let animators have that freedom. One thing you didn't mention is that starting with XY, the series began really incorporating 3D environments into scenes (something only done in the movies before), which add extra headrooms for animator to go crazier. 2:00 As stated, the background is CGI, but the Frenzy Plant itself (and most of that cut, really) is 2D animated. The overlay compositing is well integrated, but that's typically not under the umbrella of CGI typically referred to. 2:14 I... disagree? This entire point is really contrived actually, and cherry picked what happens in battle alone instead of the series as a whole. And even considering that, Z-moves alone as well as several (bank, admittedly) shots of Ash is incredibly well animated, with expressive drawings and character acting nearly unmatched in everything outside of Sun and Moon. I have several criticisms of SM's design sheets, but expressiveness is not one of them. 2:25 If we're picking the peak of XYZ, then the peaks of SM and Journeys eclipse it as well. Sawyer's expression here is well drawn, and Aito Ohashi is an amazing animator, but it's clear XYZ's character design doesn't help here. Like, in the shot of Ash character acting directly before this, his face changes expressions 3 times, but since the shapes are so stiff, all three look near identical. It's not limited to that one shot either. 2:56 The scene you showed here is the work of Yasushi Nishiya, who started on the series in XY and several Pokemon movies and a cut of Evolutions, I think. 5:57 Hard disagree; S&M is as consistent as you normally get for the anime. 6:09 Pikachu vs Charizard has oodles of talents behind it, but they did bring on some freelance/webgen animators for some cuts, like Claire Launay. Overall, I do agree that XYZ is well animated, but not extraordinarily so, and in the grand scheme of things, it's another incremental steps in quality for the anime, which S&M expanded, and Journeys perfected.
I heavily disagree with what you just said. There were barely any wonderful animated scenes in journeys. Not to mention their almost zero impact frames between journeys and sun and moon, too. One of the only animated pieces that came out of the sun and moon anime is tapu koko vs pikachu and that is a fact 💀
@@Pokiiii62 There are literally more entries for Sun and Moon than any other Pokemon series on sakugabooru, and Journeys has nearly the same number, not to mention all the same animators who worked on the cuts of XYZ battle scenes continued to animate for those. SM OP4 and Journeys OP4 alone are genuine example of masterclass in directing, character acting, dynamic movements and effects animation which is evident throughout the respective series, of which XYZ generally can't live up to outside those few outstanding cuts, especially with regards to body movement and character acting. You may not consider them a priority in your judgment, but by that token, dismissing them so offhandedly means you have to dismiss XYZ's body of limited animation as well, in which case XYZ doesn't have great animation by this limited scope.
2 Videos Remaining till the Tale of Zygarde...
U hyping it up too much 😂🥶
Waiting...
@Dom28h oh bro, you aren't ready 💀🙏
fun fact: the xyz series was so good that no old characters had to return at all
FRRRR TRUE STATEMENT HOLY FRICK!!
Facts bro. The XYZ series was so good that that the old characters never returned until Pokémon Journeys and you literally had to wait like 5 or 6 years just for the old characters to come back into the anime
The only character we saw return is Cilan which only happened in special episode only in japanese, although he didn’t interact with Ash
@@trainerfrostaura Yeah true
@@trainerfrostaura yh, but not much people remember that special, and is definitely not the reason why ppl liked xyz alot
The animation in pokemon xy feels so fast paced and smooth.
FRRRR, it feels very smooth
The reason it’s smooth because They got budget for the series. It’s 60 fps vs 30 fps for other series
@@FD15989 I am just gonna say it they got Ufotable to work XY And Z. Have you seem Demon slayer or better YET FATE STAY NIGHT HEAVEN SPRING SONG.
The XY/XYZ series animation was so good that it was perfect for the entire series. The camera angles was so perfect, the art style was legendary, the 3D style was absolutely amazing and from the art style, the animations, the characters, the battles, and all the awesome and legendary things that has happened throughout the entire series, it actually felt like an actual anime instead of an normal regular cartoon show
FRRR BRO AND THE IMPACT FRAMES
@@Pokiiii62 Yes I even forgot about the impact frames. The creators and the writers absolutely cooked making the XY/XYZ and this was a big time huge upgrade since Black & White was a total disaster. Everything about the XY/XYZ series was perfect. Even the ending was better because you know how in other Pokémon animes where the last episode is ending and the narrator would give out his particular speech, well when the XY/XYZ series ended, it showed an amazing flashback and showed many many great memories throughout the entire XY/XYZ series and giving us memories to last forever
XYZ was my very first pokemon anime, and it being the best one, it hit the hardest, I remember crying in the finale episodes when ash leaves all of the friends he made in kalos
Same! It was such an amazing experience. No words could describe it ❤
Ir was so good bro 😭🙏
Tbh I was a Yu-Gi-Oh guy, never cared much for Pokemon. XY came out, hooked me, and I had the same reaction at the end.
Honestly, it felt like the only Pokemon anime where Ash and his friends acted like real people. They weren't stupid, they had real feelings that changed over time, their Pokemon had real character progression, everything. There weren't "flat characters," but instead people I went to school with, or even people I saw when I looked in the mirror.
This felt like a grown-up (more so teen, but older than 11 at least) Ash. His unique relationships with Serena and Clemente made him seem like just another guy going through high school. Even had a little sibling dynamic.
They need a movie or episode arc where Ash just goes to meet all his old friends in each region. Would have been a great idea after the most recent arcs.
same bruh
Me too being there to tune in every time a new episode came out was so fun and hype truly a had to be there moment
Ok but are we not going to talk about the music in xyz. They were COOKIN on that sound track
FRRRR
The english opening for xyz is probably the most badass pokemon opening of all time
@@TheyZeeYuen666 Agreed! BUT you still can't deny how good the XYZ japanese opening was too. Literally Ash singing! It's like a Young Pop star doing his debut performance.
XYZ is so good that they have to cut short Master Class Showcase and Kalos league. In exchange, they gave us the best villain arc in Anipoke
FRRR
Worst league though
@@Iefan-ocNEVER EVER SPEAK YOUR OPINION EVER AGAIN🗣️🗣️🗣️
@@Funny_Valentine_DojyaaaaanHe is 100% correct. It literally has TWO battles that are actually good.
@@PyroManiac753 Well actually it only had one good battle imo which is the Sawyer vs Ash battle idk why but i feel like Alain vs Ash was not that good of a battle but Kalos is still the best league for me
XYZ felt like a battle shonen rather than a regulary pokemon anime
The fact that you further prove your point about the stunning Pokemon XY animation by adding battle scenes that were in 4K 60 fps!
4k 60 ruins the animation
60fps upscaling does NOT prove their point
brother ewww.
4k 60? ewwwww
@@Mason-gh1psexactly which is why he proved his point they still looked good in 60fps
@@theonlymal1 no it doesnt
The step up in animation really fit the grandeur they where going for in their story. Where as Sun and Moon was more laid back by nature XYZ wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without absolutely amazing looking battles. I’m not saying other series wouldn’t have benefited too but I’m glad that the stars aligned to give this series a good story and good animation.
That's very true friend
@@Pokiiii62 But it's so disappointing since I really liked how matured ash was in xyz, like bro actually felt like a 16 y old. Journeys literally made him turn into a 9 y old. And the serena reunion in journeys was just sad, it used to be 2 teens walking together, in the journeys episode, it felt like ash was 6 years younger than serena in terms of attitude. The part I liked of that episode was that we got to see how much serena improved
@@TheyZeeYuen666 dude was the most immature child in xy, sm and journeys actually had him be mature and develop. age isn't tied to maturity btw and he is 10 years old in every series
I half like this video I half don't, XYZ has amazing animation but elevating it by sun and moon was bland and didn't have EXPRESSION is just strange, SM didn't have the same camerawork but the squish and squash and the impact frames were absolute bangers, literally just watch the Battle between ash and Hala, they're going for something completely different here
XY/XYZ was the best and peak pokemon anime ever existed.
Bro people argue if Pokémon is actually an anime and I think xyz Is genuinely an actual anime not arguments
Its because the west always had a misconception on what is anime. Pokemon was always been an anime. Its just targeted for kids like doraemon, digimon, yokai watch, etc.
Anime is cartoon in Japanese so all of the pokemon series can be called anime, but honestly among all of the pokemon series xyz's animation and story line is in a whole different level that it can probably keep up with those other anime who has great animation just like naruto, one punch man and etc
Pokémon is an anime its genre is kodomemoku
@@JunFromITdon’t forget inuzuma eleven and beyblade
@@JunFromIT digimon is arguably more adult then pokemon. they include much more death scenes and super dark plots
Unrelated but I feel like Zygard is a slept on legendary Pokemon it design looks cool and it's cell gimmick is awesome.
It's cell gimmick is very cool, and unique!
Zygarde 1, 10 and 100% I agree but the 50% snake form, I'm not so sure about.
@@CM_684 It really suffers from a garbage ability. If it had the 100% ability or something that could buff itself Zygarde 50% would be so much better
I feel like it's only slept on because it was so underutilised in its debut generation and thrown in as an annoying fetch quest side gimmick in sun and moon. Hopefully, legends Z-A will give Zygarde the respect it deserves.
When sawyer screams at sceptile to use leaf storm if you look at his eyes you can see some shadows at the bottom half of it, when I was a child i thought he was tearing tears out of how stressed/emotioned he was, due to the battle's intensity.
And since i was also emotioned by the fight, as soon as i noticed that, i started sobbing really hard lol
I was mesmerized
The XY saga definitely made Pokemon battles look and feel more alive
The jump from animation, from black and white to xyz was so immense. It really surprised me, and still the best Pokemon series imo
Ash: *telling his pokemon to move and attack*
His Pokemon: *doing just that, in anime style*
One thing I'd like to mention about the how section is fight choreography. While good animation is very important to making fight scenes fluid, fight choreography is very important as well, and i think that's a big part of why the average xy fight is so much more intense than previous and later pokemon series average fight, the pokemon don't take turns waiting for the other to attack, they're constantly on movement countering each other's movements with their own movements, this along with the camera work creates something that is almost like a dance and very enjoyable to watch. A good example of why choreography is so important is jojo. All of the jojo series have good animation, however due to the nature of jojo fights, the fights are never engaging in the same sense that pokemon xyz fights are, this is because jojo, similarly to the previous pokemon seasons, have characters almost taking turns at each other rather than being constantly on movement.
Sun & Moon had a different animation style because Ash was on vacation. (I hope)
Yeah I see that
and budget issues but yes, sun and moon was made to compete w YKW and it attained a goofier style
No, it was because of yo Kai watch
You nailed more cooking! 3d camera was the jam. I remember when Greninja KO sceptile. Greninja flying down is iconic for this series!
Gen 6 (the Kalos region) is saved by the anime version because XY in the games got rushed feeling that is a incomplete game, unfortunately that Pokemon Z got canceled to go into Nintendo 3DS (aleast we're getting Legends ZA in 2025), the animation is so great that saves alot of this region having Greninja, Serena, Alain and others to be very popular in this fandom (hopefully Legends ZA gets a really good storyline for the game aswell like it was in the anime)
Just love your kalos video, waiting for tale of Zygarde
Thanks so much friend!
XYZ is peak Pokemon
XY was the perfect storm of having enough lead time to allow them to get quite frankly more done. The Pokémon anime always felt like it lagged behind other anime being released at the same time, and that might come down to how much they had to work with, Sinnoh and Unova were massive games with 107 and 156 new Pokémon that they would have to cover respectively, on top of the events that were likely to take place. Kalos doesn't really suffer this, it's story is really quite simpler and there were only 72 new Pokémon, not counting Mega's that would have to be in the story somehow.
One of the massive reasons why XY looks so much better is the backgrounds, during fight scene they actually have the arena that they are fighting in, and not the wall of energy, which makes sense considering what was being introduced, Gen Six was the perfect time to have more investment in the anime, the introduction of Mega's is really a pretty Shonen idea.
The power of friendship gives massive boost of strength, so you have Pokémon getting a massive boost, it would look bad if their fighting wasn't dynamic, so you have investment into choreography, okay we can't have them streaking about in energy rooms now so full background, okay we have full environments and interesting movement choreography, how can we put those together to make the fights better.
So couple these together you get these absolutely stunning shots of Pokémon using the environment to attack, now Ash has always done this sort of thing augmenting his Pokémon's attacks by using crazy Battle IQ plays, See Buizels Ice Aqua Jet, but with full environments there was potential for some absolutely insane strategies, and you really see this in moments like, Goodra using Dragon Pulse to catapult itself onto a plane, Frookie climbing up Draco Meteor, Pikachu taking out a sandstorm by fill the air with water, or when Pikachu again cut down trees and jammed Aegislash into attack mode. XY tapped into the secondary abilities that the Pokémon posseted and used the environment to better the fights, which is why the Kalos League had the changing battlefields. Had any of they strats been used in say Diamond and Pearl or Black and White they would look laughable, or simply not happen, but because XY had backgrounds and a 3D camera that could follow them around which leads to some stunning visuals.
The Battle Dynamics of XY felt far more anime simply because of the use of actual backgrounds, which meant that they could do so much more interesting thing with the animation.
honestly my assumption is that the new directors and stuff wanted to create a more comedic approach (cuz of yokai) and switched to a more cartoony-like anime style to fit it, and honestly I think journeys was cuz of covid and just trying to find a balance between the art styles made it a bit more difficult, though in all honesty I am not entirely sure why, this just seems like the most logical explanation to me. I think horizons though is like the balance between xyz and journeys which honestly is really nicely done and ngl has really compelling and good story too, I just wish journeys had gotten the same treatment horizons has right now
I see...
I agree honestly, the amount of great animated battle episodes are much more in horizons than journeys. Look at the captain pikachu backstory, capn vs the 2 explorer captains, charizard vs ceruledge, shiny rayquaza reveal and the three kids confronting spinel. Hopefully more super good animated episodes in the future!
I feel like the animation quality dropped because of the "Vibe", XYZ was more of a "get stronger, trainer, win battles" vibe but Sun and Moon was more chill, so having serious cinematic fights in a series which is laid back doesn't fit, JN is kind of a mix of XYZ and SM so some fights are not cinematic but for example Ash vs Leon was
But animation does not equal looks.... Animation is movement.
@@havingfunwithelijah214 I think it is still possible to understand what i meant
@@thatoneaxolotlguy9969 ok I was just pointing it out.
That's actually very fair
it didn't drop, sm animation quality is vastly superior
The intro is sooo goooooooood and even good music plus ash greninja is my top fav pokemon
I became a Pokemon fan because of watching XY and later XYZ on my cable TV.
While i didn't mind all the other show that came before and after this show is just a banger.
The Mega Mechanic was just so hype. Seeing the Series with Alain and Mega Charizard X was so cool, and then them meeting Ash felt surreal.
REAL
Alright, I'll sub this was well done and informative
Thank you, friend. I really appreciate it 💙
Love ur stuff Man U subscriber just started watch xyz agian it’s so good!
Thank you so much friend I really appreciate it!
I wished the Sun and Moon anime had peak battle scenes like XYZ. Man Decidueye, Turtonator, and Golisopod would have benefited from the XYZ battle scene treatment.
There is so many fights in Pokemon sun and moon anime that have peak battles animation like ash vs kukui,gladion vs kiawe, kiawe vs Brock andash vs misty,
Another part of the budget could have to do with the fact that this was a introduction to megas
i will never get over how great greninja and ash’s story is i could watch xyz over and over!
SAME I WISH I JUST FORGOT EVERYTHING!
The animation itself is better in future series. It’s the art direction and the fact that X and Y were the first major step up in animation in a long time meanwhile, all future generations only had gradual steps up
This came out of nowhere just for the notification btw can i request you make a video on you rating every pokemon league? I think i know what would be on top but im always interested in seeing Anipoke youtubers making those videos.
I'll honestly consider it! But not anytime soon since we got the Tale of zygarde coming up
@@Pokiiii62 thanks for replying =]
As of current episode of Pokémon Horizons i'll say the animation with the battles have been really entertaining they arent up there in terms of XY animation but it comes close
I see, I might have to continue horizons then
I agree
i might be spreading misinformation rn because i don’t have a direct source for this lmao but im pretty sure horizons has the same director for their battles as xy so that doesn’t come as a surprise
@@-redde- and I'm glad for that
U are right! Tensuo Yajima (lead director of XY/Z) is now back to Action Director for horizons. No wonder why some fight scenes are so fired up and incredible like XY/Z. It's so great to have him on the anipoke team. He sure knows how to cook!
when lucario teleported to finish off pumpkaboo it felt like i was was watching naruto or dragon ball thats how i know xy and xyz are the best series
Bro Hands down the best of the series the only one close is Sinnoh!
DIAMOND AND PEARL COOKED
@@Pokiiii62 I know the top two of the Pokemon series
Y donde podrías Sun and Moon?
XYZ song winner is just insane.
It just gives me goosebumps every time
Another Pokeeee banger
Thanks so much friend I really appreciate it! 💙
Animation wise the anime has always been pretty simplistic. They have had to follow a set schedule. But other series such as the Twilight Winds and Paldean Winds dont have too. I wish Pokemon would branch out from their main anime and make other series instead of limited mini series. Like I would give anything for a full Pokemon anime with the budget and animation of Paldean winds😭🙏
I think I heard this from reddit or something but a reason they may have changed the art style after x&y was because they found it harder to display expressions on characters faces ( I found kind of the opposite) plus sun and moon was going to be kind of more slice of life then big battles so having an more soft and round art style kind of fit
I feel like the shift in art style from XYZ to Sun & Moon was made, not only because of time, but also to fit the vibe of each series. With Kalos being much more focused on the spectacle of battling and Alola being essentially a comedy/action show.
It’s the first series where it seemed ash matured a bit , wish they kept going with that and building a sort of serious / fun story but they had too😭
Before watching the video, my guess is that there was a different director for this series who was really good at their job. The scheduling was done heavily in advance and a lot of freelance animators were used for battles while being scheduled in advance so they had enough time.
I think it’s not only cause of these reasons but also because we got to see new pokemon forms we never saw before. Ash Greninja and Zygardes forms being originally from the anime took the new twist on the story as a whole. Not only that but we also got a limited time demo (2016-2023 RIP 3ds Eshop) for one of these forms which gave us Greninja. Even sycamore gave us an explanation on how this form came to be. Not only that regular squishy form is not even in the games. Zygarde transforms way differently in the games. In the anime there’s 4 stages of zygarde while there are 3 stages in games through the cubes and cells. That season of xy not only impacted Pokemon games but it also even impacted smash ultimate which is a pretty good flex in my opinion.
I feel like the animation quality dropped because like you said after Black and White a series I loved very much by the way. They must of had to get back on that tight deadline and when they heard the switch was coming I’m sure production for a newer gen Pokémon game and they just wanted to focus more on the games and expanding the anime to the Galar region picking up from Alola. Ion know tho what do you guys think?
who else is just lowkey jamming to the persona music
The Why is Tetsuo Yajima. Wish vids like this talked about the people that make this possible. He was brought on by the prior director Kunihiko Yuyama because he believed in Yajima’s artistic approach
Of course, but it's important to know that not everyone knows every animator that works on a project. And it also seems kinda unfair to mention one specific guy since a lot of other amazing people worked on xyz as well, so that's why I didn't talk about it.
How’d we go from xyz to sun and moon like the quality drop is insane
Real
It's only a quality _change_ , but imo it didn't drop at all
Bro have you seen Brock vs kiawe that and other fights in sun moon have better animation what do you mean fall off???
coming out of Best Wishes(BW) XY animation didn’t drop my jaw, it exploded in mid-air
The best animations in Pokémon anime, the best moment especially the Pokémon battle and Pokémon preformer. Also the keep and improve the art style BW, the anime didn’t feel the same when the art style change like you said.
Damn, I don't remember the show looking this fire 💀
NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE VIDEO, IM SO EXCITED FOR TALE OF ZYGUARD.TALE OF GRENINJA WAS DOPE I CAN'T WAIT POKEEEE PLEASE UPLOAD IT QUICK IM SUBSCRIBED AND PUT THE BELL NOTIFICATIONS ON.PLEASEEEE
IM SO GLAD YOUR EXCITED, IT'LL COME SOON DONT WORRY!!!
Pokemon NEEDS to start taking their time go from a new generation every 3 years to every 4 years. This allows for them to not only make better games, but give more time to developers of the tcg and everyone working on the anime. I’m glad that’s likely what’s to happen with gen 9. Gen 10 should shift Pokémon’s focus to Quality over Quantity. (Gen 10 is also likely to release after the “Nintendo switch 2” so they also have increased hardware)
I don’t get how they didn’t stick with this style, it’s perfect
3:26 Black and white catching strays for no reason 🙏💀
It was so disrespectful to the games bro 😭
so glad I grew up with this one
Pokémon Xy and Xyz is the embodiment of perfection.
The rayquaza vs primal groudon and kyogre fight was top tier!
Especially when rayquaza used dragon acent!
0:09 Fax
Just goated asf😈
Ain't no way 😭
@@Pokiiii62 I stopped watching my movie and clicked on the notification right away that u uploaded 😭
I know it's about the Animation, but also to the Soundtrack for this was👌 I'm not just talking the main themes I'm talking even background music every aspect of Xyz was perfect
Aito Ohashi, my goat 🙏🏿
Greninja vs Charizard goes hard with the Persona music
I do not care what anyone says pokemon xyz is the best series out of all of them it made my childhood so much better and i enjoyed litterally every second of it and i remember being so hyped during ashs and sawyers battle aswell as ashs and alains battle
Damn journeys and sun and moon absolutly malding over that statement
xyz was so good in fact, that the newer series made me lose intrest in pokemon forever
So true xD
An absolute crime that they never kept it in
Who Misses Ash, Serena, Clement, Bonnie, and the entire Kalos Team 😭😭😭😭
this is why i re-watched XYZ
hey pokeee does your thumbnail artist only do Pokémon art?
Absolutely not, she's very versatile and does all kinds of art!
I liked Pokémon but XY and then XYZ but they made me just love Pokémon on a whole other level. it will always be the Pokémon in my opinion. The new series aren't bad but XYZ will always be my favorite and childhood Pokémon.
Fun fact the animation company that makes pokekalos OLM INC
Also makes the beyblade burst and beyblade x anime
Dude, there has not been a Pokémon anime like this
The fact that Greninja won against a Grass type but lost against a Fire type still tingles me...
Charizard era tipo Dragón, por lo que el Fuego no le era del todo efectivo pues el tipo Dragón resiste el agua
4:51 PERSONA 5 MENTIONED😭😭😭🔥🔥🔥🙏
I love XY/XYZ it my top 1 and im so glad that pokemon horizon seems to adapt pokemon XY/XYZ's animation and camera work Horizons is now my 2nd fav.
Sun and moon was ment to be the same as XY but at the time there was a popular anime called yo-Kai watch which was Pokémon’s only competition. So Pokemon wanted to copy their animation style (tale of zigard in so excited)
Also I didn’t know that Komi can’t communicate is by the animators of Pokemon I seriously loved the manga for Komi can’t communicate they I’m so happy managed to change it to an anime so well!!
SAME I LOVE KOMI CANT COMMUNICATE ITS ADORABLE!
The art styles of Sun and Moon and Yo-Kai Watch really aren't that similar, the only similarities are in their comedic tones
But they are slowly shifting back again
@@Blaster_here they probably thought they could make like their pokemon episodes in this style faster
this is that moment when i was planning to make exact same video and now i cant
Dawg, their are a ton of videos like these on youtube, some of which are recent. If you want to make it go for it, man, don't just give up because someone else already did it. You can make it even better than mine.
STOP DISCOURAGING YOURSELF!
@@Pokiiii62 maybe i overreacted, thank you man for your words! Your right i will make that video and than i will come back here to tell you what i achieved by it. Annnd thats gonna happened in like 6 months soo...
@@Pokiiii62 You know, i have watched videos about xyz and non of them really talked about what i want to, everybody is talking about plot and charaters but nobody have dived deep into the animation like you did. And how i want to talk about it.
The driving claw in Pokémon XYZ looks so much better than it does now like he used to be a cool big claw that was intimidating now it’s just their claws orange like bro
FRRRR DRAGON CLAW WAS SO GOOD 😭
@@Pokiiii62 I was praying that they’d fix it in Horizon
Mega Lucario vs Pikachu damn that episode was so fluent
I hope Pokemon slows down to give their work more time xyz is proof that they can make bangers
They can but won't. Sadly, I heard horizons has some good animation though
Short answer: time surplus
YOU NEVER SEE IT COMING!!!
YOULL SEE THAT MY MIND IS TOO FAST FOR EYES
@@Pokiiii62 yo dude I started watching your videos and I love the editing and video style it's pretty sick! I subbed and I'm going to watch the tale videos!
@TheGoldenConnorific IM GLAD YOU ENJOY THEM! (It's so fun that you're going to binge them. Let me know how you like em!!!!)
It's because they decided to lock in after the lackluster delivery Black & White provided 💀
*but in all seriousness, I wish they stuck with this animation for Journey's or Horizons cause it actually makes Pokémon feel like a mainstream anime*
FRRRR, Pokémon xy was phenomenal bro... I miss that style
I was gonna say the same thing, but for Sun & Moon, not that its bad per say, but its too Cartoony!
BW animations was normal, the art style was upgrade give some character eye colors and most Pokémon moves has effects instead always be handrawing.
Nuh uh watch horizons again and then tell me it doesn't have good animation
Looking back on it, I'm getting genuinely certain that the XY/XYZ anime single handedly held Gen 6 up on it's back and kept a hyp train going into Gen 7.
I remember at the time everyone being hyped and questioning if Ash might genuinely beat the Pokémon League.
I myself remember speculating so much on whether Ash would beat Alan and bring absolutely heartbroken when Ash lost.
It was *fantastic* and much media surrounding Pokémon at the time wound up focused on it instead of the games.
This continuing going into Gen 7's announcement, with even a certain theory channel of the time which has since transitioned into full time pokétubing releasing a somewhat popular conspiracy theory regarding the games, using the Anime's current status as a genuine point in their argument! Albeit a small one.
The animation was so good that it’s the only time I realised Pokémon was an anime not an American cartoon
Ash should have won the championship change my mind. One of the best fights in the anime that I can think of which isn’t in XY is Electivire and Paul vs Infernape and Ash
4:52 best song ever
4:51 Last Surprise jumpscare
PEAK fr
Great video overall but towards the end you seemed to be having things backwards? XY art style is NOT simple especially compared to SM and JN and in SM's case it had more consistent animation at a higher level due to this simpler art style.
Great video still though!
Did you see the animation at the end of pokemon journeys??? Am i just tweaking or is everyone else tweaking
Until this day, Im still salty Ash got robbed of the champion title, I actually stayed up the whole night to wait for the final battle episode after not watching pokemon for 10 years just to throw my phone again
Pokemon XYZ make me play the pokemon game. It literally introduce pokemon to me.
They spend so much budget.... But what about their income? I mean yeah deadline also important, in past XY era sometimes you see the battle with XY budget, SM, JN, HZ, so yeah not only money but also budget (i heard that XY income is lower than SM in JP, i dunno if its true)
Your touching on time as a kind of budget allotment is good, but I largely disagree with the portrayal that XYZ, and to an almost exclusively degree, has a level of animation quality unmatched by those after it.
0:48 "How good was XYZ's animation?" Very largely decent, with standout moments when it counts. This, in general, comes down to scheduling, and giving the cycling between each great animators as much gap as possible. I'm not privy to the specifics of this, so someone else may be able to tell better.
However, this isn't specific to XYZ, but to the larger Pokemon series anime as a whole - It is arguably the most consistently animated (relatively speaking) mainstream anime, aside from maybe Naruto. In general, the quality of Pokemon's animation, as well as direction, storyboarding, compositing, etc. has gone up series by series, it's just largely not until towards the end of B&W that the truly good animation is seen paired with the modern-ish character and color design.
1:14 "Camerawork" This is largely a directorial and storyboarding decision, although some animators can be given leeway to act as they like - I am unsure if the studio animating those specific scenes let animators have that freedom.
One thing you didn't mention is that starting with XY, the series began really incorporating 3D environments into scenes (something only done in the movies before), which add extra headrooms for animator to go crazier.
2:00 As stated, the background is CGI, but the Frenzy Plant itself (and most of that cut, really) is 2D animated. The overlay compositing is well integrated, but that's typically not under the umbrella of CGI typically referred to.
2:14 I... disagree? This entire point is really contrived actually, and cherry picked what happens in battle alone instead of the series as a whole. And even considering that, Z-moves alone as well as several (bank, admittedly) shots of Ash is incredibly well animated, with expressive drawings and character acting nearly unmatched in everything outside of Sun and Moon. I have several criticisms of SM's design sheets, but expressiveness is not one of them.
2:25 If we're picking the peak of XYZ, then the peaks of SM and Journeys eclipse it as well. Sawyer's expression here is well drawn, and Aito Ohashi is an amazing animator, but it's clear XYZ's character design doesn't help here. Like, in the shot of Ash character acting directly before this, his face changes expressions 3 times, but since the shapes are so stiff, all three look near identical. It's not limited to that one shot either.
2:56 The scene you showed here is the work of Yasushi Nishiya, who started on the series in XY and several Pokemon movies and a cut of Evolutions, I think.
5:57 Hard disagree; S&M is as consistent as you normally get for the anime.
6:09 Pikachu vs Charizard has oodles of talents behind it, but they did bring on some freelance/webgen animators for some cuts, like Claire Launay.
Overall, I do agree that XYZ is well animated, but not extraordinarily so, and in the grand scheme of things, it's another incremental steps in quality for the anime, which S&M expanded, and Journeys perfected.
I heavily disagree with what you just said. There were barely any wonderful animated scenes in journeys. Not to mention their almost zero impact frames between journeys and sun and moon, too.
One of the only animated pieces that came out of the sun and moon anime is tapu koko vs pikachu and that is a fact 💀
@@Pokiiii62 There are literally more entries for Sun and Moon than any other Pokemon series on sakugabooru, and Journeys has nearly the same number, not to mention all the same animators who worked on the cuts of XYZ battle scenes continued to animate for those.
SM OP4 and Journeys OP4 alone are genuine example of masterclass in directing, character acting, dynamic movements and effects animation which is evident throughout the respective series, of which XYZ generally can't live up to outside those few outstanding cuts, especially with regards to body movement and character acting.
You may not consider them a priority in your judgment, but by that token, dismissing them so offhandedly means you have to dismiss XYZ's body of limited animation as well, in which case XYZ doesn't have great animation by this limited scope.
Mega evolve is the most awesome gimmick im telling y'all
tbf komi cant communicate has stunning animation lmao