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The Rocket trio's lack of screentime in Sun & Moon is honestly kind of appalling

Something that really bothers me is how little they interact with Satoshi's companions nowadays. Some of the most memorable material over the years has come from inter-group mix-ups. The very concept died in BW but XY was actually not too bad in this respect because Nyasu had a bit of a relationship with Eureka, Musashi was one of Serena's rivals in the tripokalon nonsense and there were at least 2 instances of Kojirou/Citron mechanical geekery. Now, however, we're at a point when the TRio barely even come into contact with Satoshi!
 
I am beyond appalled at this point. The whole Akala arc has been a damp squib (TRio absence aside) so I can only hope they don't attempt the same format for every other island quest.
 
It's a bit humorous in a dark way because we were all like "when are they going to change islands??" and then they did and it's probably been the worst batch of episodes this series has had so far.
 
I am also hating this drought and I really feel this a very bad move by the writers. We're still at an early point of SM so instead of trying to grab people are they trying to get people away from this series? I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I can honestly say that I haven't seen any of the episodes that have been airing because if TR are absent I don't really have a reason to watch them. This is just me, but I suppose there are other people that do the same?

I have to ask, how if the Meowth Balloon thing going in Japan? Because normally when Team Rocket are absent from the anime, they try to make up for it in other ways (such as them narrating the next episode preview everytime they miss an episode and appear in the following one; and that Radio Show during Unova). Is that balloon thing making Japanese people less Rocket thirsty?

In a (kind of) unrelated note, this week's Dragon Ball Super episode helped me with this Team Rocket drought. The episode was written by our Tomioka and it had a parody/homage to those Magical Girls animes, and while there were actually zero references to Team Rocket, their transformation had some similarities to the Team Rocket's motto (and there was also a line very similar to our "Ai to shinjitu no aku o tsuranuku! "), and the humour around it was very similar to what we have with Team Rocket (it was interrupted, everyone complains about how everything means something and needs to be done, and as they were interrupted they had to do start everything again from the beginning, with complaints by some characters). Please watch it and tell me if I am the only one getting some TR vibes from this, even if not intentional.
 
PTOldMan said:
I am also hating this drought and I really feel this a very bad move by the writers. We're still at an early point of SM so instead of trying to grab people are they trying to get people away from this series? I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I can honestly say that I haven't seen any of the episodes that have been airing because if TR are absent I don't really have a reason to watch them. This is just me, but I suppose there are other people that do the same?
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It's definitely not just you. I also don't watch Pokemon if Rockets are absent. I just don't care otherwise.

I have to ask, how if the Meowth Balloon thing going in Japan? Because normally when Team Rocket are absent from the anime, they try to make up for it in other ways (such as them narrating the next episode preview everytime they miss an episode and appear in the following one; and that Radio Show during Unova). Is that balloon thing making Japanese people less Rocket thirsty?
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Actually, they will be giving people free 3-minutes long (aww lol) balloon rides tomorrow and the day after tomorrow ( August 9th and 10th) in Yokohama!

View: https://twitter.com/pokemon_movie/status/893305700734177283

I hope I can get a ride *prays*

I'm glad they do something like this to make up for lack of Rockets, but I'm still thirsty... I want to have my cake and eat it, you know?
 
From what I've seen, Team Rocket's appearance doesn't have any significant impact in the ratings or overall interest in the series. For example, the higher-ups told Masafumi Mima they would consider using the Roketto-Dan Danka as a permanent ending if that Rocket-focused episode in XY&Z had enough ratings. The episode didn't make it to the top 10 list that evening, unlike most of the other episodes at the time.

I honestly believe there's really, really few people who don't watch if the Rockets aren't in there, even less among their actual target audience in Japan.
 
I've always thought the writers liked having them around as a crutch to fill out episodes that ran short, but considering how infrequently they've been in this series.....
 
kantoskies said:
I've always thought the writers liked having them around as a crutch to fill out episodes that ran short, but considering how infrequently they've been in this series.....
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I think that backfired when the anime became known for recycling the "TR steals the Pokémon of the week" plot over and over, though.

I've been starting to think the reason they still keep them around is because well, we've kept them this long already so why not for the remainder of the show? That thought does scare me every time a new series gets announced though, because it's not a very... sturdy reason, all things considered.
 
Gabo 2oo said:
I've been starting to think the reason they still keep them around is because well, we've kept them this long already so why not for the remainder of the show? That thought does scare me every time a new series gets announced though, because it's not a very... sturdy reason, all things considered.
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I don't know can this count as a reasoning, but there were sociologists studying the country of Japan, stating Japanese has an generic ethnical mindset of reluctant to change, especially all sorts of methodological considerations. Hence many local business of Japan doing the same things they had did already several decades ago, many enterprises selling the same kind of merchandise like they were several decades ago, many people still living the same kind of lifestyle as they were several decades ago.

And I have the exact same scary feeling whenever I see the status quo still going on, simply because:
"The riskiest thing is to take no risks" -- by Mark Zuckerberg
 
Team Rocket's declining appearance is not surprising to say the least. With so many characters to work off on, and situations where you don't need a villain to drive the plot, Team Rocket is hardly interesting unless the focus is on them. I will also say it may also well be due to the fact that Team Rocket has not changed like Ash did. The changes made with Ash in terms of design and even personality allowed our 10 year old trainer to easily adapt in the new series' tone and style without feeling completely out of place. Given that the premise is about school and classmates, classmate driven episodes are a dime a dozen. But Team Rocket never applied for a position in school. Not as janitors or cooks. They are what they are since OS. Criminals who steal Pokémon while also enjoying the vacation. As a result, their potential has limited and Team Rocket's usual attics are more or less out of place as a filler crutch. Especially when Team Skull is competing for the spot.
 
Shadao said:
But Team Rocket never applied for a position in school. Not as janitors or cooks.
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I really thought they would you know? Maybe there is still time...

Still, I must disagree that they haven't changed or adapted over the years to suit the current series. The changes may not be so obvious because the core stability of 3 adults is so much more than Satoshi & Pikachu's bouncy little unit, but if you look at them in SM compared to even XY even there are some differences:
- They are significantly less focused and enjoying the small pleasures in life. Compare this to XY where they were either about their jobs or Musashi's tripokalon quest or anti-Flare actions.
- They are more inward-facing (in XY they barely spoke to each other outside of the context of their current plan!)
- There is an implication that they are a bit short of money again based on their apparently regular part-time job, the fact that their XY unlimited supply of tech seems to be over and that they now live in a cave :p
 
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