What are they doing with Puni-chan?

[Dogasu]

We're seven episodes into the series and so far it's spent the overwhelming majority of its time on the show just being there.

The Mega Tabunne episode had Puni-chan getting studied by Platane-Hakase but that was only like 30 seconds out of an otherwise average episode. The Shishiko episode played out like any normal pre-XY&Z episode. The dream episode seemed like it was going to give us something based on the previews but it was ultimately a completely pointless 22 minutes. It didn't do jack squat in the ninja two-parter other than jump onto a floorboard, something Dedenne's perfectly capable of doing itself.

What can we expect it to do in next week's episode, other than absolutely nothing at all?

I mean they put Puni-chan all over the show's poster and have dedicated the current ending theme to it and everything and yet it's barely in the show.

I know episode 9 of XY&Z will be dedicated to Puni-chan but then what...? Is it going to start having a more active part in the series? Or are we going to get another string of fillers in which it's just something in the background?

 

[Mareepy]

Eh, I doubt Puni-chan is doing any important for now. Especially when I got the feeling that the Movie somewhere so far away in the next year is linked to the Team Flare arc. Although the movies haven't been canon for a long time, I kinda feel this one will, especially with the huge advertisement on Puni-chan and the teaser trailer after the Hoopa movie.

However.... I hope whatever Puni-chan has in store is good. I can't bear another horrible script anymore....

 

[Dogasu]

Those teasers don't mean jack tho. The teaser for this year's movie made it look like it was going to be some ORAS Kyogre vs. Groudon movie but it was anything but. The first poster for the Diancie movie made it look like the film was going to be some kind of Mega Evolution party but that didn't happen either. And then don't forget about the teaser trailer for the Zoroark movie!.

Puni-chan might not even be around anymore by the time July comes around.

 

[kantoskies]

It seems that they can't work it into a regular filler so it's being relegated to little-more than an average Pokemon owned by the group in pretty much every filler episode. My guess is that they're front-loading this arc with fillers (didn't they do that with Battle Frontier?), so once things pick up plot-wise things will probably change.

Now as for when that happens is anyone's guess. They're probably going to wrap-up the XYZ arc before the league and that'll give us XY Season 3 or whatever, which may or may not be followed by a filler arc depending on when Gen 7 arrives. So probably like...15-20 more episodes? Maybe less? Based on that I feel that XY101 will be where things pick up and it'll probably be featured more heavily after that.

 

[SammyW27]

Like Meloetta before him, Squishy is a living plot device that'll come into play later. Only this time it's even worse since it seems that the creative team knows less about Zygarde than they did Meloetta in mid-BW.

 

[Dogasu]

It seems that they can't work it into a regular filler

They need to try harder then. I mean I think it's safe to assume that toward the end of this arc there will be a montage of Puni-chan's past adventures with Satoshi and the others (maybe Puni-chan turns into its Complete Forme, and the sudden surge of power is too much for it, and it has to think back on its adventures with Satoshi and the others to snap itself back into reality?) and I don't really see how they'll be able to pull that off with the footage they have so far. Hey, Puni-chan, remember that time you...slept in a tree? Or that time you jumped through a floorboard? Or that time you hung out in Eureka's bag for an entire episode? Or that other time you hung out in Eureka's bag for an entire episode? Or that other other time you hung out in Eureka's bag for...

Filler episodes would be a great opportunity to give us scenes to be used in a future "Puni-chan and its friends" montage but so far they've been squandering it.

 

[Shadowlarvitar]

Having it hog screen time. Surely I'm not the only one tired of that little bugger?

They should have introduced him then soon after end his story by leaving after the Team Flare plot. Not drag it on.

 

[Silktree]

I don't see what they can do with it other than have it transform into stronger forms. It can barely express whatever personality it is supposed to have.

 

[Dogasu]

Only because they haven't made the effort. Give it personality traits - I dunno, shy? mischievous? hot-tempered? playful? cautious? - and work on expressing that. Maybe pair it up with another pokemon (Dedenne's the most likely candidate) and have the two of them play off each other somehow?

Anything would be preferable to "blob that sits in a bag all day."

 

[Nicolas721]

I don't think he is being handled that bad, he's got 2 focus episodes, and while Goomy outnumers him by this point, Puni-chan wins in on-camera appareances. Additionally, I doubt the Team Flare arc will be over so soon.

While Meloetta was on an arguably strong state when she joined the group, Zygarde is on its weakest state now, so it's understandable that he doesn't wants to do anything other than stay safe. Besides, he literally has eyes everywhere, so he doesn't need to have a curious personality.

I'm confident that Puni-chan will transform into Zygarde 10% in XY 101, and from then on it will be used sometimes against Team Rocket and in training scenes.

 

[Arceus the Dragon]

I am just going to call it Zygarde Core. Zygarde Core seems to be handled alright and one day it would become the complete form of Zygarde.

 

[Mareepy]

Now we have the Movie 19 Pikachu Short Poster........

This changes a lot of things I guess..... as Puni-chan seems like will be sticking around until the movie.....

They Zygarde 100% in the teaser might be actually Puni-chan. So their take on Puni-chan now seems pretty correct to me if they had to drag it for so long.

 

[Necrozma]

Only because they haven't made the effort. Give it personality traits - I dunno, shy? mischievous? hot-tempered? playful? cautious?

Except it already has depicted personality traits?

It is definitely cautious around humans and doesn't like being pestered by them too much - he was annoyed when Sycamore examined him, but seems to have warmed up to Bonnie even though he it was initially wary of her too. Despite its small size, Puni-chan carries itself as a legendary, almost like a royalty. As seen in the dream episode, Puni-chan is very commanding, constantly ordering Pikachu and Meowth to do its bidding as if they're lesser than it, almost his servants.

So you can't really say that Puni-chan hasn't been given any personality traits when it's been given plenty.

 

[dman_dustin]

Come on Dogasu you know better.

Since when has any special temporary Pokemon ever received major focus consecutively in a row. I mean we had the 1st episode, minor focus in the 2nd and 3rd episode (with Sycamore), big episode in regards to the 5th episode, and upcoming in the 9th episode will get another major focus episode.

I don't imagine it would make sense given that its Pokemon that they'd spend episode after episode giving it focus. Especially if it's going to be around for a relative long time.

Hell it's gotten more focus than Noibat, and Noibat's been on the team longer.

 

[ii kanji]

I have to agree with Tsutarja - you can complain about Puni-chan for a number of reasons but it isn't fair to say that it hasn't shown personality traits!

Granted, it has done next to nothing. But I am also in the camp which believes this arc will last significantly longer than Episode N so we shall have to wait and see...

 

[Misty-Moo]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to discuss this, but as it's the only Puni-chan thread, I'll do it anyway.

When 100% Zygarde is shown in the XYZ credits, it's got five hexagons on its chest - red, blue, amber and two white ones. Puni-chan has a red hexagon and we've seen it communicating with another with a blue hexagon. Does this mean there are two (or maybe three) more Puni-chan we haven't met yet? Ie., an amber-hexagoned one and one (or two) with a white hexagon.