Why doesn't the anime use the game protagonist's for the anime?

[PokeDot517]

What I'm trying to say is why didn't they do this from the beginning? The anime is basically supposed to advertise the games right? So why wasn't

Red (Kanto) & Ethan (Johto) used for the Original series?

Brendan used for the Advanced Generation series (Hoenn)

Lucas used for the Diamond & Pearl series (Sinnoh)

Hilbert or Nate used for the Black & White series
(Unova) possibly Hilbert since he came first.

I'm not tired of Ash Ketchum but it seems to me that the anime isn't going anywhere. They throw all the experience Ash obtained in the former region he journeyed in out the window.

Ash has been literally doing the same thing for 16 years (Japan) 15 Years (US) if I'm correct.

1. Go to new region

2. Meet new traveling companions

3. Get 8 badges & defeat the criminal organization that operates in the ______ region

4. Lose PKMN league & go back home

Ash's journey needs to be rapped up already I just hope the writers handle him better than how they did in BW (WORST SERIES EVER) IMO.


BTW I'm not mad/annoyed I'm passionately expressing my opinion =)

 

[SammyW27]

At first they kept Ash because they were scared of losing viewers by changing characters. Then they dug themselves into a hole that became a bottomless pit...

 

[Muur]

It would probably be better but I guess the one main character appeals to them.

 

[Demon Fang]

My guess is because we all became familiar with Ash Ketchum, and removing him now would probably cause some backlash. Ironically, this is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching the TV show.

 

[Trevenant]

Well, they did do it in the beginning. Satoshi is one of the default names for Red in the Japanese version of Red, so Satoshi/Ash is a version of Red, just as the character who stars in Pokemon Pocket Monsters manga is a version, as is the so-called Red from PokeSupe. As for why they continued to use him in place of the other male protagonists, it presumably started that way because they felt as though it made more sense to continue Satoshi's journey and development than to start off with a new character. By the time that it even would have been viable to replace him - the end of Johto at the earliest - Satoshi and Pikachu had basically become the core of the anime. After that, though, we did get Haruka and Hikari who are protagonists from the games.

 

[Dr. Buni]

They did use the protagonist of the first games, Red. Satoshi is the anime version of Red.

I am actually pretty happy they don't use the other games' protagonists in the anime, because I don't them to have "canon" personalities..

 

[Master Cyrus]

Supposedly the writers think kids can't connect with the characters they play as for sometimes hundreds of hours on their DS if they put them on TV. So they make these juvenile replacements instead of the real deal.

 

[Almonds]

We'll never know except for one thing.

Once Pokemon Origin airs, they'll probably realize how massively popular the game protagonist was (hopefully), and make some changes in Gen 7

 

[Hidden Mew]

As others have mentioned, Ash is the anime version of Red since his design is loosely based on Red's. As for why they never used any of the other protagonists from the games, maybe they thought that they didn't really need to replace Ash. They weren't interested in a faithful adaptation of the games from the start, so maybe they didn't see the need. Plus, Ash just takes up the role of the male trainer in each series. His outfits being loosely based on the male trainer's design, such as in his BW and XY's outfits, show that he is taking their role in the anime.

 

[Supreme Leader Palpitoad]

We had Dawn as a main character. She was in a game.

 

[CrystaI]

What the OP suggesting was to use the game protagonist as the anime protagonist, so basically means replacing Ash Ketchum, specifically it should had done since Johto Saga. And with the replacement of protagonist, very obviously story plot would had been different by now.
Well, May and Dawn was used in the anime, but that is not as a protagonist, but a secondary main character, a traveling companion for Ash.

I admit, that Ash's journey following the same pattern of travel to new region, badge quest for the regional Pokemon League, mentally and physically reset to an amateur, then lost the league and restart the cycle. Despite that Ash get a new outfit for each region, the basic idea is still the same that Ash "start out fresh" in each region. So if it is "start out fresh", then it will certainly be much better that a new protagonist is used rather then reusing Ash again, because that is then the real "start out fresh" for the Pokemon anime as well.



One suggested that Ash was used continuously because anime afraid to lose viewer. But ironically, despite that Pokemon anime remains to have high view rate among other animes in Japan, but the overall Pokemon anime view rate within itself was going down for every generation. What they was afraid was becoming true.

One suggested that Ash was not replaced because the anime producer thought that viewers were "attached" to the protagonist, but once an anime became a long term anime over +15 years, the emotional attachment issue became rather very vague. Because Ash was based on the game protagonist of a game of 16 years ago, where nowaday, very few children of less then 15 years old knew about RGB on Gameboy, probably they won't even knew about it unless GF made the RGB remake now know as FrLg. So I don't know how much of the viewers are still "attached" to Ash Ketchum, but one much for sure is that such emotional attachment will definitely fade away as time goes on.

One suggested that Ash was not replaced because he (and Pikachu as well) had became the heart and core of the anime. Well, that is technically true, because he is the protagonist (and Pikachu is the protagonist's first Pokemon). But being a protagonist just means a story is told from his experience, that doesn't mean the Pokemon franchise as a whole lives on Ash Ketchum's existence. The Pokemon anime is to advertise the game, not Ash's story, so it really doesn't matter is the Pokemon anime told from Ash's experience or not.

In some other thread I read before, someone suggested that Ash was not replaced because the anime had became so popular that ending the story will sadden the viewers. What I personally wanted to say is that such statement is just a hilarious wishful thinking. Some of the long term anime like Doraemon and Dragonball, the former one was a DAILY sci-fi story, so the genre itself can already sustain long term story even without progress; the latter one was fantasy action, but characters will grow, so the anime itself grow as well as in the same pace of the viewer, so viewers are less likely to leave the show despite that story last for more than 10 years. If it is made into a series, I would rather use some successful examples like Kamen Rider series and Gundam series. Especially Gundam, where it had became the classic and representative of mecha animes, where it is so popular that in Japan when you talk about robots, Gundam is the first thing pop up in ones' mind. The first Gundam anime was in 1979, up until now new series was still making, and new games, toys, plan models, fan books, illustration books, all sorts of merchandises are sold with nice sale record even by now. And at 2009, a 1:1 Gundam Model (specifically the first Gundam in 1979) was built to celebrate its 30th anniversary at Odaiba. Gundam's popularity was not decreased because there were freshness in its new anime for every 1~2 years.

The only kind of reason I saw (personal opinion in here, so don't be angry if one dislike it) was merely the financial and marketing reason, and probably a little bit of pretentiousness as a marketer. What I heard back in the past OS generation, was that TV Tokyo was tending to extend the Pokemon anime because it has such high viewer rate, despite the fact that Shudo Takeshi wanted to end it. So the anime producer and broadcaster was dwelling on the sweetness of the fruit of past high view rate. And as the Pokemon franchise became famous, the anime producer had made a common mistake of most company that grows large: pretentiously assumption, especially assuming that audience of Pokemon anime were hoping for a "children anime", where every single "dark" elements were tone down to the point of uninteresting. Now, although the Pokemon anime with Ash Ketchum remain as the protagonist still running, but the view rate going down is already suggesting that the show is not live on by the quality of the show itself, but due to the fame of Pokemon franchise itself.


But well, I understand that my opinion is a difficult argument for being the only reason of why Ash was not replaced with other game protagonist. Doesn't matter will then the story follow exactly or partially adapt from the game, or even it is the same badge quest with other protagonist, but at least replacing Ash with another character is a much better option in my opinion.
I don't know what were the Pokemon anime scriptwriter(s), and more importantly the script director was thinking. If there is ever a chance, I just wanted to dump all these question regarding on the Pokemon anime to the scriptwriting team.

 

[Team Gaara]

The reason they didn't do it, I gather, is that they were worried kids wouldn't like the main character that they'd grown to love being changed. Though, since the Anime was made to advertise the games in the first place, it, ironically, would have made more sense to focus on a character based on the player of the then-current games. I'm even more confused about this since the Anime wasn't even supposed to go as long as it did, so what would be the harm in a new character?

As such, when the character based on Gold/Ethan, probably Jimmy, finished Johto, they could have used Brendan to advertise Hoenn, and so on. By that point, the fans would be used to the always changing protagonists and it would be no problem to replace them each new season the same way they do for the female companions now.

I personally believe they should have changed the protagonist when Ash went to Johto. The reason being, it's come to a point where it would be very hard to replace him now. Even with the original fans still watching, there are many more newer fans who probably don't even know the Origins of Pokemon (no pun intended), or Ash's journey, in particular. So, again, why couldn't they change the character?

Well, regardless of their reason for not replacing him, for whatever reason that is, they still currently haven't and don't seem to intend to. I can only wonder what the Anime would be like now in terms of popularity if they'd replaced Ash for Jimmy when Johto began.

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

As such, when the character based on Gold/Ethan, probably Jimmy, finished Johto, they could have used Brendan to advertise Hoenn, and so on. By that point, the fans would be used to the always changing protagonists and it would be no problem to replace them each new season the same way they do for the female companions now.

I dunno- last I checked, plenty of fans still get/are upset about the changing of companions.

 

[CrystaI]

The reason they didn't do it, I gather, is that they were worried kids wouldn't like the main character that they'd grown to love being changed. Though, since the Anime was made to advertise the games in the first place, it, ironically, would have made more sense to focus on a character based on the player of the then-current games. I'm even more confused about this since the Anime wasn't even supposed to go as long as it did, so what would be the harm in a new character?

As such, when the character based on Gold/Ethan, probably Jimmy, finished Johto, they could have used Brendan to advertise Hoenn, and so on. By that point, the fans would be used to the always changing protagonists and it would be no problem to replace them each new season the same way they do for the female companions now.

I personally believe they should have changed the protagonist when Ash went to Johto. The reason being, it's come to a point where it would be very hard to replace him now. Even with the original fans still watching, there are many more newer fans who probably don't even know the Origins of Pokemon (no pun intended), or Ash's journey, in particular. So, again, why couldn't they change the character?

Well, regardless of their reason for not replacing him, for whatever reason that is, they still currently haven't and don't seem to intend to. I can only wonder what the Anime would be like now in terms of popularity if they'd replaced Ash for Jimmy when Johto began.

My though exactly. Now the Pokemon anime is just stuck at the point that the story plot is not progressing, but cannot progress further for some reason.

If the anime had ever replace Ash with some other character starting and since Johto, then it will probably became a yearly anime series of approximately 52 episodes, where a different story with different protagonist will be told for every generation. It may also up to maximum of 104 episodes if sequel anime of previous protagonist was used. And it could end up as two result:

1. Like the current Digimon series: I'm talking about the franchise itself, which includes things like the marketing activities, enthusiasm of its fanbase society, and the general publicity of its characters. It has completely nothing to do about its idea and concept, how similar it is to Pokemon or not.
Personally, I think Digimon has super great potential to make into a great anime that almost every audience can enjoy. It was also quite popular back at the early time when it was freshly introduced. But unfortunately, Bandai didn't market it well, it didn't put its maximum effort to outstand the franchise to increase its publicity, it also didn't utilize the franchise up to its full potential. Especially starting from Frontier, when its view rate started to grow low, Bandai didn't tried to take extra effort in making a better anime the next year, but only to rested for 3 years. With the newest Xros Wars series, I heard that view rate was higher than the previous Savers series, so that's why they extended to make the sequel of Hunters series. But unfortunately the Hunters series became a backlash to the whole Xros Wars series, where Hunters had a very bad view rate. This gives a lesson to Bandai of do not continue a story that had ended already, especially just to elongate it for marketing reason.
Now, Digimon as a fictional entertainment franchise, started out as a popular one, now strive its best just to survive. As I'm being a fan of Digimon, also feeling sorry for it.

2. Like the current Gundam series: Again, I'm talking about the franchise and fanbase, nothing to do with its anime theme which is a mecha robot anime and completely unrelated to Pokemon.
When the first Gundam anime aired back in 1979, it was really not that famous as one may expected. It was like below average where Sunrise was tending to stop making sequels. But its merchandise, especially the booming of the plan model market, greatly supports Sunrise to continue making new Gundam anime. With the reciprocal benefits and mutual influence of the merchandise market hoping for new Gundam anime such that new related merchandise can be made, the Gundam anime became more popular for every year as the merchandize market bring in popularity and publicity. Also fanbase growing larger and larger because there is always new things every year, where fans will never get bored, so old fans are less likely to leave. I remember there was some fans articles on web saying that many old fans that had followed the Gundam series for 20+ years still watching its anime nowadays. Even one of the Japanese politician suggesting making a real Gundam to alter the military status of Japan (This was a real comment made by the Japan Democratic Party, though the whole nation was against such stupid idea). You can see how popular Gundam is in Japan as it would even pop into the mind of the politicians.
Now, although there may be some blank years where no anime was made, but still even up to current days, Gundam series still continues, and its popularity had not drop for much. Not only the anime itself, but many other spin-offs such as the SD Gundam series also sales well. And one more thing about its marketing is that it never overmilk one series, specifically the characters and the mecha. When one Gundam series is aired for that year, very obviously great effort will be done to market that series to the maximum. But as soon as popularity of that one series started to drop, Bandai won't even bother to continue advertise and market it, but only to told Sunrise to make another new Gundam anime, so that new merchandise can be made.
Gundam as a fictional entertainment franchise, started out as a not very popular anime, but then ended up as the most popular amongst all mecha anime, now it is classic and representative of mecha anime.


So will the Pokemon anime series (if it being made into a series) grows in popularity like the Gundam series, or drops in popularity like the Digimon series, it will really depends on how the franchise market it.

 

[Team Gaara]

As such, when the character based on Gold/Ethan, probably Jimmy, finished Johto, they could have used Brendan to advertise Hoenn, and so on. By that point, the fans would be used to the always changing protagonists and it would be no problem to replace them each new season the same way they do for the female companions now.

I dunno- last I checked, plenty of fans still get/are upset about the changing of companions.

True, but that is most likely because we had Brock and Misty for two series instead of one like every other companion, or rather, just Misty and the other female companions. So everyone got attached to that group. Had they not done that when they went to Johto and kept replacing the group each time, we as fans, would expect these changes to occur each new region, so there would probably be less people being upset by it.

 

[Robo-Floatzel]

I personally think it's because they're too lazy to change the protagonist, but I heard from someone that if Ash wins a league, the series will automatically end, even though I think that is total bullcrap, as Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon (along with a few other franchises) have changed their protagonist, why can't Pokemon?

Another reason I think is that they fear getting backlash from fans of the character by replacing him with someone else, like the whole Kirk vs. Picard thing that went on with Star Trek fans in the 80's, after all, Ash has become so recognizable as a character that some people can't see anyone else in the role, but remember that the aforementioned Kirk and Picard are as big of pop-culture icons as Ash is, so wouldn't a new protagonist be the Picard to the Kirk that is Ash, apparently not according to the anime writers...

Some people say it's because of Pikachu that they cannot replace Ash since Pikachu is the franchise's mascot, I disagree with that, because you can give the new character a Pikachu as his first or second Pokemon and always keep it out of Pokeball, it's that easy to do and I feel like they're just making it hard on themselves.

 

[Hidden Mew]

We had Dawn as a main character. She was in a game.

That's true. She and May were playable characters from their respective generations, but I think that the OP was referring more to the male playable characters.

I personally think it's because they're too lazy to change the protagonist, but I heard from someone that if Ash wins a league, the series will automatically end, even though I think that is total bullcrap, as Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon (along with a few other franchises) have changed their protagonist, why can't Pokemon?

Because both of those series have significantly different structures to both their storylines and characters than Pokemon does. With Digimon, they tell their storyline within roughly fifty-two episodes, although sometimes it's a bit less, and their characters' stories are pretty much done within that short amount of time too. None of them are really in a position to where they could last for years on a never-ending journey like Ash. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a weird case given how unlike Pokemon and Digimon, it wasn't really toyetic from the start. It transformed, or de-evolved depending on who you ask, into a toyetic franchise when the spin-offs were made to promote the cards. They weren't really in a position to use Yugi as their poster child for all of the new cards like the Pokemon anime does with Ash since his character was pretty much done, along with the other DM cast for that matter, and unlike with Pokemon, it wouldn't make sense for the characters to start off with brand new decks, so they were also in a position where they needed to have a new cast to promote new cards.

It also really helps that when a Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh! series gets a new cast, it isn't after they spent over a decade with the current cast. We get a new cast with every series and each Digimon series doesn't last much longer than a year usually. A Yu-Gi-Oh! series lasts for a few years, but so far, none of them have lasted longer than four or five. Pokemon has lasted over a decade with Ash. There are key differences between these franchise that I think are always overlooked whenever people bring them up for this argument.

 

[Caseydia]

I don't know why they didn't. But I would have liked it if they would have just added the second boy protagonist as a main character as well. For example, They could have used Brendan and May if they wanted to as well as Lucas with Dawn. Not only would it have been fair but it would have showed them that each was just important. I would have even liked it if they would have brought Leaf in along with Gary in BF to have made it more relevant as well as Jimmy and Marina. I would have loved that over what we got with only just two of the game girls and a bunch of gymleader role calls.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Probably because writers wanted to have anime distanced from games to certain extent following its own set of rules. To be treated as its own separate media with different storyline and more unpredictability with some of their own imagination being injected into it. Originaly as revealed in mr. Shudo blogs pokemon series were intended to be anime written for all age groups, not just small kids with anime while serving as way to advettize new games also being established as show which revolve around permanent main star and his goal .This case Ash which in honor of pokemon founder carries his name.

New protagonists aren't added in Ash place for simple reason of consistent, stable protagonist allowing to generate higher income of money and customers into franchise in genberal. Since long lasting in series ensures to become its mascot ,icon which represents anime with who people would associate it. Making it possible to create brand around itself by having character to who people could grow attached to, want to stay tuned in anime to see him grow, explore on characterization and advance career forward until things come to conclusion. Developing loyalty among viewers and eagerness to stick within show and spread their experiences to wider group of fans.
Whoever i mention pokemon they immediatelly link it with Ash and Pikachu being viewed as inseparable core which makes this show.


In comparison it can be noticed in other long running animes like One Pice, Naruto, DBZ, Lupen,Bleach etc how they are in general more popular and have bigger following among fandom than its case with anime which got revamped after every few years completely changing whole cast and structure of show. Like Yugioh, Digimon and similar stuff. Which aren't even shadow of their former selves anymore as far as people interest for this anime goes. Aside from few notable exceptions.

And while you could say how above mentioned long running shows aren't based on games and have better storyline, more depth in characterization and don't replace any cast companion investing in their stories instead of being treated like marketing gimmicks which get trashed away once current generation is over, point is how they and Pokemon have one sharing thing in common:

Comprising of having permanent main star which promotes anime be it Luffy, Goku, Naruto or this case Ash making series more recognizable and popular building up on fandom which sticks to series for years after they got introduced in something because of wanting to finish watching what they started and in what way characters they developed sympathy for will end.

Uniqueness of this show lies in being treated as continuity based entity following story which gradually go forward set in same time line and universe creating one big adventure which builds on itself , instead of chopping it in several alternate versions tarnishing brand it build over the years.

Writers and producers of this show know what they are doing, because in order to keep stable flux of money and people into anime you need someone who will leave long lasting effect on viewer and develop loyalty due to characters in which they could invest growing to actually care and have continuity based tale on which they add on, insteasd of getting it flushed down the toilet going from scratch after 3 to 4 years.
At this point people already view pokemon series as Ash and older characters show becoming too used to this concept scoring huge popularity.
Trying to take that away brings more risk than benefit at this point.

Something i can understand and appreciate from their side because i don't think i would have stayed in pokemon interested nor it would ever became this popular if it was treated as one of those one time trick series which constantly reboots itself after few years following basically same concept but with different cast.

Granted pokemon anime ratings aren't even close to what they were in prime days, but for 15 year long anime which is consistently among highest rated shows it still has enormous success.