Dr. Truth

Tweet from Stealth40K quoting Tsunekazu Ishihara: "When we decided to make the anime, the director asked, 'What sounds to (sic) Pokemon make?' To which I replied, 'Pikachu says 'Pi-ka, right?' Just like that, new ideas were born sponaneously, and I think that spirit is why the franchise was able to succeed in so many different areas."

Excerpt from Pokemon Story: Gradually, Yoshikawa, Yuyama, Kanda, and the rest of the staff came to have their own impression of the Pokemon world. From there, various proposals were born. At the first production meeting, Yoshikawa immediately made a proposal. "The first suggestion I made at the production meeting was whether Pokémon could talk. Because when animating, if they don't talk, they can't communicate or convey their intentions, can they? I thought it would be very difficult to 'eat into the runtime' to explain that. Then, Tajiri and Ishihara made a chart with all 150 Pokémon marked with an O, X, or △. It was a classification chart that said these ones are allowed to talk, these are not, and these may possibly be able to talk." Yuyama remembered this chart well. And it was the most basic idea that he had in mind when he was animating Pokemon. "When you look at it, there are very few Pokémon that are allowed to talk. In our minds, we were surprised by that, because at first we thought they would talk. But after actually making the animation, I came to believe that their understanding was correct. You see Pokémon as being on the side of animals. You are happy because Pokémon are on the side of animals and you can communicate with them. Like anything else, I think the most important theme of the animation is communication. I believe the most fundamental theme is how to communicate with various things you encounter. If they can speak, they are communicating through words, and that is where it ends. I think true charm of Pokemon is how children understand each other with something different that can't speak." (Yuyama)

Excerpt from Pokemon Story: The animation team's changing and deepening view of Pokémon is also well illustrated in the process of finalizing the policy that Pikachu and other Pokémon, with the exception of Meowth, would not speak in the end. "Ishihara and Tajiri had told us that Pikachu was not allowed to talk, but since Pikachu would be traveling with Satoshi, I told them that I wanted Pikachu to talk, and they said yes. But as we worked on it, I began to think more and more that Pokemon are animals. So when Pikachu talks, it becomes a moving character called Pikachu, not an animal, and I felt that was really weird. On the contrary, I felt that it would kill the cuteness of Pikachu. So we decided that Pikachu should not be able to talk." (Yuyama)

My first instinct is not to trust bigwigs when they take credit for very specific and popular creative decisions, but for Ishihara, it's likely he's telling the truth. Here are some excerpts from Pokémon Story that show Ishihara was involved in exactly these discussions with Tajiri, Yuyama et al.

Singer-Songwriter Neil Sedaka Dies at 86 Singer of "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do," "Laughter In The Rain" also wrote 3 Z Gundam songs

Neil Sedaka, the singer of such hits as "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" and "Laughter In The Rain" as well as the writer of three Zeta Gundam songs, died on Friday at 86:

This is undoubtedly an oldtimer sentiment, but my one takeaway from the Pokemon reveal was that I'm glad it's 2027. Last year had too many games I wanted to play in a short span. Now I can check out Pokopia in a few months without needing to rush. I might eventually finish Trails into Daybreak.

YouTube video by TheMindOfThomas A 30 Year Story Untold | #pokemon #anipoke

My friend Thomas dropped this teaser for his upcoming documentary (I consulted on it): youtube.com/shorts/SZkej...

For an extensive period of time, I've seen misinformation about Sonic music invade the community, basically turning every in-depth conversation about music i... The Sonic Fanbase Doesn't Understand Music (Debunking Sonic Music Misconceptions) - YouTube

good video

Do you think they need a new opening? 👀

YouTube video by pokepress Pokémon Pinball Roundtable @ Stern Media Day

Had a chance to do a roundtable with some folks from Stern Pinball about the Pokémon table they’re putting out. Also includes footage of the Premium model:
youtu.be/9n37FArZFSE

This ties in with the other points you made, but since Japan isn't at the forefront, most of the infrastructure used to power the AI bubble isn't on their home turf either. So they're not really seeing firsthand the environmental/economic impacts of data centers and the like right now.

I drew my hero as a ninja turtle.

YouTube video by NUMBSKULLS We need your help.

youtu.be/qN7Ck6iu-hk

Colorblind caveman when the tribe tells him about nature:

Man, if you don't want to pay $20 for the game, pirate the game. It's free and a victimless crime. If you want to pay $20 for the game, pay $20 for the game. If it makes you happy, then do it.

Shut the fuck up.

Yeah, the internal staff are rarely "surprised" with stuff like this. I've seen tons of fannish statements speaking on behalf of "the staff" without being able to name most of them.

This is evidently every Pokespe's fan's biggest nightmare.

"Kill off" here just means "retire." If you watch Best Wishes, I can see why people would think that would happen, especially given how the Giovanni thing ends. When it didn't happen, I think people just came up with any wild conspiracy to explain it, and Shudo's death was as good as any.

Her twitter was one of my favorites to trawl through. Constant images of "look at this cool bug" or "I found this [potentially hideous] plush at the corner store today!"

Given Ash-Greninja, given the extra Zygarde lore, given the Alain reference in ORAS, Gen 6 seems like the time when the anime team and the game team were most coordinated, not less. Hard to believe they would suddenly tell Yajima he needed to wrap things up on a dime.

The biggest strike against the original rumor is that Sun and Moon came out in 2016, for the 20th anniversary. Do you really think that there wasn't a long-term plan for the anniversary that involved a new gen, and that this wasn't communicated to the anime team? I don't.

There are instances where the games' dev cycle has impacted the anime, of course. Gold and Silver being late led to the Orange Islands; Diamond and Pearl being pushed back led to the Battle Frontier. These are all cases of needing more time though, not pushing production cycles up.

This goes for any rumor about the writing team wanting to do X and then changing their mind at the last minute, btw. No, Ash was never going to win the Kalos League. He was never going to win the Sinnoh League. Team Rocket was never going to get killed off before Shudo's death. Etc.

Also worth noting that Matsui's return episode (the Serena crossdressing one) didn't come out until April (8 months after the tweet).

This is all to say: Planning a TV anime takes a lot of time, and there is no room for the writers to make a "last minute" change to an entire storyline.

Sun and Moon's cycle probably started sometime before September 11 2015, since that's when Matsui first tweeted about her return to Pokémon. She was likely returning specifically to do series comp for Sun and Moon. Sun and Moon premiered November 17 2016.

Back on the anime side, series planning usually takes 6 months to a year. Planning for Kanto began in Sept/Oct 1996 and Episode 1 came out in April 1997. Tracey's settei is dated August 27 1998, and Orange Islands debuted January 28 1999. Six months-ish.

"If there was never a Z, then why does the anime incorporate so much Zygarde stuff for its finale?" The same reason anything happens in XY: Yajima thought it was cool, so he did it.

YouTube video by DidYouKnowGaming What Happened to Pokemon Gray & Pokemon Z -- Ft. @AustinJohnPlays

DidYouKnowGaming did a much deeper dive on the subject pre-teraleak than I'm ever going to. They couldn't find any evidence for Z either. Chalk it up to Gear Project, whatever, I don't care about the games' dev cycles that much. www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7vw...

To be clear, there isn't really any sign that "Pokemon Z" was planned to happen. The teraleaks showed tons of cut content from X&Y, but nothing about a separate game. No builds, no project names. It doesn't mean that there was never a plan, but the plan didn't make it to advanced stages.

Obviously, the fact that Oguro asked Yajima the question suggests that rumors were around to that effect before XY ended. My guess is that most of them came about due to the third year of XY's pacing being rushed (especially Serena's storyline) and the debates about "Pokemon Z."

Excerpt from AnimeStyle December 2016 interview with Pokemon XY Director Tetsuo Yajima: Oguro: By the time XY ended, did you already know you'd be doing XY&Z for one year? Yajima: By then, we knew it would be one more year. Oguro: So you were wrapping up loose ends while also finalizing the story for that one year, right? Yajima: Once we got to XY&Z, it was like, "No filler episodes—every episode counts!" We had no breathing room left.

Recently I've had to post the following excerpt from the Tetsuo Yajima AnimeStyle interview as others bring up the idea that "XY was originally 4 years long but then got reduced to 3." That is not what Yajima said, and there's zero reason to suspect that the XY anime didn't end when it was meant to.

In Japanese, you address elder men as OG-chan and i think that's beautiful

I was once told that New York City was the main character of Friends, only to find out that the plot of Friends did not include David Schwimmer defeating kaiju with a giant mecha made out of New York City.