The brilliance of the romance subplot for Ash and Serena is why I wish Ash was properly aging, and they made a region exclusive kids version for the kids while the teens and adults had a more mature themed show. It could remain PG, but Ash could be 16-17 years old (same with Serena) and ACTUALLY explore relevant themes for those ages, keeping the older audience from feeling alienated. Pokemon is the most valuable IP ever, they can afford two different Pokemon anime running simultaneously with different teams for each project. Kalos would have gone from great to perfection with Ash and the Kalos gang being late teens (and make Bonnie like 9 or something so she’s still super excited to become a trainer but isn’t there quite yet). This would allow Ash’s history to carry and be explored properly in new seasons, it’s why the lack of mention of the romance development for them when Serena returns in Journeys really hurts, because I do think they wrote it so well in XY. I know they didn’t outright retcon, but there’s a reason Serena had nearly zero relevance and had ONE interaction with Ash post Kalos, the new writers want to distance from that. It doesn’t help that XY came out when I was 10, so it is by FAR the most nostalgic generation of Pokemon, I will never forget what Gen 6 was for me, and same goes for Gen 7 (the games specifically). My nostalgia would literally randomly bring me to tears when I rewatch the XY anime and replay Pokemon Y and Pokemon Omega Ruby just for fun. I can live off of fanfictions I guess, but man. I will NEVER stop wishing for more, especially from Ash and Serena. Just brilliant writing and animation. Serena’s own story was just as enthralling as Ash’s, and it was just better and better when they dabbled that crush Serena has on Ash. I’ll miss you XY. True perfection for someone like me.
For the galar dex holders I think Henry would be like the smith or repairer and Casey would probably be the hacker or something like that because that’s her description and stuff
Volume 1 was a heckuva ride! Reading Yellow had me heartbroken for the whole arc. Pikachu is obviously being all Sad Panda due to its and Red's separation. It really got me hard in the feels. I guess it's to the writer's credit (w/help from the artist, too!) that the story gets the reader so invested in the characters that you smile when they smile, you hurt when they hurt, ect. So, wth do I know. 😅
