for some god awful reason I find myself scrolling through the pokeani reddit and I get psychic damage whenever people trash on sun/moon while praising xy. I am in your walls
been dropping not-so-discreet hints to my irls that I'm very Not Normal about pokemon and now I feel insane ^_^ I need to crawl back into a pit and die
the pokemon sun and moon anime makes me emotional in so many ways. it has so much love for itself but by far the thing that really gets me it's ash relationship with kukui and brunet. it's the first time in the anime i feel like ash truly has a family, with supporting adults who love him endlessly.
when he's the first person burnet and kukui want to announce they're getting married and ash gets so happy !!!!
the next episodes dedicating to show how their routine is changing now that they're three but they still do everything together, a true family.
and of course we love ash's mom but we don't really know what ash life was before so, who knows if this isn't the first time he's ever felt like he had this sort of family dynamic.
their goodbye that is so impactful. seeing burnet cry so hard because she will miss ash so much, promising they will always be there for him.
in the journey episodes callback, when professor kukui receives ash and tells him.
"Welcome home."
that is ash's home!!! he looks so happy and bright to be there. when he yells the same when he arrives saying he is home, with brunet introducing him to lei as big brother.
"Big brother? Me?"
they see him as his family, his own. professor kukui gives him advice, supports him.
the pokemon anime absolutely peaked in this dynamic. it was a breath of fresh air. don't get me wrong, i love seeing ash and his companions and their family bonds as well but this scenario hits different every time.
thinking about how the last two gens of ash's presence in pokeani introduced two mentor characters that implied what ash would grow up into becoming.. kukui being a professor specializing in pokemon battle and teaching others or leon which is basically just. older ash lol
A wonderful Pokemon chinese animated short film directed by DaiWei (All Saints Street) and produced by MTJJ / HMCH studio (Legend of Hei) for Chinese New Year.
New OP for Pokemon Journeys: 1 2 3 sung by Ash's voice actress (Rica Matsumoto, who last sung the opening for Sun and Moon) and Goh's voice actor (Daiki Yamashita)
25th anniversary of the anime is coming up, so all the callbacks to other openings (see if you can "catch em all"), seasons and returning characters are a nice touch