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Q: From the very beginning, XY comes across as if we're looking at Satoshi from Serena's point of view. Whose idea was this?
A: I believe this originated from something Shukichi Kanda said at a planning meeting; "Wouldn't it be interesting to have a female lead like this?". It was then proposed that we could do a scene where Satoshi and Serena met in the past that had romantic implications, and then we went off that and developed things from there.
Tetsuo Yajima(Storyboard Director) did not know exactly how long the series would last, only that it would have to end when the next games came out.
Alan(Alain) was always meant to be part of the main series. The reason the four Mega specials were made was because it would be difficult to set up his backstory and development in the series itself, so he came up with the idea of giving him his own episodes that could establish his character. The idea to give these episodes a mega evolution theme came later, and was also his idea (so they were not made for the purpose of marketing megas, or in order to test the water for a series with another main character or any other such theory). Also, Alan is meant to be an "Anakin Skywalker-type character", someone who turns to the dark side to protect those he loves.
Ash's XY design was primarily Yajima's, and the idea for his sideburns were taken from "a character from the video games named Red, which Ash is based on".
Yajima wanted to make the bond between Ash and Greninja a major part of the story, but felt it would be difficult to do so if it had to remain a Greninja, so he went to Game Freak, and they came up with the idea of a synchro transformation. It was put in Sun/Moon afterwards, but was created during this discussion between anime staff and GF.
