>>34563275It's just the change in art style. If anything it makes sense that SM takes place after xy because it's less of ash going to a new region to get stronger and more ash going to a new region on vacation after placing so high in the Kalos league. He just coincidentally found a reason to stay a bit longer,that being wanting to learn about alola's different culture and pokemon and doing the island challenge. It's even more obvious that he's just taking a break when you take into account that in the first episode of SM he was shown to just be chilling at home with his mom instead of leaving straight to the next region like he usually does.
