>>58073030There were three sharks they jumped, to be fair.
Gen 3 when they replaced Misty with May and Max, Gen 5 when they replaced Brock and Dawn, and gen 7 when they changed the artstyle entirely.
3 introduced the concept of replacing characters and installed the idea that the protagonists from the games can be characters
5 rescinded the latter that we would continue getting game protags as characters, and gave us easily the two worst side characters gen 5 had to offer - one of which is one of the infamously disappointing simian trio and an inferior Brock replacement
7 changed the art style entirely and we basically lost everything that was even remotely appealing of the evolving artstyle, with it reaching its peak at XYZ and immediately nosediving off a cliff with Sun & Moon
Every good thing they've ever done they've turned around to rescind because - for whatever reason - they have to change the formula when it's not fucking broken. Granted, some of the cool things they did like making the protagonists from the games as supporting characters in the anime makes sense, gen 5 ultimately bastardized that idea and XY never really had a chance to repair that since it was gone just as soon as it was reintroduced.
