Changes in one's environment and relationships lead to new growth

"Dande and Kibana are both good friends and rivals who have faced each other many times before" (Tomiyasu)

Animedia:  Satoshi's added another dream, hasn't he? "I'm gonna battle Dande again!"

Daiki Tomiyasu:  I had always thought that, personally, the whole "Pokémon Master" thing was really quite vague and so one day I went up to the show's supervisor, Mr. Kunihiko Yuyama, and asked him "So what does Satoshi's "I wanna be a Pokémon Master!" dream mean, exactly?" His response? "It's just the silly dream of a child. It's something for him to idolize." I don't know yet if Satoshi's "have a battle with Dande" thing is going to end up going down as some kind of pie in the sky or not. But I think maybe seeing someone appear in front of you put in so much effort, and then having that be what gets you to get up and give it everything you've got toward your dream is a huge step toward achieving something great. Gou's "I want to capture Mew" dream is similar in that the adults who make this show set up this big, ambiguous goal for him and then spend each episode working to fill in the gaps.

Animedia:  It seems like the faces Gou makes have become a lot more gentle lately.

Tomiyasu:  He had a real no-nonsense air about him at first, didn't he? (laughs) I don't know if he just didn't care much for other people or if he was just too full of himself. But I think him getting to make friends with Satoshi in Episode 2 was a really big deal for him. Maybe he was in love with the idea of having friends of his own, or perhaps he had always wanted them since the beginning, who knows? But whatever it was, he has fun when he's with Satoshi and so that's getting reflected in the faces he makes. Accordingly, I think his face has loosened up and he's become more gentle.

Animedia:  Satoshi also seems to be smiling a lot more lately.

Tomiyasu:  Yeah, what is that...? Maybe he feels more at ease now? (laughs) Satoshi is a more senior Trainer than Gou, plus he already shares the same passion for getting lots and lots of different Pokémon, and so the idea is that Satoshi will kind of mentor Gou as his junior. Maybe that's why he seems more calm and collected? Up until very recently Satoshi had always been the "challenger" but then, in the previous series Sun & Moon, he went and got himself his first win in the Alola Pokémon League. So he was just a bit gloomy about never getting himself a title but now that he has one he feels more at ease and can relax, maybe...?

Animedia:  In addition to the whole senior / junior relationship, Satoshi and Gou seem to make a strong duo. Which episodes show them being a good tag team?

Tomiyasu:  Well, this is from a more adventure point of view than a battle sense, but I think the episode that showed off their teamwork the best was when Gou got his Hibanny in Episode 5. But also, Episode 15, the one where they were searching for Karakara's bone. That wasn't an adventure episode at all but was instead a more slice-of-life story and yet it was still a good one for showing off our heroes' relationship. Gou noticed Satoshi's effortless kindness in that one. I think each of their individual characteristics were on full display in this episode.

Animedia:  This series seems like it has a lot of episodes dealing with their friendship with Pokémon. Which of these episodes stand out to you in particular?

Tomiyasu:  For Satoshi it'd have to be the Kairyu episode (Episode 10). After he brings up the mystery of "Why does this Pokémon grow arms and legs when it evolves into Kairyu?" he just kind of accepts the fairy-tale answer he's provided. That's part of the reason I think this turned out to be a really great episode. That, and the part where Kairyu hugs Satoshi to express its feelings of "thank you" and "I love you." I hope you agree that we were able to make an episode where the two managed to express what's in their hearts and were able to "get" a new friendship.

For Gou it'd have to be the Hibanny episode. It was his first Pokémon, after all, and I think that since he was able to "get" this friendship he could realize the importance of making bonds with Pokémon. I think he came out of that learning that you can't just get Pokémon but that you also have to make the effort to become friends with them.

Animedia:  And when Hibanny evolved into Rabbifoot their relationship changed again.

Tomiyasu:  That likable Hibanny suddenly being too cool for school sure was a big change, wasn't it? I think since Gou is still just a 10-year old boy that he doesn't have the space in his heart that an adult would have to tolerate something like that. Sometimes he gets annoyed with Rabbifoot, or fed up with it and get into arguments, and so on and so on. I think he's creating yet another new relationship as he goes through all this.

The appeal of Dande, Wataru, and Kibana

Animedia:  One of the new characters who will be appearing soon is Kibana. What did you pay attention to when you were drawing him?

Tomiyasu:  When we were doing the key animation we felt that his slender arms and legs were very Kibana-esque and so we took special care in drawing them. The same is true for Dande as well, but also his clothing is complicated and so it was really a lot of work. We put a lot of effort into getting them right since we saw their outfits as being their "combat uniforms" and wanted to treat them as important elements of their characters.

As for his personality...I suppose he's a pompous character, using the Japanese ore-sama pronoun and all. Or maybe it's better to say he's laid back and doesn't let things bother him. But it's not just him being above it all, though. The idea is that he's a friendly, sociable guy who works really, really hard even if you wouldn't necessarily know that just by seeing him in his day-to-day life. Since, you know, he's always taking selfies in the video games and whatnot (laughs). He's someone who just loves himself, right? But we had to be careful not to overdo that and end up making him love himself too much. The idea is that he's a Gym Leader, yes, but that he's also someone who has the strength to back up all his showboating.

In Episode 12 there was a battle between Dande and Wataru. Wataru is someone who takes things really seriously and so the weight of his words provided an interesting contrast during his whole back-and-forth with Dande. But then this time you have Kibana, who has this easygoing-ness to him that's completely different.

Animedia:  Dande gives off this impression of being cool-headed when confronted with Kibana's laissez-faire attitude

Tomiyasu:  But in reality, Dande is really just a battle fanatic (laughs). But he has the confidence and personality of a Champion and so no matter where you're looking at him from you can feel the weight of who he is. He's not necessarily cool and calculating, but both he (and Kibana) have parts of them that burn red hot. This is the first time we'll be seeing the two of them fight in this TV series but we get the feeling that Dande and Kibana are both good friends and rivals who have faced each other many times before.

Animedia:  Could you tell us what led you to cast Mr. Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Kibana?

Tomiyasu:  We thought the most important element was that he had Kibana's easy-going nature. If he's too showboaty then it'd make the character unlikable and so it was Mr. Suzuki's wit and easy-going nature that sold him to us. On top of that, I think Mr. Suzuki got caught up in Kibana's pompous ore-sama attitude. When he stepped in the booth the sound director Mr. Masafumi Mima told him "You're being too serious, try to have a little more fun with it." And so Mr. Suzuki took the note, and I think he was able to deliver an appropriately laid-back Kibana.

Animedia:  What was recording like?

Tomiyasu:  It was really cool! The story is that in the Pokémon World Championships, the top eight Trainers in the "Masters Eight" face off against each other, and this time around the Number One Trainer faces off against the Number Seven Trainer. The two of them step out into this huge stadium with this giant crowd cheering them on and the whole thing feels  like a sporting event. I think this one turned out to be a really cool episode that showed how Pokémon battles are both a form of entertainment and a real sport in this world. In the animated series Kibana has a Dularudon as his partner Pokémon. And just like the Wataru battle this one will turn into a Daimax Battle as well. It really is an exciting episode!

Animedia:  What do Dande and Kibana mean to Satoshi and Gou?

Tomiyasu:  For Satoshi, at least, Dande is a clear goal, someone he wants to battle. Dande's someone who's stronger than him and is pretty close to being this ideal version of a Pokémon Trainer for him. Satoshi has already locked onto Dande but he's doing so as a goal for him to accomplish, not just as someone he looks up to. As for Kibana...well, Satoshi's a pretty clueless kid and so once thoughts of "Mr. Dande" pop into his head he probably doesn't see much of anyone else. He probably just groups Kibana in with Dande's other challengers (laughs).

Gou wasn't really all that interested in Pokémon battles at first, so...for him, Dande and Kibana are probably about as close to him as pro athletes would be to us here in the real world. But they do use Pokémon he and Satoshi don't know and show off new moves and so I think he has some incentive to at least stick around and watch.

The video games went to the trouble of coming up with all these new Gym Leaders and so I think we'll see them show up in the TV series, little by little, as the show goes on.

Animedia June 2020 Interviews
| Rica Matsumoto | Daiki Yamashita | Daisuke Ono | Tatsuhisa Suzuki | Daiki Tomiyasu |
| Miscellaneous |