>>57958087
my problem isn't even with Liko, or Roy to a lesser extent. I mean they could do something more to make them appealing to audiences searching for more character, but they can still be mains. As others pointed out the problem is too many OCs, far too many OCs. The whole crew was unnecessary, they're nice guys, however there were actual characters already well established for gen 9. To remove the AI professors, Penny and Arven from the main team, not getting Kieran (probably the most popular a rival has ever been with the fandom) as a rival, having them move away from Paldea...those were all huge mistakes. It was literally all there, all written in the game, they just needed to make a story about it for the anime.

That's the biggest mistake of HZ. People used to watch the Ash show not just for the Ash brand, but because they were curious how the anime would transposit the videogames' stories in the main show. I was one of those people. As soon as the anime stopped doing that, people stopped caring about it.