It will be interesting to see what direction this series goes in. The region looks beautiful in the game trailer, so I can imagine they'll do a nice job of portraying it in the anime as well. My gut feeling says we'll see another new art style. SM's definitely doesn't match what the game trailer was selling here. I could see an XY style, but better animated and maybe less "shiny" looking.
I'm slightly bummed gyms are back (yeah, I'm the only person in the world on this one, I know; I like that SM tried something different and was kind of hoping for something new again) but the trials weren't carried over well into the anime IMO, so it might actually be refreshing to see gyms again if the writers continue with the strong characterization of gym leaders they've been implementing for a while now.
The player characters are all starting to blend together in terms of design, so not sure who's going to follow Ash around. I guess possibly the female and maybe a gym leader or something, but I'm so bored of that formula. In fairness, I'm not entirely sure what would be different (maybe have the male character be a companion?) I just know I'm looking for something else here.
I tend to doubt the characters will have British accents, but I could be wrong. I feel like they mainly just use these areas as inspiration for the region itself. I mean, Unova is based off of NY and no one had NY accents (trust me, no one wants that.)
One thing I'm really hoping is that Ash doesn't get the water starter. It looks so much like Froakie to me, I don't want another repeat of that. My favorite starter is Scorbunny, so selfishly, I want Ash to have that one. The grass monkey is cute, but I'm also getting Chespin throwback vibes from it and I hated Chespin in the anime so I think I'm a bit scared of it already, lol. Hopefully they portray this guy a little better!
For the first time in a long time, I'm sad that the current series is ending (I adore SM) but I do always get excited for a new series, so I'm looking forward to what comes of this.
