Ok. I tend to be a little bit delicate when talking about whether the Anime is good or bad. The reason for this is three-fold.
First of all, obviously, it's Anime. Anything Anime will have a fan base, no matter how repetitive or cliche it is. A perfect example: SD Gundam has its own fan sites. Me personally, I hate cliches, but love Anime. Now knowing this, you must realize how messed up my personality is. I mean, it's one thing to like cool music or heroes taking care of the MOTD/ROTD, but to like this and hate cliches at the same time... Yeah...
Secondly, and I know this is going to not make much sense to you younger kids out there. But, it is a well known fact that table-top rpg fans (especially people that play D&D) tend to like Pokemon. I mean, it (the Anime) was practically made for those type of people! Think about it! You have a group of characters, traveling from town to town, going on quests, through a fantasy setting, meeting and fighting strange creatures, discovering ancient and powerful artifacts, and sometimes even encountering god-like beings (many of whom, don't get along with each other)! It's the plot of just about every well known table-top RPG out there!
Finally, I am a dedicated fan of 80s cartoons. Now while that may not seem like much, Pokemon has more elements from that time than some of those shows had. You have the group of heroes who live in a magical land. They encounter the villains who are always up to no good. After figuring out the bad guys' plots, a climactic 2-minute battle takes place, where the heroes beat the villains and send them packing (blasting off). Afterwards, the plot of the episode is wrapped up and there is usually some kind of lesson learned, like you should stay away from Pikachu's electric cheeks, or how you shouldn't put mustard on the cat. I know! It sounds like the plot of He-Man! But this was the case 85 percent of the time! Occasionally, there'd be a special event that took precedence where the villains would play second fiddle. Then there were the 2-parters. But wait... Cartoons in the 80s had those too!
As far as whether I like or dislike the Anime... I honestly don't know... Usually what happens is I start getting irritated at its repetitiveness. But then something really cool happens, like MewTwo coming back and causing a pillar of light to erase Giovanni's memory and change his hair color slightly. Or one of the less important characters discovers that letting a Legendary Pokemon zap you will guarantee the two of you to be best buds for life. And that's the pattern. I'll start hating it, then the next cool thing will happen!
