Looking to start watching again

Hello,

I've stopped watching around the time Ash went to Alola region, it simply became uninteresting and did no longer offer what I've always loved the series.

So, has anything changed? Is Ash travelling around the region with his new buddies and doing gym battles that eventually lead to him competing in the biggest tournament which he as always loses?

Thank you

Ash isn't even doing gyms anymore, he's stuck in a school environment, thus making this even worse than Best Wishes, which still let Ash pursue his goal at least, regardless of how mishandled he was as a character in that series.

There are a few silver linings, though: It looks as though Misty may actually resume her Water Pokémon Master goal at long last (whether she'll do it with Ash or not remains to be seen), and back in SM043, we did get hints that there will be an Alola league starting up, which may be a good time for Ash to actually WIN the league this time around.

if you're hoping for gym battles and such then you're out of luck until next generation if they decide to bring gyms back. the back you have from sun/moon is the trials.

that said if you didn't like the school/familial atmosphere of sun/moon then you'll probably won't be able to really pick it back up and expect much difference. apparently there have been some good sub-plots in the story but overall it still holds that general theme (despite it being the series with the most darker aspects too when it comes to things like death, haaa).

every series has it's ups and downs and has what people look for and don't look for in the anime. sun/moon just doesn't happen to hold what you enjoy about pokemon but maybe generation VIII will whenever it comes around.