It's too bad the movie failed to advertise Zoroark as Lucario's successor, thus not becoming OU material unlike the former. They even quickly went back to advertising Lucario and abandoned Zoroark during the 2nd season of Best Wishes.

Zoroark didn't appear in the anime up until the decola arc, which is after the N arc.

Yeah, it didn't took us that long for us to see Lucario's anime debut in DP, so I guess they really did lose faith in Zoroark for its lack of popularity.

The one thing that I feel Best Wishes did far better than the other series was the art. The textures were much more defined and there were more translucent animations than before.

Here is a comparison of an Orange Island and a Decolore Island:


And XY's artwork has been even more impressive imo


i love the op's design btw

Those are some really gorgeous screenies. Almost makes you wish you lived in those places, haha.

I already live with my fantasy in the great Pokemon World. :D

I feel like that, too. But, for me, it has more to do with the fact that this anime releases a new episode almost every week than anything to do with XY in particular. There are no seasonal breaks or anything, and after a while the anime always gets to the point where following it starts becoming more of a chore than anything enjoyable.

But FWIW, I feel like XY’s second year is shaping up to be more interesting than the first. There’s more stuff to look forward to, IMHO: Satoshi vs. Citron, Serena’s Tripokalons, Numera’s storyline, the kid with the Kimori who showed up in the opening, new Mega Evolution specials, etc. Before, XY had so little going on that it felt uncomfortably like Jouto.

I feel like the first year of XY was just... a lot of building. Especially concerning things like Serena. But the second year of XY, just from the OP, might be more of that we all want with the series. It's taken them a lot time -- too long for a lot of people -- to get the point but hopefully they'll finally be getting to that point.

If that makes any sense at all. But like what Lizardo said I'm looking forward to what the second year of XY is going to be like. I really hope they don't disappoint me.

Now lets talk filler episodes. I actually don't hate all of them. In order for a filler episode to be good for me, it has to make up for the lack of story progression. To do this, you have to make it as funny, entertaining, or interesting as possible so you still get a fun ride. For example, The Bicker the Better is one of my more favorite filler episode because of how much of a fun ride it is to watch. I also like A Hot Water Battle due to it starring johto starters.

However, if there's one pet peeve I have, it's when they start rehashing each other. Not with the formula, but with the plots. How many episodes are we gonna have where a main Pokemon is in love with another one only for said love interest to go with someone else?

The XY Series now is okay, but it was not much going on.
I hope in the future episodes gets in this point better. ^^
And since when has the pokemon anime filler episodes? :O
Mostly have manga based animes filler episodes.
But the pokemon anime is not manga or game based.

Pokémon has always had filler ahaha. Since they realized they would stick with a format that is based off current gen games and wouldn't stop that saga until the next games were due to be released.They have to stretch it out a lot more for the story to fill the years between games and not have all the plot happen at once. So gotta fill the time somehow.

I'm sooo looking forward to XY year 2. It really does seem like this is the point things will pick up in terms of character development and plot. The last year seemed a bit aimless almost, but now that Serena's dedicated to a thing and Ash's roster is nearly full, I'm hoping to see a lot more focus on training from both of them.

It's an interesting episode title, that much is certain. I think there may be some shipping moments in the episode, but I don't see it continuing outside the episode. Or maybe the word "date" is being used loosely. In any case, I'm looking forward to see how the episode plays out.

Unfortunately the dub took a break right at the beginning of Serena's progress, so I've only witnessed her catching a Pancham :\

The Amourshipper part of me is excited as psyduck.

The side of me that remembers that Ash is a brain-dead monkey makes me worried.

Is there a Rotom episode of Pokemon does anyone know please? I caught the porygon one years ago and absolutely loved how insane it was (luckily no seizures) I can imagine a Rotom episode being pretty crazy as well, would love it for there to be one, I hope there is :)

Yes there is. It's called Get your Rotom Running. It's the first episode of season 12.

Danke, I will watch that before I get back to breeding.

There was also an episode from the Decolore arc in which Professor Oak catches a Rotom. I'd say that episode is worth a watch, because how often do we see Professor Oak catch a Pokémon? The episode is BW128, To Catch a Rotom!

Anyone rewatch the Hoenn seasons because of ORAS recently? May is still one of the best developed companions of the anime to this day. The Hoenn saga itself also probably has the second most humor of the series after Kanto and Orange Islands. The Contest episodes really were the best addition to the series at the time, especially since it came directly after Johto which soured the anime on repetitive episodes and stale characters.

I re-watched some Battle Frontier episodes not too long ago, if that counts. Easily my favorite part of AG: Kanto Grand Festival, Satoshi bringing back older Pokémon like Lizardon, the Jukain episodes, and Movies 8 and 9 (whatever happened to Pocket Monsters movies where the main characters actually mattered?). With the exceptions of Kogomi, Azami, and the third Jindai battle - which is mostly good, save for the ridiculous finish - the Frontier Brain battles are really good. Better than I remembered, in fact. The Satoshi vs. Heath double battle is a particular highlight.

Is Azami Lucy? I liked her battle quite a bit. In fact I thought all the Frontier Brain battles were good and were a preview to how good the Gyms would be in DP.

As for AG my favorite part of the saga is actually the very early episodes, like the first 50 eps of Hoenn or so. Everything felt so fresh at the beginning because it was the first new group dynamic we had, and May was the first new female companion after 5 years of Misty. I felt the anime never had that same freshness feeling as the beginning of Hoenn ever again. Back then you felt like, "anything could happen" because we didn't know the formula of the show would stick for years to come.

It’s not that I think Azami’s (yes, she is Lucy) battle is terrible, I just don’t find myself coming back to it that much. Ditto Kogomi. And even the third Jindai battle has its merits, it’s just the way Lizardon goes down at the beginning and the Pikachu-Regice finish that kills it for me. I just prefer the other Brain battles more, I guess. In addition to Satoshi vs. Heath, there’s also the really excellent second Satoshi-Jindai battle.

And yeah, early-AG was good too. I’m not the biggest fan of Advanced Generation on the whole, but I appreciate how fresh it feels, especially at the beginning, in comparison to the OS in its back half. I remember dropping out of the franchise somewhere in Jouto, happening upon an AG episode when it was new, and immediately being intrigued by the fact that Kasumi was replaced by the Gen. 3 female protagonist and an entirely new character. And they both ended being good characters in their own right.

Well every saga tends to get a bit boring towards the mid/later half. That's why I like early Hoenn the most, it did tend to get dull around the 6th-7th Gym as that's when the Magma/Aqua arc crumbled and some of the fillers around that point were rather dull.

Then again there are filler stretches in every series that are pretty boring. Same happened to DP around the 6th-7th Gym, and the last half of BW.

Anyone besides me actually watching the English dub?

The second season of XY starts this weekend in America. That month-long hiatus was a bit annoying.

Since the Diamond and Pearl series i don't anymore watch the edit version of pokemon more the japanese version. ^^
I don't like the edited OST's they was most terrible. D:

It starts out with a bang, too. Two new episodes of the new season, the Skrelp episode from the old season, and the second Mage Evolution special all in a row :o

plus the Diancie movie but that's not new