How would you rank each arc, in order from favorite to least favorite?

[Zeostar]

As the title says.

I'm unable to do this properly, as there's so many regions I haven't watched. But my reason for making this is that I did see a few episodes of "Best Wishes" recently. Yet I didn't find them as appealing as the Indigo arc. I still thought it was enjoyable, but there's probably bias considering Indigo was the one I grew up with. Still, since I'm making the topic I'll try myself.

I've only seen a few episodes from some, aside from Indigo. But in terms of enjoyment for me it was:

1. Indigo
2. Hoenn
3. Johto
4. Black/White.

I saw a couple of episodes from the Johto season last night. I don't even think I ever saw any of it, but it was so similar to Indigo. I stopped watching at Hoenn but I remember liking it. I think it was just an age where my interest in Pokemon was dead as I had moved into other things.

Yet if I ever decide to go ahead and watch a season, I'll refer to the opinions in this topic.

 

[Lysander]

1. Diamond & Pearl
2. Best Wishes
3. Sun & Moon
4. Original Series
5. Advanced Generation
6. XY

I've watched far more episodes from the Diamond and Pearl series than any other series, but that's probably because I enjoyed watching them more. I hated every episode I saw from X and Y, probably because I hate all of the new characters in that series, especially Serena.

 

[Taemin]

Indigo was what I grew up with, so in a way I enjoyed it the most, since as a kid I watched some of the episodes countless times!

However, in the way of being older and genuinely liking the writing / characters more, I have to say that Hoenn and XY&Z are my favorites.

Ranking thus far is

1. Hoenn
2. XY&Z (especially the Z episodes!)
3. Diamond and Pearl
4. Master Quest (the ending arc of Johto in the US)
5. Orange Islands
6. Indigo

Johto, for some reason as a kid, it lost my attention and has never quite held it otherwise?? Which is... very weird, and I have no idea why. Though if you showed me Johto eps today, I'd probably watch more of them out of curiosity, and I have seen some of them! I also like what I've seen of Pokemon 2019 so far, but I'm not ranking it yet!

I also left out Sun and Moon because despite liking the games, I wasn't too interested in that anime.

For Black and White, Dento / Cilan best character, but overall I wasn't too interested - though I loved the B&W games. I MISS THEM.

 

[Palamon]

Good question, actually...

1. Kalos Saga
2. Advanced Generation
3. Sun/Moon
4. Diamond/Pearl
5. Best Wishes
6. Indigo League
7. Orange Islands
8. Johto saga

Honestly, Kalos was the best saga. I think the character dynamics in that particular season were very strong, and kept me interested in that entire arc in particular. The animation quality was also top notch here. Some of the battles were very well done, I don't remember being as excited to watch a fight since the Sinnoh League.

Advanced Generation is second because I liked how Ash became a mentor role to a new trainer, and the story wasn't just focused on him and his travels anymore. Also, we got introduced to Contests, and I really liked that it was no longer just Gym Battles. Also, the Battle Frontier arc was a fun journey, even though all the voice actors changed in that season...

I like Sun/Moon maybe just a little bit more than D/P because the animation is so much more expressive, and I just genuinely enjoyed S/M. I know it has its share of haters, but when I saw the new animation style, I really enjoyed it. Also, Ash won a league that's canon to the Pokemon games, which was a first. Keep in mind, though, since I keep up with the dub on a Saturday basis, I haven't seen Ash win yet, but yolo.

Diamond/Pearl saga was great, and it was actually my first Pokemon anime way back in 2007. I started watching Pokemon weekly after the April "movie" version of this came out. While I do love Diamond/Pearl, I felt the dub's script was pretty awful, and that some of the gags in this series were especially dated. Ie: Brock still falling in love with every girl he sees. Also, quite a lot of the filler in a row was unnecessary and dragged Sinnoh out longer than it needed to be. Regardless, I do still enjoy this series. I liked Dawn, Ash & Brock's respective character developments.

I also liked Best Wishes, but just.... not as much as D/P? I do mildly agree that Ash being dumbed down in this saga was a little annoying, but I don't know, I got over it quickly. There were some pretty stupid decisions made by Ash, though, I honestly thought he caught way too many Pokemon in Unova. The amount of Pokemon he caught made it really hard for me to care about all of them. Also, the fact he lost to Cameron in the Pokemon League still kinda pisses me off to this day. However, for what it's worth, I did enjoy B/W. Sure, it had a lot of bs, but I guess I'm just bias bc I like the Pokemon anime a lot.

I did like the Indigo League, too, but Ash was a bit rash & made a lot of rookie mistakes here, but... what can you expect, really? Ash was a rookie here. While Indigo League was a strong season, there were some really weird filler episodes, some that are extremely infamous by now, such as the Beauty and the Beach episode. But this season established a lot of important things, and this is where Ash's journey started, so I could never consider it my least favorite.

...Although, I guess same can't be said about Orange Islands? Weirdly enough, this used to be my favorite season of the anime. Upon rewatching this season last year, though, it was honestly just way too short. I don't dislike Orange Islands or anything, I still like it, but I don't know, it just feels awkward and just there as a way to fill in time before the Jotho games were coming out at the time. I guess that's why I rank it lower than the rest of these.

And finally, Johto. Johto while, I did like that season, is definitely my least favorite. My major problem with the Johto saga is the major blocks of filler in between gyms. Some of the gaps between gym battles were way too huge, and for absolutely no reason at all. Come on, was the Whirl Island Arc even necessary? Not really, no. The filler of this season was just too much, even Sinnoh's huge filler gaps weren't as bad as the filler here. Filler aside... I did enjoy Johto for what it was worth. Ash had major character development, and I did like his Pokemon that he had in this generation. I just wish the Johto arc wasn't so dragged out. If it weren't I definitely would have liked it more. Also, Ash's Bayleef is precious.

I can't rank Pokemon 2019 yet since it's just recently started, and I need to catch up to it. I'll probably do that tomorrow. Although it's too soon to rank it, I'd say.

 

[XNaut]

1. Indigo
2. Johto
3. Black/White
4. Orange Islands
5. Kalos
6. Diamond/Pearl

 

[Twilight-kun]

XY
DP
AG
BW
OS
SM

 

[Zeostar]

I'm watching Diamond and Pearl right now, and I do like it. I haven't watched the anime in years.

Team Rocket is funny but tiring. They appear every single episode, and I'm starting to zone out when they show up.

As for characters, I really like Dawn, and the anime is making me like Turtwig. So much that I started Platinum last night and made it my starter. Oh and I can't forget Paul. He's an amazing character and gives off such a strong vibe when he shows up. I can't wait to see more episodes with him.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

Because we are talking about arcs, I am going to include Frontier, Orange League and Decolore as well.

1. Kalos
2. Sinnoh
3. Unova
4. Hoenn
5. Battle Frontier
6. Johto
7.Orange Islands
8. Alola
9. Kanto
10. Decolore Isles


Kalos, to me, had by far the best character development and it was different from other sagas. Ash seemed older. The themes were darker. And his team was strong. I just enjoyed all of Kalos. The companions, the pokemon, the episode. It is the only saga of pokemon I have ever loved so much. I couldn't wait for the next episode.

Sinnoh, once used to be one of my least favorites. During Sinnoh, my interest for pokemon was dieing to the point where I had completely lost track of it. But once I rewatched the saga years later, it was one of the better sagas.

Unova, has gotten a lot of crap. And although I understand, I loved all the pokemon. I loved all the tournaments and how many characters there were. Unova stopped me from letting pokemon go completely.

Hoenn, once my favorite sagas, it slowly lowered when I watched them later and better sagas came out.

Battle Frontier, I liked having Ash traveling with May and Max in a different region. It was something new. You got to see all of Ash's old pokemon and he actually won and was still having lessons.

Johto - I love Johto far more than Kanto. Mainly because when I think of Johto, I thought of Autumn.

Orange Islands - Was ok and liked how the gyms were set up, but it was tropical and island hopping. However, one of the best movies in pokemon took place here which was 2000.

Alola - The only thing keeping this above the bottom is Lillie. I hated the series. Most episodes were fillers and it was just annoying to watch. If not for the Arcs and Lillie. It would be in the bottom easily.... they could have done so much and they completely blew it. I did like how Team Rocket took a back seat. Although I was waiting the entire time for Ultra Recon and Rainbow Rocket.

Kanto - Although Kanto has a lot of good emotion, I just can't get over how cringey it is and how stupid the characters were at times. Some of my favorite episodes are from Kanto. But overall, it is just bad.

Decolore - Worst series full of nothing, but fillers. If Alexa had been in it more, I may have liked it. Just nothing interesting happened. I think my favorite episode and the only one I can remember was the one with the Sawsbuck, which i think was called the "Four Seasons of Sawsbucks." That is the only episode in the entire span that I liked.

Now that I think about it, Seasons of Sawsbuck may not have been part of Decolore, but BW2 areas with Plasma.

 

[Zeiro]

I've only watched up to Black and White and don't know much of the Hoenn season, but my ranking would be:

1. Sinnoh - They took what worked with Hoenn and expanded it. They had more rivals and each of them had their stories. The only two things that stick out off the top of my head are Brock barely doing anything worthwhile until the final few episodes, and Nando disappearing for the majority of the season.
2. Unova - I know this one gets a lot of hate but I really enjoyed it. Iris had a great arc, and the constant tournaments they had were really nice. I just wish the Pokemon were more evenly split. Half the Pokemon Ash caught got shafted, they easily could have given some to Cilan (who got the Brock treatment in Sinnoh). It would have been nice had the original Team Plasma stuff gone to air but it is what it is.
3. Hoenn/Kanto - If I could remember Hoenn more I'd but one of these at #3 and the other at #4, but I don't so I'll group them together. Kanto was nice because it was the first and it showed Ash on his journey. Hoenn was the first time Ash actually reset his journey, and the addition of May/contests was nice, too.
4. Johto - I love the Johto region, I love the Johto games, but the anime just felt meh. Nothing seems to happen to anyone and it just falls flat, and feels like an "All Stars" version of the Kanto anime.