The series vs. itself

[Famon]

Why everyone complain like DP series was the only one with filler !
BW series has a Whole Saga dedicated to nothing but filler.
Atleast DP Series had something to look forward too .

 

[Wobbu]

I have yet to watch the DP series, but from all of the other series I will say AG has been the most entertaining. It gave another main character the chance to live out their dreams, that character being May. She participated in her own contests and put Ash out of the spotlight every once in awhile. I know that Dawn did the same thing in DP, so it was unfortunate to see that dwindle away during BW. Another feature of AG was that it was like a refresher for the anime. The main cast was changed a little and the art quality was improved, which seems to be a standard for every succeeding series.

The original series was okay. Not a whole lot of the Kanto series interested me until the Orange Islands episodes, which is only because of the setting. The Johto episodes started off as incredibly boring but eventually picked up the pace, which was somewhere after Ash's battle against Bugsy. Johto Journeys actually introduced my favorite character of the whole anime, Jessie's Wobbuffet. I find Wobbuffet's goofiness, obnoxiousness, and general personality to be extremely hilarious. I wish that he would've stayed during BW.

I started following BW when Rival Destinies started. I've been really enjoying the series so far, especially the Decolore episodes. Similar to the Orange Islands, my bias towards those episodes are a result of the setting. It was sad to see Ash's supporting crew turn into his puppets again. Iris and Cilan haven't made that much progress towards achieving their goals. Iris caught a Dragonite and Cilan helped out some little kid with picking out a Pokémon, which basically sums up their progress. However, BW had the best character networking. Almost every recurring character has interacted with each other, whether it be from a Club Battle, festivities, the Unova League, etc. Speaking of the Unova League, I was very disappointed in the way that the arc turned out. When Cameron didn't know that he could use 6 Pokémon during the semifinals, I couldn't believe the writers were okay with that...

 

[precita]

The reason people thought DP was boring was mainly because of Brock. Yes, one character ruined the series. Why? Because he screwed up the group dynamics.

People mainly enjoy the anime for the chemistry of the main characters. Because the writers made the mistake of keeping Brock for DP, it completely destroyed any potential chemistry of that group. Ash and Dawn had decent interactions, but Brock had no chemistry with Dawn whatsoever, and since Dawn was treated as a co-star, it made it even more obvious that we had two leads and Brock was a one-dimensional background character.

Brock ruined Dawn's character too. As people noticed, Dawn started off as a fun character in early DP. After the trio was settled, Dawn got a bit blander because she didn't have interesting characters to bounce off of. Brock was useless, so Dawn didn't work well with him. Dawn would have been a much better character interaction with any other male as seen with Gary, Paul or Barry.

So basically Brock ruined DP for some, whether people realized it or not. That's why the writers finally got rid of him, because Brock overstayed his welcome by an extra generation.

The Johto saga was pretty poor too, but that was mainly due to the excessive fillers than anything else.

 

[XeroNos]

Well I have not watched completely any previous saga except the Unova one. Watched some episodes of Diamond and pearl series. In my opinion the plot was well set there and we learned about Dawn's background as well as Team Galactic was shown early too making the series interesting to watch from the start. The only thing I did not liked was there were too many Contest episodes which I don't like at all

 

[DBZ fan]

In my opinion none of newer sagas managed to capture same level of emotion, humor and creativity like Original saga did.
Now i liked Hoenn, DP and BW improving in some aspects, like battles becoming better, writers developing characters and story better,rivals being properly treated etc.

But in OS in my opinion pokemon used to have more emotion and personal touch put into it with writers straying away from game canon to significant degree with anime being more focused on prospect of adventure, there was more humor, more references to Japan culture and you could get feeling that pokemon wasnt so much subbed to game promotion having bigger individuality. Anime felt fresh and new at that time with writers experimenting with several things to determine which works or doesnt adding that extra flavor to show. This can be noticed in real guns being used in first season, Ash having crush on girls(like Giselle)etc. I liked wacky plots and humor Kanto and Johto(to lesser extent) used to have like St. Anne, Island of Giant pokemon,episode about giant Tentacruel, Gengar or Alakazam trying to destroy whole towns etc with writers sticking less to games adding more of their own personal touch.
Misty and Brock also played important role in here being like Ash coaches and mentors helping him to grow as trainer over course of OS while giving us insight in their own lives and past pursuing their own dreams.
Each episode felt fresh bringing something interesting within itself and rich mount of references to Japanese culture and less censoring was bonus too(although this led to certain episodes ending up banned).


And chemistry between original trio was arguably best out of all groups we had so far in pokemon as far as im concerned having very close bond and strong friendship . Group played out very well having good dynamic and charming interaction. From Ashs naivete and stupidity, to Misty sarcastic remarks and funny moments of anger and caring side acting as push for Ash to be better when doubting in him to Brock figure of being like older brother to them providing his knowledge and tips in needed situations.They felt like close group of friends which fulfilled each other in genuine, natural and enjoyable manner making things worth watching.

AG comes in second place though, with quartet of Ash,May,Max and Brock functioning well liking different kind of dynamic which was present between this characters with Ash becoming more mature becoming ready enough to take on mentor role to May with things changing up,and inclusion of Max served nicely too sharing many things in common with Brock which allowed for good character interaction.I also liked May contest arc having some great rivals(like Drew and Harly)and Jessie deciding to become coordinator was nice and unexpected change of pace.


As for DP series,they currently share third place with Unova.
It had good characters individually with Dawn being good character, liking her attitude, story arc which resulted with great finish almost winning whole Grand Festival on first attempt and rivals were fine. Ash got some great progress through whole arc, with writers finally giving him proper rivals with Paul playing out well his role with their rivalry having great development and finish at Sinnoh league which was surprising and good with return of Ash older pokemon being a plus.

However chemistry between group was least coherent not having good bonding ,Brock barely got any screen time, too close following of games and neglect of some previous characters from past takes up some points from it.
Also its little to say how repartition of screen time was incredibly unbalanced giving too much exposure to certain pokemon and humans like Ash and Dawn, while leaving shafted everyone else.
Along with whole gym and contest quest feeling dragged out lacking adventurous and unexpected twists at times some other series contained in my opinion.

When it comes to Best Wishes series feel like step down in some aspects,though there are few things which sparked my interest for this saga .Such as:
Chemistry between Ash,Cilan and Iris having lot of enthusiasm and energy with clashes between Iris and Ash,dissidence between Iris and Cilan about science and mutual respect and admiration prevailing between Cilan and Ash allowing for some great interacting. They have second best dynamic in pokemon for me.

Team Rocket becoming more competent and actually threatening is definitely one of best refreshing changes we had in years with Jessie and Jams new role being given by Giovanni making them actually competent for a change instead of being treated like punching bags all the time. Though as most ideas in BW this was executed poorly and in forced manner happening without proper explantion.

Don George tournaments seemed like nice change of pace liking format they followed and way how to gather all character riuvals at one place brimming with lot of fluid interaction and great dynamics too.


But inadequate and poorly handled development of characters, Ash drop of skill and experience, league and resolution of rivalries being rushed and executed badly along with play of events happening in inconsistent, contrived way prevent it from being truly endearing and enjoyable saga for me. Still appreciated some of creative premises they originally wanted to go with.

The reason people thought DP was boring was mainly because of Brock. Yes, one character ruined the series. Why? Because he screwed up the group dynamics.

People mainly enjoy the anime for the chemistry of the main characters. Because the writers made the mistake of keeping Brock for DP, it completely destroyed any potential chemistry of that group. Ash and Dawn had decent interactions, but Brock had no chemistry with Dawn whatsoever, and since Dawn was treated as a co-star, it made it even more obvious that we had two leads and Brock was a one-dimensional background character.

Brock ruined Dawn's character too. As people noticed, Dawn started off as a fun character in early DP. After the trio was settled, Dawn got a bit blander because she didn't have interesting characters to bounce off of. Brock was useless, so Dawn didn't work well with him. Dawn would have been a much better character interaction with any other male as seen with Gary, Paul or Barry.

So basically Brock ruined DP for some, whether people realized it or not. That's why the writers finally got rid of him, because Brock overstayed his welcome by an extra generation.

I never got such impression personally. Brock was fairly enjoyable as far as his personality goes still chasing after girls, being knowledgeable and intelligent group member teaching Ash and co to prepare medicines, had memorable moments with Croagunk, Happiny or Nuzleef allowing that his expertize come to expression along with playing nice role in tag tournament, when scolding Paul for way he ftreated Chimchar, Marilyn which valued pokremon strength by looks etc. In Team Galactic arc and lake trio he had valuable role too.

If there was problem with chemistry between DP cast that wasn't Brock fault but in reality lack of focus on group dynamics as whole. Writers in general focused tone of series more on battling, pokemon themselves and their development rather than on humans and fleshing out each other through interactions and vivid dynamics. That was probably reason why it felt lifeless at times and too much emphasis being put on development of Ash and Dawn and their progress as "two stars which progress through show", often leaving Brock out of group interaction. Hardly his fault.
Something which was mistake with writers making sure to fix that in BW with no one in BW cast feeling left out.

Regarding his departure, i don't think that was reason behind his leaving and it would be abit presumptuous to generalize things so much conjecturing how "everyone were bored of Brock". Im pretty sure main reason Brock got replaced was because of BW games revamp trying to give "vibe of fresh start"with several changings happening from contests being gone, older pokemon not appearing, TR becoming competent, Unova being portrayed as far and isolated region, Ash getting regressed all with attempt as well not having anymore second side quest.
Writers probably wanted to mirror those changes with anime going back to formula of one main star and two sidekicks as well why another new character joined main cast at expense of Brock leaving. To better promote "new beginning" cutting ties with past.

 

[pokerex]

I watched the kanto and johto saga's when i was really young and i didn't rewatch them so i can't really judge them.

As for the rest, i liked the DP series the best. It had lots of epic battles and ash's team was really strong. And i feel like almost all of his pokemon got a great amount of screentime. And the league battles were pretty good except for the last one.

Unfortunately i can't say those things for the BW series. Ash's only strong pokemon was Krookodile. And the league was pretty lame. I mean, the final showdown between ash and his rival was a 1 on 1 battle. Really!? why would they do that? As for Ash's companions, Iris was super anoying. And Cilan was randomly an everything connoisseur, what was up with that. In all previous generations i did not care at all for ash's companions, but in BW i just wanted them gone.

I'm not going to talk about fillers because every saga in every anime ever has a lot of fillers.

 

[Livewire]

I haven't gotten the real enjoyment factor out of the Pokemon anime since literally the first few seasons that spanned Kanto & Johto. After Johto and the Orange Islands, I just kind of fell out watching it regularly. I think it kind of drifted into the territory Sotomura spoke of, bland and boring episodes that were essentially fillers, lack of character development, and the Pokemon featured and the plot weren't quite as gripping as they used to be. I remember being spellbound by the episode where Ash meets Bill at the lighthouse dressed up as a Kabuto, and that Giant Dragonite thingy showed up after Bill explained all the mysteries of Pokemon. I thought that was a great episode.

I did like what I saw in the D&P series though. A lot of good things came together. And I thought thye did a good job of making Galactic menacing, making you feel like there were actual stakes.

 

[Aquacorde]

Something I noticed recently... I've been simultaneously watching AG and DP while keeping up with BW. I'm watching these battles and I see more of what's been missing from BW. It's not just Ash's innovation and connections with his Pokémon that have been ignored, it's... how do I put it. In BW Ash doesn't use the field to his advantage and relies on the four moves that the Pokémon have been limited to, plus dodging. He doesn't have Pokémon grapple with their opponent or run circles around slower Pokémon. It's attack, attack, dodge, attack. Moves aren't used in combination with each other anymore, the opponent's moves aren't used against them, the terrain is largely ignored. That all really takes the interest out of battles for me.

Another thing related to that innovation and connection stuff is training. BW almost never shows Ash training his Pokémon- there's no working on new moves, or just sparring with them like he used to do. I feel like there was always some kind of training going on in AG and DP, even when the episode wasn't focused on that. Brock would be cooking something, all the Pokémon would be out, Ash would be running a few of them around or directing them to use a new move on various scenery. Even when it was background noise, it was Ash spending time with and learning to work with his Pokémon, and toughening them up on-screen. I feel like that on-screen development made watching the entire series more rewarding because that way you really get to know the characters. I miss that.