Review What about AG did work?

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

Discuss away- just going to see what others have to say first before commenting myself.

 

[Islander Princess]

I really liked AG. I feel like overall it was a pretty solid series that was packaged together nicely.

May was a big part of why I really enjoyed AG. Out of every single female companion so far, May had the best character development. She starts off as a girl who doesn't even like Pokémon and is using becoming a trainer as an excuse to travel the world, and by the end of the series, she not only loves Pokémon, but she's a genuinely talented coordinator. Watching May's character evolve and grow as the series progresses is really interesting, especially since it's something this show as a whole doesn't always do right. May's character development, for me at least, is one of the hallmarks of the AG series.

Connected to May, her rivals were awesome. Drew, Harley, and even Solidad, though she came in later, were all strong competitors who also had really bold personalities. They were entertaining, well rounded characters. Even the rivals who only appeared for 2-3 episode mini arcs were memorable, and a big reason for this was that they all helped May to grow as a coordinator in one way or another. Even the lesser rivals had an impact on her, and I think that made them a really important aspect of both May's character and the series as a whole.

Dub wise, the dialogue between pretty much all of the characters was well written and believable. We got some enjoyable back-and-forths that we really don't see anymore today (Ash lashing out at all of his traveling companions after his first battle with Brawly is one that really sticks out to me.) Also, the strong intros from Johto carried over to AG as well. I really enjoyed AG's dub opening songs and animation.

 

[Hidden Mew]

May was definitely one of the highlights of AG for me as well. I really liked seeing her character grow throughout the series and Contests were a fantastic way to give the female leads their own goal. I still deeply miss seeing them in the anime after all these years and still wish that they could return somehow. May had a fun upbeat personality, I liked her chemistry with the other characters and she even had some touching moments with Max. It was quite refreshing at the time to see a female lead actively work towards her goal instead of just talking about it like what Misty did. I do think that some of her Contests could have been handled better and her team could have been handled better as well. This was the first time they tried to give the female lead her own storyline throughout the whole series and it does show, especially when Dawn's storyline benefited a lot from being the second Coordinator, but in spite of that, May was still all around great and enjoyable to watch.

May's rivals were all around pretty good. They helped to provide conflict, particularly with Drew and Harley, and even most of the one-shot characters were memorable.

I really liked the whole starting over again vibe that they were going with Ash in terms of his Pokemon and having a new group of friends to travel with. By this point, it's common place for them to do that, so the impact doesn't hit quite as much. But at the time, it felt super refreshing for Ash to just have Pikachu again, capturing new Pokemon and having a new group of friends to travel with. It really did feel like he was starting over and made the series feel more unique as a result.

I liked how they split the starters up instead of giving them to Ash again. Doing that three times in a row would have felt too much, even though Brock getting Mudkip was not a good idea when he already had the much more memorable Lotad.

I think that this was the only series that made Ash not having a main rival actually work. He got rivals for the Hoenn League eventually, but not throughout the whole series and it worked out nicely. He was still struggling against the Gyms and training his Pokemon, so he was still competent even without having a rival to challenge him.

The Gym battles were pretty solid. There were a few cheap ones, like the infamous Thunder Armor stunt and how Ash got his third badge was still pretty bad, but he still was able to battle pretty well.

The Hoenn League was also quite good. While not using his reserved did make his lineup more predictable, he still showed some nice skills and even getting to the Top 8 again wasn't bad given that he lost to the trainer who ended up winning the whole thing.

While I would have liked the series to be stretched out into four years instead of about three due to my issues with the Battle Frontier arc, the pacing was pretty good and there were still good battles/moments with the Battle Frontier arc.

There were also quite a few good filler episodes in AG. Some of the funniest filler episodes are from this series in my opinion.

The dub openings were great. These and the Johto openings are the kind of ones I'd want from a Pokemon theme song. Something with a good, catchy beat that gets you all excited to watch an episode.

 

[Poke Trey]

I liked the contest idea for May, Max eventually wanting to be a trainer when he gets older, Ash being a lot smarter in this series and for Battle frontier, Pokemon like Sceptile getting some development, the rivals for May and the show getting better towards the final episodes with Brandon and the finale man

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Wouldn't that makes more sense to make it "What about AG didn't work"?

 

[RetroPokeFan]

May had some wonderful rivals. And the Contents was an interesting idea indeed.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

Wouldn't that makes more sense to make it "What about AG didn't work"?

I suppose, though we'd get Max as a top contender there for many.

 

[ii kanji]

Harley!

 

[Gengarzilla]

I definitely did warm up to Ash a little more here, unlike his infuriating OS self, but there was still a while to go before I actually started liking the guy.

May, brilliant. A little bit maddening at times, especially during one particular contest with Bulbasaur, though I found her to be a strong addition to the cast overall. Would definitely pick her over Misty.

I actually didn't mind Max all that much. It's probably because he acts somewhat like I would if I were travelling with an inexperienced older sister and her two friends. I just relate to him at the best of times, and he truly won me over with that sick Ralts.

Potentially controversial opinion here but I felt that 4Kids really had to go during this series. The voice actor situation was a rather unfortunate casualty though, even if I came to prefer the new group in time.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

Potentially controversial opinion here but I felt that 4Kids really had to go during this series. The voice actor situation was a rather unfortunate casualty though, even if I came to prefer the new group in time.

I think 4Kids was fine, personally, but to each their own though.

 

[danh19]

it was nice to see ash continue to grow with his sort of mentor role with may and max plus I really liked sceptile