What about Johto did work?

[danh19]

I can see why the amount of fillers got on people's nerves but I felt they were made some what more enjoyable by the main character's and their interactions

the way Gary and ash's rivalry felt somewhat more better handled than kanto

the way ash and misty and Gary grow some what in maturity

the league was handled far better than kanto

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

• So much time passed, yet so little happened.
• Too much fillers, and most of them based on CotDs instead of interaction between main characters.
• Rivals are underperformed, not focused enough.
• Takeshi's gag became stale.
• Kasumi is not entertaining anymore.
• Most of CotDs are forgettable and boring.

 

[Neo Blaze]

• So much time passed, yet so little happened.
• Too much fillers, and most of them based on CotDs instead of interaction between main characters.
• Rivals are underperformed, not focused enough.
• Takeshi's gag became stale.
• Kasumi is not entertaining anymore.
• Most of CotDs are forgettable and boring.

This thread is about what did work about Johto. You probably misread that.

I'd have to say there is not much about Johto that really worked, although strangely I can't get myself to dislike it. This may largely be due to nostalgia though. Although I think they went way overboard with the amount of fillers, most of them are really memorable to me, moreso than fillers from other sagas.

I also liked a lot of the Gym Battles, which were mostly an improvement over the Kanto saga's Gym Battles (but yeah not a big accomplishment seeing how most of the Gym Battles in Kanto were an utter joke.) And the League still remains my favourite League to this day.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

This thread is about what did work about Johto. You probably misread that.

• Kasumi is given an actual goal and story arc.
• Satoshi is actually winning against gym leaders.
• There is many good Team Rocket episodes.
• Weird but entertaining fillers like "Satochu".
• Shigeru's rivalry with Satoshi is handled better.

 

[GuyWhoTellsTruth]

The English dub was at its best in the first season of the Arc if you ask me, so that's a definite plus for me right off the bat. 4Kids' take on TR was at its height of humor here, notably their take on James.

Other than that, I can say I liked the approach it took to earning gym badges fairly again here (minus Pryce, but still, the backstory was nice so I can't hate that). I also like that despite the numerous filler episodes, a lot of them had a really warm atmosphere to them.

 

[tam123401]

Lots and lots of filler, here's where team Rocket began to get gratingly annoying, It also forced Ash to get rid of his best Pokémon for newbies, who barely got real development sans Bayleef and Cyndaquil who barely even battled but got some great victories. This league was the only time Ash ever got a truly fair loss, Harrison was legitimately better than him in skill and team diversity. Though Ash's battle with gary was very well done, as were many of the battles in Johto, this and the neat sidequests like Larvitar and the Blackthorn Arc being very well written.

 

[Hidden Mew]

The Gym battles were a much needed improvement over what we had in Kanto. Granted, that might not say a whole lot when the battles in Kanto really weren't good for the most part, but they actually felt like battles. It was also nice how Ash actually earned them all besides the one from Pryce and even that one wasn't too bad. The Johto League itself was also pretty solid with a good full battle against Gary and a reasonable defeat from Harrison afterwards. Most people don't seem to mind how Ash lost in the Johto League, so that's nice.

While his Johto team did suffer from a lack of screentime, especially near the end when it became relying on Kanto Pokemon, I liked how they had more personalities than Ash's original team. If they had been fleshed out more like some of Ash's other teams, I think that they'd be much more remembered than they actually are. Cyndaquil and Bayleef in particularly stood out quite nicely.

Misty and Brock got a bit more focus than they did in Kanto, which again may not say that much given their focus during Kanto.

I actually liked quite a bit of the filler episodes. A lot of people complained with how bad the Johto filler are, but after nearly watching the whole arc again, I don't think that there are that many bad filler episodes. There definitely are some bad ones, but I think that there are more enjoyable and good filler episodes than fans mention. Part of the issue is watching the show on a weekly basis since that would make the journey more slow. Watching it in chucks or just one episode a day helps with that.

I thought that the Larvitar arc was quite good and had some genuinely sweet moments.

 

[Pokefan19]

Totodile was the greatest thing about Johto...

But to go further in depth, Johto seems fairly underrated among the 6 completed regions at this point. It might not have been plot driven like Sinnoh or as complete like the Hoenn region, but it was the true starting point of developing Ash into the trainer we have today (might have to look past Unova though). I thought letting Charizard and Squirtle move on was great character development for Ash showing that something you need to let others might their own decisions. No doubt I'm sure both would have followed Ash had he refused to let them go, but I think it showed some maturity. That also allowed him to focus on relying on his currents strength's rather then pure power. Bulbasaur's departure also gave it a better defined personality imo, one we hadn't really got to see since it's capture all the way back in Episode 10 of the Kanto region.

What people don't seem to remember is a good majority of Ash's team actually had fleshed out character; Bayleef was infatuated with Ash but matured beyond her violent tendencies once she evolved from Chikarita, Cyndaquil was once a timid and somewhat aloof Pokemon who made strides to become stronger, Totodile had personality from the start, Heracross had his sap thing, Noctowl did unfortunately lose it's personality from the capture episode though, and Phanpy was young and naive.

 

[ii kanji]

Some of the series' best fillers are (inevitably, given the sheer number ) from Johto, and the series really laid the foundations for the rest of the show.

Also, the Johto Journeys song. So much exciting nostalgia!

 

[Nicolas721]

I watched the Master Quest episodes last year and I enjoyed them greatly, here are my highlights:

-Gym Battles were taken seriously, while some of them had Team Rocket intermissions or prologues they set up challenges for Ash and he had to push his Pokemon to win.

-The Team Rocket big schemes, all 3 of them have excellent pace and some drama moments. If you enjoyed the Team Flare climax you will enjoy these for sure.

-Some fillers were great and actually innovative in the way they told a story. Check Fly me to the moon or the Mahogany-Blackthorn intermission for examples. Even when there are 3 or more fillers back-to-back each one feels different than its predecessor.

-The league was great. Some moments were made to glorify Ash's Kanto starters, but overall there are many battles and all are solid.

 

[danh19]

from what I remember master quest was one of the most consistent seasons in the series giving misty more to do the league and all the other brilliance

 

[Hidden Mew]

I almost forgot about the dub openings. These were some of the best dub openings from the 4Kids era. I had the Johto League opening as my ring tone for a long time.

 

[SammyW27]

The third year was filled with great moments. Heck, maybe even the 6 months before it.

Also, more plot and characters than Kanto (though that didn't take much)

 

[Islander Princess]

I've been in the process of re-watching Johto and I'm enjoying it much more than I remembered! Yes, there are tons of fillers, but a decent amount of them are actually pretty entertaining and fun to watch.

I also think Team Rocket is actually a big highlight of the Johto saga. I really think this is when they were at their funniest. They have great dialogue, different motto variations, and I'm not really annoyed when they show up. In fact, their appearances in a lot of the Johto episodes tend to be a highlight for me. The episode with the Pokémon fortune telling book particularly stands out to me; that is really Team Rocket at their finest.

The Johto League is a personal favorite of mine as well. I really enjoyed the opponents and battles in that league, and of course Ash vs. Gary is one of the entire anime's best battles.

I will also agree with everyone who has said that the dubbed Johto seasons had the best opening songs. "Born to be a Winner" in particular is just so, so good.

 

[danh19]

l have to say that I found team rocket to be at least irritating and I also love the johto songs especially born to be a winner I think up their the first Pokémon theme catchiness

it is great that a lot of people seem to agree with me that yes their was to many fillers but johto had the best fillers overall

 

[Gabo2oo]

It's got The Wayward Wobbuffet, you can't compete with that.