So is Journeys the Worst Series Ever?

[PikachuSmasher]

In my opinion, its a work in progress. There are pros and cons to the series, but I have many issues with this series.

1. The lack of Galar. It's a Gen 8 anime, so Galar should be the homebase right? Well, they've put it in Kanto. Now, I like this world travel thing and it is really cool, but the anime would be better if the Cerise Labs were in Galar so we have more Galar. Plus, we have only have 3 Galar gym leaders in the anime so far and I would really like the others to show up.

2. The lack of Ash Pokemon development. The only Pokemon I think have had decent development in Journeys are Pikachu and Lucario. Sirfetch'd and Dragonite have gotten a small arc or battle experience, but aren't fully fleshed out and Dracovish and Gengar have been left in the dark and are being treated bad. Gengar has a 25% win rate, but is strong. It could have won in Ash vs Volkner but Volkner switched out a highly damaged Luxray, but Dracovish has been treated worse. Counting its debut episode, Dracovish has only appeared in JN050 debut , JN060 as a fantasy, JN063 in the Marine challenge, JN065 against Iris' Dragonite and in JN080 to put out a fire started by Larvesta.

3. Goh. I have nothing against the man, he is an amazing character and might be one of my favourite companions, but some of his captures annoy me, specifically Suicune and Grookey. Suicune was eventually coming, but I wish it was done differently. Goh could have saved Suicune and healed it and then it chooses to join him rather then Goh just catching it. Grookey could have been a development arc for Goh where it decides to defect from Team Rocket over time. Goh could also try and get over the fact that Grookey was owned by Team Rocket instead of it happening in JN059.

4. The PWC. While as a concept it's nice, in reality it isn't too great. Half of Ash's Great and Normal class battles were offscreen or shown for 30 seconds. It also doesn't help that Ash has won all but a few of his onscreen battles, something that seems too unrealistic. I would like to see more onscreen battles, but it’s too late for that now.

5. The episodic nature. It's really weird. We have things like the worst filler episode before an action packed arc or an episode about someones's Cleffa dying before an episode about Ash getting a Mega Evolution. You would expect a lead up to it rather than it being there. Older series have done teasing and episodes foreshadowing big events such as the Team Flare arc. It was shown at the beginning of XYZ in small snippets before being a long action packed arc at the end of the series. Looking at the Hyper Class battles being announced a week before they happen, this nature might be gone soon. An example is JN084, JN085 and JN086 all being Ash focused PWC arcs.

6. Chloe. Even though she’s a supporting character, she hasn’t had that much development. In fact she only had 2 or 3 episodes of development before she caught Eevee, but since then she’s been getting more development. I hope this continues and she gets the development she deserved.

7. Fillers. Pokemon Fillers have never been too great, but Journeys brought fillers to an all time low. Sure, we got good fillers such as JN026 and JN082, we got average fillers such as JN030 and JN057, but we also got trash such as JN048 and absolute madness such as JN041 and JN081. Fillers are also more common which is really bad considering Journeys fillers are average. I’d rather have 1 great Ash, Goh or Chloe focused episode than 10 fillers in a row. It’s fillers that contribute to a lack of development for many characters.

 

[Unireon]

I should have included the horrible endings in my list of things that I dislike about Journeys.

Recently, I have this song stuck in my head.

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My favourite Pokemon endings are 'Pocket ni Fantasy' and 'Type: Wild', original version.
If I were to include the movies, 'Kaze to Issho ni' is the best Pokemon song ever.

I never minded, and actually loved, most fillers; even those from Johto.
But I truly disliked most of the ones from Journeys.

 

[Gabo2oo]

They thought of the very same concept I've been wanting to see for years: Ash travelling through all regions after winning a League, gradually reuniting with past characters and competing in a "worldwide" tournament, and are currently delivering it in the most plain and boring way possible.

My biggest fear right now is that the showrunners might see Journeys as an appropiate send-off series for Ash's storyline.

 

[Unireon]

In Journeys, it's like the staff are going aimless.
The writers bring something up; be it a Pokemon, dynamic or plot; then it gets dropped or wasted quickly.

I have many issues with most of the newbies.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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Particularly, Deko Akao should have stuck to singing instead of writing scripts.
Yes, she sang all the themes of Chou Mashin Eiyuuden Wataru. As Mieno Hitomi.

I admit that her songs are good, but that anime season is a case almost as bad as Journeys.
The writers did the same; changed the formula and it didn't work. Got retconned in 2020.

 

[BNSF1995]

YES. Like I keep saying, the series should've been a Sword & Shield series where Ash travels through Galar with Hop and either Gloria or Serena wearing Gloria's default outfit (or a stripped-down version of it). But instead, we're stuck with a series where Ash runs around with a Gary Stu shilling pay-to-win mobile games instead of a MAINLINE GAME. And when it does shill said mainline game, it does so in the most disrespectful way possible, acting like they have to instead of wanting to like in earlier series, and just rushing through it to get back to shilling more "profitable" games packed with microtransactions.

 

[Jez]

I wonder if “Pokemon Journeys” will be the last series for the Team Rocket's TRio (quatret) since their appearances in this series are more and more rare and their role is only for some fillers without any real development …

It seems that the writers don’t care anymore about them and they have no more inspiration and motivation for them… it’s so sad.

I imagine that they could be fired by Giovanni at the end of this series for the simple excuse that they are lazy now…

I'm so afraid they'll get a rushed departure…

I have never been so worried about their fate since "Best Wishes"……

 

[HiroHunter]

I wonder if “Pokemon Journeys” will be the last series for the Team Rocket's TRio (quatret) since their appearances in this series are more and more rare and their role is only for some fillers without any real development …

It seems that the writers don’t care anymore about them and they have no more inspiration and motivation for them… it’s so sad.

I imagine that they could be fired by Giovanni at the end of this series for the simple excuse that they are lazy now…

I'm so afraid they'll get a rushed departure…

I have never been so worried about their fate since "Best Wishes"……

Team Rocket (and Ash) deserve better then this.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly, people have been worried about Team Rocket being written off since BW. I definitely remember the topic coming up fairly often in BW and SM in particular. While I don't think it's as impossible for the writers to remove Team Rocket as it is for Ash, if only because he is the main character, I still have my doubts about them actually doing it. The Team Rocket trio are iconic in their own right, have been often used to tie in with the newest movie's distribution and are still pretty popular. I can still understand the concern, especially with how they've been handled in Journeys, but I personally don't think it's particularly likely to happen.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I think this series certainly has handled the TRio worse than any series, and it sucks cause they were actually all around enjoyable in SM. Now we see them significantly less than any other series and for most of the series, they don't even have their own Pokemon cause of that dumb gacha machine.

 

[JinksChow]

I'm willing to give the anime staff the benefit of the doubt for now regarding TRio's recent lack of appearance, if only because James' voice actor was previously diagnosed with COVID-19, so maybe they weren't able to come in for any recording sessions lately.

However, I really do hope that TRio will be appearing more in JN soon. Seriously, I just looked at Jessie and James' Bulbapedia pages, and it turns out nobody has even bothered to update the anime section of their pages to include their most recent adventures during JN, probably because they've been so inconsequential during JN. Only Meowth and the overall Team Rocket Trio page has been updated to reference JN.

 

[Silktree]

It's no secret that I prefer this series to most, but there are things that bother me:

1. Kanto supposedly has the most representation, but does it really? The only locations that felt like Kanto were Pallet Town, Pewter Museum and the Power Plant (which was randomly moved to Vermilion). No, a PWC episode starring Bea doesn't count (although the Fighting Dojo actually mirrored the games).

2. A depiction of Vermilion City that lacks Lt. Surge, S.S. Anne and Diglett's Cave, may as well be a random port city. What would have been wrong with Ash and Go working for Oak, visiting Pallet every 5 episodes or so? For that matter, no region should be left out for more than 15 episodes.

3. Lucario is a forced addition that reeks of "oops, why didn't we do this in DP or XY?" It doesn't even promote the upcoming games, which lack Mega Evolution. What reason does Ash have to use Sirfetch'd (which he hasn't used in 6 months) when Mega Lucario has more going for it? Gengar and Dracofish also lack screentime.

4. It's okay that Ash is focusing on his new team, but can we not get some foreshadowing that he'll have to use some of his reserves to measure up to the likes of Cynthia and Leon? I am not even a fan of most of his stronger Pokemon (excluding Charizard), but if he needed them for the Battle Frontier and Sinnoh League, why not against the strongest trainers in the world? Granted, this will only be impactful if he Ash has to battle most or all of the Master Class opponents, rather than just two.

5. Ash needs an actual rival with similar accomplishments under their belt, not just the region-specific gym leaders and champions to gawk at. I am not sad about Paul not coming back, though.

6. Go should have a full team. We do see Raichu, Scizor and Flygon every now and then, and they do stand out, but they haven't done all that much. Golurk, Heracross, Aerodactyl and Absol deserve more love considering they got their own episodes, too.

7. More to the point, Project Mew episodes should require Go to use a wide ensemble of Pokemon to move around and handle obstacles. Ash and Tsurugi hinder Go's development; he needs Gary to look down on him instead.

8. It's hard to complain about Chloe when she's the third wheel, but I don't undestand why Yamper is basically a pet. I like what the writers are doing with Eevee, but I dread the culmination being Gigantamax (that honestly wouldn't make sense) or a new Eeveelution closer to Sylveon than the actually good ones. All of Chloe's eggs have been put in one basket, but I've enjoyed her episodes.

9. Team Rocket should be having a field day in a catching-driven series, but that isn't the case. Has it occurred to the writers that all those gacha Pokemon were caught by other Team Rocket members? Who cares for them? It could have been TRio, but we only saw a glimpse of that in Grookey's debut.

10. The Ho-Oh and Mewtwo episodes really pissed me off in how they not only went nowhere, but they also downgraded the original series. It's gotten to the point where a homage episode like the Unown one might be the only acceptable way to revisit "special" Pokemon. Come to think of it, the Lugia scene was a simple Movie 2 homage, which worked. What worries me is how Mew will be handled; all that setup should go beyond whether or not Go will catch it (I don't think he should).

 

[FelipePR]

My opinion is suspect, since I'm watching few episodes, which are, still, previously selected by myself. Considering this, I don't believe Journeys is the worst series, but the second, just ahead of BW, which definitely made me give up on the anime for a while.

Recently, the increased focus on Ash's rise in Pokémon World Championship, and the reappearance of old familiar names, have me excited about the anime. The anime still has, however, episodes that are extremely foolish and idiosyncratic, like JN082.

I never thought I would say that, but I miss Pokémon Sun and Moon and its good slice of life episodes.

 

[Enzo]

I think this series certainly has handled the TRio worse than any series, and it sucks cause they were actually all around enjoyable in SM. Now we see them significantly less than any other series and for most of the series, they don't even have their own Pokemon cause of that dumb gacha machine.

I say this as someone who doesn't even likes the TRio and is almost too close to hating them: seeing SM, a series that treated the TRio surprisingly well and that even left me shooked that I was actually caring about them in the story, being followed immediatly by JN, a series that mistreats them a lot and barely cares about them... ngl, I never thought that I would say this, but that one stings, even to me. I can only wonder how much it might hurt for someone who actually enjoys and cares about them.

It's like being fed a delicous steak dinner than being force-fed drywall in your next meal.

 

[Ghost Diplocaulus]

3. Lucario is a forced addition that reeks of "oops, why didn't we do this in DP or XY?" It doesn't even promote the upcoming games, which lack Mega Evolution.

To be fair, it does promote BDSP and Legends, since those are centered around Gen 4, of which Lucario is practically the mascot of.

 

[Unireon]

To be fair, it does promote BDSP and Legends, since those are centered around Gen 4, of which Lucario is practically the mascot of.

Then, Mega Lucario shouldn't have been featured.
It would mislead some people into thinking that they could get it in BDSP.

I like the TRio, when they are used in moderation and not in every episode.
But Journeys is practically playing them as generic villains with little to no characterization.
A result of tripping them of actually owned Pokemon.

Gou doesn't need anything, besides a tone-down.
He is all over the place, his goal is what moves the plots most of the time.

 

[FelipePR]

Yeah, I don't see too many complaints about it or a centralizing complaint. However, I think Max was annoying and Ash was pretty selfish/jerkish regarding his Gym Battles; do you know how many episodes started off with the gang wanting to do something and him basically saying "No! My Gym Battle first! Deal with it!"

- The old good Ash, a hero who, at times, was not as noble as expected.

 

[Alola]

Then, Mega Lucario shouldn't have been featured.
It would mislead some people into thinking that they could get it in BDSP.

Hmm. Then with that logic, the anime shouldn't feature Pokémon, characters/cameos, locations, mechanics, etc. that aren't present in the latest main series games to go with it?

The anime advertises the franchise and adapts material from the games, but it's not 100% beholden to it. And who knows? It may just as well encourage people into acquiring the games where they can use Mega Lucario.

 

[FelipePR]

And this is why I hated the formula change starting with SM, but honestly Ash’s journey should have ended at Kalos with his and Serena’s kid being the new protagonist or them ending the anime all together

i agree with this. XYZ had the most obvious possible ending, with it going out with a legit shonen-style story.
XY was amazing, and it really should have ended like those.

I agree with you, the change between XYZ, the saga closest to a shonen, and Sun and Moon, a children's slice of life, was quite abrupt. I can't say if the anime should have ended in XYZ, but Sun and Moon revamped the wheel in an incalculable way, so I feared I wasn't watching Pokémon anymore.

However, I have to point out that Sun and Moon is, by no means, a bad series. Just very different from what we were used to. Actually, when I started watching Sun and Moon, I was quite surprised by the quality of some episodes.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Then, Mega Lucario shouldn't have been featured.
It would mislead some people into thinking that they could get it in BDSP.

By that same logic, Ash shouldn't have access to his Z-Moves either since you can't get them in any of the current games. It just sounds so weird to me when I don't think people are going to get BD/SP information out of Journeys. Information on the games are pretty wide spread during the pre-release season, so unless you actively avoid any Pokemon sites, I'm not sure how people would be mislead into thinking Mega Evolution is going to be in BD/SP because of Journeys.

 

[Unireon]

Time to use the target audience to make a point.

Children are not that into Pokemon sites and are prone to assume.

And the anime is also a mean to promote the games.