Alola League: Overall Thoughts

[BigDocFan]

With the Alola league over, I thought I would create a thread where we can discuss our overall thoughts of the Alola League

 

[Panky..]

It was decent overall. The battles ranged either from average to well done with the one exception being Hau against Ash. I'm glad the writer learned from his mistakes and didn't botch the finale. One problem I've had is the budget allocation that led to weird animation issues, won't go into much detail here.
And Bewear/Stufful along with TRio scenes wasted so much time.

Overall, better than Kanto and definitely Unova (nothing can beat that shit in terms of being the worst), slightly below Hoenn .

 

[BigDocFan]

I'm disappointed that some characters who had potential didn't go far, Plumeria would have been nice

Guzma was brilliant, his battles were so savage, especially against Lana

Faba vs Ash had potential but was too short

Team Rocket were pointless, would have preferred them to be completely absent, that was one thing I liked about the Unova League

 

[Gengarzilla]

Better than the last one and I will die on this hill, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it the absolute best. Maybe it's in my top three.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

It was a fairly good league.

At first just reading the concept alone made me thought that this was gonna be a massive trainwreck of such incredible proportions (everyone including your nan can enter the league? Seriously folks?) and it didn't get off to the best start either. Most of the early battles felt like mere fodder at best excluding Guzma's first battle (the Jessie and James one especially disappointed me for how wildly out of character the two were acting and even Gladion vs Lillie failed to deliver) and Ash vs Hau…

yeah, let's forget that crap ever happened.

After that mess and starting with Kiawe vs Sophocles however the quality somehow starts to go up a bit and the later battles became more enjoyable to watch (my favourite easily being Ash vs Guzma which was incredibly well done) which thankfully is my cup of tea and although there are still problems with Ash vs Gladion's battle (some parts being lacklustre) it still felt like a very satisfying payoff for both characters (especially Ash).

Animation wise, it was pretty lacklustre for the most part. There were still some good moments like some of Kiawe and Gladion's battle and of course Ash vs Guzma. But to me, the zaniness and flow that other leagues gave us felt like it was missing in action for the most part and even the final league battle animation-wise felt choppy and stilted.
Though I'm guessing that the Ni no Kuni film might have had something to do with this seeing how OLM is animating that film.
That and unlike XY they had no break whatsoever.

Decent enough league that got better as it progressed. It's a lot better than I had thought and in my books I'm not even sure whether to put it in second or third place alongside Sinnoh and Kalos (second half anyway, the first half kinda sucked).

Well done Kukui, your league surprised me in more ways than one.

 

[Takumi_Tarou]

disappointed because ash vs hau didn't let feel the win legit at all.

 

[BigDocFan]

I was disappointed that most of the battles were 1-1

The Battle Royal opener was unique, enjoyable but short

 

[Takumi_Tarou]

I was disappointed that most of the battles were 1-1

I was okay with it, but like you said the battles was short and i didn't like the whole gags while battling.

The Battle Royal opener was unique, enjoyable but short

Battle Royal would be good if they implemented it in a right way, the one hit battles was kind of boring.

 

[UxieLover1994]

I see Ash winning this league as mainly an author's saving throw after the backlash against the Kalos League. Compare my response to the Kalos League...

I knew that Ash would lose against Alain. I'd say "better luck in Alola", but it is already foregone conclusion that Ash will lose in the Alola League as well. And the Generation VIII league. And Generation IX and X and so on. All this hype for nothing, and proof that Ash will never ever win a league.

The anime has officially jumped the shark.

...to my response to the Alola League

Ash... won? Does this mean Tarzan returns to Kingdom Hearts now?

If anything, Ash losing Alola (and then Galar, and the IX and X Leagues) would deal more damage to the anime's reputation in general, causing long time fans to give up like I almost did in 2016. If it were not for the bad handling of Ash vs. Hau, this would've been no doubt the best league since Hoenn. But letting Ash win this time would be enough to keep the anime afloat for awhile in regards to both positive reception, provided the September 29 reveal isn't confirmed as a reboot.

 

[SinnohBoi]

It was awful. Where did the budget go? Seriously, where did it go? That was the cheapest looking league by some mile. It's obvious the ratings have tanked given the quality we have just seen. I loved the result, but that battle was god awful.

 

[IncineROAR]

I'm happy Ash won a league, but it was as much of a dumpster fire as the reason of the SM series. I'm not trashing the fact Ash had a victory.

No full 6 on 6 battles as in previous leagues.
No real "rival" (Hau and Gladion had potential but the terrible writing...)
Ash's team really wasn't that exciting

I could keep listing my gripes, but I'm not. I'm just glad this series is ending, I'm happy Ash won a league, but they had him win a very lazily thrown together league in a terrible anime series.

 

[BigDocFan]

Paul was a great rival because he and Ash had many battles throughout the series, Gladion and Hau had potential but they had few battles prior to the league

 

[Takumi_Tarou]

Paul was a great rival because he and Ash had many battles throughout the series, Gladion and Hau had potential but they had few battles prior to the league

They introduce the rivals too late and short.
Especially ash and hau does not even have much history that i call them rivals at all, what is sad.
SM series was just too much fixated on lame gags rather than let making the characters a real process and development.

 

[Johnny Boy]

I’m glad that Ash can finally call himself a champion. But this just feels like the writers just said “HERE DAMN!” after the backlash from the Kalos league.

Meh, at least my boy is a winner.

 

[BigDocFan]

They introduce the rivals too late and short.
Especially ash and hau does not even have much history that i call them rivals at all, what is sad.
SM series was just too much fixated on lame gags rather than let making the characters a real process and development.

Agreed, hopefully Galar and its league will improve, especially with rivals

 

[KrspaceT]

.....I feel a lot of the ideas had better potential than their executions, and that Rowlet fight will always infuriate me. However every mon had a moment to shine, the last two fights were pretty good for Ash, and there are worse ways to win your first league than Ash did.

I mean given the writer I was expecting far worse.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I see people are still ragging on about the little incident with Ash vs Hau. It's been a month now, don't people move on from this stuff? And, heck, where was that fluffy of intense criticism when Rowlet dozed off against Hala?

Personally I think folks are just overreacting and becoming unreasonably obsessed over the moment. I agree that the timing was weird but it wasn't that big a deal if you ask me.

 

[KrspaceT]

I see people are still ragging on about the little incident with Ash vs Hau. It's been a month now, don't people move on from this stuff? And, heck, where was that fluffy of intense criticism when Rowlet dozed off against Hala?

Personally I think folks are just overreacting and becoming unreasonably obsessed over the moment. I agree that the timing was weird but it wasn't that big a deal if you ask me.

It was a joke that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, let's just put it like that.

(....If Rowlet appears in Reset Bloodlines, he is getting Sleep Talk.....)

 

[BigDocFan]

I see people are still ragging on about the little incident with Ash vs Hau. It's been a month now, don't people move on from this stuff? And, heck, where was that fluffy of intense criticism when Rowlet dozed off against Hala?

Personally I think folks are just overreacting and becoming unreasonably obsessed over the moment. I agree that the timing was weird but it wasn't that big a deal if you ask me.

That counts as one of the worst moments I've seen in the anime

 

[Gengarzilla]

That counts as one of the worst moments I've seen in the anime

There we go, because I'd put Ash's complete ineptitude vs Elesa as infinitely higher.