Alola League: Overall Thoughts

[Peppermint Phoenix]

Why couldn't it have any full battles? Just why? I'm so sad about it. Ash could have used his Oak mons there was no good reason not to have full battles.

 

[PinkIceFox]

Of course Ash would finally win a league when his team consists of only 5 pokemon, two of which are not fully evolved starters (ONE BEING A STAGE ONE), one being a second stage mythical that evolves on a bunch of them melting together and not through actual battle experience, an actually fully evolved pokemon, and that freaking rat.

Congrats, Ash. Y'all won the baby league.

If it wasn't obvious, I'm about as impressed as I was when I worked in a preschool and one of the kids managed to figure out what shape is what.

 

[P_S_B]

The League started OK, before gradually getting less and less good until we got to the atrocity that was Ash vs. Hau, which remains one of the anime's lowest points alongside Ash vs. Elesa, Ash vs. Hapu etc. Fortunately after that the quality drastically improved and remained mostly a constant for the rest of the League, with only a couple of lackluster moments in the finals being Melmetal and the Lycanroc spamming the same moves over and over again, but neither of those were awful and I was pleased to see that Fujisaku is improving his battle-writing skills following his somewhat rough start. The now obligatory mid-league breather episode even managed to not be awful, giving Mimo something to do other than existing once every 4-6 months or so.

As others have said the budget was poorly managed, with an overuse of stock footage in the final along with too much screentime devoted to Bewear and the robot thing, some of which had footage reused in later episodes and in one case in the same damn interminable scene.

A better League than Kanto and a much much MUCH better league than Unova, but not quite as good as Hoenn or Sinnoh. I would put it slightly above Kalos as although Kalos had better battles, it was far too rushed to really be any good overall, something the Alola League thankfully didn't repeat.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I can't comment too much on the League itself yet, but I do just kind of love seeing how many people online seemed to be genuinely happy over Ash's victory. It's the exact opposite of the Kalos League in that regard. People were understandably upset about the whole thing, but despite the Alola League not having nearly as much hype as the Kalos League did, the Alola League victory took Twitter by storm and even major sites were reporting it earlier today. I don't know how I'll feel about the Alola League and I still have plenty of issues with Ash's Alola team in general, but it is pretty sweet and heartwarming to see people genuinely being happy to see that Ash won a League.

 

[Almonds]

The one thing that disappoints me is that this kinda proves they could have given Ash a league win all along, but didn't. I'm happy Ash won but there were definitely times when he could have - and should have - won.

 

[P_S_B]

The one thing that disappoints me is that this kinda proves they could have given Ash a league win all along, but didn't. I'm happy Ash won but there were definitely times when he could have - and should have - won.

I'm fairly certain that they wanted to in XY&Z but someone higher up went over their heads and forced them to make him lose. It's pretty clear from both a storytelling perspective and the way some of the show staff reacted on Twitter that it was not their decision that he lost. I can only assume that the monumental backlash from fans across the world following Alain's victory shamed that higher-up either out of the company or at least into silence this time around.

 

[Beatsy Ray]

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.

I guess you can chalk that up to the league being basically twice as long as most other leagues. The animation was awesome at times, but would often drop mid-battle with multiple reused animations. For some perspective, I rewatched the episode with the Brock and Misty gym battles a few days ago and they looked way better than anything in the league. I wouldn't call it bad, but having so much reused animation in the final battle feels kind of cheap.

Overall I'd rate this in about the middle of all the other leagues and I really did like like how long this one was. To be fair the Kalos league basically skipped most of the tournament with a montage until the semi-finals. I guess the question is: Is it better to show the whole thing, including all the subpar moments, or to just skip and save all the budget for the end?

 

[Cresselia92]

This YouTuber pretty much says what I think about the League as a whole and Ash’s victory.


View: https://youtu.be/Q1pzOGGRCmo


For a few bullet points:

• While he is happy that Ash won, the victory felt “empty”, mainly due to the lax vibes of Alola and lack of high stacks from previous series (namely Sinnoh and Kalos).

• The final battle itself may be one of the better battles of this League, but it pales in comparison to great choreographies like Ash vs Gary, Ash vs Paul or even Ash vs Drake. Those are battles that many people still remember and felt like true finales. This… not as much.

• The Alolan team is one hot mess. Sure, Ash may have the mythical Melmetal, but the full team still isn’t nearly as impressive as past teams.

• Ash’s Charizard sleeping during the League? Ash, you’re disqualified! Ash’s Rowlet sleeping during the League? Sorry, Hau, but you are the loser of this match! Ash, you won!

What. The. Heck?!

But yes, these are some of the points that irritate the most about this League. It felt way too much like an apology for upsetting fans back during the Kalos League than a culmination and epitome of 22 years of Ash’s journey.

It’s Kingdom Hearts 3 all over again. You may have gotten what you wanted, but the result is totally unsatisfying.

Riddle me this, anyone who is happy about Ash. Ignoring the fact that he won at long last, do you feel that this kind of result and the way it was handled was worthy the 22 years wait?

I personally feel really cheated. 22 years is basically 85% of my lifetime. 22 years spent to get… this.

I wish I could be happy for Ash. It’s nice that he has a victory under his belt since Orange. But seriously, if we get past the gold, this doesn’t have anything that screams “Finale after 22 years of wait”. Not at all.

 

[Rockapheller]

The one thing that disappoints me is that this kinda proves they could have given Ash a league win all along, but didn't. I'm happy Ash won but there were definitely times when he could have - and should have - won.

I don't want to pick the bad in good, and as a matter of fact, I am somewhat glad that Ash got a victory. However, I can't help but think there were more appealing and appropriate times for Ash's victory. Any of Hoenn, Sinnoh or Kalos league was a good opportunity for Ash to get a victory that he tried/trained/craved for so hard. A slice of life series in which barely any good battle took place prior to the league was not good enough for Ash to break the over-two-decades-pattern all of a sudden, in my humble opinion.

 

[BigDocFan]

I'm still disappointed over Ash's victory over Hau, sheer plot convenience, especially as Decidueye was more powerful

 

[DynamicFusion]

Better than Unova and Kanto and just slightly better than Kalos. Doesn't beat any other leagues tho.

 

[Lucifer Angel]

There's no way Ash should have won against Hau if Rowlet's sleeping on it's own much like Charizard was in Indigo. Then Ash should have been DQ'd just like before he only won the match cuz's he's the main character.

 

[Panky..]

There's no way Ash should have won against Hau if Rowlet's sleeping on it's own much like Charizard was in Indigo. Then Ash should have been DQ'd just like before he only won the match cuz's he's the main character.

You can't really count the Indigo League's rules for every league because of how nonsensical they were. I mean, things like status conditions and substitutions being resulted in the Pokemon being 'knocked out' is straight up bs.
Also, Charizard was DQ'd for refusing to obey its trainers, and you can't really force a Pokemon to listen to you.

 

[BigDocFan]

There's no way Ash should have won against Hau if Rowlet's sleeping on it's own much like Charizard was in Indigo. Then Ash should have been DQ'd just like before he only won the match cuz's he's the main character.

I think that was a case of terrible writing and/or the referee annoyed at Ash arriving at the league late and wanted the match over quickly. Plus lets not forget Happy defeating Squirtle with Sleep Powder

 

[Daenerys]

I don't think the referee at the Indigo League was at fault; he was supposed to be impartial and since Charizard took a nap instead of listening to Ash, I get why the referee considered him to be unable (or in that specific case, unwilling) to battle.

That said, Hau versus Ash was complete BS. Fujisaku seemed to go out of his way to make the battle as clownish as possible. He's the king of Pokemon memes at this point.

 

[KrspaceT]

...Rowlet v Decidueye is the Dexit of the Alola League: the league did plenty of other things right and well (if less than Sword and Shield with jerk rivals, non Gen 1 Regional forms, and new evolutions among other long held requests) but that one thing drags it down utterly.

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Overall, a nice League. Not the best, and had some pretty stupid moments (like the Hau battle), but overall, I felt it was enjoyable, and seeing Ash get his first win in a big League wasn't dampened by the fact that the finals were 3 vs 3. At least not too much.

 

[Nicolas721]

This league is hard to compare with the others, because:

1. It lasted almost double the episodes they normally last. And that made it possibly the first well-paced league since Hoenn in my opinion.
2. The number of important characters participating was higher and the number of Pokémon used in the final rounds was much lower.
3. Ash won.

But as for what it is, it's one of the most enjoyable parts of SM. The battles on the first half ranged from meh to good and the ones in the second half ranged from decent to great, with only one bad battle in the middle. It was a very refreshing chance of pace after the lack of battles in the series and it was great how they tried to link them to the characters' development. However, it's far from perfect, as there were lots of missed opportunities for interactions specially in the beginning and very average animation.

 

[Rockapheller]

Compared to battles for the rest of the series, the league itself was surprisingly well and pleasing to my eyes almost the entire time. But what bothers me the most is that all the classmates making it to the top places, while some interesting CotD's being wasted during the eliminations; such as Pikala, Plumerina, Oluolu, Kahili. Instead of Sophocles or Lana, for example, any of these would have been a better opportunity imho.

 

[Johtohfiller]

My thoughts are basically "I wish the whole series had been more like this". The battles were mostly good, Z-moves were used tastefully, and characterization was handled well. I especially liked everything involving Guzma. I'm puzzled why they didn't introduce him sooner and just do more with Team Skull in general, but at least they used the time he did get well.

If the whole series had been this good I don't think it would top DP or XY for me, but I could see it coming in third.