Do you consider DA its own saga?

[SammyW27]

I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to see what others thought.

To me, Decolora Adventures feels like its in the same place as the Orange Islands: a busy work filler saga made to pass the time between Generations. The action has moved away from the region, all kinds of Pokémon appear after seeing mostly Gen Fivers, there are guest appearances by older characters (not to mention Alexa) and stories revolve around...whatever, in place of Gen 5's storylines. Yet everyone seems to count it as a part of Isshu (kinda like how some people see the Orange Islands as part of Kanto for some reason).

What about you? Do you see DA as its own saga (regardless of how short and pointless) or just an extension of Isshu

 

[Perpetual_Phoenix]

Interesting........could the same thing be said about the Battle Frontier?

 

[Morningstar]

Interesting........could the same thing be said about the Battle Frontier?

Not really, the battle frontier was adapted from the games, Orange and Decolora were not

 

[Olive]

I would like to point out that, unlike the Orange Archipelago and the Battle Frontier, the Decolore Islands didn't feature any sort of league or challenge that Ash was trying to complete. In Orange, Ash was trying, and succeeded, in challenging the Orange League and in the Battle Frontier Ash challenged and defeated the Frontier Brains and May had her Kanto Contest arc. The lack of any objective is, in my eyes, what differentiates these two sagas from the Decolore Adventures. Not to say that plenty of notable events didn't occur in that arc, but the saga didn't really have a plot of its own like its predecessors. For that reason, I personally consider the Decolore arc more or less a string of fillers to show the group's journey from Unova to Kanto and not really a separate saga all on its own.

 

[Life]

I consider it more of an arc than a saga, as a saga to me is when Ash is actively challenging gyms for his badge quest. Even though Orange Islands and Battle Frontier had their own form of a badge quest, I would still consider them arcs as they don't feature some sort of tournament at the end. And for the most part, the traveling group of the previous region stayed the same and didn't change.

 

[Morningstar]

>the traveling group of the previous region stayed the same and didn't change.

By that logic, Johto was an arc as well. Not to mention the face that Orange Islands did in fact change the traveling group (Tracey)...

Okay that makes no sense

 

[Life]

>the traveling group of the previous region stayed the same and didn't change.

By that logic, Johto was an arc as well. Not to mention the face that Orange Islands did in fact change the traveling group (Tracey)...

Okay that makes no sense

You took out the part that was supposed to make it make sense. :\\

And for the most part, the traveling group of the previous region stayed the same and didn't change.

I mentioned it as an add on reason for why I thought of DA as an arc. The main thing that I believe makes DA not an arc, as I stated above, was that it did not have its own league, which Johto does indeed have.

Though technically Kanto and Johto make up the Original Series, which should really just be counted as its own saga instead of Kanto and Johto being thought of as separate.

 

[Morningstar]

You took out the part that was supposed to make it make sense. :\\

I was referring to my own comment, not yours.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I don't consider DA its own saga really. To me, it was nothing more than a bunch of mostly pointless filler episodes with no direction. Besides Oak catching a Rotom and introducing us to some XY Pokemon, pretty much nothing happened. Its nothing more than a continuation of BW to me. It would've been nice if they gave it a small 4 badge league like the Orange Islands had.

 

[Hidden Mew]

DA wasn't really much of a saga. It was just a small arc that mostly consisted of filler episodes. There weren't a lot of important events aside from Ash meeting Alexa, Iris and Cilan leaving and then Ash returning to Pallet Town only to go along with Alexa to Kalos. Maybe Professor Oak capturing Rotom could be considered important enough, but that's about all that I can remember. It was basically a means to stall the anime until the new generation was ready to be promoted.

While the same applies to both the Orange Islands and the Battle Frontier and the former was also anime only content, both of those arcs had a goal in mind. Ash, as well as May in the case of the Battle Frontier, worked towards their goals. I wouldn't label them as filler arcs per say because of that, along with how there were plenty of important events in both arcs. In the case of DA, it was just about their journey back to Kanto. There wasn't any time to force in a new goal for Ash or his friends since they were constantly going on different boats to reach Kanto. It is still part of BW, but I wouldn't say that it's different enough from Unova either. The second half of BW did feature some older Pokemon if I recall correctly and the main difference with DA is how they were able to travel from island to island instead of from town to town like they normally do. It's basically a small arc of mostly filler episodes that doesn't have a lot of progress and just exists.

 

[1rkhachatryan]

Yes, I do consider it to be separate from Unova as it really had nothing to do with it. They left Unova completely by that point. Also it got it's own theme song and even a new traveling partner.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

In geographical sense NO. Decolora islands aren't part of Unova being archipelago set between that and Kanto region.

Storywise they dont seem like extension of Unova either. With any plot tied to Best Wishes being shelved and left resolved or unresolved there.

Such as Ash progression toward dream, Cilan connoisseur career, rivals like Burgundy or Langley who disappeared from face of earth, Team Plasma and peculiar characers like N with his influence on storyilne etc.

Im not even sure i could call Decolora adventures saga. Because it was not only shorter than other transition journeys such as Orange Islands or Battle Frontier(lasting for about 20 episodes).

But it also didn't contain any real objective and plot to follow. There was no real development, characters learning something new,follow up from previous established conflicts between main cast and others, their careers or tasks set to accomplish. To justify Ash and friend travels through those islands feeling like on giant waste of time which most people didn't wanted.

Granted other fillers arcs were set in different places too not having much connection to main regions.

But at least in Orange Islands GS ball was introduced, we had Ash entering Orange league championship, subplot revolved around Misty crush was more explored aswell her water master career through meeting idol from E4 or battling other trainers like Marina for example.

And in Battle Frontier(even though it was insulting in how little it resembled Kanto through setting, presence of older characters etc) we had follow up on May contest career and unsolved conflicts with rivals, Ash entered heavily challenging tasks in overcoming Frontier Brains after being noticed for his out of box thinking and smart strategies. Making step further in becoming recognized pokemon trainer and master.

It felt like those saga had some purpose behind them making journey more rewarding to watch.

Decolora islands were treated well as nothing more than uneventful vacation to stall until new games come out and prepare audience for Iris and Cilan goodbye. Only significant detail happening there was introduction of Kalos gym leader Viola sister Alexa which served as intermediator in getting Ash know about Kalos igniting his interest to go there. That and Iris meeting Clair setting up follow up on her dragon master dream in future.

Even initial reason behind journey through Decolora such as Iris and Cilan wanting to visit and see Ash homeland regon(Kanto)was defeated when both literally as soon as they hit Vermilion town departed for Johto.

Shame because if writers didn't wasted World tournament, Decolora could had been filled wih mini competitions being part of one big event returning some popular familiar faces gaining development through that, give Ash, Iris, Cilan way to hone their skills and advance their dreams. Making journey meaningful, thrilling and full of memorable content.

But for all intents and purposes i view Decolora islands as entirely separate adventure which was part of Best Wishes generation only in nominal sense.

 

[MattySadler]

I just view DA as an extension of Unova, personally. I mean, it was clearly just filler as nothing notable really happened. It also just wasn't very exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed the Orange Islands filler saga though.

If they'd included some sort of league or competition, and perhaps some Pokemon additions (like Lapras & Snorlax in the Orange Islands, etc), or even just some evolutions to the gang's current Pokemon (because let's face it, many of Ash's Unova Pokemon could do with an evolution!), I am 99% sure I'd have enjoyed it.

Not really relevant but a sidenote: I'm still disappointed Ash never returned to Johto to challenge the other Battle Frontier. That would've been great!

 

[Muur]

Filler Arc with nostalgia shoe horned in to lessen the impact on people, as they ended the League and badge quest too early.

 

[Lukah]

No. I consider it a sloppy, lazy, failed period after they gave up on that saga.

 

[gentlefeather]

No, it's still a part of Best Wishes. It's just a mass of terrible episodes that were made to fill time until XY started.

 

[Lufenium]

Eh, not really. It feels like a continuation of the Unova series. In terms of filler, the Orange Islands are still the most satisfying.

At least with the OI and the Kanto Battle Frontier there felt like there was some purpose to the journey. With the Decolore saga it just felt like pointless meandering.