Do you think Ash's JN Team is the Worst Team he's ever had?

[Rainbow-Rain]

I've seen quite a few people on other Social media say this.

Some of the reasoning for this includes:

-The JN Team being too pandery

-The Lack of chemistry/interactions on Ash's Team

-The Lack of a Starter

-Gengar's terrible treatment

-Lucario Shilling

-Pikachu hogging every battle

-Lack of Screentime all around


What do you guys think?

Personally speaking I think Ash's Team is fine in concept. But it'sa blotches execution.

Ash doesn't need a Starter for his team to be good, but I do agree that they need more screentime and Gengar really needs a win badly.

They also should have more interactions but the lack of it is not something exclusive to just Ash's Pokemon..... Glances at Goh's Starters

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

@Enzo @Kurolegacy @A Wild Luxray @Ghost Diplocaulus @Hidden Mew @Unireon @AnimeJewel246 @PkmnTrainerV

I've got another Venting Thread just ripe for the picking!

It's about Ash's Team instead of Goh's for once to shake it up a little. Bon appetite!

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

While the team doesn't look entirely bad on paper, its one of the most poorly developed teams in Pokemon anime history.

-Lack of a Galar starter really bothers me. It doesn't feel right at all.
-Not enough Galar Pokemon. I mean there's only 2 on his team total and they get hardly any focus.
-We don't often see them interacting with each other or bonding with Ash much.
-They only tend to appear if they're battling or getting an upgrade.
-Their "stories" are often rushed.

 

[Superior Serperior]

I think their development has been pretty bad or at least lacking in consistency, but I would still put it above his Johto team, half of which was just his Kanto team. I appreciate that all 5 of his JN team members have personality traits we can point to and have all at least been used in some important battles, compared to mons like Noctowl and Phanpy that never really did anything or Heracross which got put on a bus like 3 gyms into the region.

I think "pander-y" is a silly complaint, honestly. I like that they haven't been afraid to have him catch strong things from early on- one of JN's strong points imo is not pretending Ash has reset and recognizing him as an experienced trainer. Really, what this team needs is just more consistent screentime. It kind of feels like his BW team but without the benefit of having to balance rotation- even then, Oshawott Pignite Scraggy and Krookodile had personalities, grew stronger in battle, and had a decent amount of screentime, something Dragonite and Lucario can really only say now.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Without a doubt it’s one of his worst teams. While if you just take things at face value it may feel like an amazing team, just like with the premise of the series, it falls apart under scrutiny.

-The team lacks any kind of innermost dynamic amongst itself with the Pokémon never really interacting or forming any kind of relationship. They’re basically akin to being coworkers and nothing more despite the fact that they should be akin to a family or at very least friends.
-Far too little emphasis is put on Galar Pokémon with this team. Galar is the latest region with an abundance of Pokémon to explore and yet Galar has received the least amount of Pokémon in Ash’s ownership with the series looking to end with him only owning 2 (and one is the evolved form of a Pokémon originally from Kanto). Line that up with all his past teams and it becomes very apparent.
-Development is rushed and tends to be the only time that his Pokémon get any focus while the majority of the time the writers pretend that he only has Pikachu. While there are those who like that Ash caught fully evolved Pokémon this time around, that resulted in even less situations for his Pokémon to be developed since they were basically full grown with little to nothing to serve to develop them.
-Lack of a Galar starter. While there are those who find that that tradition is better being broken, Ash is the face of the Pokémon anime and, with them having not given him a single one, Galar is the only region in which there would be no possible starter representation going forward. Even with Greninja released, there’s always a possibility of return but with them having given all the starters to Go, should he leave the cast, there would be zero representation from Galar’s trio.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Honestly no. I think that you can make a good argument that his Journeys team is one of the more frustrating teams or one of the weakest development wise, but I don't think it's bad enough to be Ash's worst team of all. His Johto and BW teams were significantly worse. Taking so long to get his Johto Pokemon due to still having his Kanto starters definitely didn't really help, but even then they were handled poorly throughout the saga. Totodile was only used in one Gym battle, Noctowl had one shining moment against Morty only to basically fade in the background, Phanpy is the poster child of a late series capture not getting really anything memorable to do and Heracross was sent to Professor Oak's Lab way too soon. Aside from Cyndaquil and maybe Bayleef, Ash's Johto Pokemon were treated pretty poorly, especially when his Kanto Pokemon took center stage again starting from the battle against Clair.

His BW mostly suffered from the rotation issue. Despite catching so many Pokemon, Ash still mainly relied on Pikachu, the Unova Starters and Krookodile. Most of his reverses felt boring or unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. Going back to having mostly unevolved starters definitely felt like a step backwards after both AG and DP allowed for Ash's starters to evolve too.

Ash's Journeys team definitely has its fair share of problems. I think it was a huge mistake for them to give Ash these mostly fully evolved Pokemon right off the bat. I think that's a huge reason as to why they don't get much screentime, especially Dragonite and Gengar. They could still do more with them, but since they're already fully evolved, there isn't a lot of room for growth beyond new moves or upgrades. I also think it was a bad choice to not give Ash a Galar starter. At the very least, I think it could have given him something to work with since he'd have to train it more often than something like Dragonite. And no, the PWC should not have been a reason to not give him more unevolved Pokemon. It wasn't like he was battling more powerful trainers in the first two classes. Most of his opponents were one shot trainers. At the very least, I think he should have gotten more Galar Pokemon, but I think Journeys as a whole needs a better balance between old and new Pokemon. The lack of interactions definitely is a problem too, although I think that's more on Journeys as whole instead of an issue exclusive to Ash's team.

As for the pandering issue, I don't really think that's much of a problem, especially when people were pretty excited over Ash getting popular Pokemon like Dragonite, Gengar and Lucario at the start of the series. As much as I love that Ash has a Lucario, I would say that he didn't really need one or rather that it didn't need the popularity/merchandise boost from being caught by the main character. We would have gotten that life size Lucario plush toy regardless. The bigger issue is that aside from Lucario and maybe Sirfetch'd, his Pokemon haven't really gotten much attention. This is another issue for Journeys as a whole instead of being just on Ash's team, but it's pretty noticeable given that Pokemon like Dragonite or Gengar disappear unless he's in a battle. That makes it a lot harder to be invested in his Pokemon and to convey a bond between them and Ash.

It still has problems, but I think both Johto and BW are worse for me at this point.

 

[System Error]

I'd say Johto was the worst. Hidden Mew summed up most of my reasons above. It also kind of suffered from a rotation issue itself, except it was more of a "release or yeet to clear way" that was frustrating at times...only for a lot of them to come back anyway and overshadow the Johto ones in the end. Throw in Johto's filler-filled plodding pace, and yeah.

I'd personally put Journeys below BW, that said. One of BW's issues was arguably the rotation, but this is one series where rotation would've made sense - some of the Pokes are fanservice yes, so why not fanservice in the form of older Pokemon, which also would fit the big world tournament better? It's a bizarre choice to me. A lot of the other problems with it are arguably because of Journeys itself, that said. Say what you will about BW and its large cast of Ash's Pokemon, but it managed some development for most of them with a few sad exceptions (Palpitoad...) and let most of them have moments shine. From all I've been seeing and hearing, Journeys can't even do that much with a smaller cast.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Yes because they barely get any screentime and development and what development they get sucks. Their power level is BS.
Kanto every mon not named the starters was non existent but the starters development was phenomenal.
I think they handled Ash’s Johto team well.
Same with Hoenn, just wish Torkoal and Glalie got treated better.
Sinnoh did well but overfocused on Infernape which did Torterra dirty.
Unova rotation was a mess
Kalos started out good but turned into a complete tire fire by the time it turned into the Greninja Show
Alola gave way too much attention to Rowlet and Lycanroc but still developed its other members well
My rankings of Ashs teams:
1. Hoenn
2. Sinnoh
3. Alola
4. Johto
5. Kalos
6. Kanto
7. Unova
8. JN

 

[Gengarzilla]

Honestly? No. As some others have explained already, his Johto and Unova teams definitely have been worse. Noctowl in particular had only a slightly better time than Gengar with that one good performance against Morty and then being cucked over so hard in every other battle, most egregiously against Clair's Kingdra and Harrison's Steelix. I may be critical of Journeys but I cannot in good conscience rank this series last in every single itty bitty little detail yet.

 

[Unireon]

At least there were still team dynamics in Johto and Unova.
And that should be the main appeal of a team in any story.

Journeys' Team is very disjointed, its members having no real personalities hinders them from developing significant connections.
The writers did tease a rivalry between Kamon and Riolu, nothing came out of that.

Adding the fact that Galar should have got more representation, since the other regions were already featured.
But alas not only the staff decided to play favourites, they also dared to mislead us with Messon.

Lastly, this is the team with the Pokemon that Satoshi owns that I hate the most. Lucario.

 

[HiroHunter]

Yes. The Johto and Unova teams had better character, better development, and they didn't disappear as offen as the JN team. Theirs very little if anything good I can say about the JN team.

 

[R1ke]

Wdym by worst here

Worst pokemon? Nah. I genuinely like them. They have either interesting backstories (gengar), unique battle styles (sirfetchd and dracovish) or enjoyable personalities (dragonite and lucario sometimes). I can’t say the same for the likes of his BW team for example. Sans Krookodile, I honestly don’t care about any of them. They’re all so forgettable to me. Hell half the reason I wanna see these guys more is because I actually like them. I’m not seeing enough of a good thing and it’s upsetting.

Worst handling? Absolutely. Don’t need to explain why.

 

[Craiden]

Outside of the "lack of Galar Pokemon" reasoning, which is silly, the other reasons people point to are absolutely fair, though it is nice to see some people actually point out...that they all actually have distinctive personalities. And I do think Dragonite is a fairly very good-great Pokemon in the grand scheme of Ash's Pokemon, but outside of him, the argument is fair, and a lot of that is due to the fact that we...rarely see them, which is unfair to the Pokemon themselves, at the very least.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Outside of the "lack of Galar Pokemon" reasoning, which is silly, the other reasons people point to are absolutely fair, though it is nice to see some people actually point out...that they all actually have distinctive personalities. And I do think Dragonite is a fairly very good-great Pokemon in the grand scheme of Ash's Pokemon, but outside of him, the argument is fair, and a lot of that is due to the fact that we...rarely see them, which is unfair to the Pokemon themselves, at the very least.

I don’t really see how a lack of Galar Pokémon is a silly reasoning especially when it serves to exacerbate an issue that the series has with how much it shafted Galar in its native generation. The previous regions got their own dedicated sagas based in order to represent both them and their Pokémon and yet in this series, in spite of being the newest region, Galar’s representation is severely lacking with half of Ash’s team being Kanto Pokémon, a region that has had more than its share of representation. Hell, given the premise of the current saga and the fact that they seem to roll with Ash having the Pokémon he’s caught this series alone in a rotation, there’s literally no reason why they couldn’t allow for him to have more Galar representation on his team by letting him catch more than just 5 Pokémon period. Every prior region has given him no less than 5 Pokémon from a given region and yet here they give him an abysmal 2 from Galar. So I’d say that it’s not a silly thought that that in turn reflects badly on his current team.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

His B&W team is still worse because of how many Pokémon there were and so little time or good writing some of them got buuttt I'll be honest and say that his JN team is his second worst because of just how boring and dull they are thanks to the staff again, not bothering to give them barely any focus whatsoever because they think wacky hijinks are more important.

Gengar is easily the worst member right now with him having jobbed more than won (and no G-MAXing is gonna change that) but Sirfetch'd has completely petered out after his little arc, Dragonite (while my favourite of the team) hasn't been seen much until just now this week, they apparently think that Dracovish's little gag is all it ever does making me wonder why they even bothered giving it to Ash and my respect for Lucario died the minute they half-assed when Ash got his mega ring and key stone and their battle against Bea.

It's just so disappointing because this should be one of Ash's biggest teams but it really isn't. It's just a collection of strangers that hardly spend time with one another.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Reminder that this is the Team that's going to defeat CYNTHIA.

The team with the least amount of chemistry, screentime, and investment put into it.

 

[Kurolegacy]

Reminder that this is the Team that's going to defeat CYNTHIA.

The team with the least amount of chemistry, screentime, and investment put into it.

At that point I’d hope they at least start bringing reserves into the mix. At least they have solid foundation to build on that them being used against Cynthia would be believable.

 

[Sai]

They already confirmed you can't use 3 power ups in one battle, so that implies Ash likely won't only use his current team in every big Master class battle. And Infernape continues to appear on calendar and toy merch, and we got a little nod with AU Ash calling Infernape his ace. With Tomioka writing all the major battles lately and the continuity I'm sure he remembers setting up Infernape vs Cynthia back in DP

 

[Hidden Mew]

They already confirmed you can't use 3 power ups in one battle, so that implies Ash likely won't only use his current team in every big Master class battle. And Infernape continues to appear on calendar and toy merch, and we got a little nod with AU Ash calling Infernape his ace. With Tomioka writing all the major battles lately and the continuity I'm sure he remembers setting up Infernape vs Cynthia back in DP

I wouldn't think that Infernape appearing on calendars and toy merchandise necessarily mean that it will be used against Cynthia. It's definitely not impossible, but considering that they would want to feature the Sinnoh starters to tie in with the Sinnoh games, I don't think that it makes the idea of Infernape being brought back for that match necessarily more likely.

Plus, I still have a hard time believing that they'll use Ash's older Pokemon. If his current team is strong enough to get him to the Ultra Class and then into the Master Class, I don't know why Ash would suddenly use his reserves. I'm not against the idea, even though I think it would probably just make the problems with his Journeys team worse if they aren't even able to get battle screentime, but if they were interested in making use of Ash's reserves, I think that they would have done something more with them by now.

 

[Sai]

I wouldn't think that Infernape appearing on calendars and toy merchandise necessarily mean that it will be used against Cynthia. It's definitely not impossible, but considering that they would want to feature the Sinnoh starters to tie in with the Sinnoh games, I don't think that it makes the idea of Infernape being brought back for that match necessarily more likely.

Plus, I still have a hard time believing that they'll use Ash's older Pokemon. If his current team is strong enough to get him to the Ultra Class and then into the Master Class, I don't know why Ash would suddenly use his reserves. I'm not against the idea, even though I think it would probably just make the problems with his Journeys team worse if they aren't even able to get battle screentime, but if they were interested in making use of Ash's reserves, I think that they would have done something more with them by now.

Well nobody knows what will happen, but it does seem very likely to me given how much promotion it's been getting even outside the anime. The writers have been setting up to the series revisiting all old characters and pokemon and the fact that they will have to really stretch the idea of his current team taking out champions feels too far. Tomioka has written all the 3 most recent battles and seems in charge of the PWC now, and he's been flashing back and bringing up Ash's old pokemon. I doubt they would mention them at all otherwise since it draws attention to them.