Favourite Series So Far?

[Pidgeot]

What is your favourite series so far?

Mine is DP, because it was the first to give all the characters equal development, and the first to bring in a whole range of rivals, and it also had some really memorable moments (the first 6 on 6 battle between Ash and Paul, Dawn losing the Grand Festival, Ash finally defeating Paul, and more).

 

[The Puppetmaster]

Moved this to Live Caster as a Contest thread. Please keep this rule in mind especially:

When voting please give a reason for why you made that particular choice. Failure to do so will result in a Pointless Post infraction.

Thank you.

~~~

As for my favorite, I pick DP. Ash and Dawn both experienced tremendous character development, Paul pushed Ash to his limits as a rival and had an interesting background of his own, and almost all the battles and contests were entertaining and included some sort of strategy; not to mention nearly all the group's Pokémon were given personality.

The only downfalls of this saga were Brock not receiving enough screen time, some Pokémon outshining others (Infernape and its 4 gym battles in a row...), and a few flaws regarding some of the rivals (Kenny being boring, Nando not showing up enough, Barry not winning enough).

 

[Karamazov]

I'd say the original series. Kanto was so strange and unique compared to other seasons. Since it was new and still finding itself, it was really trippy and wacky. I especially love the slapstick. It really sets itself apart from other seasons.

 

[Tye Taylors]

DP, Paul made that probably the best series...he turned pokemon hardcore! Yeah I just said it: Hardcore Pokemon XD

 

[Almonds]

I loved the original series because of the main rivalry between Ash and Gary. However, I chose all of them because I also liked the DP storyline, too.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Im not trying to be predictable but even today it would be original series for me.All three sagas Kanto,OI and Johto have their pros and cons giving lot of funny moments,smart and funny humor with Ash,Misty and Brock playing well as group overcoming their differences feeling like real group of friends with good personalities.From Ash naive and stubborn attitude,Misty temper,sarcasm and smart alec jokes being wrapped up with wise and cool attitude from Brocks character having undrainable source of knowledge and helpful tips.
They felt like family having excellent flamboyant dynamic and interactions between them being fun to see them starting to mature over time opening more themselves to each other strengthening their friendship while providing lot of good comedy.

Anime felt also very creative to me at that time,with writers not following games "close to close" as they do now with gym leaders being depicted in unique light(like famous Sabrina arc,Giovanni or Pryce who has great backstory),more anime exclusive characters and arcs being delivered along getting region which didnt existed anywhere in games like Orange Islands.I also liked TR goofy attitude and more references to Japanese culture being provided.

 

[Cybersai]

Ugh, once again Johto is paired in the original series.

Anyway I liked Kanto/Orange a lot, but didn't enjoy a large chunk of Johto. So how can I choose?

 

[Hidden Mew]

Ugh, once again Johto is paired in the original series.

Anyway I liked Kanto/Orange a lot, but didn't enjoy a large chunk of Johto. So how can I choose?

That's because Johoto is part of the original series. I understand that you don't like the saga, but that doesn't change the fact that Johto aired under the title of Pocket Monsters in Japan, just like with the Kanto and Orange Island arc, so it is a part of the original Pocket Monsters series. You can just vote for the original series and state that you preferred Kanto and the Orange Island arcs over most of Johto.

Anyway, I've enjoyed each series, but if I had to chose, I'd go with the DP series. I think that the development and focus on for the main cast was pretty good for the most part. Brock could have received more attention, but I didn't think he faded into the background that much, at least compared to other sagas. While I didn't care for Dawn's personality, her storyline and development were pretty solid writing wise. The battles were great, especially the bulk of Ash's Gym battles and matches with Paul, most of the Pokemon had at least a little bit of time to shine, as well as more unique personalities, and Ash's rivalry with Paul was terrific. There were still problems with some Pokemon taking up a lot of attention, such as Piplup, Pokemon that lost too often, such as Torterra, and I'm still not quite happy with Dawn giving away Ambipom and then getting Togekiss a couple of episodes before the Grand Festival. Even so, I think it had some of the better writing, character and battling wise, which made it more enjoyable to watch and see how the characters and stories were developing each week.

 

[Likeitornot.]

Mine was the OS, I liked when Ash was immature, and didn't have a clue what he was doing, it was rather comical. Also, Misty was there, and I adored Misty, the fiery tomboy sort. And I thought Brock had more of a character back then too, then he did in AG/DP (But more towards DP than anything). Tracey was such a pleasant character too; I'm glad they brought him in for that short-lived amount of time. The interactions were just a lot better, IMO.
Now, Johto, I didn't love, but overall still, the OS was my favourite.

 

[NiallC]

I liked AG best, obviously there were more Pokemon and Hoenn was such a lovely region. With both May and Max brought in it was a pleasant change and Brock got a lot of credit when he rejoined which he hasn't really got anywhere else. They also handled Pokemon distribution a lot better and the introduction of contests and the battle frontier were great.

 

[Hitomi]

I'm going to say AG primarily because of the Contests and the Battle Frontier - May and her rivals (especially Harley) were among my favorite characters in the entire series, and the way they interacted was phenomenal. May's character development was handled well too, I think.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I liked everything that DP had to offer: a rival who is Ash's bipolar opposite; an excellent recuring villian like J; Brock's Croagunk; Chimchar's development; training episodes to give more rewarding and credible battle victories; an overall well thought out plot-line of the Team Galactic arc; Jessie becoming a competent cooridinator; recuring gym leaders to flesh them out more; and many suprises that I never thought would happen.

There are a few negatives about the series, such as most of the rival coordinators being a bit lackluster or underdevoloped or Ambipom's release, but the positive points overshadow the negatives.

Of course I love them all, but DP takes the cake.

 

[Cybersai]

I liked everything that DP had to offer: a rival who is Ash's bipolar opposite; an excellent recuring villian like J; Brock's Croagunk; Chimchar's development; training episodes to give more rewarding and credible battle victories; an overall well thought out plot-line of the Team Galactic arc; Jessie becoming a competent cooridinator; recuring gym leaders to flesh them out more; and many suprises that I never thought would happen.

There are a few negatives about the series, such as most of the rival coordinators being a bit lackluster or underdevoloped or Ambipom's release, but the positive points overshadow the negatives.

Of course I love them all, but DP takes the cake.

I agree with all this, but DP was dragged down by the most important aspect of all:

- Main character chemistry.

No matter how good some of the episodes are, I can't enjoy them if I don't feel like the main characters are enjoyable together.

I knew something was wrong with the DP trio as it was airing, but I didn't truly realize how bad the character interaction really was until Best Wishes started. I agree BW isn't as good as DP was in terms of writing, but the characters somehow make it more enjoyable.

Parts of me also feel as if Dawn's interaction with every character aside from Ash and maybe Conway was extremely bland and boring. Something was just wrong.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

Mine was the OS, I liked when Ash was immature, and didn't have a clue what he was doing, it was rather comical. Also, Misty was there, and I adored Misty, the fiery tomboy sort. And I thought Brock had more of a character back then too, then he did in AG/DP (But more towards DP than anything). Tracey was such a pleasant character too; I'm glad they brought him in for that short-lived amount of time. The interactions were just a lot better, IMO.
Now, Johto, I didn't love, but overall still, the OS was my favourite.

You know i didnt even thought Johto was that bad.Surely some things weren't treated well but that's not to say this saga didn't had its highlights which were very enjoyable to watch..
For start:
-chemistry within main group was still great imo Ash,Misty and Brock working out as group of long time friends starting to mature a bit.Misty humor and sarcasm being mixed with tomboyish attitude being more supportive to her friends,Ash naivete and stubbornness and Brock's wise and sometimes uncontrollable attitude(mostly over girls) complimented each other well.
-battles were vastly improved in this region with gyms and battling on general being put to higher level involving more complex and strategical matches.
-Johto was ground-breaker in introducing arcs in this series like Red Gyarados,Lugia three part,Whirl Cup,Larvitar arc etc
-Misty and Brock obviously didnt received enough focus and development but they actually received more character centric episodes and battling in here
-it may had lot of fillers but several of them were actually enjoyable and very memorable being one of best episodes in history imo(like "For Crying Out Loud","Heartbreak of Brock",#Fortune Hunter","Hocus Pokemon"etc).
-it had excellent league concluding longtime rivalry between Ash and Gary.

Johto along with all its flaws had several great things going for it and it strike to me that if it wasnt for excessive amount of filers this saga would likely be considered one of best regions this show had so far.
Because in reality fillers and drop of GS ball are things about which people mostly complained being fine with everything else.

 

[Aestivate]

This thread is not about how good or bad you think Johto is or much potential Johto had, so please get back on topic.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I agree with all this, but DP was dragged down by the most important aspect of all:

- Main character chemistry.

No matter how good some of the episodes are, I can't enjoy them if I don't feel like the main characters are enjoyable together.

Meh. I consider writing to be just as important as character chemistry. I can agree that there could have been improvement in that category, but then the same could probably be said for most sagas. I think the real problem is spending a lot of time on the Pokemon's development which, while is certainly a good thing, detracted from the human characters. I think trainer-Pokemon development is more important anyway since that's what the show is about but balance for sure would have been better.

I knew something was wrong with the DP trio as it was airing, but I didn't truly realize how bad the character interaction really was until Best Wishes started. I agree BW isn't as good as DP was in terms of writing, but the characters somehow make it more enjoyable.

Not for me. Maybe as a group they're more enjoyable but as individuals...I think there's a lot to be desired. Cilan is certainly a fun character due to his antics (and a breath of fresh air) and doesn't need much development because there isn't much to his plotline - not to say that some would be good - and what we've got of him has worked so far but Iris...I'm sure you're aware of how much things need to change regarding her character growth, and Trip makes Ash seem like he regressed as a trainer. As it is, they're rivalry is the worst developed one so far. I also think giving Iris and Cilan rivals helped their chemistry with other characters.

The lack of character growth has made the main characters more detrimental to me.

Parts of me also feel as if Dawn's interaction with every character aside from Ash and maybe Conway was extremely bland and boring. Something was just wrong.

I'm inclined to blame the number of rivals she got and the little screentime her rivals got. And of course Brock's lack of attention didn't help either.

 

[Cybersai]

Meh. I consider writing to be just as important as character chemistry. I can agree that there could have been improvement in that category, but then the same could probably be said for most sagas. I think the real problem is spending a lot of time on the Pokemon's development which, while is certainly a good thing, detracted from the human characters. I think trainer-Pokemon development is more important anyway since that's what the show is about but balance for sure would have been better.

I don't see why it can't go both ways. Ash, Dawn, and Brock almost felt like 3 strangers traveling together most of the time. Even the Ash/Brock friendship was handled badly that you would forget how long those two have known each other.

They got the chemistry right with the other 3 groups, I don't know why the DP trio was the only one that was mishandled. I honestly can't even explain what the DP trio dynamic was supposed to be, I know it was about Ash and Dawn supporting each other, but two people do not make a group. It made watching this trio so dull, their interactions were almost never funny and I can't think of many memorable moments the three shared together.

Not for me. Maybe as a group they're more enjoyable but as individuals...I think there's a lot to be desired. Cilan is certainly a fun character due to his antics (and a breath of fresh air) and doesn't need much development because there isn't much to his plotline - not to say that some would be good - and what we've got of him has worked so far but Iris...I'm sure you're aware of how much things need to change regarding her character growth, and Trip makes Ash seem like he regressed as a trainer. As it is, they're rivalry is the worst developed one so far. I also think giving Iris and Cilan rivals helped their chemistry with other characters.

Cilan and Iris are supporting/sidekick characters, they're not intended to get Dawn's level of screentime. For what their roles are, they're both being handled fine. At the beginning I did feel like Iris was being ignored, but the writers made up for that with the recent string of episodes.

Dawn on the other hand got better development, but her character interaction was just...bad. It also felt like a lot of the time Dawn's only personality was talking about her pokemon or her Contests, and her dialogue otherwise was drab. Her interactions with Ash were alright, but with Brock, all her rivals, etc. was awful. Dawn and Paul only interacted like twice throughout all of DP too.

I guess the problem was really just Dawn's personality. It felt like she was better suited for her own series, rather than being forced to interact with Ash and Brock. It seemed to me as if Misty, May and Iris' personalities were designed better for character interaction.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I don't see why it can't go both ways.

I never argued otherwise however.

They got the chemistry right with the other 3 groups, I don't know why the DP trio was the only one that was mishandled.

Sure the other groups may have been handled better overall, but when I said "the same could probably be said for most sagas", I meant that some of them could have been done even better. For instance, in AG Ash and Brock had at least a few battles together (but I otherwise see little difference in their chemistry compared to DP), Ash and Max had a brotherly relationship thing going on, Brock and Max were kind of the same along with the mentor-tutor deal, Ash and May seemed like good friends, May and Max were probably the closest two of the group due to how well they were treated as siblings, but can you point out anything memorable about May and Brock's relationship? The only thing that really comes to my mind is May dragging Brock to shopping malls with her and that was only early in the series and off-screen. They were a close group all around but I would say May and Brock's chemistry was the weak link in the group.

While the original trio had arguably the closest bond of them all, I don't think you'd disagree that in Johto they had about as little as the DP trio had, maybe even less. And by Battle Frontier, the AG group didn't feel as close as they did in Hoenn mainly due to the saga's rush job and being the wrap-up of the series.

Hence why I said sagas and not groups.

Cilan and Iris are supporting/sidekick characters, they're not intended to get Dawn's level of screentime.

I never said they're lacking in screentime, I said they're lacking in character development. As I said, Cilan has been handled well enough for what he's got going for him but Iris gets too much advancement without much development.

For what their roles are, they're both being handled fine.

Iris just needs to earn her development rather than having it handed to her, but otherwise I agree.

At the beginning I did feel like Iris was being ignored, but the writers made up for that with the recent string of episodes.

Again, she's not being ignored as much as she is sliding through her growth. Cilan is probably more ignored than she.

Dawn on the other hand got better development, but her character interaction was just...bad. It also felt like a lot of the time Dawn's only personality was talking about her pokemon or her Contests, and her dialogue otherwise was drab. Her interactions with Ash were alright, but with Brock, all her rivals, etc. was awful.

I can pretty much agree with all of this but at least you can say that what she lacked in one aspect, she made up for in another.

Though, I'm not following why you would call her dialogue "drab".

Dawn and Paul only interacted like twice throughout all of DP too.

Understandable considering Paul was Ash's rival and not hers and therefore had nothing to do with her plotline. That would be like pointing out the lack of chemistry between Ash or Brock with Zoey or Ursula despite how irrelevant that is.

The fact that Dawn interacted with Paul at all should almost be a plus for her.

I guess the problem was really just Dawn's personality. It felt like she was better suited for her own series, rather than being forced to interact with Ash and Brock. It seemed to me as if Misty, May and Iris' personalities were designed better for character interaction.

I guess I can agree, but...I don't see how Dawn's personality affects the writing. I think the writers could have made her feel closer to her friends with or without the personality she got.

 

[pokemon fan 132]

I don't see why it can't go both ways. Ash, Dawn, and Brock almost felt like 3 strangers traveling together most of the time. Even the Ash/Brock friendship was handled badly that you would forget how long those two have known each other.

They got the chemistry right with the other 3 groups, I don't know why the DP trio was the only one that was mishandled. I honestly can't even explain what the DP trio dynamic was supposed to be, I know it was about Ash and Dawn supporting each other, but two people do not make a group. It made watching this trio so dull, their interactions were almost never funny and I can't think of many memorable moments the three shared together.

I have to agree,one of reasons why i was disappointed with DP is because group didnt felt like family to me.In groups of two they had good interacting more or less whether it was Ash/Dawn,Ash/Brock etc but as trio they didnt had many memorable moments with interacting seeming forced.Ash and Dawn interacted very well supporting each other and helping about their strategies and training with emphasis being put on it.But poor Brock seemed a little bit left out of group dynamic with there lacking feeling of trio acting like cohesive and harmonized entity.

I was pleased with DP when it comes to treatment of character stories with anime plot being treated surprisingly well,but one of downpoints was lack of humor and good character interaction imo being one of reasons why Sinnoh isnt among my favorite series.

While the original trio had arguably the closest bond of them all, I don't think you'd disagree that in Johto they had about as little as the DP trio had, maybe even less. And by Battle Frontier, the AG group didn't feel as close as they did in Hoenn mainly due to the saga's rush job and being the wrap-up of the series.

I beg to differ,because to me original group had definitely more chemistry in Johto compared to DP.One of things i liked about original series was gradual development of friendship being one of things i appreciated.
What i liked about them in that region is that Ash,Brock and Misty seemed and interacted like group of friends who knew each other for a long time becoming more mature and tolerant toward their flaws.They had several memorable moments while giving that feel of different yet vivid atmosphere.

Some of examples which comes to my mind was when Ash and Misty were concerned about Brocks health in "Sick Daze"taking care of him,when Misty criticized and encouraged Brock to go after girl he likes in"Heartbreak of Brock"or when he was deceived by Ninetales illusion wanting to get him out of trans etc.Friendship between her and Ash was also strengthen and while she argued with him at times with rivalry being sparked(like when battling for Totodile,in Whirl Cup,and on some other occasions) she also became more supportive with teasing being done in more cynical instead of aggressive manner.
We can notice in "Gotta Catch Ya Later" when having to split how close bond between them existed.

 

[Shinneth]

As one might suspect, I voted Diamond & Pearl. DP had Paul, by far Ash's best rival in the series and a good and well-handled character in his own right. Some dropped balls here and there, but I can't expect total perfection. That actually applies to DP as a whole, too. Dawn's story was probably the low point of DP for me, but even then it wasn't necessarily bad. The shameless whoring out of Piplup and the mostly-bland rival set were the detrimental elements opposed to Dawn herself. Brock being largely ineffectual in the series was pardoned by me because of Croagunk. I am a total sadist and always loved seeing Brock getting a Poison Jab in his junk or up his ass; that alone made me accept Brock as part of the status quo this series. Of course, there were some inexcusably horrible things that happened in DP, such as Kenny existing beyond CotD status, Ursula appearing far too late into the series to get the win she deserved, the flat-out retarded way they sent Ambipom packing, Nando being the personification of a red herring, and some really bad fillers, but on the other hand there were also some excellent fillers and mini-arcs, and for me the pacing was more or less great up until a little past the halfway point in the series, and even beyond that point I never felt it was like, Johto-bad or anything.

The experience accumulated by the writing staff also really showed in this series, too. Almost every Sinnoh Gym Leader got at least four episodes to be featured in, allowing them to come off as genuinely enjoyable characters with their own unique personalities and weren't just glorified CotDs. They finally pulled off a villainous organization well in Team Galactic, we got to see ALL of Sinnoh's E4 and Cynthia got some decent screentime as well, even playing a part in Ash and Paul's rivalry. We even got to see all of the temporary tagalong trainers from the games. Within one series, they went from barely having an idea what the games are (based on how they adapted various elements from RSE) to making sure almost every element of DPP was integrated into the show. Hell, they even followed the four-move limit. I'm not sure if that originated in DP or AG, but while a lot of people think it's a retarded thing to integrate into the anime, I rather like how much better they are about adapting the games. As I recall, the series was also very good about showcasing the various cities in their own unique way as presented in the games, opposed to just making them generic cities and stripping them of the qualities that made them stand out, such as Fortree City in AG and Castelia City in BW.

And while Dawn's team's potential was hampered by Piplup's overload of screentime, Ash's teammates fared a lot better. Well, Buizel was a jobber for a good chunk of the series and Turtwig just went on a downward spiral the moment it evolved (which just proves that Ash sucks at using tanks unless their name is Snorlax). Plus towards the end there was probably a bit too much Infernape showcasing than what we needed, but all in all I can say throughout the span of the series, each of Ash's Pokemon got their time to shine at least once or twice, and it was nice seeing Pikachu taking a backseat and only coming in when appropriate. At the same time, it wasn't a total bitch and its power level seemed relatively consistent compared to what we're seeing in our current series. I wish the main rivals were a bit more balanced out that way, since Zoey was almost always seen with Glameow and her truly interesting Pokemon weren't seen until near the end of the series, and while Paul had a nice display of rotating Pokemon... he whored out Elekid/Electabuzz/Electivire waaaaaaay too much, and that particularly bothers me since A) we already had a purple-haired kid pimping out Electabuzz in Johto and Chronicles, and B) it's not even Paul's first Pokemon. Since Ash's Torterra was not very well represented, they could've made up for that with Paul's Torterra (that was shown to be awesome during the first full battle, plus earlier character development), but after the first full battle we literally never saw it again save for a short cameo during the League. That's something that will always bother me, but wait. I'm supposed to explain the things I love here, aren't I? Well, in spite of this stuff agitating me, at least showing the awesomeness of the neglected Pokemon now and then is better than not doing so at all.

On the Team Rocket end of things, this was their last hurrah as the Team Rocket we've known since the show began, and DP was especially good about keeping them from wrecking the flow of important plot-related episodes that had nothing to do with them. I rather liked how they took an interest in Chimchar and considered Paul to be even worse than they were. Jessie being shown as a competent Coordinator was truly a saving grace of Dawn's rival outset, though sadly Jessalina went out with a pretty pitiful bang. Later on in DP I noticed that James was being portrayed as presumably the most competent member of the team, seeing as he actually concocted some VERY decent plans and overall I think the joke was that he'd be more fitting running the team than Jessie (especially when he crossdressed as her to win a Contest and allegedly got a better reception than she'd ever gotten), but he's too much of a pushover to actually take the role he deserves. XD And I'd be remiss to not mention the random return of Jessiebelle, which was always awesome. Meowth seemed overall pretty shafted in DP, though he did have a meaningful heart-to-heart with Chimchar in one episode and was pretty awesome as a Contest Pokemon... so he did get some perks out of it. Plus, he gets the dubious honor of having the most fucked-up Boss Fantasy ever concocted in the entire series, and I think you all know which one I'm talking about.

While it's on my mind, DP did very well by having Ash and Dawn train consistently in most episodes. They had influences on each other's styles, which were utilized as meaningful plot elements rather than one-shot DEMs. Both had hard and well-earned wins as well as devastating losses, but to make it as far as they did in their respective competitions was totally justified because we saw them do the hard work that made their level of skill believable by the end. And outside of Paul, we also had Barry as an excellent rival. Conway was a great rival and character, though I think we all agree he should've been Dawn's rival instead because the guy's got no quarrel with Ash whatsoever (hell, before the League I don't think they exchanged a single line of dialog). Still, I'm pretty sure he was brought into the League because the writers enjoyed him, and who could blame them? I really did like how insightful they were about sticking with elements that worked in the series. Pokemon Hunter J was also a great character who amped up the "serious business" meter big time due to her occupation, and I'm pretty sure we were all in shock when we saw her get killed off... or at least, I believe she was killed off. When THIS series actually kills off a significant character, you know it's serious business.

And of course, cameos from past characters. Gary got to appear a couple of times, though he was painfully useless fodder for the Galactic finale. May, however, had a much better run and the competition that went with it was a wonderfully-executed arc. Getting to see Ash and May in costumes was a real treat and I'd say with certainty that May had a better cameo run than Misty did back in AG. One of the best things about DP is that the writing experience really shows in this series. They even essentially re-did certain Kanto episodes, such as the one where Jessie released Dustox and "Should Pikachu evolve NOW?" v2.0... both of which I think improved upon the original episodes they were based on in various ways, if not every way for the former.

And seeing the chart up there now, I'd say it's no surprise at all that DP's got so many votes. To me, it was the absolute peak of the series.