Looking back, How would you rate the Unova league arc?

[PDL]

Simply put, they Unova league was mostly garbage. It seems like far far more effort was put into the Battle Club tourneys then this. Did the writers somehow gave up or something? 2/10 for me.

 

[Cybersai]

Its a sad day that the Unova league felt no different than a Don battle tournament. This is supposed to be the climax of the saga showing everything Ash's Pokemon have built toward and how strong the rivals were, and it was all handled badly and a mess.

Thankfully most of us aren't emotionally invested in BW due to previous mishaps in this saga, that we didn't have high hopes to begin with.

 

[PDL]

Thankfully most of us aren't emotionally invested in BW due to previous mishaps in this saga, that we didn't have high hopes to begin with.

I don't know, the saga as a whole started off fairly strong but when the entire Team Rocket vs Team Plasma Arc got canned it started to somewhat weaken, but even then it was still decent. It was only when they introduced Cameron that the show started to suck hard.

I think the writers were trying to invent an "Anti-Richie" but ended up going in the exact opposite direction of awfulness when they came up with that guy.

 

[Cybersai]

Thankfully most of us aren't emotionally invested in BW due to previous mishaps in this saga, that we didn't have high hopes to begin with.

I don't know, the saga as a whole started off fairly strong but when the entire Team Rocket vs Team Plasma Arc got canned it started to somewhat weaken, but even then it was still decent. It was only when they introduced Cameron that the show started to suck hard.

I think the writers were trying to invent an "Anti-Richie" but ended up going in the exact opposite direction of awfulness when they came up with that guy.

no, the saga went downhill very quickly after the Team Plasma eps were skipped. Most people didn't like that 30 ep gap of fillers between the third and fourth Gym. Elesa's Gym is also what cemented Ash's regression to most fans...and Ash losing the first Don battle tournament to Iris didn't help. The poor reaction to Trip's character and Iris getting a Dragonite didn't help.

The league gets a 4/10 for me, only because of a few decent events like Stephen's battle.

 

[MikaelDerp]

Kanto: 8
Johto: 7.5
Hoenn: 7.5
Sinnoh: 9
Unova: 2

The Unova League did not feel like a League. Short battles, an Axew filler episode? Ash losing against a Trainer of 5 Pokemon, and the regression? All of BW has been a disappointment to me, so I had been looking forward to the League for some time. But it let me down completely, and left a foul taste in my mouth.

 

[Cybersai]

Kanto: 8
Johto: 7.5
Hoenn: 7.5
Sinnoh: 9
Unova: 2

The Unova League did not feel like a League. Short battles, an Axew filler episode? Ash losing against a Trainer of 5 Pokemon, and the regression? All of BW has been a disappointment to me, so I had been looking forward to the League for some time. But it let me down completely, and left a foul taste in my mouth.

Just curious, but why rate the Indigo league so highly? Outside of nostalgia, it had just as many few or skipped battles as the Unova league did. Not to mention Ash's loss to Richie.

I think one problem of the Unova league was also Bianca lost too early. It would have been better for Ash to face her.

 

[Paulisthebest]

You know what the sad part is? For him coming in the Top 16 in Kanto that league was better than the Unova league and he was in the Top 8.

Seriously, Unova should be scraped from our memories because like Dragonball GT it is just a giant stain on a once great series...

 

[Almonds]

I want to think that the writers were so busy preparing Episode N that they had no choice but to reduce their workload for the League. I WANT to think that way so it might feel justified - even just a teensy bit.

Of course, this depends on how well Episode N is written out. If Episode N turns out to be a huge hit, then we could just force ourselves to think everyone on the crew had been so busy with N - because it was N. If they messed up the N saga... then we might as well lost hope for the anime team.

 

[Paulisthebest]

I want to think that the writers were so busy preparing Episode N that they had no choice but to reduce their workload for the League. I WANT to think that way so it might feel justified - even just a teensy bit.

Of course, this depends on how well Episode N is written out. If Episode N turns out to be a huge hit, then we could just force ourselves to think everyone on the crew had been so busy with N - because it was N. If they messed up the N saga... then we might as well lost hope for the anime team.

I see your point. The thing was minus Pikachu this was Ash's Unova Pokemon line up:

3 fully evolved Pokemon: Levanny, Unfezant, Krookodile
3 mid-stage Pokemon: Boldore, Pignite, Palpitoad
3 un-evolved Pokemon: Scraggy, Oshawott, Snivy

I mean really this league was doomed to fail from the start. Compared to Kanto he had (aside from Pikachu):
3 fully evolved Pokemon: Charizard, Kingler (started as Krabby though), Muk
1 mid-stage Pokemon: Pidgeotto
2 unevolved Pokemon: Bulbasaur, Squirtle
Neutral: 30 Tauros (they don't evolve nor were they used during the league)

I mean seriously I am not excited for the N episodes ONLY because BW has hyped up so many different specials; TR vs. TP episodes (cancelled due to earthquake), multiple Don George tournaments, BW Season 2 which was what many fans hoped would "revive" this saga due to the return of DP veterans Cynthia and Dawn only for that to be botched up mercilessly and now this league...

Either every crappy piece of BW was due to the magnitude of greatness these new episodes are meant to present or the writers are going to screw it up completely. Charizard is said to return and I'm afraid...

BW has "killed" the great reputations of old characters so far and I'd hate to see that done to my favorite fire breathing dragon...

 

[Almonds]

I want to think that the writers were so busy preparing Episode N that they had no choice but to reduce their workload for the League. I WANT to think that way so it might feel justified - even just a teensy bit.

Of course, this depends on how well Episode N is written out. If Episode N turns out to be a huge hit, then we could just force ourselves to think everyone on the crew had been so busy with N - because it was N. If they messed up the N saga... then we might as well lost hope for the anime team.

I see your point. The thing was minus Pikachu this was Ash's Unova Pokemon line up:

3 fully evolved Pokemon: Levanny, Unfezant, Krookodile
3 mid-stage Pokemon: Boldore, Pignite, Palpitoad
3 un-evolved Pokemon: Scraggy, Oshawott, Snivy

I mean really this league was doomed to fail from the start. Compared to Kanto he had (aside from Pikachu):
1 fully evolved Pokemon: Charizard, Kingler (started as Krabby though), Muk
1 mid-stage Pokemon: Pidgeotto
2 unevolved Pokemon: Bulbasaur, Squirtle
Neutral: 30 Tauros (they don't evolve nor were they used during the league)

I mean seriously I am not excited for the N episodes ONLY because BW has hyped up so many different specials; TR vs. TP episodes (cancelled due to earthquake), multiple Don George tournaments, BW Season 2 which was what many fans hoped would "revive" this saga due to the return of DP veterans Cynthia and Dawn only for that to be botched up mercilessly and now this league...

Either every crappy piece of BW was due to the magnitude of greatness these new episodes are meant to present or the writers are going to screw it up completely. Charizard is said to return and I'm afraid...

BW has "killed" the great reputations of old characters so far and I'd hate to see that done to my favorite fire breathing dragon...

I think pretty much everyone is expecting Episode N to be of very high quality due to Best Wishes Season 2 being messed up than ever. With the League being remembered as even worse than the Kanto League (first league ever), and the Johto League (at LEAST they had the Ash/Gary rivalry wrap up in two to three full episodes) - I doubt anyone would find this satisfying - even those who hadn't watched the previous series, they'd probably be bewildered with the horribly written League arc.

We shall see how they do in the upcoming N saga.

 

[Caseydia]

N in the league might have made the league different but it would have still sucked if Ash still lost to the brain dead kid. The league was just planned out terribily. I would have rather Trip have gotten futher just so that he could have full six on six battle with him and his pokemon. That would have atleast made some people appreciate his strength a bit more.

 

[Trainer Gabriel]

I gave the league a 3/10 - and the more I think about it, the more I'd say that that's the absolute BEST score it deserves. The Stephan battle and tossing Trip aside ASAP - which, while a crap-fest battle itself, was done well in the context of their rivalry, since their rivalry made zero sense - were the only good parts of the league. Everything else... huge waste of time. Mostly meh battles... Ash faring worse than in past leagues... A needless Axew filler plotline... Just a terribly written league, all around.

I'd probably rate the Unova League saga, overall, a 4/10. It had its moments, but for the most part, it was just a mess.

 

[Nymphia]

The Unova League has two bad written things:
-That we only see three of Ash's battles when all of us are expecting a fourth and a fifth, and we're expecting an Ash vs Virgil.
-The battle between Ash and Cameron.

We expected that the league would have at least 1 more episode and we're expected one more battle of Ash. That is the bad writing of the league. For me, Ash vs Stephan was really great, and the Ash vs Trip and Cameron vs Bianca were good. And I like the character interactions, the flashback memories and the revenge that Virgil had with Kotetsu at the end.

It's safe to assume that the battle between Ash and Cameron was a DEM battle for Cameron. He had lost three pokemon for his dumbness and when the battle score is going to be 3vs1, Riolu appears, defeats Unfezant, it's almost defeated by SNivy, evolves into Lucario and defeats Pikachu. This is a perfect example of a DEM in Pokemon. The other goos example of DEM was the Iris vs Luke battle that was very bad written specially when Axew hasn't used Outrage anymore. The only reason that I could give is that because Tamagawa (one of the best animators of the series) isn't going to make episodes anytime soon decided to do something epic.

The Unova saga until now. It wasn't that bad. Apparently, they are corrected the issue of banning TR vs TP through airing an arc about Team Plasma.

About other arcs of Best Wishes:
-The Unova Gym battles were good: Some of them, like the Striaton Trio were really good. All the pokemon got wins, we saw variety in them, the battles are good, etc. I don't think that it's better than DP but I think that they're good. Also count the fourth Gym Battles that Ash hasn't take part in this saga.

-The Don battles are good tournaments who serve the purpose to have a variety of battles, some of them unexpected, to give chemistry to the group, to give storyline to some of the characters, etc. I like them and I don't think that was very bad written (with the possible exception of the JC, particularly the first episode and now I'm going over there)

-The Dawn, Cynthia dn Meloetta arc (I put the three together because they share episodes between each other). First and all, the Meloetta arc was great. Imagine that we went from thinking that Meloetta will be wasted in a movie short, and to know that with the short, we had 16 episodes with Meloetta in our hands. Also, the arc has ended with possibly the est TR arc in Best Wishes (although I don't like serious TR too much). Not only that, but Meloetta hasn't interrupting Ash's quest too much , we saw other things in her episodes, etc. And it's acceptbale the episodes that she got because she was a EVENT pokemon that doesn't got a movie. ALso, if you don't like Meloetta too much, don't watch BW 085, 087, 094, 096 and 097.
About Cynthia and Dawn. Cynthia wasn't down played in BW like many of others said. Cynthia had a very goos role promoting the PWT thing and she has a part on the Iris' storyline with Dragonite. About Dawn, I consider that in a way was bad writing because the PWT JC should have focused on her, but rememeber that in Unova we don't see Contest in the anime in this region.

-The Team Rockets arc were good, for the most part. Specially the Subway arc and the Project Tempest arc. I thought that if the Meteonite arc was finished, I like them. Also, in them we see in them the Kami TRio, one of the other pokemon that we need to see in the anime because we won't have a movie about the Kamis anytime soon.

I give the Unova League a 5/10 and the Unova saga a 7/10. However, the league is the level of the Kanto league (and worst than the rest) and for me, the AG and DP sagas were superior than the BW saga.

 

[PrettyVenomoth]

Terrible and Rushed

 

[Karamazov]

We have a thread for Leagues here. You're free to talk about the Unova League here, but you can talk about the other Leagues in that thread.

 

[Zexy]

The worst league since Kanto for sure. 4/10

I am going to make a brief review of each League ep (which, by the way, are the fewest ever in a League).

BW103:It was quite okay, except of course of Trip as Ash's first battle.
BW104:Excuse me? Was Trip vs Ash a real battle? Serperior gets the upper hand, Ash shouts "Pikachuuuu!", Pikachu gains courage, Pikachu wins! Allright, I can accept such things in the anime, but not in a League battle against Ash's main rival! Bianca vs Cameron was FAR better than Ash vs Trip.
BW105:This is where things are getting "interesting"... A filler episode amidst the League... No comments...
BW106:The best episode, for sure. The battle was the only nice battle in here (maybe Bianca vs Cameron was allright as well). Makes me wonder if it would be better for Ash to dump Snivy and Oshawott completely in favor of Palpitoad/Leavanny. Krookodile rocks!
BW107:Back to our old bad selves... Pikachu gets 2 wins, Pignite gets 2 wins, Oshawoott/Boldore/Unfezant get 0. Pignite vs Ferrothorn, Pikachu vs Swanna, Riolu vs Unfezant (and probably Pikachu vs Samurott) were al ridiculous, each one in its own way. Riolu evolving was nice, but predictable. The thing I liked the most in this ep was Ash's friends' reactions to Cameron having 5 Pokemon.
BW108: Ash vs Cameron outcome was expected, Cameron losing and Virgil winning were somewhat expected too. Though what was unbearable was the way they handled the last part. The way they made Cameron leave (heck, we won't see him ever again, couldn't they give him a proper farewell), the way Ash's other rivals were handled. At least, we got a montage to remind us that a 108-episode saga has just ended. Quite anticlimatic in that aspect.

Thus, overal, this league was awful. The fact that I liked Cameron vs Bianca more than Ash vs Trip/Cameron annoyed me more than everything else. Plus the filler... Good job, writers.
4/10, and I'm lenient enough

NEXT MESS-UP: EPISODE N

 

[John Understands]

I would give it a 0.1/10, but I can only give it a 1/10.

Sure, the Stephan battle was good, and some battles were ok, but the league was abseloute

 

[Afrojisiac-19]

I haven't seen all of it, but from what I've seen...

The battle with Kenyan/Stephan looks promising. Aside from that, all I know is that he lost to Kotetsu/Cameron and then he went on to lose to Virgil, or the Eeveelution trainer...I'm sure people knew Ash would lose, but not exactly how it played out...

Has anyone else noticed that in all of Ash's final battles in the leagues, that whenever he used Pikachu, he lost? I mean, let's just go back for a bit. He used Pikachu in his match against Richie in the Indigo League. He lost that battle. He used Pikachu in his battle against Harrison. Loss. He used Pikachu again against Tyson's Meowth in boots. Lost again. Used him against Tobias' Latios. They tied, but Ash still lost. And now he goes up once again against Cameron's Lucario, and Ash winds up losing yet again.

As a matter of fact, I find it quite interesting that the time that Ash actually BEAT Gary in the Johto League was when he didn't use Pikachu in the battle. In the long run, it doesn't seem like relying on Pikachu doesn't do him many favors and the focus on him in battles is too much at times.

 

[Pokémon Master Ash]

This league is easily the worst one in the entire series, and by far the worst thing in the BW series as well. Really goes to show how writing can leave either a favorable impression on you or an upsetting impression as well.

First, the humiliatingly bad battle of Ash v. Trip: dear god, why did he get Top 128? Isn't he Ash's main rival this saga? It's like the writers are trolling us or something. -_-
Next, the embarrassingly poor execution of the battles excluding Ash vs. Stephan, which was actually good.
Finally, the Ash vs. Cameron battle was just plain horrible. Why did Ash face a Lucario of all Pokemon at the end? Have we not seen it countless times already, and even had a special movie-length feature about it? No, just no. Ash shouldn't have lost this battle.

I'm giving a 4/10. I very much dislike this League, and felt it rushed, poorly written, and poorly executed as well. Here's hoping the next one will be better.

 

[hhhhdmt]

2/10 and thats being generous. Poor writing, mediocre battles and mediocre pokemon. Every league in the past had something great about it, Unova doesn't have anything great about it whatsoever.