So is Journeys the Worst Series Ever?

[Soniman]

So its no secret Pokémon Journeys has garnered a rather infamous reputation amongst the Fandom as we enter it's third year. What started as excitement and optimism towards the new concepts it was bringing to the table turned to contempt every week.

Now I joined discussions and Fandom in regards to the anime just when BW was done airing so maybe the atmosphere was worse then but I can definitely say for as long as I've been around I have never seen a anime saga hated this much, nearly every episode every writing descion has brought copious amounts is bile. From half hearted continuity to bad pacing to little to know Pokémon focus in a show called Pokémon to a companion that has managed to surpass Iris in infamy. Basically every thing you could hate a Pokémon season for is present in JN and from my perspective it's the most disliked season on a Fandom wide scale, something I didn't think we'd see again.

Do you believe that to be the case? I myself find JN okay with stuff to like and loathe but I'm curious what others might think

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

We still have time, but as of now, for me, Journeys ranks pretty low. I have so many issues with this series. There's still time, but with the way things have gone, I do think this will surpass BW.

 

[HiroHunter]

I watched the first ep of Journeys and stopped. I gave it some time to see if it would get better, but the more I heard about it the less I wanted to watch it. The breaking point was how it treated the Darkest Days arc. Three eps long one for lore and two for the arc itself. It was rushed out the door too early and forgotten like it never really mattered. After that I gave up on Journeys.

 

[Enzo]

Frankly, there's still time, so I wouldn't say it's currently the worst evn if I personally despise it, because it's not only not over yet but also ultimately some people do enjoy it.

But now... if it keeps up like this until it's end... BW might get dethroned as the most hated series by the fandom.

 

[DankOverlord]

I'd wait until it's over to give a final judgment. Maybe the next half can improve on the more glaring flaws, Unova got decent midway even if Ash's team was badly underdeveloped and quite embarrassingly weak for the most part with only Krookodile coming across as consistently powerful

 

[lisianthus]

I haven't really watched much but the plot itself doesn't interest me too much.
Other than watching random episodes on the Pokemon website, my childhood series were BW and XY, and still are my favorites. I don't quite get the hate (but I'm sure it's pretty valid), but I don't really think much of anything can surpass XYZ in greatness, or SM in lowness.
If I had time to watch and the plot interested me, I would, but honestly it hasn't done much to draw me in in the 13 episodes or so that I've watched.

 

[Silktree]

It was rushed out the door too early and forgotten like it never really mattered.

There was zero reason to expect something that was bad in the games to be good in the anime, so 4 episodes is longer than the arc deserved and I'm scratching my head as to how that's a deal breaker. Good for you for stopping to watch something you don't enjoy, though. That's a novel idea around these parts.

 

[Sai]

Nah, it has its flaws but I enjoy it more than Johto/Hoenn/BW and some parts of Alola. Now that’s not to say I like all of it more than those sagas, obviously there’s issues with Ash’s Pokémon characterization and usage or how Go is handled in general. But I like the general direction of the saga, the battles and the less repetition of Team Rocket.

Honestly without nostalgia the older seasons are very difficult to go back to especially Johto/AG/DP. They have just as bad pacing, bad fillers, and poor handling of the cast outside of certain moments. The better moments of those sagas are good, but on an episode to episode basis the filler quality was always very dire and most eps treat the cast outside of Ash (or sometimes Dawn) poorly. BW at least tried to shake things up even though the saga was poorly handled.

I basically prefer Kanto, the good parts of BW, XY and SM overall, but Journies is a pretty decent middle ground. If they have Ash’s Pokémon better roles in fillers and let them interact more I’d have no problem with it. I’m indifferent to Go so it doesn’t matter to me how they handled him.

 

[HiroHunter]

There was zero reason to expect something that was bad in the games to be good in the anime, so 4 episodes is longer than the arc deserved and I'm scratching my head as to how that's a deal breaker. Good for you for stopping to watch something you don't enjoy, though. That's a novel idea around these parts.

Then what was the Team Flare arc in the XY anime? Team Flare sucked in the games and the anime did them far better. I expected the same with this or at least the AF arc from the SM anime. But it failed on both levels.

 

[SammyW27]

Things have actually picked up since they changed directors...but it might too little, too late...

Though I'll wait for a series to be good and down before passing final judgement.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I find the wording of this thread's title a bit eye rolling. Maybe it's just the frequent negativity getting to me again, but I don't think it's really the best way to start off a thread.

As for the question itself, no. I don't think Journeys is the worst series ever. There are some understandable complaints about the series and there are plenty that I agree with too. I've talked about how much I dislike the PWC and how Galar has been overlooked in favor of older Pokemon/regions. That being said, I've also thought that the backlash towards the series was way too extreme. In spite of my own issues with Journeys, most of the episodes I've seen have been enjoyable, I really like the friendship between Ash and Goh and Goh himself is honestly one of my favorite male companions in the series. Like I mentioned before, I can understand most of the complaints, but I still find Journeys to be much more enjoyable than BW was for me. I'm not sure how high I'd rank it at the moment, mainly because I haven't started the newest season on Netflix yet, but it's really not nearly as bad as fans make it out to be.

I think it's also important to emphasize that how a series is received here is not necessarily an indication of how the fanbase as a whole feels about it. A fanbase isn't a hive mind after all. I've seen plenty of love for Journeys on other sites. The same could be said for BW for that matter. I was here when BW was airing and the backlash towards that series was also quite intense. I distinctly remember that we had to add in a rule to not make death threats towards the writers during BW's run. We had to flat out ban Iris discussions by a certain point. Sadly, discussions on Journeys and Goh in particular have not fared better in regards to toxic behavior like that, but my point is that Journeys was not the first and probably won't be the last series that creates division among the fanbase. I'm not sure how many people even remember how mixed SM was for a good chuck of its run. I think it was already pretty well received well before the Alola League victory happened, but I think it was pretty divisive among fans for at least its first year.

It seems like BW is also being more well received over time. Or at least I don't think it's particularly uncommon for people to say that they like BW nowadays. There was a lot of hype for Iris' appearance too. A part of me wouldn't be surprised if that happens to Journeys down the road. Maybe some distance and looking back at the series as a whole would result in more people saying that they like it.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

Idk because SM exists and Ash and the League was so horrible that I can’t stand most of it. So SM is still on the bottom. JN is in a similar position with Ash but it’s main problem is execution but at least some episodes it was kind of interesting

 

[Unireon]

I have already given up on it improving in any way, now merely expecting that it won't plummet to even lower quality.

Unless this is all part of a master plan from the staff to kill off the anime and attain freedom to do something else.

 

[Mew2]

I don't think we're far enough in to tell just yet, which is surprising for a series that will be on its 84th episode a week and a couple days after this posting. However, given what the next few episodes will show, the series could improve quite a bit in that time. And we also have that winter special as well as whatever they do as a Legends Arceus tie in as well. As several other posters have said, I'll have to wait until the end to make that final judgment since even a series that starts off weak can have a strong finish. And a strong finish can overcome a lot of issues in the early or middle parts of a series.

 

[Rockapheller]

I personally cannot classify any series necessarily "the worst" by any means. When I go think about each series individually, each has their own strong and weak foundations as a whole, which in a whole picture makes any of those series neither "flawless perfection", nor "the absolute worst".

I enjoyed the BW series while it was running, and I'm glad that I was away from all the negativity in some Pokémon communities, because it would feel tiring to see each time someone going out there, raging out with all the emphasis that what you enjoy is pure garbage, or things like that. But now for the JN series, I feel that way unfortunately. I can empathize with several complaints about the series, which sometimes I feel the same way, but most times it feels as though some people make an extra afford to make an impression that what we have is horrible, with which I disagree, and I prefer to stay away from the fan communities to a degree now to not let that negativity take over me for something I enjoy.

 

[J Bouken]

Nah, far from it. If Journeys is the worst series ever then people either haven't seen Johto or are too nostalgic for old Pokemon.

Journeys has plenty of good things going for it. Goh and Chloe are solid characters, it's brought back characters we never thought we'd see again and used them in smart ways to bolster the development of newer characters, and has a variety of strong individual episodes covering a range of tones. The worst thing I can say about it is these things are disparate and haven't yet come together in a complete and satisfying way yet, but there's still time.

Whatever complaints I have, Journeys at least has a pulse. I can see myself re-watching parts of it. When I try to re-watch parts of Johto, AG and DP, I struggle, because big chunks of those sagas are just flat. That era was the anime spinning its wheels and taking few risks with its storytelling. And guess what? People complained then to, exactly as they are now, and exactly as they did with BW, XY, and SM.

There's always something to dislike.

 

[RafaSceptile]

Nah, far from it. If Journeys is the worst series ever then people either haven't seen Johto or are too nostalgic for old Pokemon.

Thanks for saying this, Johto was the absolute worst with all the repetitive filler-fest.

I would add also the Hoenn arc of AG from Ash's perspective as a worse series than Journeys too.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Nope. For all of my problems with this show, I still like it more than BW

 

[Johtoo]

I don't like anything about it. I wish I did, but there is nothing appealing about it at all. My ideal Pokemon anime is something similar to Diamond and Pearl and the original series. I want ash as the central protagonist, traveling through each gym. Catching Pokemon, making friendships with the character of the day and overcoming an arch rival in a heated last battle. I also want team rocket at the forefront and I wish Brock would return as well. I know some might say, his presence was overstayed by sinnoh, but Brock serves as an exposition into the complexity of the Pokemon series. When ash is facing a challenger, you wouldn't expect a new trainer like dawn to comment on type advantages and gym leader strategies. Brock was there for that, and his friendship with Ash allowed Ash to mature naturally. I also find it ironic, the moment he left was when ash developed a character disorder. He acted one way in unova, another in Kalos, another in alola and again, another in journeys. His character hasn't been consistent since sinnoh. I also don't like the music. Shinji Miyazaki is Pokemon and he always will be.

I do admire the attempt to freshen up the series, but I wish OLM would realise the series didn't need freshening up. People don't watch Pokemon for anything other than it being Pokemon. There's a reason why the anime has had sustained success. It's because they kept the formula true and the moment they moved away from it, was when the anime begun to decline in popularity and quality. I really hope the next series is a more down to earth series, with Goh removed, ash travelling with two companions in a new region where he's doing things that are related to the games, rather than some random journey that's currently happening. I also hope team rocket returns to having a pivotal role. Lastly, I hope OLM realise the strengths of the series, and plays to that. Because Pokemon can be a good anime. Diamond and pearl and to a lesser extent, XY proved that. They just need to return to the basics, give the older characters their spotlight back and who knows where it could go? I certainly won't watch any episodes of journeys, but I will catch the anime again if it returns to what it was and should be.

 

[isrrael120]

well for now Journeys has many problems but it is still not considered the worst, at least in my opinion!