So is Journeys the Worst Series Ever?

[Nichole the Otter]

I will still never get over how Dawn was just so utterly wasted in Journeys, especially for a massively beloved companion.

As someone who has Dawn among my favorite female characters in the series, it is clear character assassination. The fact her team was never changed made her look even more useless and not looking like she made progress as a character.

As Die-Hard Dragon Devotee summed it up perfectly, she was reduced to sheer nostalgia bait.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

I don't consider Journeys to be the worst Series ever, but early Journeys still bugs me due to Pokémon World relations: it's been years that the WCS exists, yet not anyone told a thing about a world championship existed in any manner.
Also, they seem to have retconned Contests into being what they are in the games.

 

[Galar Adventurer]

I wouldn't say it was the worst series ever and I would say the good outweighs the bad when it comes to BW (bad being Junior Cup, Unova League, Da!). My least favorite series would still go to Johto (got good by Season 5 but having to stall with that much filler is still pretty bad).

It just irks me that the powers that be of the previous era of the anime randomly decided that Journeys
would be Ash and Pikachu's sendoff.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I don't consider Journeys to be the worst Series ever, but early Journeys still bugs me due to Pokémon World relations: it's been years that the WCS exists, yet not anyone told a thing about a world championship existed in any manner.
Also, they seem to have retconned Contests into being what they are in the games.

The anime has to recton new regions and Pokemon all the time, so not mentioning a World Champion until now isn't really that different. The closest we got was the Champion League and even that was added in during DP.

As for Contests, I was under the impression that Serena's Contests were different from Dawn's. Dawn never mentioned being a Performer and I don't think she'd be into Contest Spectaculars either.

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

I will always hate how they had to suddenly create an entirely new type of Pokemon Contest that completely removed the entire battle round and presented it more as a Pokemon Showcase just for Serena. It took away what we loved about Pokemon Contests and just gave Hoenn its own version of the Pokemon Shocwase, which people already complained about being watered down Pokemon Contests. To see it return in the form it did was honestly disappointing.

 

[Poke Trey]

That title will forever go to BW. JN at least felt like a proper conclusion for Ash and enjoyable in ways BW wished it did.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

BW is still good insurance for JN and SM.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

I'll die on this hill-yes, it is. I'll always and forever stand by my opinion that Journeys was utter garbage overall and a disgrace as Ash's final series as the main character of this anime. He deserved so much better, as did all of us fans who followed his adventures for all those years.

 

[electrictype master]

I think it only seems mediocre because of all the hype surrounding it initially. Almost everyone thought Ash would rotate Pokemon throughout the series for example but he just had a standard team of six for most of the saga. Then the character comebacks like Mewtwo's return and others also got a lot of attention but didn't end up being that important in the grand scheme of things.

For the most part Journeys was a standard saga only with the World Championship subplot happening as Ash's endgame, which was good enough for me.

 

[Falaish]

I will still never get over how Dawn was just so utterly wasted in Journeys, especially for a massively beloved companion.

Look, her appearance during Ash vs Leon I can get behind with her cheering on Ash with Chloe which was sweet but her proper major return which just immediately shifted her to the foreside in favour of generic Legendary situation #1375 twice was just so disappointing.

I get why people are bothered she didn't get any new pokemon, but I fail to see how people think she was wasted. The Darkrai/,Cresselia arc was great as both a TR Matori arc and for Kohau and Dawn's development. Dawn got a new contest dress, said she was doing contests in Sinnoh again after doing them in Hoenn and Unova, and she helped them heal the Cresselia and battled the TR characters. The winter arc wasn't as good, but it did have some nice moments with Dawn and her AU self being a runner up champion, and the de-evolving and chibi kid stuff at the end.

The Arceus Legends eps taken together were a nice mini-movie that portrayed her and the DP cast exactly as they were in DP. And getting to watch Leon in person was nice.

I don't see how Dawn fans could be disappointed. If you want to see a really disappointing return look at Alan and we can all agree with that, he was the worst treated of anyone.

 

[BeautifulSylveon]

I also have a problem with Other characters' personalities, because I don't understand them. Other Ash is a crybaby, basically a rehash of the Mirror World episode (at least Other TR are still villains as opposed to Mirror TR, even though competent and serious ones). Also, if their pronouns are any indication about Other Goh and Other Chloe's personalities, I don't know how they're supposed to be the opposite of the Regular ones. Other Goh uses the smug "ore-sama", but Regular Goh doesn't come off to me as humble/lacking confidence (that would be Liko, not him, and while he lacked confidence on several times, it's not one of his main traits), while Regular Chloe is far from being the most feminine character (her Other self uses the tomboyish "boku") from the Ash series, and doesn't seem to be averse to computing/hacking either.

To me, the Mirror World episode handled the opposite personalities better (with Pikachu even having a Cap-like personality).

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

JN

• Bad Powerscaling
• Ash not rotating his reserves during M8 Tournament

SM

• PATHETIC excuse for a Don George inspired Tournament "Pokemon League"
• Mediocre Slice of Life

BW

• Ash reset
• Iris was irritating
• Poorly handled Unova League
• No Charizard vs Reshiram

 

[AndreskX]

JN

• Bad Powerscaling
• Ash not rotating his reserves during M8 Tournament

SM

• PATHETIC excuse for a Don George inspired Tournament "Pokemon League"
• Mediocre Slice of Life

BW

• Ash reset
• Iris was irritating
• Poorly handled Unova League
• No Charizard vs Reshiram

Ash should've rotated his reserves throughout the entirety of Journeys, that would've been the coolest thing of all time.

 

[snowmint]

Ritchie fans should be mad.

 

[goldenchimchar]

I wouldn’t say the worst. I will say it has the most wasted potential and missed opportunities.

 

[Alola]

Not with what we're (not) getting with Horizons, no - Liko & friends have usurped Journeys for that spot.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Not with what we're (not) getting with Horizons, no - Liko & friends have usurped Journeys for that spot.

I think you might be right.......Jesus. This might be a sign the Pokémon anime's in a state of decay, it looks they're going downhill if the last two series are anything to go on. Sad, isn't it?

 

[Daren]

I think you might be right.......Jesus. This might be a sign the Pokémon anime's in a state of decay, it looks they're going downhill if the last two series are anything to go on. Sad, isn't it?

Frankly, a not insignificant number of people thought it entered a state of decay long ago; the only series I haven't seen decried as where it jumped the shark is AG, and I probably just missed that rather than it not happening.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Frankly, a not insignificant number of people thought it entered a state of decay long ago; the only series I haven't seen decried as where it jumped the shark is AG, and I probably just missed that rather than it not happening.

That's true. But I think the decay is really starting to show in recent years, as the last 4 series (including the current one, Horizons,) have been highly divisive and controversial among us fans.

 

[Hidden Mew]

That's true. But I think the decay is really starting to show in recent years, as the last 4 series (including the current one, Horizons,) have been highly divisive and controversial among us fans.

I can see why SM, Journeys and Horizons would be considered divisive and controversial among fans, but I don't see how that really applies to XY. Aside from the Kalos League, there wasn't much backlash compared to those series. I'd argue even SM became less divisive over time too.