Which era of the anime do you prefer?

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I can't remember the last time I seen anything associated with SM win in a poll.

OS

• Comedy
• Companions
• Filler
• Team Rocket

AG

• Companion Rival(s)

DP

• Main Rival
• Battles
• Villain
• Champion
• Pokemon League
• Contests

BW

• Mini Tournaments

XY

• Animation
• Specials

SM

• Going to school

JN

• Nostalgia

 

[Soublades192]

Gonna be honest, I have such a hard time viewing AG and DP as "classic" lmao. Like obviously I know that they're both pretty old at this point, but I guess my brain is still stuck in that 2007-2009 era when AG and DP were both new (or new-ish in AG's case, I guess) and OS was old. I'll probably always see it as OS = old and AG and everything after = new

To answer the question, though...it's a tough one. I lean more towards the classic era, because OS is still my favorite overall and AG and DP were both really good - they both had pockets of episodes where I was bored out of my mind but when they were good, they were GOOD. I do love the modern era too, though - I'm a VERY unapologetic BW and SM stan; I enjoyed them both so much (SM more than BW, but still) and will always defend them. My distaste for XY and JN unfortunately drags it down a bit, but I love BW and SM enough to say I also really enjoy the modern era.

It is also crazy how this year, the XY anime will be turning 10....

Time goes by very fast

 

[Hidden Mew]

While I agree that the modern era feels a lot more inconsistent compared to the series in the classic era, I think that there is still a lot of good in them. Despite still being my least favorite series, BW can be fun. I remember enjoying my rewatch of it a few years ago a lot more than I thought I would. A lot of my issues were still there like with Iris, Bianca, the rivals in general, but some of the battles were better and there were still some fun episodes. I also think that fans, myself included, kind of exaggerated the regression for BW Ash. Ash himself wasn't really the problem, but just the rather lackluster development of his Pokemon. If his team had more consistent focus and development, they might have been better. That isn't to say that there isn't any regression for BW Ash. He does have some pretty infamously bad battles and losing to an untrained Snivy with Pikachu was just a terrible way to start a new series, especially right after DP where I still think Ash was at his peak of strength. The battles could have been fantastic afterwards and it wouldn't have mattered with that terrible first impression. My point is that in spite of some pretty bad battles, I don't think BW Ash was as bad as fans still make him out to be.

XY is pretty solid with some good battles, a nice group dynamic, good development for Serena and an engaging climax with the Team Flare arc. I do think it was pretty overhyped back when it was airing and I think it is put on a bit of a pedestal even now, but at the same time, it was a pretty good series. SM did turn off people with the character designs, but I thought it was fine. The more laid back tone felt fitting with the Alola setting, most of the SM cast got a good amount of focus, Ash having an Alolan family with Professor Kukui and Burnet gave him a much different dynamic than usual and there were still some good heartfelt moments and battles. SM definitely had better reception over time, so Ash winning the Alola League itself didn't cause that, although I'm sure it did help in the long run. I do appreciate that it still managed to keep the focus on the then newest region despite having a different setup than we were used to at the time. It's something that I appreciate more in retrospect when Galar was treated so poorly in Journeys. It may not be a fair comparison when SM was actually set in Alola, but they could have easily had their homebase in Galar instead of Kanto and it might have improved how the anime treated that region.

While I think BW arguably had worse reception by comparison, Journeys definitely left fans rather mixed at the end. Even with Ash becoming a World Champion, I don't think a lot of fans are satisfied with this being his sendoff series, myself included. Some of my biggest problems with Journeys revolved around Ash's storyline, particularly with the development of his team and how the PWC was handled. Ash himself was fine. He was likable, had a solid friendship with Goh and still had moments where his connection to his Pokemon shined through. If his team was better developed and the PWC didn't feel like such a frustrating mess, maybe this would be more fitting as a sendoff series for him. I'd probably still feel sad about it since after all these years, I didn't think I'd have to prepare for Ash to be replaced barring any tragedies that thankfully haven't happened to Rica, but maybe it would feel like more of a satisfying note to end Ash on than I think it currently does. I still love Goh, I really like his development and despite my issues with Chloe, I thought she was really great too. Chloe slowly becoming more interested in Pokemon felt natural over the course of her first few focus episodes, leading up to her catching Eevee to officially become a trainer. This was the point where she really should have become a main character, or at the very least come along with Ash and Goh more often and not just to meet with the next Eevee evolution. Most of her focus episodes are still pretty good though. I still like Journeys, but like I've mentioned before, it turning out to be Ash's sendoff series does sour it quite a bit for me, to the point where I'm pretty far behind the dub again.

One major issue I have with the modern era as a whole is the lack of female battlers. A lot of fans think that this started with XY, but I'd argue it started in BW. Despite Iris' goal and her eventually becoming the new Unova Regional Champion in mind, she wasn't really that battle active in BW. She was at least a clear step down from both May and Dawn in that regard. The problem isn't necessarily that they didn't force female leads to be battlers. Being more battle active wouldn't fit with all of their personalities or storylines. Serena's goal didn't really require a lot of battling experience for example, so she didn't really need to battle all that much. The problem comes from how we don't have any female characters more interested in battles over the past few series. Even Chloe ran off in a panic when she was challenged to a battle when she went to Sinnoh for the first time. It creates the perhaps unintentional message that only boys like to battle, not helped with stuff like Ash and Goh going off on adventures with their Pokemon while the token girl Chloe stays home with Eevee in the last Journeys opening. It's a huge reason why I don't have a lot of faith with them making Riko into a battler when they've been distancing themselves from battle active female leads for over a decade at this point.

May, Dawn and to a lesser degree Misty were able to battle while still enjoying more traditional feminine stuff. They didn't have to choose one or the other. Contests were clearly designed to appeal to girls with the emphasis on the beauty of attacks, but at the end of the day, you still needed to be a good trainer to be a good Coordinator. They still had to have good battle skills to do well in both rounds of a Contest. This is a huge reason why I still think getting rid of Contests was such a huge loss for the anime. It gave them a relatively easy way for the female lead to be battle active, give them a distinct goal and the differences between Contests and regular battles would explain why Ash wasn't taking part in them all the time too. That isn't to say that Contests were absolutely flawlessly. The point system in particular could be pretty annoying and I don't think that they really knew how to make Contests work well until DP, but they provided a much needed structure for the female characters that required them to get consistent focus and development for their teams. While we have had good female leads in the modern era, I still think that the anime has never been able to make up for that loss after all these years.

 

[skynerel]

Classic Era overrall, but XY puts a smile on my face everytime I watch it. It’s a shame that it’s in between BW and SM which were drastically different.

 

[Soublades192]

One major issue I have with the modern era as a whole is the lack of female battlers. A lot of fans think that this started with XY, but I'd argue it started in BW. Despite Iris' goal and her eventually becoming the new Unova Regional Champion in mind, she wasn't really that battle active in BW. She was at least a clear step down from both May and Dawn in that regard. The problem isn't necessarily that they didn't force female leads to be battlers. Being more battle active wouldn't fit with all of their personalities or storylines. Serena's goal didn't really require a lot of battling experience for example, so she didn't really need to battle all that much. The problem comes from how we don't have any female characters more interested in battles over the past few series. Even Chloe ran off in a panic when she was challenged to a battle when she went to Sinnoh for the first time. It creates the perhaps unintentional message that only boys like to battle, not helped with stuff like Ash and Goh going off on adventures with their Pokemon while the token girl Chloe stays home with Eevee in the last Journeys opening. It's a huge reason why I don't have a lot of faith with them making Riko into a battler when they've been distancing themselves from battle active female leads for over a decade at this point.

May, Dawn and to a lesser degree Misty were able to battle while still enjoying more traditional feminine stuff. They didn't have to choose one or the other. Contests were clearly designed to appeal to girls with the emphasis on the beauty of attacks, but at the end of the day, you still needed to be a good trainer to be a good Coordinator. They still had to have good battle skills to do well in both rounds of a Contest. This is a huge reason why I still think getting rid of Contests was such a huge loss for the anime. It gave them a relatively easy way for the female lead to be battle active, give them a distinct goal and the differences between Contests and regular battles would explain why Ash wasn't taking part in them all the time too. That isn't to say that Contests were absolutely flawlessly. The point system in particular could be pretty annoying and I don't think that they really knew how to make Contests work well until DP, but they provided a much needed structure for the female characters that required them to get consistent focus and development for their teams. While we have had good female leads in the modern era, I still think that the anime has never been able to make up for that loss after all these years.

THIS THIS THIS in regards to Iris. The fact she was shown to have grown a lot as a character from BW to JN makes you think her character was rebooted in some form, especially when she did get much involved with battles during BW.

Lets hope RIko will go for the path of being a battler. It is time for AniPoke to have that type of character for a female main

As for your point on contests, totally agree. A Coordinator still has to be a good trainer in battle to succed in it, while with showcases I feel falls more on the trainer itself rather than their Pokemon. Makes you wonder had XY brought back contests instead of doing showcases, because at the end of the day, showcases are a half-baked version of contests.

 

[Hidden Mew]

THIS THIS THIS in regards to Iris. The fact she was shown to have grown a lot as a character from BW to JN makes you think her character was rebooted in some form, especially when she did get much involved with battles during BW.

Lets hope RIko will go for the path of being a battler. It is time for AniPoke to have that type of character for a female main

Considering that Iris only became the Unova Champion to match with her video game counterpart, she basically was. Plenty of fans were happy to see that she had made huge progress off screen and I can understand that for those who were more invested in her character and storyline than I was. But it really felt more forced as opposed to a natural progression for Iris's character. I can't blame the writers too much when they obviously didn't have Journeys in mind when Iris had her special, let alone when BW was airing, but it felt pretty unbelievable. If any other character was the Unova Champion in B2/W2 instead of Iris, she most likely would have been brought back as a Gym Leader instead. It still bothers me that Iris was allowed to make such huge offscreen progress, while Dawn was seemingly stagnant in her progress. I'm probably a bit biased there since I greatly prefer Dawn over Iris, but it just makes it more annoying to me.

As much as I'd like to see a female battler front and center again in the anime, I still have a lot of doubt, especially coming right after Journeys where they couldn't be bothered to have a proper female lead. I can't say it's impossible, but I don't think that they'll go in that direction given how female characters have been handled for awhile.

As for your point on contests, totally agree. A Coordinator still has to be a good trainer in battle to succed in it, while with showcases I feel falls more on the trainer itself rather than their Pokemon. Makes you wonder had XY brought back contests instead of doing showcases, because at the end of the day, showcases are a half-baked version of contests.

Showcases were definitely the poor man's version of Contests. If Serena's character development wasn't pretty solid and believable, they would have been more of a chore to sit through than they were. As much as I wish that they had made Serena a Coordinator instead, I don't think that would have worked. Serena didn't even decide on becoming a Performer until near the end of XY's first year. That's a big reason why I think that they had only three Princess Keys as requirements for Master Showcase since they wouldn't need to devote as much of the series' remaining time for Serena's goal. There was no way for them to introduce Contests and get Serena to win five ribbons in about two years. If they had re-introduced Contests earlier in XY, maybe it could have worked, but OR/AS weren't released until a year after the series started.

 

[Greninjaman]

For me, I will say the classic era. I was more invested in the show during Gens 1 through 4 than am I now. I stopped watching when the Alola saga started. I think the reason I stopped was because I was simply losing interest in the show. I had friends who would play the games with me, but now most of them either don't play the games anymore, have moved away (meaning I don't see them anymore) or both. I watched the first episode of Sun & Moon and didn't enjoy it. I think my reason is I like adventure stories as opposed to slice of Life stories.

Edit: Forgot to mention-I have not watched anything from Journeys. If the World Tournament idea was more fleshed out instead of tacked on like it was, I might have been more willing, but oh well.

 

[Jez]

My favorite era of anime extends from OS to the end of DP... After that, I liked some episodes in the following series, but in my opinion, those series were more like spin-offs, so to me, the true series will always be OS-DP.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Classic, almost entirely because of Gen 4. It's all been fluctuating since DP, some ups and downs but never surpassing that high water mark for various reasons. BW was a dumbed-down disaster, XY was too fanservice-heavy and cared far more about apologising for BW than being a well-written series itself, SM was largely a joke series, and then Journeys surpassed XY so hard in terrible writing that it gave me a new love for amateur Pokémon fanfiction. Heck, I can't even say with a straight face that any of the later four editions beat AG either.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Classic, almost entirely because of Gen 4. It's all been fluctuating since DP, some ups and downs but never surpassing that high water mark for various reasons. BW was a dumbed-down disaster, XY was too fanservice-heavy and cared far more about apologising for BW than being a well-written series itself, SM was largely a joke series, and then Journeys surpassed XY so hard in terrible writing that it gave me a new love for amateur Pokémon fanfiction. Heck, I can't even say with a straight face that any of the later four editions beat AG either.

Unless you prefer the slice of life formula over the original formula I don't see you could put SM towards the top of the list, it doesn't help the fact that the artstyle is bad. This series offers nothing for me that I couldn't get from the other series. I haven't liked the Ash character since AG/Hoenn,the SM version is far from that.

There's hardly any battles that are featured which hurts it a ton for me, JN at least fixed this problem. OS to this day still has the best comedy (Kanto) and companions (Brock/Misty), the SM series is significantly inferior in both categories. DP is widely accepted as the best written series with some of the best battles and rival we've ever gotten.

 

[JollyYoshi]

I really like the character interactions and creative filler episodes in the original series. There’s just such an outburst of creativity in that series like with maidens peak, butterfree, bye bye pikachu, lt. surge, and so on.

I’m overall curious what Pokémon would be like if Takeshi Shudo was still writing.

 

[Greninjaman]

Looking at the poll. There is a very clear winner here.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

The classic Era, had much more heart & character IMO: the dub was also much better, even TPCi's dub wasn't as bad as it is now-- which was still a step down from 4Kids' dub even then to me, than what it became in the modern Era, with the exception of Season 14 of BW which was the best the current dub ever got IMHO.

OS, AG & DP in Japanese (OS & the first 3/4 of AG in English, that said) felt like three Cohesive Series with the same art style (though Sayuri the OG animator left after S9 of AG in that capacity), told a story, and had more creativity than what would later happen save SM's school setting & the Masters 8 in JN. There was strong continuity between the Series as well during its first 13 years, too. I also generally liked Ash & co. a lot more early on than I would afterward, in the modern Era the repetitiveness really stood out and the reset of Ash in BW was a bit jarring as well at first. I agree w/Galar Adventurer that XY wasn't anything special, as well, like him I have never understood its hype vs all the other Series in this fandom. Its humble beginnings are the Series' most memorable, the modern Era just didn't have anything that stood out save Ash's wins in the last two Series or compelling narrative wise in comparison.

 

[Daren]

I agree w/Galar Adventurer that XY wasn't anything special, as well, like him I have never understood its hype vs all the other Series in this fandom.

I think it was the great battle animation+a lot of people loved Ash's team finally fully evolving (sans Pika, of course)+the (ultimately thwarted) Greninja league hype+a canon ship for Ash that all combined to hit a lot of switches in the fanbase.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

I think it was the great battle animation+a lot of people loved Ash's team finally fully evolving (sans Pika, of course)+the (ultimately thwarted) Greninja league hype+a canon ship for Ash that all combined to hit a lot of switches in the fanbase.

Probably, but I'm one of the few who never really liked Ash for his battle prowess (or rather, lack of, most of the time), always thought Ash-Greninja was cool but kind of a dumb concept regardless at the same time & the Serena thing never went anywhere like Misty per se personally.

 

[Alola]

I really miss the halcyon days of Diamond & Pearl. It had almost everything for everyone.

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I can't remember the last time I seen anything associated with SM win in a poll.

OS

• Comedy
• Companions
• Filler
• Team Rocket

AG

• Companion Rival(s)

DP

• Main Rival
• Battles
• Villain
• Champion
• Pokemon League
• Contests

BW

• Mini Tournaments

XY

• Animation
• Specials

SM

• Going to school

JN

• Nostalgia

Battles : DP/AG/XY

Animation : XY

Comedy : OS

Villains : DP/XY

Companions : OS

English Openings : AG

Japanese Openings : AG

Rival(s) : DP/AG/OS

Writing : DP

Filler/COTDs : OS

Team Rocket : OS

Pokémon League: DP

 

[Area54]

They should rename this:
Classical era: Gen 1-4
Modern era: 5-8
New Beginning era : 9- present.
And sadly it's getting worse and worse.

 

[Yami-no-Game]

The classic era and by that I mostly mean the Original Series minus the Johto fillers. The AG and DP sagas were good too, but I don't have as much nostalgia about them.

 

[AgedVeteranofShow]

They should rename this:
Classical era: Gen 1-4
Modern era: 5-8
New Beginning era : 9- present.
And sadly it's getting worse and worse.

How I name them = basically split by how they were handled in the English Dub aka...

Classic 4Kids Era: Gens 1-3.75 (OS to Late AG/Early BF)
Transitional PUSA Era: Gens 3.75-Gen 5 (Mid BF to BW)
Goldfarb TPCi Era: Gen 6-Gen 8 (XY to JN)
Horizons Era: Gen 9 (Liko Series)

Episode wise across all media in all Languages, your division makes more sense, though. A lot of people think Gens 4 & 6 are the best, whereas I thought they were some of the worst in the entire franchise, personally (people meanwhile, hated Gens 2, 5 & 8 but I'm pretty indifferent/neutral to them in their original Language + enjoyed the first 1/3 of the Gen 2 dub a LOT). I do, however, agree with the majority opinion that the English dub has been on a progressive decline in quality (Dogasu thinks it's garbage start to finish, don't see things that way but valid, I suppose) and was actually better at its inception than it ended up (this is probably the only Series I was unable to fully accept and embrace the dub changes as overall they replicate the mistakes made by their predecessors & added other issues to me, notably so in the VA and music departments).