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Which series was the worst one?

Which anime series was the worst one?

  • OS

    Votes: 8 11.0%
  • AG

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • DP

    Votes: 2 2.7%
  • BW

    Votes: 53 72.6%
  • XY

    Votes: 8 11.0%

  • Total voters
    73
While losing to Trip was a bad way for him to lose the Unova League, it was fitting that he only got to the Top 8.
He beat Trip actually, though it was an extremely lackluster and unsatisfying conclusion to an already poorly developed rivalry. I mean, it wasn't even a 6 vs. 6. It was Pikachu getting tossed around by Serperior until he pulled off a combo at the end I think. The person he lost to was far worse though. He lost to Cameron, who not only brought only 5 Pokemon to the battle, but got a very lucky evolution to win.
 
C. THEY TURNED THE MOST BELOVED OF GEN 7 POKEMON, AND TURNED IT INTO AN PIKACHU-CIDAL ABOMBINATION =

That is actually one of the better things about the series.
1. A Powerful TR Pokemon? Check.
2. Something on-par with Pikachu on design and stuff? Check.
3. In-game character of Mimikyu preserved? Check. It had to disguise since it believed that everyone loved Pikachu. So, not it wants to destroy Pikachu since it 'stole' Mimikyu's love. (I really love using Raichu and Mimikyu as a team, seeing their less-than-pleasurable lore with Pikachu). Mimikyu is the only 'Pikaclone' I'be ever been invested in.
 
No one voted for AG, but someone voted for DP...

There are some people who legitimately hate DP, actually.

Most common complaints are that Ash is a soulless battle drone, that Brock is useless, that there are too many terrible fillers, that there is a whole one-year gap between the 7th and the 8th Badge (and always forget that plenty of important stuff happens in said gap, like the HGSS arc, the TG finale and the Grand Festival), that Piplup is an annoying screen hogger, and so on.

I don't think I have ever seen people who hate AG, to be honest.
 
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Besides the Battle Frontier nothing about AG really stood out for me besides the lack of Rivals for Ash, how underwhelming Team Magma and Team Aqua were, and how pointless Max was, though I guess people who watched it when it aired might have been surprised by the lack of Misty but I wasn't watching then so I wouldn't know. Really AG just felt average besides the Battle Frontier for me.
 
Personally, I would say XY. Too serious, too dramatic, too emotional lack of humour- generally, not my cup of tea. Characters also weren't interesting for me ( maybe sometimes Serena was- I'd say her episodes were pretty good).
Generally OS>AG(however, it was better than last Johto season)>DP ( which i prefer to Battle Frontier) >SM>BW>XY
@Islander Princess- The same- I didn't watch all of XY episodes- cause they were simply boring.
@Wishy-Washy
It definetely was a surprise- firstly maybe not nice, but then I had to say May replaced her very well ( and, what is important, Misty returned few times, not like in XY, SM or M20- this is what i appreciate about AG and DP- continuity)
 
My rankings are:
DP>XY>AG=OS

Didn't include BW since I didn't watch the series. Also, SM isn't included in rankings becuase it isn't complete. I'll currently place it between AG and OS.

EDIT: by the episode summaries I've read, I'd class BW as worst.
 
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BW. Definitely the reason why I stopped watching the anime. Iris and Cilan were intolerable for me (particularly Cilan and his "connoisseur" BS), and the anime dumbed down a lot of my favourite characters from the game (I'm especially angry about the Skyla episode because she was demonised in it). The only good thing was that at least they didn't use Hilda or Rosa as traveling partners - I feel like people would hate them more if they had been. Just look at Serena in XY...
 
He beat Trip actually, though it was an extremely lackluster and unsatisfying conclusion to an already poorly developed rivalry. I mean, it wasn't even a 6 vs. 6. It was Pikachu getting tossed around by Serperior until he pulled off a combo at the end I think. The person he lost to was far worse though. He lost to Cameron, who not only brought only 5 Pokemon to the battle, but got a very lucky evolution to win.

That was a typo on my part. My mistake. I meant to say Cameron before since that was still a pretty terrible way for Ash to lose. Not only was he too stupid to realize what a full battle was, but he still manage to beat Ash just because his Riolu evolved. I was fine with Ash getting to the Top 8, but they could have given him a better defeat. It also didn't help matters that Cameron lost to the one shot rival full of Eeveelutions, which just added more salt to the wound. Although, I'll say that Ash losing to a Lucario was better than if he lost to an Eevee or something.

As for Trip, I was pretty satisfied with how they handled his conclusion. I agree that it was really lackluster and the battle itself was just weak, but that's honestly felt pretty fitting with how the rivalry was handled. It was if the writers basically gave up on the rivalry early on in the series given how Trip lost to other trainers and his battle with Alder had way more impact on him than Ash did. He did not deserve a full battle with Ash. Even a three-on-three match might have been too good for him. They really only focused on his Serperior after awhile and getting rid of him as soon as they could was probably the best decision they could have made for Trip at the time. The rivalry was beyond saving at that point, so they might as well write him off as quickly as possible.

There are some people who legitimately hate DP, actually.

Most common complaints are that Ash is a soulless battle drone, that Brock is useless, that there are too many terrible fillers, that there is a whole one-year gap between the 7th and the 8th Badge (and always forget that plenty of important stuff happens in said gap, like the HGSS arc, the TG finale and the Grand Festival), that Piplup is an annoying screen hogger, and so on.

I don't think I have ever seen people who hate AG, to be honest.

I've never understood people complaining about that one year gap between the seventh and eighth badge. Like you mentioned, there were plenty of important events during that year gap. There were filler episodes of course, but not really an overwhelming amount. DP is so far the only series that could pull off a gap like that because there was more going on than just Ash's Gym badge quest. I remember people saying that without that gap, we could have had the Johto Battle Frontier, but there was really no way to fit that in with everything else DP was doing, especially when Dawn would need to have another Contest arc too.

While DP is widely praised, it isn't uncommon for people to dislike it for these reasons. Brock still being in the show and Piplup hogging up screen time in particular were really common complains while the show was running. I don't see much dislike towards AG either, although I feel like I'm one of the few people who really doesn't like the Battle Frontier arc or Harley for that matter. He was entertaining to me back in the day, but rewatching AG now, seeing him constantly try to manipulate and lie to May just makes my skin crawl.

Besides the Battle Frontier nothing about AG really stood out for me besides the lack of Rivals for Ash, how underwhelming Team Magma and Team Aqua were, and how pointless Max was, though I guess people who watched it when it aired might have been surprised by the lack of Misty but I wasn't watching then so I wouldn't know. Really AG just felt average besides the Battle Frontier for me.

I don't know if I'd go as far as say that Max was pointless. I don't think that they were able to do much with him just because he wasn't a trainer, but I don't think that the show would play out the exact same way if Max wasn't in the cast. I really like AG before the Battle Frontier arc since it felt so refreshing to see Ash start a new journey with new friends and make a new team. It's pretty standard now, so that impact isn't really felt for at least long time fans, but at the time, it was such a great decision that helped to make the series feel fresh. It really did feel like Ash was starting over again. The battles were pretty good and Ash felt like he was able to progress even without a rival. May became a more active female lead and the introduction of Contests were great. In retrospect, you can really tell that they were still figuring out how to make Contests work and I don't think that they really hit their stride with them until DP, but there were still good Contests in AG and having another form of battling for the female lead to focus on was a great decision. I still miss them immensely and somehow bringing Contests back would be fantastic.

The Battle Frontier arc for me just really hasn't aged well. My main problem was that they were trying to do a lot within roughly the last year of the show. Ash had to get seven Frontier symbols, May had to get five Ribbons, as well as get to the Grand Festival, and that wasn't counting the times where they'd have to lose too. That's a lot of important battles and they only had a relatively short amount of time to do that. Maybe it if it was just Ash's Frontier battles, they'd be able to manage it, but including May's second Contest arc, while necessary to give her some more reason to be in Kanto, really made it more of a challenge. While there were good battles, there were also too many cheap wins for both Ash and May. Both of Ash's last two battles against the Frontier Brains were pretty cheap wins. The arc needed more breathing room than what they could have given it due to the new series being on the way. Both the Battle Frontier arc and BW as a whole are prime examples as to why I think the show benefits more from a slow pace rather than a fast one. Granted, part of that could be my own personal preference for slow over fast pacing in general, but whenever the show has had faster pacing, it usually doesn't work.

In retrospect, it would have been nice if they somehow found a way to extend the Hoenn journey for all of AG much like how DP was all about the Sinnoh journey. May honestly could have benefited from losing a couple more Contests. Catching/evolving more Pokemon would have been nice, especially when she has a surprisingly small amount of third generation Pokemon despite being the playable female character of the third generation games, and some of the Gym battles could have been improved upon. It might have been kind of tricky to do that, but it could have helped improved AG more, even though I do still like the series as a whole.
 
That was a typo on my part. My mistake. I meant to say Cameron before since that was still a pretty terrible way for Ash to lose. Not only was he too stupid to realize what a full battle was, but he still manage to beat Ash just because his Riolu evolved. I was fine with Ash getting to the Top 8, but they could have given him a better defeat. It also didn't help matters that Cameron lost to the one shot rival full of Eeveelutions, which just added more salt to the wound. Although, I'll say that Ash losing to a Lucario was better than if he lost to an Eevee or something.

As for Trip, I was pretty satisfied with how they handled his conclusion. I agree that it was really lackluster and the battle itself was just weak, but that's honestly felt pretty fitting with how the rivalry was handled. It was if the writers basically gave up on the rivalry early on in the series given how Trip lost to other trainers and his battle with Alder had way more impact on him than Ash did. He did not deserve a full battle with Ash. Even a three-on-three match might have been too good for him. They really only focused on his Serperior after awhile and getting rid of him as soon as they could was probably the best decision they could have made for Trip at the time. The rivalry was beyond saving at that point, so they might as well write him off as quickly as possible.



I've never understood people complaining about that one year gap between the seventh and eighth badge. Like you mentioned, there were plenty of important events during that year gap. There were filler episodes of course, but not really an overwhelming amount. DP is so far the only series that could pull off a gap like that because there was more going on than just Ash's Gym badge quest. I remember people saying that without that gap, we could have had the Johto Battle Frontier, but there was really no way to fit that in with everything else DP was doing, especially when Dawn would need to have another Contest arc too.

While DP is widely praised, it isn't uncommon for people to dislike it for these reasons. Brock still being in the show and Piplup hogging up screen time in particular were really common complains while the show was running. I don't see much dislike towards AG either, although I feel like I'm one of the few people who really doesn't like the Battle Frontier arc or Harley for that matter. He was entertaining to me back in the day, but rewatching AG now, seeing him constantly try to manipulate and lie to May just makes my skin crawl.



I don't know if I'd go as far as say that Max was pointless. I don't think that they were able to do much with him just because he wasn't a trainer, but I don't think that the show would play out the exact same way if Max wasn't in the cast. I really like AG before the Battle Frontier arc since it felt so refreshing to see Ash start a new journey with new friends and make a new team. It's pretty standard now, so that impact isn't really felt for at least long time fans, but at the time, it was such a great decision that helped to make the series feel fresh. It really did feel like Ash was starting over again. The battles were pretty good and Ash felt like he was able to progress even without a rival. May became a more active female lead and the introduction of Contests were great. In retrospect, you can really tell that they were still figuring out how to make Contests work and I don't think that they really hit their stride with them until DP, but there were still good Contests in AG and having another form of battling for the female lead to focus on was a great decision. I still miss them immensely and somehow bringing Contests back would be fantastic.

The Battle Frontier arc for me just really hasn't aged well. My main problem was that they were trying to do a lot within roughly the last year of the show. Ash had to get seven Frontier symbols, May had to get five Ribbons, as well as get to the Grand Festival, and that wasn't counting the times where they'd have to lose too. That's a lot of important battles and they only had a relatively short amount of time to do that. Maybe it if it was just Ash's Frontier battles, they'd be able to manage it, but including May's second Contest arc, while necessary to give her some more reason to be in Kanto, really made it more of a challenge. While there were good battles, there were also too many cheap wins for both Ash and May. Both of Ash's last two battles against the Frontier Brains were pretty cheap wins. The arc needed more breathing room than what they could have given it due to the new series being on the way. Both the Battle Frontier arc and BW as a whole are prime examples as to why I think the show benefits more from a slow pace rather than a fast one. Granted, part of that could be my own personal preference for slow over fast pacing in general, but whenever the show has had faster pacing, it usually doesn't work.

In retrospect, it would have been nice if they somehow found a way to extend the Hoenn journey for all of AG much like how DP was all about the Sinnoh journey. May honestly could have benefited from losing a couple more Contests. Catching/evolving more Pokemon would have been nice, especially when she has a surprisingly small amount of third generation Pokemon despite being the playable female character of the third generation games, and some of the Gym battles could have been improved upon. It might have been kind of tricky to do that, but it could have helped improved AG more, even though I do still like the series as a whole.

Cameron also send Pokémon with double weakness against Pikachu and Pignite (Swanna and Ferroseed/Ferrothorn).

I am still baffled by how did the directors though they could sell noob Ash to the audience? After Ash taking down TWO Legendaries, how did they expect the audience to react to noob Ash? I know they only care about the target audience, but I imagine that there were many kids back then who watched the Sinnoh League. It is as if the executives woke up one day and decided to shoot themselves in the foot.
 
I am still baffled by how did the directors though they could sell noob Ash to the audience? After Ash taking down TWO Legendaries, how did they expect the audience to react to noob Ash? I know they only care about the target audience, but I imagine that there were many kids back then who watched the Sinnoh League. It is as if the executives woke up one day and decided to shoot themselves in the foot.

That's a good description. I think it was an extremely clumsy attempt to recreate Kanto.
 
Best Wishes. Sun and Moon may follow suit. I know its not over yet, but I miss humor that wasn't forced, gyms, contests, and even showcases (rather I really enjoyed Serena's development as a character).

I like Mallow a lot. Love Ash's team, Team Rocket, yet not feeling Sun and Moon.

If I had to rank them:

1. OS (I grew up with it)
2.DP (It was epic)
3. AG (Very good fresh start)
4. BW/SM (IDK it's like a tie)
 
I had hopes that Best Wishes would have some engaging story and character arcs considering the games that it was based on. But I never really got it and when they finally did focus on the baddies, Episode N, they ended squandering it with that Decolora Islands Arc. A filler arc that makes you wonder why they would cut Episode N short for this. An arc that blatantly tells me the creative team have given up on the series and simply stalling for time. The Decolora Arc already makes me classify BW as a bad series (if the production team doesn't care, why should I?), but add that League and few other problems mentioned already, and you have something that cannot be truly excused for its flaws.

While the original series has a great number of flaws on its own, it was the first series of Pokémon and you expect some bumps in the road. Best Wishes is a newer series that had more than ten years to refine Ash's journey. You expect it to be at least better than OS.
 
Iris ruined gen 5 for me

Also sh only evolved like 2 of his Pokemon and lost half of his battles and was also a beginner again for some reason

It's kinda funny in that gen 5 has the best games but the worst anime
 
Honestly, I thought that the Decolora Island arc was relatively decent, but I tended to enjoy the filler episodes in BW more so than episodes that progressed Ash's journey or any episode focused on Iris. It really was strange that they cut the Episode N arc short just so that they could go to a trip back to Kanto arc. I don't think that Episode N could have lasted the rest of BW, but they probably could have gotten at least a couple more episodes to work with instead of spending time exploring the islands.

The worst part about the Decolora Island arc for me was just how Iris and Cilan suddenly wanted to leave the moment they got to Kanto. They kind of setup Iris going off to battle Clair in Johto when she appeared again, or at least a lot of people assumed that was going to happen, and I understood that they wanted to keep on traveling, but they didn't even bother to meet Ash's Mom, see Professor Oak again or do anything once they got there. What was the point of traveling with Ash back to Kanto when they were only there for two minutes? It wasn't entirely pointless due to Alexa showing off her Pokemon and leading into Ash wanting to go to Kalos, but that conclusion did make the arc feel like a general waste of time.
 
The problem with the Decolora Islands is not the arc itself, but rather how it cements Best Wishes' poor reputation with audiences for good. Episode N could have salvaged much of the series as N and Team Plasma are the Black and White's greatest strength in story. Another month of Decolora Islands dedicated to Episode N could have made it well-paced rather than rushed. But instead, they went with a filler arc that didn't accomplish anything other than giving Ash a reason to go to Kalos.

And considering how rushed Iris and Cilan's departure was (on the second-to-last episode no less), it really told me that the production team really didn't care about Best Wishes by this point. Compare and contrast to XY and XY&Z. At least they cared enough to wrap up the story in a satisfying conclusion with little to no loose ends.
 
Side-eying whoever voted DP~

Honestly DK why this is in question, BW was petty much hated by everyone since episode 1 with Pikachu getting bi+ch slapped around by a level 5 Snivy~ To this day, there is 0 excuse for Ash becoming that incompetent after the high he was at during Sinnoh. Z E R O~

Most of the new characters just seemed to be flop rehashes of other, popular, fan-favorite characters.

Iris was a tragic attempt at recreating Misty and failed in every aspect. Cilan was incredibly boring and I honesty can't remember half his team other than Pansage. Honestly, he wasn't even that bad of a character, just forgettable AF and barely the older brother Brock type character they wanted him to be. Trip as a blatant rip-off of Paul and a basic version, at that. It was obvious from episode one and it came off as incredibly forced seeing as we JUST CAME OFF OF PAUL. At least it's been a while since we'd seen Misty and the illusions to Brock weren't as strong with Cilan and Misty's were to Iris, but Trip was a cocky brat to Ash for absolutely no reason and also stronger than him as a new trainer for no reason; it's damn near insulting.

All the Pokemon in the series just felt like they were there to be there. None of them felt like they got half the development as any of Ash's previous region Pokemon. In fact, I almost forget some of them exist. Boldore, Krookodile, Unfezant, Scraggy....none of them left a lasting impact on me. They shoved the living fxxk out of the starters and Pikachu and even they were pretty boring in the end. Some of them started out interesting, I'll give them that, but by the end, they were just as boring as the others. Cilan and Iris' were no better with most of Iris' being disobedient and Axew being worthless.

The series itself suffered from a bunch of pointless episodes that were blatant repeats of each other as if the writers themselves were having trouble coming up with new material. Many just felt like wastes of time like the Scalchop contest and the episode where Pignite got straw stuck in its nose or ear (a joke of an episode). It seemed like episodes were meant to focus on character development but ended up in the same place for the characters as when they started. Which is basically a summary of BW as a whole; it felt like a vacation, no genuine progress was made by any character throughout the entirety of the series

Overall, the entire generation was trying to relive the original series and just ended up as a boring and failed idea. The only redeeming factor about the generation is that Team Rocket was actually badass and the N Arc actually made the series feel serious and not as much of a joke. It's honestly insulting the when Team Rocket finally stops being a joke, everyone else turns into one and that the N Arc didn't get as much expanded upon as it could have.
 
BW was definitely the worst series in my opinion. I didn't like how Ash was reset and handled after how strong he was in the DP series. I didn't mind Cilan but Iris really annoyed me with her overused "you're such a kid line." Oshawott was annoying, clumsy, and didn't really contribute a whole lot to Ash's team. What I hated the most though is at the end of the league where Cameron only has 5 pokemon and he gets down to his last one and almost loses to Ash but his Riolu lucky evolves into Lucario and manages to win. The Decolore arc was pointless too.
 
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