Worst Series Transition?

[Handy Man]

Interestingly enough, both DP and XY ended with Ash just getting back to Kanto, only seeing his house as each series wrapped up. The following series, BW and SM respectively, would show Ash moving on to something different without any mention of the events of the previous series at first. SM handled it way better than BW did, but I won’t go into any detail, as many people have already explained it perfectly. I guess the recipe for a “bad transition” is have Ash be outside of his house at the end of a series, and then have him do something different the very next series.

 

[KrspaceT]

My vote is DP to BW because.....well that one transition fuels more problems as a anime fan and a fan of Ash than any other.....so I'll talk about another one.

I'll discuss SM to Journeys, mostly on the SM side. Ash already traveled around the world, not sure he needed to decide to do it like it is a great life goal and I feel like keeping the Alola mons in Alola is needlessly....needless. Oak's lab is not a prison and I'm sure Oak can afford to feed Melmetal more than Kukui can.

I don't like splitting up the reserves, be it Charizard or Rowlet.

Journeys end covers things better, but honestly its the idea that Ash treats traveling the world as something new, and the Alola mon reserve splitting, that bugs me.

 

[Panky..]

I feel like keeping the Alola mons in Alola is needlessly....needless. Oak's lab is not a prison and I'm sure Oak can afford to feed Melmetal more than Kukui can.

It's less about feeding/taking care of and more the fact that the Alola mons were literally at home with Kukui and Burnet than they'd ever be with Oak. With previous teams, the Pokemon went where Ash would go but the Alola team lived at a single place and were a family to that home's inhabitants.

If anything, bringing his Pokemon along and leaving them at Oak's would be somewhat inconsiderate and bad.

 

[Galactic_V]

For me XY to SM. Disregarding everything story-wise and continuity-wise, watching the last episode of XY and then the first episode of SM is pretty jarring for me, as if it's an entirely different show.

 

[Puddle]

Although I haven't seen many episodes post-Hoenn, I can say without a doubt that the worst transition was DP to BW. I watched In the Shadow of Zekrom! and found the narrator's insistence on stating that Ash is ten years old immediately off-putting. This was a straight-up contradiction of past continuity, because it was confirmed in Pikachu and Pichu that Ash had been travelling for at least one year (he organises a party to celebrate the day he first met Pikachu). Although I hadn't seen the end of DP, I could still tell that something was off about Ash's character, because he was acting much less mature than he had been in the AG and early DP episodes I'd seen.

OS, AG and DP all feel like one continuity, with Ash becoming wiser and more mature as time goes on. BW was essentially a semi-reboot and it made me lose interest in the anime a bit, which is a shame because I absolutely adored the Black and White games.

 

[Glitchipedia]

I've heard the argument put forward that Ash's problem going from DP to BW is simply that he took a break and is a bit rusty. When one considers the timeline theories posited by Satoshipedia and the Game Theorists, this makes sense—it's only late autumn by the end of DP, but BW starts off in the spring. This means Ash could have stayed home for the entire winter, making him at least three months out of practice. Now, having not actually seen either series, I don't know the precise extent to which Ash's character was affected, so I can't say whether this realistically covers all of his issues.

I'd put the argument forward that the transition from BW to XY was the worst, and I'll explain why. On the surface, it seems like a smooth transition—Ash boards a plane to Kalos at the end of BW, and come the start of XY, he's getting off the plane. Sensible, right? Except that it's early autumn when he leaves, and late spring when he arrives. What happened in those missing six months?

 

[GrookeyFan77]

DP Ash: I Beat 2 Legendaries
BW Ash: My Unfezant Lost to a Riolu.
DP Ash: I Develop Strategies like Counter Shield or Spinning Bite to Beat Gym Leaders
BW Ash: I Think I Can Win Gym Badges by Only Using the Worst Pokemon On My Team
DP Ash: Team Fully Evolved exept Pikachu
BW Ash: Only Fully Evolved Mons are Leavvany Krookodile and (sigh...) UNFEZANT
SERIOUSLY HOW DID DP ASH TURN INTO THIS IDIOT! HE'S EVEN A BIGGER IDIOT THEN HE WAS IN OS!

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

DP Ash: Team Fully Evolved exept Pikachu

That's XY Ash. Buizel and Gible say hi.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Although I haven't seen many episodes post-Hoenn, I can say without a doubt that the worst transition was DP to BW. I watched In the Shadow of Zekrom! and found the narrator's insistence on stating that Ash is ten years old immediately off-putting. This was a straight-up contradiction of past continuity, because it was confirmed in Pikachu and Pichu that Ash had been travelling for at least one year (he organises a party to celebrate the day he first met Pikachu). Although I hadn't seen the end of DP, I could still tell that something was off about Ash's character, because he was acting much less mature than he had been in the AG and early DP episodes I'd seen.

OS, AG and DP all feel like one continuity, with Ash becoming wiser and more mature as time goes on. BW was essentially a semi-reboot and it made me lose interest in the anime a bit, which is a shame because I absolutely adored the Black and White games.

To be fair, I don't know how canon the Pikachu shorts are to the anime, especially the latter ones where they don't even bother to explain where Ash and his friends are during those events. It would still give the implication that at least year had already passed, but the main series never confirmed Ash's age between that short and BW. I can understand how it was jarring to hear that Ash was still ten, but I don't think it's exactly a contradiction of past continuity. Plus, time in the anime makes no sense as it is. Ash is still seemingly ten, but Burnet already gave birth to a newborn baby.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

That's XY Ash. Buizel and Gible say hi.

Forgot About Buizel. I Dont Count Gible as one of Ash's Main Team of 6

 

[FinnishPokéFan92]

Forgot About Buizel. I Dont Count Gible as one of Ash's Main Team of 6

It technically was that while Gliscor was away.

 

[GrookeyFan77]

It technically was that while Gliscor was away.

Yeah But Still Ash used Gliscor Against Paul

 

[Beatsy Ray]

I'd put the argument forward that the transition from BW to XY was the worst, and I'll explain why. On the surface, it seems like a smooth transition—Ash boards a plane to Kalos at the end of BW, and come the start of XY, he's getting off the plane. Sensible, right? Except that it's early autumn when he leaves, and late spring when he arrives. What happened in those missing six months?

It's confirmed, Ash is caught in a 6 month time loop.

 

[jbmasta]

DP to BW

Unlike AG to DP with Sinnoh there’s absolutely no foreshadowing of Unova, and the only Unova Pokemon to appear in DP are Zorua and Zoroark in the Sinnoh League Victors movie. The end of DP shows Ash and Pikachu going to Pallet Town, so we also don’t get the reunion with Delia and Professor Oak and the Pokemon Ash stores at the lab. Even the end of BW to XY was a far superior transition because like the Orange Islands for Johto (the GS Ball and various Gen 2 Pokemon) and Battle Frontier for Sinnoh there was an arc that built up to Ash going to Kalos.

 

[Rantaro]

DP to BW without a doubt. Ash went from mentoring a rookie (Dawn) and helping her grow into her own, to somehow being even dumber than he was in the Kanto series.

 

[Nichole the Otter]

It was without a doubt DP to BW. There was literally no hint or buildup that Ash wanted to travel to Unova. The fact all his experience built up during AG and DP got stripped away from him just to try and "reboot" the anime like the start of OS was already bad enough, and that a disabled Pikachu lost so easily to Trip's newly obtained Snivy further rubbed salt in the wound.

 

[Emelie]

Interesting how somebody voted AG to DP. These two seasons felt the most connected to me. Sometimes they were almost a little too similar...

DP to BW is the worst imo. Especially with the jump from beating some of Tobias legendary Pokémon and then the infamous Snivy fight.

XY to SM is kind of bad too. Mostly because of Satoshi's change in personality. BW to XY made more sense since it gave you the impression that he matured after some trial and error in BW which almost felt like character development.

 

[Greninjaman]

I decided to cast my vote for DP to BW. As others have said, there was no build up at all to Ash wanting to go to Unova. Also there is the fact that he acted like a new trainer when had been through 4 Regions at that point.

Edit: XY to SM also is a close second. Same with SM to Journeys in my opinion.

 

[Rainbow-Rain]

Judging by this thread, can we all agree that Ash Ketchum is a very inconsistently written character who changes Personalities in every series?

 

[Greninjaman]

Judging by this thread, can we all agree that Ash Ketchum is a very inconsistently written character who changes Personalities in every series?

Yes. Yes we can agree.