Best Wishes was.... well decent, at least in my eyes. It had some major flaws, but those where not ,ore or less bad than the flaws of the other animes. I have the feeling that people, who hate on Best Wishes, just put their focus to much on one flaw and focus their whole energy and time on tis specific little flaw. For example, Iris is one of the most hated characters of the anime and one, maybe even the main reason, why people have such a grudge against the anime. People hate her mostly because of her running gag, which was boring and very repetitive, but this was her only real flaw. Other than that she was probably the most experienced main girl in term of battle and is also to this date the strongest female lead out of them all. But still, people just focus to much on this one flaw she had. Same they did with the anime as a whole.
Sun and Moon suffers from similar reasons. This anime is really hated because of its art style and animation, even thought it is to this date the best animated anime the franchise ever had. But people just once again to much on he negative things and ignore the better parts of the anime.
And I think this is the biggest reasons, why S&M and Best Wishes are such hated shows her ein the west. People put their attentions way to hard on the negativ things of this animes and fully ignore the best parts of it. Why? I don't know. Maybe people just love to complain.
If you look closer, non of the animes are better or worst. Here is my personal Pros and Cons of each anime:
Original Series
+ Likable characters with great interactions
+ Almost each episode tried to deliver something new...
- ...but in the later episodes the became very formulaic
- had some repeated running gags
- Misty and Brock weren't used very well
- Animation was very stiff sometimes
- The world wasn't really established at the beginning of the series
- Some ideas like the relationship between Brock and Prof. Ivy and the GS ball where just dropped at some point
Advance Generation
+ Likable and fun characters
+ For the first time we had another character in a lead role and with her own goal in mind
+ The world was now better established
- the episodes were still a touch to formulaic
- Brock and Max weren't really used well
- Animation was still very stiff
- had still the same old running gags
Diamond and Pearl
+ Very likable and interesting characters with very good interactions
+ Dawn was treated as a co-star to Ash and was just as important as him
+ Animation was really good for the time
+ It was a great balance of comedy, drama, action and adventure
+ They used the ideas from the games to it's full potential
- The ending felt rushed
- Animation was in some episodes still a bit to stiff for my point
- Brock was almost unnecessary for this series
- This anime still had some episodes with the basic formula (not as much as before, but still used them in some episodes)
- had still the same old running gags
Best Wishes
+ Likable and fun characters
+ Really well done animation
+ Very episode tried to deliver something new to the table
+ Had more variety with its human design (now that Brock was gone, the didn't had to created for almost every third episodes a young girl)
+ It tried to establish some new ideas...
- ...but kinda failed with them...
- Some new annoying running gags
- Iris and Cilan unique personalities could have been used more and better
- Had not much variation with its locations
- The ending felt rushed and to the end they where just filler episodes
X&Y
+ Likable characters and sweet characters
+ Really great animation
+ Much more variety with it's locations
+ Great background design
- The main characters barley interacted with each other
- Not much variety with its Pokémon in terms of battles and stories
- This series tried to hard to be mature and edgy
- A lot of wasted potential (like the shipping and league)
- Team Rocket felt very unnecessary in this anime
Sun and Moon
+ Very likable and fun characters
+ This series uses now a cast of recurring and established characters instead of creating a hand full of characters for each episode
+ Great and very fluid animation
+ The anime tries to use new ideas for its concept (like a new art style and a new structure)
- This series concept feels more like it belongs in Yo-kai Watch
- Some characters (Mallow and sometimes Sophocles) are very underused
- It could use more interaction with its characters
