Anyone else think that the Ash vs Alain Kalos League Final was the best animated 6v6 battle?

[LilligantLewis]

It's not like he's the one that decides whether Ash wins or loses...though I suppose we could argue the way he wrote the Cameron battle was piss-poor.

I'm sure he had some say in some of the troll bait though like the orange shuriken. Someone had to come up with that.

 

[Epicocity]

I'm sure he had some say in some of the troll bait though like the orange shuriken. Someone had to come up with that.

Sure, but I'd argue the animators were the ones who screwed up there. As @Genaller argues, they could have made it look like MCX was more affected than he was.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Orange is so tacky. Pink was the better color.

 

[LilligantLewis]

Sure, but I'd argue the animators were the ones who screwed up there. As @Genaller argues, they could have made it look like MCX was more affected than he was.

You think the animators just chose to make the shuriken orange without any direction from the writers?

 

[Epicocity]

You think the animators just chose to make the shuriken orange without any direction from the writers?

Possible, but I meant more in the realm that they should have made MCX stagger better to give the appearance of a closer fight.

 

[mehmeh1]

It's not like he's the one that decides whether Ash wins or loses...though I suppose we could argue the way he wrote the Cameron battle was piss-poor.

tbh, I kinda feel like he upped the ridiculousness of that match on purpose, IDK, it just seems so ironically hilarious that it's easy to assume he did it to troll

 

[Yuugis Black Magician]

should be banned from writing league-ending episodes after the fiascoes of the last 2 leagues.

He's a pretty good writer. He also wrote the first Kalos gym battle and his ideas for Satoshi versus Alan were a lot of fun (although having Asada Yuuji and Iijima Masakatsu as the episode directors makes it hard to tell if all of them were his ideas).

It's not like he's the one that decides whether Ash wins or loses...though I suppose we could argue the way he wrote the Cameron battle was piss-poor.

The decision comes down from executives, then goes through Chief Director Yuyama (if not from Yuyama alone) then the series director. Since series typically reflect the vision of the series director my guess is that it was decided that the best way to follow up a series with Satoshi being written like a novice ala the first series was to make him lose in a really pathetic manner. Tomioka Atsuhiro didn't bother writing for the Isshu League so I'm pretty sure he was just disgusted by what they were forced to do. Considering all of the episodes Tomioka bent over backwards to write for Diamond & Pearl personally I'd say he's very invested in the story.

I'm sure he had some say in some of the troll bait though like the orange shuriken. Someone had to come up with that.

Easily could've been Series Director Yajima or Episode Director Iijima Masakatsu.

You think the animators just chose to make the shuriken orange without any direction from the writers?

Episode directors (especially talented ones like Iijima Masakatsu or Asada Yuuji) are typically left to their own devices and allowed to do as they please. We know from an Animage interview that Iwane Masa'aki is freely allowed to change the storyboards he is given to animate as he pleases, too.

 

[LilligantLewis]

I'm pretty sure he was just disgusted by what they were forced to do.

Good. He should be.

 

[Nodame]

I didn't like XY anime at all, but I have to admit, the graphics was the best I've seen in Pokemon.

 

[Xenon Blue]

vs Sawyer looks a lot better than vs Alain to be completely honest. Not saying vs Alain was poorly animated or anything, in fact it is probably the 2nd best, but vs Sawyer is just that much cleaner.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

I think ash vs alain, vs sawyer and vs paul are three best animated league battles and not to mention three best battles as well.

 

[Power Up]

vs Sawyer looks a lot better than vs Alain to be completely honest. Not saying vs Alain was poorly animated or anything, in fact it is probably the 2nd best, but vs Sawyer is just that much cleaner.

I have AG vs MS as the best 1v1 in the Pokemon anime

 

[ash&charizardfan]

I have AG vs MS as the best 1v1 in the Pokemon anime

I would rate AG vs MCX as the best 1 vs 1 match the result was totally suspensefull and the battle looked like two fighters fighting, from long range attacks to close combat fight this battle had everything except the infamous result. And not to mention it was way too close match.

 

[Leonhart]

I didn't mind Ash vs. Alain too much, although I didn't think it was as "epic" as 95% of fans made it out to be. My main issue with that match was how it was shamelessly set up to revolve around Mega Lizardon X and Satoshi-Gekkouga's rematch. The animation was solid, however.

 

[Genaller]

I didn't mind Ash vs. Alain too much, although I didn't think it was as "epic" as 95% of fans made it out to be. My main issue with that match was how it was shamelessly set up to revolve around Mega Lizardon X and Satoshi-Gekkouga's rematch. The animation was solid, however.

Don’t you mean Satoshi vs Alan :^)?

Also pretty sure the Charizard and Infernape glory hogging in Ash vs Gary and Ash vs Paul respectively were far more abundant and “shameless” than MC-X or A-G were in Ash vs Alain. In fact Ash vs Gary seemed like it revolved far more around building to the final clash of Charizard vs Blastoise.

Anyways my main issue aesthetics wise with MC-X vs A-G was the half-hearted stagger that MC-X did at the end of the match which along with not displaying any visual injuries + not showing exhaustion post-match undersold how close the match was narratively meant to be (based on the fact that they did indeed make MC-X stagger). A-G vs MS while not having the same “big fight feel” is the single greatest achievement of this entire show in terms of raw aesthetic quality. The art, animation, choreography, story boarding, and shot composition were all incredible from start to finish.

 

[345ash-greninja]

I would rate AG vs MCX as the best 1 vs 1 match the result was totally suspensefull and the battle looked like two fighters fighting, from long range attacks to close combat fight this battle had everything except the infamous result. And not to mention it was way too close match.

The only problem with that match was that half-hearted stumble by MCX at the end of the fight; seriously if they were going to make the fight so much intense looking with all the intense looking move clashes (long range or close combat), with all the epicly animated moves and the amazing choreography, and made the final clash look this intense and epic like this:

....then why not try to make the ending moment look as much nailbiting and close as possible? It seemed like that they wanted to make the battle look really close by making the final clash of that all-out Blast Burn and Destructo Disc Orange Shuriken really evenly matched, with the fiery/watery parts of the explosion + the white/black smoke clouds being of equal volume, but when it came to the stagger....then just made it a half-hearted stagger like Grovyle vs Slaking where MCX staggered and then looked just fine, which looked really odd considering the circumstances and atmosphere of the fight.

Honestly that's the main gripe I still have with that fight.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Don’t you mean Satoshi vs Alan :^)?

Go back to Japan while we feast on donut-looking rice balls.

 

[Genaller]

Go back to Japan while we feast on donut-looking rice balls.

Pretty sure the guy I was talking to is Japanese lol and also he usually uses the Japanese names for Pokémon/human characters even when everyone else uses the English localizations, so it was odd that he went the English route for once.

 

[mehmeh1]

Don’t you mean Satoshi vs Alan :^)?

Also pretty sure the Charizard and Infernape glory hogging in Ash vs Gary and Ash vs Paul respectively were far more abundant and “shameless” than MC-X or A-G were in Ash vs Alain. In fact Ash vs Gary seemed like it revolved far more around building to the final clash of Charizard vs Blastoise.

Anyways my main issue aesthetics wise with MC-X vs A-G was the half-hearted stagger that MC-X did at the end of the match which along with not displaying any visual injuries + not showing exhaustion post-match undersold how close the match was narratively meant to be (based on the fact that they did indeed make MC-X stagger). A-G vs MS while not having the same “big fight feel” is the single greatest achievement of this entire show in terms of raw aesthetic quality. The art, animation, choreography, story boarding, and shot composition were all incredible from start to finish.

I'd say that'd go to xyz37, with ag vs ms being at a close second, iwane was absolutely astounding here, the choreography was great, the storyboarding and shot composition, while not as great as ag vs ms, was pretty close (talonflame vs unfezant being the highlight of it, especially with the 3d camera effects), and it definitely managed to sell that alain was ash's strongest opponent yet (and that pikachu was an absolute boss). IMO, visually, the top 10 episodes would probably be these: xyz37>xyz35>xyz38>sm78(this episode was made for iwane and asada, seriously)=xy92>sm43>sm101>xyz35>sm1>xyz47

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Top 5 i on 1 matches imo are-
1 AG vs MCX
2 AG vs MS
3 Infernape vs Electivie
4 Charizard vs Articuno
5 Charizard vs Blastoise

Top 2 matches had everything from being rivalling E4 pokemons to big fancy moves to great animation. While infernape match was more of a final setup for rivalry setup at the start of series and well the main point of that match infernape going super saiyan, while the fourth one was first time non legendary took on legenadry in a fair match and even better beat it and it was battle with great strategies from both sides while the last one while didn't havefancy moves and good animation made an average looking battle into a memorable battle with somee out of the box thinking.