How is Ash-Greninja vs. Mega Gardevoir, an unfinished battle, the best battle in the anime?
People only care Ash was thiiiiiiiiiiis close to beating a Champion's ace before the brain fart.
Though people confuse animation for hype.
OK, let me explain, the fact that Ash, for the first time fought that well, that much well, against that calibre of a Pokemon trainer (a.k.a. a "master" level Trainer like an E4/Champion calibre/level trainer) is a major reason why the significance, the importance and the impact of the battle is actually that much, why I put that battle on such a pedestal.
Throughout the course of the Pokemon anime, we have repeatedly time and again seen our raven haired hero Ash Ketchum getting curbstomped or soundly defeated by E4 members/Champions. Against Drake (Hoenn E4 member), Pikachu and Grovyle were hilariously outclassed; against Agatha, Pikachu at best did decent; against Bertha, Torterra at best did decent, against Flint, Buizel and Infernape were obliterated, Pikachu did literally nothing apart from prolonging its defeat for a while, against Diantha 1st battle, Pikachu was bested without literally doing anything. So looking at the previous instances, we can see that the anime has shown a long history of the protagonist of the show repeatedly flopping and loosing against E4 Champions, leading us to believe that Ash is a way inferior trainer compared to these master level trainers and likely will never even come close to battling competitively with/being even remotely close to the level these "master" level trainers. Which gave us the impression that even if Ash does manage to win a League someday somehow, he is still pretty much destined to get demolished by the E4 members in the Champions League.
And finally in Ash vs Diantha 2nd battle, (Ash-)Greninja vs (Mega) Gardevoir, finally after so many failures and curbstomps for Ash in the hands of multiple E4 members, when the show clearly made us believe that Ash is nowhere even close the level of these top calibre trainers, we got see Ash battling competitively and giving some real trouble to a freaking Champions ace Pokemon, even after it Mega Evolved. Which is why the significance of this battle in this show from Ash's perspective in this show overall is enormous; which is why Greninja's performance in that particular battle is of that magnitude and worth that much praise considering the overall battle feats we have seen by Ash's Pokemon throughout the course of Ash's long journey as a Pokemon trainer. Not only did Greninja after transforming into Water-Veil Ash-Greninja form manage to trouble Gardevoir in its base form, but it pressurized it enough for Diantha to resort to Mega Evolving her Gardevoir to avoid some real risk, and even after it did Mega Evolve, Ash-Greninja in its water-veil was form was still able to keep with it and clash evenly a few times (not to mention that Mega Gardevoir couldn't even properly block water-veil Ash-Greninja's Cut properly with Reflect and took collateral damage getting pushed back. And after Greninja finally reached its perfect, a.k.a., Mastered form (from Water veil to back Water Shuriken), it managed to literally overwhelm Mega Gardevoir, with its Giant Water Shuriken overpowering and cutting through Mega Gardevoir's multi-fused Shadow Ball (which was formed by combining multiple Shadow Balls together), striking Diantha's ace and sending it flying back screaming in pain with bruises on its body, which made even Diantha really concerned about Gardevoir well-being and she worriedly cried out, "Gardevoir!" Further emphasizing how hard Ash-Greninja had actually pushed Diantha's ace, Mega Gardevoir de-Mega Evolved into its base form and fell down panting in exhaustion after it had to use a full-power attack to break TR's restraint and send the Trio blasting off, indicating that it had been already pushed really close to its limit.
So for the first time in this show, after plenty of flops and getting curbstomped brutally by E4/Champions level trainers multiple times in a embarrassing fashion, Ash finally not actually just battled competitively with an E4/Champions (who are virtually put on an almost invincible pedestal in the Pokemon anime compared to regular trainers), but even managed to give the Kalos Champion Diantha somewhat of a scare of loosing the fight, feel visibly pressurized and have a tough time, managing to even momentarily overwhelm and overpower her ace for a while, dealing a substantial amount of damage while even made Diantha call out in real concern for Gardevoir's well being. Which is why from a narrative point of view, considering Ash's progression as a trainer, the battle is so much important and significant in his journey, which is why Greninja's performance in that battle is actually that much magnificent and groundbreaking. Finally Ash, after all these years, after those battles where he got stomped by E4/Champion calibre trainers, he proved that he can do it; he finally proved that he can be a match for these "master" trainers and can prove to be a real challenge for them.
Which is why from a narrative perspective this battle actually does give me so much satisfaction, it's this very much unexpected/stunning performance from Ash's Greninja makes me believe that Ash is finally coming a lot closer to being a real challenge for these top calibre trainers that are E4/Champions, he isn't an utter mismatch for them anymore like how he was actually portayed prior to this fight, he finally maybe will be able give them a real headache in a proper full battle if he does manage to somehow win a League someday and challenge these E4 members/regional Champions. Which is why as a landmark in Ash's quest/journey as a Pokemon trainer, this battle actually does hold a really very significant place in my book, and from a narrative perspective, no battle can actually top this one for me.
And trust me, if this fight never really let me to believe that Ash finally has taken a gigantic stride in becoming a real match for top calibre trainers like E4/Champions after all these days, then I'd have never written those gigantic essays and mini-thesis papers of counter-arguements in favour of Greninja that I have done so much in this forum, especially in the
Anime Polls section of PAD.
