Best Wishes: The Good & The Bad

[Platinum fan.]

I haven't watched enough of Best Wishes to fairly judge it. I'm really trying to watch the saga and get into it but my time as a fan of the Pokemon anime is rapidly running out. Everything that I liked when it started out I have grown bored of, not dislike, just bored. The only thing I look forward to in Best Wishes at all is Team Plasma and the showdown they were suppose to have with Team Rocket. Nothing else matters to me. All I'll say is hopefully generation 6 has something so brand spanking new in Pokemon that it will bring me back to the anime side.

 

[Morcombe]

The good
Ash's range of Pokemon
The quick pace, we seem to be moving along at the same pace as Hoenn.
Good character development and rivals for the main cast
few fillers / entertaining fillers

The bad
the usual lack or extremely slow evolution process, at least one of the three starters needs to evolve before the fifth gym, either Oshawott or Snivy since the 5th gym is a ground type - sorry but i think it's dumb to see first stage pokemon defeating fully evolved ones.
No Team Plasma or N
Team Rocket taking all Team Plasma's plots - Dreamyard / Museum Theft
Elessa's gym battle, Her last Pokemon only knowing tackle, what a let down.

 

[A.J.]

Oh god your right, I forgot, all of the funny from the good ole days is back! More pointless and cringe-worthy name-calling and slapstick for everyone!

I love slapstick though!

This scene from the first Tepig episode sealed it for me -

You know, where Pikachu gets hit by a load of boxes...and the required sink to top things off.

 

[pokeaussie37]

The Good:
- Ash's wide range of Pokemon
- Main character's various recurring rivals (Ash vs. Trip, Stephan, Bianca, Luke; Iris vs. Georgia, Cilan vs. Burgundy) including the side characters. Rivalries themselves are good so far.
- Not that I have any complaints about Sinnoh's pacing, but Unova is so far showing a Hoenn like pacing which I personally enjoyed more. Still extensive but not as drawn out.
- Team Rocket and Dr. Zager.
- Gym battle (first and second) between Ash and Lenora.
- Pleasant character (people and Pokemon) development.
- Rare filler episodes and when they appear, are enjoyable.

The Bad:

- Somewhat unbalanced appearances of some, particularly Ash's, Pokemon among the main travelling group i.e. Swadloon, Stunfisk, Roggenrola, Tranquill. I will reserve judgement on rival's Pokemon until the end, and Excadrill's rare appearances at the beginning I am fine with thanks to its issues.
- Ash's Gym Battle with Burgh.
- Iris' Axew being poor, although it will inevitably become much better so I'm not so fussed.
- Ash's rookie mistakes at the start of the saga.
- Most of my 'bad' section is nitpicky, which is very promising. Not worried about Iris' 'kid' or Cilan's fabulousness as I enjoy them and they're part of their character.

The Unfortunate:
- The indefinitely postponed two part Rocket vs. Plasma episodes and leading on from that the lack of Team Plasma and/or N thanks to the earthquake and resulting fiasco in March.

 

[CyberCubed]

Well at least Best Wishes isn't the Johto saga in terms of pacing, character handling or pokemon handling.

I agree with those that BW started strong especially with Giovanni/TR/TP, but once that all disappeared I feel like my interest is lost. DP had great villains which kept interest along throughout the region, BW so far has just TR taking orders from Zager.

Ash's team is dull for me except for a few. Getting all the starters again is a terrible mistake ala the Johto saga, its the stupidest thing they could have done. And the bird/bug have been completely useless and should have never been captured.

 

[Somorio]

Well at least Best Wishes isn't the Johto saga in terms of pacing, character handling or pokemon handling.

I agree with those that BW started strong especially with Giovanni/TR/TP, but once that all disappeared I feel like my interest is lost. DP had great villains which kept interest along throughout the region, BW so far has just TR taking orders from Zager.

Ash's team is dull for me except for a few. Getting all the starters again is a terrible mistake ala the Johto saga, its the stupidest thing they could have done. And the bird/bug have been completely useless and should have never been captured.

Watch Ash trade tranquil for a Braviary later on...though honestly I wouldn't particularly mind that personally, pretty sure a few people would get cheesed off though.

 

[BurningSociety12345543210]

Watch Ash trade tranquil for a Braviary later on...though honestly I wouldn't particularly mind that personally, pretty sure a few people would get cheesed off though.

I seriously hope that never happens. VERY bad idea.

 

[AgentPierce]

DP had great villains which kept interest along throughout the region.

.......Who barely showed up. At all. How does that keep interest?

 

[CyberCubed]

.......Who barely showed up. At all. How does that keep interest?

The Pokehunter J eps and the Galactic eps were all paced perfectly throughout the arc.

I thought BW was going to do the same but we're now 55 eps in and we don't know where the villains are at all.

 

[Locormus]

The Pokehunter J eps and the Galactic eps were all paced perfectly throughout the arc.

I thought BW was going to do the same but we're now 55 eps in and we don't know where the villains are at all.

To be fair, they had 22 episodes leading up to a big arc. Technically, we're 31 episodes in wait for the next.

That's a bit less then 55 wouldn't you say, regardless if they didn't air.

 

[Eternal Darkness]

The Pokehunter J eps and the Galactic eps were all paced perfectly throughout the arc.

I thought BW was going to do the same but we're now 55 eps in and we don't know where the villains are at all.

And how is that all the writers fault? They may not be able to do anything with them now, or they had that one hour arc for them, then nothing until after, say, Driftveil or something. How would we possibly know?

 

[CyberCubed]

And how is that all the writers fault? They may not be able to do anything with them now, or they had that one hour arc for them, then nothing until after, say, Driftveil or something. How would we possibly know?

We should have gotten Plasma's second appearance at Nimbasa. The lack of Giovanni is also disappointing.

 

[ForeverFlame]

The Good: The first couple of episodes were amazing.

The Bad: Everything after the earthquake. And where the hell is N? He's the best character in the franchise, and he's nowhere to be seen.

 

[JetshipperKekkaishi]

We should have gotten Plasma's second appearance at Nimbasa. The lack of Giovanni is also disappointing.

I know but maybe they saving that for last. Who knows. Maybe Giovanni is hiding until the time is right. TR are still the villans for now. Everyone want to see TP. I would too but it is up to the writers to decide if Team Plasma makes their next appearance.

 

[CyberCubed]

The Good: The first couple of episodes were amazing.

The Bad: Everything after the earthquake. And where the hell is N? He's the best character in the franchise, and he's nowhere to be seen.

Reminds me of the Johto saga in a way. When Johto first started it seemed like it was going to be an epic adventure. Then the GS ball was dropped and Togepi began its energy draining powers.

 

[Eternal Darkness]

We should have gotten Plasma's second appearance at Nimbasa. The lack of Giovanni is also disappointing.

And how do we know that they should've shown up at Nimbassa? Something could've happened in Castelia to make them go into hiding or something. We can't really say until we see the episodes or them showing up again, can we?

 

[CyberCubed]

And how do we know that they should've shown up at Nimbassa? Something could've happened in Castelia to make them go into hiding or something. We can't really say until we see the episodes or them showing up again, can we?

I am just saying it should have happened, just to keep interest in the villain plot steady. We're now 4 Gyms in so I don't know what the writers are waiting for.

 

[Eternal Darkness]

I am just saying it should have happened, just to keep interest in the villain plot steady. We're now 4 Gyms in so I don't know what the writers are waiting for.

Maybe the same thing they were doing in like DP, where they wait 40 episodes before another major thing happens? Or building up for a post-League plot? Do any of us really know?

 

[Haunter ゴースト]

I love slapstick though!

This scene from the first Tepig episode sealed it for me -

You know, where Pikachu gets hit by a load of boxes...and the required sink to top things off.

Same I thought that was great reminded me of the OS Indigo League so much, good to see they've kept some sort of comedy at the moment, the scene in the Maractus episode with Axew hitting Oshawott and Pansage made me laugh.

I thought BW was going to do the same but we're now 55 eps in and we don't know where the villains are at all.

Like Locormus said, technically we've not seen TP for 31 episodes, you can't act like the other 22 episodes leading up to the postponing didn't count, that plot was shaping up brilliantly and it probably would have been a lot better had they not been postponed.

It's not the writers fault either.

We should have gotten Plasma's second appearance at Nimbasa. The lack of Giovanni is also disappointing.

Im glad they didn't appear, unless in Nimbasa the gang acted like they had already seen TP before and recalled the events, I really wouldn't have wanted TP to debut here with the whole previous plot dropped.

But yeah I agree about Giovanni, something big must be planned imo, he was obviously supposed to go missing for a long time since the episodes straight after said it.

Man I hope he's looking for Mewtwo however unlikely it is.

Maybe the same thing they were doing in like DP, where they wait 40 episodes before another major thing happens? Or building up for a post-League plot? Do any of us really know?

None of us know, but I wouldn't be surprised if TP had the role of their game counterparts and did something at the league, making Ash seem the hero and leaving it up to him to stop them or something.

 

[Yeul]

If there's anything that can make up for the time Plasma (and moar importantly, N) is missing, it's a post-League arc. That always happens in each odd numbered region (Kanto had the Orange Islands, Hoenn had Kanto's Battle Frontier/moar Contests) so with Eastern Unova and possible Ruby & Sapphire remakes at hand, there's no reason for them not to have an after league arc.
Plus, that'll allow more fanservice with Cilan~!