So far Diamond and Pearl...
While I do agree that Best Wishes rapes DP when it comes to chemistry among the characters, it just seems flat. I never felt that the chemistry in this show was anything special. That's my same problem with people building up the supposed revolutionary chemistry in Kanto. How many times have we seen these same personalities clash in other shows, movies, books, and video games (most of which did it better than Pokemon)? And anime comedy isn't funny to me. Maybe I'm not lighthearted enough to find kiddie comedy humorous, sorry.
These aspects were never the shows strong suit and I don't think they should focus on them. DP did it greatly.
Although, BW does have potential. I don't think the story is as bad as people are saying. We seem to be back to Johto-esque battles, which isn't bad. They don't touch any of the battles from Sinnoh or even the Battle Frontier, but they're decent. I think it has the potential to be better than Sinnoh. With Kanto's character interactions (even though I don't care for them) and Sinnoh's plots and development it may become the best of both worlds. Or a complete flop in comparison, we'll have to see.
Things that need to happen for the former to be true:
- Make us actually care about Trip and Ash's rivalry. Trip really needs some kind of backstory to justify him being so strong.
- Don't give Team Plasma the Porygon treatment. Team Galactic and Hunter J made us forget that this show is suitable for four year olds for a minute.
- There's a decent cast of characters, don't ignore them. Characters like Stephan and Luke(?) are obviously going to be rarely seen, if they're seen again at all, but someone like Burgundy and Langley need more appearances. Ash's pokemon could definiteky be handled better.
Things that are an improvement from DP:
- The character interactions and comedy. They're cliche and boring, but at least they exist.
- A cast of three characters that actually do something. I never cared about what Brock caught, but at least with Cilan I know his captures will be seen more than four times in the series.
- No more of Team Rocket's nonsense eating away at time that could be spent on things we haven't seen for 600+ episodes
- Ash rotating. It makes him seem like a better trainer, like Gary or Paul. It shows growth and gives us more variety so we don't get bored with his team. It may also prevent any releases. They need to show certain members of his team more often though.