~*Commander Blizzard*~ said:
Then there's the Teams. Granted, the ending was anticlimactic, but up until then, Team Magma and Aqua were incredible villains, thrice and beyond the villains TR(and not just JJ&M) ever were in at least seven years.
What about Vicous, Shiranui, Bashou, and Buson?
Anyway, I'd say the anime has its ups and downs. Jouto was crap for the most part, but it had its moments, like when Chicorita evolved into Bayleaf. Houen was good, but it had its share of crap fillers, and things really went to hell near the end. Battle Frontier was crap at first, but things really started to come around as soon as [spoil]Chiriin was switched for Manene[/spoil]. That greatness has currently seemed to die down just a little bit, though. I'd say the best happenings of recently would be when we've had [spoil]Kojirou winning a competition, Harley beating Haruka and winning a contest, and Juptor evolving into Jukain, the last of which I'd been anticipating ever since Satoshi got that badass Kimori[/spoil], and all in three consecutive episodes (and there were other good episodes afterwards, just not as consecutive, nor as ground-breaking as the likes of the former. [spoil]Though, "Jukain! Dawn of Revival!" and the following Brain battle were pretty great, I just gotta call "meh" on that contest with Wakana. Shuu's hardly a great character in my eyes, let alone a fangirl wannabe, and I'm sure some people know I'm pretty iffy on Wakashamo's sudden Mega Kick, though not as bad as
some randomly-acquired moves. I do not, in any way, support Contestshipping, neither. It's a real shame I didn't find this ep to be too great, since it's the only Kantou contest thus far not to feature that dispisable piece of crap[/spoil]).
Though, as great as that may've been, and with one of those being an event I anticipated for about three years now, I wouldn't call it jumping the shark. I still have quite a bit to look forward to/get my hopes up for (depends on if they increase or lessen the opportunities thrown down the crapper, as Heracross put it). For one, there's the character development. AG's been doing great in that department (especially with Kojirou), so it's worth sticking around to see what direction that goes in. In terms of upcoming events, [spoil]there's still a conclusion to the Battle Frontier (be it a battle against Jindai or someone afterwards, I hope it's good nontheless), a Grand Festival, as well as a recently-announced future appearance by Harley. They might be trying something new with the Diamond/Pearl region as well, another thing worth waiting to see. And so long as the damned thing's around, I'm gonna hope that Zenigame gets its friggin' a** kicked and NOT redeem itself later, and maybe sometime afterwards, evolve so I wouldn't have to look at the thing anymore. I could actually grow to like a Kameil in the group (though I know the writers love the thing as it is, in its unoriginal, failed-at-being-cuter-than-the-rest-of-the-species, cheaply-powerful glory, for some reason T_T).[/spoil] But jump the shark or not, I and many others would still watch. If I could stick around through Jouto (and 4kids dub Jouto, with a steady decrease in the usage of original music, making things all the more dull), I sure as hell could stick around for whatever's thrown at us until the innevitable end of the Pocket Monsters series.
My idea, since it's obvious Team Rocket will never leave the show, is to make them appear less frequently (about once every 4 episodes) and show more competence when they do appear. Being comedic villains doesn't require total uselessness. Those two improvements wouldn't be unconnected either, as having them show up less frequently could be explained as them taking more time to come up with better plans.
