Favorite Saga/Series, V4

[Morax]

i had no clue they were connected lol. I've seen two fate shows. Not sure what the connection is though

Fate/stay night is a VN that came out in 2004. Fate/Zero is a light novel and a prequel to the events of FSN but requires you to complete heaven's feel (the third route of FSN) to understand what's going on. Watching FZ first kills all the suspense in HF.

 

[Morax]

Edward's inital motivations are much better fleshed out than his 2008 edition and his interactions with the other cast members are far more dynamic with Edward eventually having to grow as a character while prompting the hermonculi to grow themselves. Never mind nina. The main difference is not brotherhood *rushing the initial storylines, the main difference is that brotherhood went for a feel-good narrative where eric was never legitimately challenged and never incited conflict unless it was absolutely justified and as a result its characters are comparatively paper thin. Kinda like xy ash actually.

Which aspect of 2003 was "wayward" exactly?

if you're counting the emperor of shambala, sure, otherwise the fma ending not being *satisfying is just a matter of you preferring happier endings. It's completely *built up and unlike 2008 it's ending actually utilizes "the law of equivalent exchange" in a manner that's meaningful to its characters.

Not sure what XY ash has to do with this lmao, but ash in general has never been challenged to incite conflict. So yeah it's an OS + AG + DP + BW + XY + SM + JN problem.

 

[pickapika]

Not sure what XY ash has to do with this lmao, but ash in general has never been challenged to incite conflict. So yeah it's an OS + AG + DP + BW + XY + SM + JN problem.

he was definitely challenged in kanto at least early. Brock's introductory episode was pretty tightly executed character growth. No idea if they kept that later into the os.

I've heard hoenn had it with ash getting cocky from his prior successes and then being humbled but i have no idea how well that was handled.

 

[Morax]

he was definitely challenged in kanto at least early. Brock's introductory episode was pretty tightly executed character growth. No idea if they kept that later into the os.

I've heard hoenn had it with ash getting cocky from his prior successes and then being humbled but i have no idea how well that was handled.

OS ash was great. They made him too vanilla in the later seasons. Hoenn isn't any better.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Steins Gate beat AoT as my fav anime just because of how hard it was butchered in the end, if we only look at the latest anime ep of AoT, I like it better then Steins Gate but knowing what comes after .....meh
Steins Gate: 0 really made the whole anime 10x better in my eyes and is what pushed it to my fav, as great as SG's original ending was its elevated so much by what came after

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Death note and gurren lagaan were my all time favorite series simply coz these 2 are trend setting series which influenced many future series, though steins gate and full metal alchemist are the other series i like a lot.

 

[Ragnarok4]

Death note, Shingeki, FMAB and Gintama for me

But my favorite is Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds

 

[Ragnarok4]

@RafaSceptile why the haha?

 

[RafaSceptile]

@RafaSceptile why the haha?

I just imagine those as if they were Pokémon series

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

AG>OS>DP>SM>BW=XY=Pokemon 2019

 

[Bendicion]

OS>DP>SM>BW>JN>AG>XY

 

[Sham]

Sigh. JN crimes against humanity is kinda hard to deny but they did a lot of good things in terms of Iris, Serena and now POSSIBLY doing good with Gladion’s and Lillie’s plot points. Other than that it’s hot garbage so I’ll just omit from this listing

I’m rewatching XY on Hulu and for the most part it’s not as bad as I remembered.

BW>DP>SM>OS>XY>AG

 

[Bendicion]

Hoenn isn't any better.

It really isin't, lol.

 

[cricketlaxwolvesbandy]

XY = OS > DP > JN = AG = BW = SM

Why is your pfp blackface Jynx?
Haven’t watched XY in a long time, haven’t even watched XYZ but this is my list
XY>DP>AG>OS>BW>>>>>JN>SM

 

[RafaSceptile]

SM > DP > AG > XY > JN > OS > BW

 

[Ragnarok4]

XY = OS > DP > JN = AG = BW = SM

XY = OS > DP > AG > BW = SM > JN ***

 

[JustAStatistic]

I never properly gave my thoughts here, huh.

1. SM - Pros: I love the vibes, TRio is at their best in this series, Ash's best team is here, it has multiple characters I like a lot (Kukui, Kiawe, Lillie, Gladion, Guzma), and just as important, I don't dislike any of the major characters. Bonus: Ash vs Kukui is my favorite battle in the series. Cons: The shift in artstyle is definitely jarring, especially for Ash. SM Ash also has a fair share of OOC moments.

2. DP - Pros: Paul is still the best rival, and Dawn is the best human companion. Sinnoh League is still the best league, Ash vs Paul at the Sinnoh League is one of the best battles in the series, and DP Contests massively improved on the concept from AG. Cons: Filler is awful, and there's a lot of it. Team Galactic is a snooze fest.

3. XY - Pros: 3D animated battles are godly. The Mega Evolution Specials are GOAT. Hawlucha. Cons: Bonnie is annoying. Serena is wasted by Showcases being trash, and Amour is a detriment to her character. Sawyer is unbelievably rushed from complete newb to E4/Champion level. Kalos League is rushed through for another mediocre villain arc. Filler here is the worst in the series, but at least there's not a lot of it.

4. JN - Still in progress. I like the continuity with other series. Notably, Iris, Gary, Sophocles, and Serena all got pretty good returns. I don't feel particularly strongly about Goh, his "catch-em all" goal, or Project Mew. If the Masters 8 tournament can deliver on its hype, JN will move up next to DP and XY. Otherwise, it falls to the bottom tier.

The bottom three are all honestly about the same level for me.

5. AG - Battle Frontier was a great arc, and the Hoenn League was decent. Hoenn itself ranges from bad to forgettable. May was an acceptable first try to having a companion with equal importance to Ash. At least she was an upgrade from Misty.

6. OS - Kanto is carried by the 4Kids dub and nostalgia. The only good parts of OI are the final gym (first double battle in the franchise!), Charizard Chills, and the battle with Drake. Johto is mostly forgettable, bar the Whirl Cup and the Johto League. (Actually, the Whirl Cup was my introduction to Pokémon.)

7. BW - I liked that all three MCs had rivals, and everyone getting together to compete in the occasional tournament that popped up was great. The dynamic between the MC trio was also pretty fun. But between the surprise of B2W2, unfortunate natural disasters, and questionable (probably executive) decisions regarding Ash's skill, this series was really dealt a bad hand.

 

[Bendicion]

Hoenn League was decent.

How was the Hoenn league decent?? tf? I'm personally not the biggest fan of the Hoenn League tbh. It was a perfect example of quantity not being the same as quality, since this league had many battles, I found most of them to be pretty average. Ash vs Morrison was a disaster, and Ash vs Tyson was pretty indifferent to me, and definitely doesn't come close to Ash vs Harrison, Ash vs Tobias or Ash vs Alain. Also why are we supposed to care about Morrison or Tyson? The writers haven't absolutely given us any reason whatsoever to care about them. Yeah I suppose Tyson's Meowth has a sad story but I don't feel any sort of emotional investment/attachment in it at all to be honest. I can't even wrap my head around as to why the writers didn't introduce these characters earlier on and learned more about them over time. That would have been the correct thing to do. Morrison's battle was enjoyable I suppose but Ash's battle wasn't anything too impressive.

What's even more ridiculous here is the fact that Morrison and Tyson were getting more focus than the Grand Festival got in general. Seriously: I really couldn't care less about Morrison. The writers needed to full stop trying to develop two people that are never ever going to come back on the show. It's truly a slap in the face of the coordinators that you barely focused on for two episodes. That surely didn't go anywhere. Overall, a pretty damn poor league to accompany a poorly done Grand Festival.

May was an acceptable first try to having a companion with equal importance to Ash. At least she was an upgrade from Misty.

Yes, May made some key steps of improvement over Misty, but even then she did often fade into the background in episodes she wasn't the center piece, and her contest arc sometimes struggled to give her a legit agency, with some poorly choreographed wins and a lot of it being padded with the usual villain antics or whatever Ash was doing. May also sat out on everything minus her Contests and that one Pokeringer thing which she completely bombed. AG was also very filler heavy and even in most of the Hoenn or BF fillers shes sidelined in the background.

 

[JustAStatistic]

How was the Hoenn league decent??

Of the three full battles there, Ash vs Katie was good, Ash vs Morrison was bad, and Ash vs Tyson was about as good as Ash vs Harrison. Overall, it could have been better, but for a league with a bunch of CotD and no long term rival, I think it was fine.

Yes, May made some key steps of improvement over Misty, but even then she did often fade into the background in episodes she wasn't the center piece, and her contest arc sometimes struggled to give her a legit agency, with some poorly choreographed wins and a lot of it being padded with the usual villain antics or whatever Ash was doing. May also sat out on everything minus her Contests and that one Pokeringer thing which she completely bombed. AG was also very filler heavy and even in most of the Hoenn or BF fillers shes sidelined in the background.

Even if May's contests weren't the best, she does deserve credit for establishing that Contests had the potential to be a goal equal to the gym challenge. Also, elements of May's character arc would be recycled later on for Serena, Lillie, and Chloe's character arcs.

 

[Kamised]

I prefer the AG/DP approach, followed by XY, Kanto, then the rest. AG had the best pacing of all the sagas (splitting the series into two arcs was a great move). May got great screentime and development in the series and it was nice to have a female companion who actually battled, had funny interactions with the main cast and didn't just get sidelined in the beginning or end of her sagas like certain other female companions.

I like DP for the same reasons as everyone else. Although I wish the pacing was better. Kanto was good mostly due to the humor. XY I also enjoyed a lot admittedly, and it would have been above the others with some slight changes to Serena's goal and Ash beating Alan.

Also, elements of May's character arc would be recycled later on for Serena, Lillie, and Chloe's character arcs.

Yeah, this too. It gets pretty noticeable a lot of stuff they did with May the first time around got recycled in different ways with later female companions. I don't mind since new kids come into the anime all the time, but for those of us watching since the start it's a bit jarring. There's only so many times you can watch a new female companion start off as a beginning trainer, not know what she wants to do, and have to gain confidence through Ash or other characters.