I just want to say this in terms of how far the pokemon anime has come in the past 18 years, we are about to hit the 20th anniversary for the anime itself with 800+50 episode and we could possibly reach 1000 episodes, but then you really have to think about some of things the show had always kept the same which has caused a major drop in fans that enjoyed the show such as
- Ash meeting females by destroying their bikes(thank god they stopped that)
-Ash losing against his rival and not beating him until the league
-Ash having out of the blue arguments with his female companions
-Ash losing a league when he had a good chance in sinnoh(thanks a lot darkrai)
-female companions always leaving, with not so much development with Ash(thank you Serena)
-Down grading Ash at the start of a new saga(thanks xy for breaking that trend)
-Ash's water starters not evolving(thank you froakie you are the best)
Now we have xy which is imo the best thing to happen to pokemon, I mean I feel like now the show is still for kids, but is directed towards the older fans who have been part of pokemon since the very beginning
reason's why pokemon xy blows the other sagas for the show itself
-Ash is more mature/a gentlemen
-filler episodes feel like development episodes
-The bros bond Ash and Clement
-the Sister bond Serena and Bonnie
-Tons of character development not just for one character, but two in one episode
-Romance having a big focus on Ash and Serena
-Serena's feelings for Ash(which are obviously canon)
-Ash and Serena's childhood back story
there are many more reasons, but these are enough to show you that pokemon has not only grown up, but has taken that big step it needed and as always pokemon will always be focused on pokemon! Ash and Serena's first date most hyped episode for pokemon ever!!!