I personally think this series is not fixable. And by that I mean it's very unlikely to get any better than it is, that will make it an enjoyable satisfying series. I mean it took till the Alolan league to show us how well the Sun and Moon series barring extreme examples like the Litten capture episode.
But as I said there is literally nothing as a whole that could make it worse than say the horrendous series that is Best Wishes, which to clarify the only thing I really liked was Ash's Pokemon, though they didn't do anything. Cilan was okay, and Iris is my least favorite companion (but even so, I am looking forward to her appearance in the anime. I hate her character, doesn't mean they can't fix the character, or make her reappearance in the anime tolerable).
The reason why I think Journey's is not fixable is merely because it comes off as heavily "Too DAMN Little too DAMN Late" while you could argue, Sun and Moon would counteract that point, Sun and Moon had things going for it which is what made the ending so satisfying. Journeys on the other hand just doesn't remotely have the right structure to fix the issues that it has without it coming off as "GEEZ, fine, we'll fix our "stupidity"" and in a condescending way.
So let's go over my issues with the Journeys anime and why they cannot really be fixed because "Too Little Too Late"
1. The lack of proper Ash focus or more importantly his Pokemon- While I am willing to concede that Ash is a veteran and he could theoretically take a backseat, I fundamentally have to disagree for the one main reason. His Pokemon. Ash may have been here for nearly 25 years, but only his Pikachu has been here as long. Dragonite, Gengar, Lucario, Farfetch'd and Impidimp Dracovish are all "younger" to Go's character and even his Cinderace. Ash may not deserve the screen time and development, but his Pokemon certainly do.
Why it can't be fixed? Things like Riolu evolving into Lucario is a major reason why this can't be fixed. Riolu evolved before it could develop with Ash in a way that was satisfactory. While Lucario may do ridiculously cool things I can never forgive them for not giving Riolu and Ash the proper bonding episode that the two characters deserved. Instead we get a spoiled brat Pikachu, just because it would be "funny" and "touching" and as a result, I will always believe Ash's relationship with Aura Sphere Riolu will always vastly superior. I'm also not a fan of Lucario's personality, nor was I fan of Riolu's personality (though it was adorable a few times). Despite how much I despise Cameron as a rival, I do think his Riolu/Lucario were written better and were more fun than Ash's Riolu/Lucario. Only time will tell if Lucario will remain rabid and stoic or perhaps it'll learn to lighten up and end up being much better. I dread the Korrina Mega Lucario repeat with Ash's own Lucario if Ash gets a mega ring.
2. Go's undeserved screen time- I'm going to alter how I argue this now than in the past. I won't argue Go doesn't deserve focus and screen time, or that his captures were undeserved. Instead I'm going to argue about the writer's mentality on the subject. I fail to see why Go deserves to have more screen time and episodes devoted to capturing Pokemon, whereas a lot of Ash has his stuff being in the background or off screen. I fail to see why catching as a series staple is so damn more entertaining than battling. I'm not saying Go cannot have heavy plot capture episodes, but its nowhere near equal to Ash's Pokemon or his battles.
Why this can't be fixed? Go is a dual protagonist......for some reason, which means I highly doubt Go will ever truly be able to background character enough to more properly balance his screentime with Ash, I think we have to accept Go will just get more screen time and focus than Ash, especially since
3. Ash's Pokemon- This is a multifaceted problem. Ash doesn't really have good Pokemon, he has bad picks, Go will always get superior captures (because he's allowed to). Go caught a legendary first, even though Ash deserved one first, but apparently Ash can only ever be a battler of legendary. God forbid he get a decent one. And the final issue is that they will never get the proper screen time and development they deserve. As I said Riolu and Lucario prove this already.
Why this cannot be fixed: As for not having good Pokemon I'm calling out Farfetch'd and Dracovish, while my thoughts will be subjective, with Farfetch'd I think I have more objectivity here. I don't hate Ash's Farfetch'd, as I've always stated my problem is that it's a fighting type, and I absolutely despise that it was caught after Riolu. And my biggest issue with this is Impidimp. If you've seen the Koharu/Ponyta episode, you'll get a taste of why I wanted Ash with Impidimp (I still do but I'll be lucky if they decide to give him Morgrem), Impidimp personality wise would offer something extremely good on his team. Impidimp is so versatile you can literally give it any personality and it works. And why would getting Impidimp on his team after Riolu would that have been better than Farfetch'd, because Grimmsnarl is basically a good counterpart or even foil to to Lucario, for Impidimp and Riolu, Fighting covers Impidimp's dark typing whereas Impidimp wins out on fairy typing, then when it becomes a Lucario it also counterattacks Grimmsnarl due to its steel typing. Sure Lucario wouldn't have a steel type, but typing wise it does lose its weakness to fairy make both neutral to each other in terms of fighting and fairy type attacks. This works much better than Farfetch'd that only works simply because its a fighting type. But since Farfetch'd doesn't have an outrageous personality and is easily close to being similar to Lucario, I think Impidimp's outlandish potential personality also works to counter Riolu and Lucario's personality. While Morgrem and Grimmsnarl have less personality potential than Impidimp, I only cared about the Impidimp aspect, and then evolving it into a good strong Grimmsnarl, and just a reall cool typed Pokemon and just a badass Pokemon in general. On top of that, replacing Impidimp for Farfetch'd could set up for Ash getting Urshifu much better than NOW.
Dracovish? I just don't like it, but it doesn't really have any real problems, it's an 8th generation Pokemon. It is a water type. And while I'm not too happy about its dragon typing since I really don't want a 3rd dragon on the team if things go the way I expect. But had Ash had Impidimp, I could've lived with Dracovish. And now with Ash having 6 Pokemon, I just cannot imagine Ash getting anything good, and so I'm stuck with what I view as horrible choices. Even if Ash does get Impidimp it'll miss out of the whole Riolu dynamic and it'll feel like a Pokemon that definitely should've been caught first. So like I said at best they may give him Morgrem, and that's disappointing, acceptable because Grimmsnarl, but disappointing because it's unlikely Morgrem will have that great of a personality like Impidimp. And who knows if Ash will get any more Pokemon.
As for the legendary, that cannot be fixed because well Ash won't have the honor of having a legendary Pokemon first, and yes I'm still bitter that Go got Suicune when it could've been any other Pokemon and I would've been fine. Zapdos would've made more sense. I just don't know why they forced Suicune on Go over say Ash getting Suicune for example. At best Ash may get Latias, but that's a 3rd dragon, and I absolutely abhor the idea of Ash getting Urshifu since it will likely have to be the Fighting/Dark type and I hate that style (well if only because fairy types demolish it and fighting/water is a more interesting style for Urshifu and is better typing wise) as well as it not being much of a legendary in comparison to Go's Suicune and as much I would despise it I would prefer 3 dragon types or 3 fighting types. Shame that it couldn't be Garchomp, because as nice as Latias is, I would've liked Gible to come back and fully evolve, and assuming it does, that's FOUR dragon types, although only 3 added dragon types, as he already has a Gible. But damn, Iris must be crying in her sleep.
4. Ash's Pokemon in terms of the current generation- I wanted to separate this as its own thing, because of how confused I am about the situation. One thing I will never understand about how the series work, with exception to 2nd and 5th generation for obvious reasons which I will explain but first the issue I have is, why isn't Ash being used to primarily market a generation? Usually that is the case because well Ash tends to always have more Pokemon than his companions but they still want to market the current generation with the likes of May, Dawn, etc, etc, etc. And I don't know how that makes sense, unless they are actual game characters with game canon Pokemon. Shouldn't they focus on past generation Pokemon whereas Ash himself focuses on the current generation? 2nd Generation is excused because Misty and Brock are the same traveling companions and literally they were there for 1st generation they literally could only focus on 2nd generation Pokemon if even that. And 5th generation is also excluded because they literally had no choice to focus on 5th generation Pokemon since there was only 5th generation in the actual games. Kind of like a prelude to 8th generation but without deleting the Pokemon, just merely locking their data out for 5th gen priortization. The reason this is an issue is because Go is more marketing the 8th generation more than Ash is. So why should Go get all three 9th generation Pokemon to focus on, when he literally is the exact definition of someone who should be focusing on PAST generation Pokemon.
Why this cannot be fixed? While Ash can still get more 8th generation Pokemon, since they don't want to repeat 5th generation, it's unlikely he's going to get a lot more Pokemon if anything happens, and at the end of the day, I guess they just don't think Ash deserves to have 8th generation Pokemon if he's only going to have Sirfetch'd, Dracovish and maybe one more. And while I do understand people's problems with Ash always having the starters, I think people fail to understand only Ash can truly make a starter shine if its allowed to reach its final form more than any other companion. The exception is Torterra which I think only failed because they LITERALLY refused to allow Ash to use it in a battle where it could win. Like holy crap just let it battle someone's female Hippowdon not named Bertha and let him win. Or just have a rematch with Brandon's Regirock and let Torterra win.
As for the starters, obviously Ash will not have a Cinderace or Inteleon, and it's extremely unlikely he's getting Rillaboom, which I didn't want, since Ash isn't getting Inteleon. And sure I do like Grimmsnarl, Frosmoth, Corviknight, Toxtricity, and at least Grimmsnarl over Inteleon, I still think Ash deserved Inteleon more than not deserving of Inteleon. Go's want of getting Sobble was stupid, and I absolutely hate having been trolled by a preview, where Ash ends up getting a stupid regional form variant, just to justify Go getting Sobble, which again is absolutely STUPID since he shouldn't be focusing on 8th generation as much as Ash should since who knows if Ash will ever get to properly represent the 8th generation. Especially if this ends up being Ash's last generation
5. Ash's last series? The major reason as to why this series is unfixable is simply because what if it is Ash's last series. Unless they use my idea of what to use Ash for in the fan fiction continuation, I just cannot imagine how they will use canon Ash in 9th generation and onward. And so I feel more likely will either get the horrifying Ash reboot (alternate canon which would scare me, since so long old Ash), or they outright replace the character with some other Pikachu wielding trainer. And if we use this series a "send off" to the Ash we all know and love (well for some of us). It's a really, really, crappy send off, especially since the focus should solely be on Ash, and not Go, Go would have to a background character. And for that it will always be a disappointing thing for me, Journeys if this is Ash's last series, it'll never be able to reach a satisfying and happy conclusion because of the insane focus on Go and that, for me as an Ash fan, as Ash is my favorite character, it just will never be okay.