What little worth SM has made, is overshadowed by the net major net negative it had on the anime. Going forward, the Galar region should go right back to the roots of Pokémon and cut the losses from SM.
Refining the best regions of the anime, DP and XY, is the way for the anime to go. Whatever mold SM broke was not worth it all since in my eyes it was a utter failure in mostly all aspects. On a narrative level, SM was unable to create a strong engaging plot nor was it able to make the filler episodes funny or entertaining enough to justify the absurd amount of irrelevance much episodes amounted to with the constant padding and exposition especially apparent in battles. Writing seemed focused on comedy and attempting to craft the most mindless idiocy going into making such episodes. Recent episodes include the utter failure of that league battle with Hau.
There’s a lack of depth in SM especially regarding their characters. Bar certain episodes and moments, on a episodes to episode basis, the characters are more used to make funny moments and jokes than to advance their respective character arcs, non withstanding that a lot of them don’t have character arcs nor are they strong enough to be satisfactory.
Not only on a narrative level, but on a technical level, SM failed with SM with directing being utterly subpar, especially in battles.
Going forward, Galar should try to replicate DP and XY and remove the mediocre filler in both series with DP being especially worse. The strong narrative structure apparent in both series with engaging and interesting character arcs should be refined and improved upon in Galar. Creating flair in characters should also be a priority and using aspects of OS would go a long way as well in making memorable characters. Note, flanderizing characters is not the way to go.
An example of this done well would be the Mega Evolution Episodes and XYZ, both going long ways to develop strong characters and match that with an engaging plot.
