How do you feel about the Orange Islands arc?

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

Orange Islands, a major arc in the anime that many tend to dismiss as a 'filler' arc and dont really talk about much.
For me personally, Orange Islands is my fav part of the entire OS series
Easily the best in my eyes. Dont get me wrong, I love the humor of Kanto episodes but the writing for Kanto was atrocious when it came to plot related development and character arcs. Genius writing for humor, but absolutely terrible in other aspects. Orange Islands imo is when the writing started getting good with the plot and character development as well. Plus the episodes, esp the fillers, were still equally hilarious, fun and wacky. Kanto sometimes had too over the top wacky episodes that I disliked such as The Kangashkhan kid and The Ghost at maiden's peak.
Also, Ash's writing. In Kanto it was horrible. In retrospect being top 16 in the Kanto league isnt any weak feat, its pretty damn impressive considering its still a top percentage of characters. But the way Ash got it handed down to him, absolutely horrible. The only gym badge I can respect that he earned in Kanto was the badge from Lt. Surge. Every other was either pity badge or a ridiculous battle like Ash vs Blaine or Ash vs TR. For Ash vs Blaine we have his charizard soloing the magmar on its own, a 1v1 match basically and it feels so unearned after the prev was 2v2 i think AND Ash didnt deserve Charizard's strength because he hadnt earned it, nor its obedience. For the Viridian badge, the battle with TR was pretty pathetic. As for Ash vs Koga admitedly I dont remember much, for some reason I think some bs happened there too but since I cant recall it, i wont mention it. And then we had him being carried in the league too with that dumb starting match where suddenly a newbie krabby came, evolved into Kingler and so became OP and destroyed everyone.
Now Ash in OL on the other hand, that was respectable character writing and feats. Not only were the gym matches there creative and fun, he earned all his victories, even the battling ones. He earned Charizard's respect and obedience, defeating Poliwrath with it. He caught cool mons like Snorlax and Lapras, who had a great arc. Now, Ash vs Drake, the first battle where Ash really really felt competent and a strong trainer. He still had a newbie in Tauros but it was handled much better than krabby and had minimal and logical impact. We have Pikachu defeating Dragonite too, something I liked. We have Ash becoming a Champion there, and entering the hall of fame. So satisfying.
Even Misty was great in OL. Her chemistry with Ash was still good and even better id say, and there was more pokeshipping in that saga than Kanto or Johto (Yes Pokeshipping isnt only a dub thing lol)
We also had a great movie set in the OL with the Lugia one
The fillers as I mentioned were great. TR antics were fun, Ashs team was great
We had Professor Ivy which is a big plus point. Now thats a waifu, not the ten year olds you creeps consider as your waifus
The only downside I see is Brock being replaced by Tracey. That sucked but unfortunately it was because they feared he would be seen as a racist caricature. (Nice to see them have that awareness then when it wasnt needed lol compared to today with that grookey episode)
Heck, Tracey wasnt that bad either. He had his moments and his Scyther was cool
So all in all, I absolutely love this saga, my fav part of OS and it deserves more respect and love then being a filler arc, and Ashs victory as OL Champion to be acknowledged more! 8/10 arc!
Curious to hear yall thoughts!

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I enjoyed it

 

[Sceptile Leaf Blade]

I think it's better than Kanto, though that's not saying much. They were quite original with the gym mechanics and the battles were quite a step up from Kanto, where the only good battle was Charizard vs Magmar (not so much narratively, but in terms of looks at the time and choreography it was groundbreaking). Tracey, for how much of a forgotten character he becomes later, is a small step up from Brock I'd say. At least to me, Brock has never been a good character. Sure when I was a little kid I didn't think about these things, but when I look at those episodes now and think about them, Brock just doesn't do anything even in Kanto. He abandons his family to go on an adventure with this random kid he just met (after a large portion of that very same episode was spent chastising Brock's dad for doing the exact same and being an unreliable jerk, so he's totally a reliable guy to leave Brock's siblings behind with), and then once he is on that adventure he never does anything other than randomly hit on girls for maximum cringe factor, randomly spout exposition, and tell people he wants to become a breeder but never does anything regarding that goal. For the longest time I didn't even have the faintest clue what being a breeder meant or what it was about. Tracey isn't much better, but at least he didn't have the cringy hitting on girls repetition, he actually occasionally used his pokémon, I recall both Venonat and Marill getting quite some scouting use (did Brock ever use Geodude or Vulpix?), and he actually occasionally started drawing stuff which was related to his goal. Granted, it's not much and he never really got any character growth, but it's better than Brock. I do think the Charizard turn-around was a tad too fast, they could have spent an arc on it instead considering for how long Ash had neglected it, and they never went into Charizard's feelings much, but at least the stuff that was there was honestly really good with Ash doing everything to thaw out Charizard and making the connection there to when they first met. As far as OS character writing went, it was often awful but some of the moments between Ash and his pokémon were incredibly well done, same with stuff like Bye Bye Butterfree, Farewell Pikachu, and Caterpie's capture when he defended Caterpie from Misty's hostility.

I don't really care about Ivy, she barely ever showed up and was mainly a plot device to get Brock out of the show for a while.

Overall, I think it was a step in the right direction. Dropping the pretence of Kanto a bit where everyone and everybody was either completely incompetent or some insane psycho and actually introduced some capable characters, had the first ever official double battle in the series, and went outside the box in a much more controlled way than Kanto. It introduced completely new stuff for the gym challenges and tried all sorts of things, but it wasn't some crazy horror-movie psycho stuff like Blaine's gym who literally held his battles above lava (seriously I don't want to know how many pokémon actually died in that gym) or Sabrina who turned challengers into dolls. It felt a lot more realistic and grounded while still threading new ground.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

It's interesting in the sense of giving a new format to gym matches but it's far from my favorite. At least I remember it being the best part of first series though that's not saying much.

 

[DatsRight]

Looking back on it, while it sticks out as a padding season with no new games lore or Pokemon discovered, it had some nice development moments and I think it was a nice transitional point, lacking the poor battling/arc focus and occasional mean spiritedness of Kanto but still keeping some of its energy and randomness that was gradually lost in Johto when the main formula was tightened and more lethargic. Misty is still a character here (though it's odd she doesn't get more significant involvement in a very sea centric region) and Tracey, while bland, at least isn't a background prop. Team Rocket still haven't quite lost their luster yet, only getting pretty stale by the end of the OS.

I still wonder if this series is what inspired Alola really, not just in its tropical themes and regional form premise, but its bigger breach of the old staples and having challenges that weren't just battles.

 

[Ignition]

I liked it a lot. Ash used more than just Pikachu and Charizard for fights. Lapras and Snorlax were two of his best captures even if they did near nothing compared to the Kanto starters. IMO Ash vs Drake is the best battle in OS. I liked Tracey, the new anime original forms like Crystal Onix, and how creative the Gyms were. I mainly liked this arc because of Charizard’s growth since I hated it as a kid because I never watched OI (cable went from Indingo League to Johto?) but rewatching it helped make Charizard one of my favorite Pokémon of Ash’s. I also think the episode where it starts to obey Ash after the Poliwrath fight is the best episode in OS.

 

[Red and Blue]

I liked it quite a bit. I'm a fan of tropical settings so a whole season dedicated to it was nice. The gym challenges were unique as other mentioned. Wish we had more gym battles like them but since they are taken from the games I get why that can't happen

 

[DigitalTrainer]

I thought it was an okay side journey, liked it when Ash caught Snorelax, upset when Ash had to release Lapras.

 

[RafaSceptile]

OI was the best part of OS, it shows how Ash started to growth as a Pokémon Trainer unlike Kanto, and it wasn't a filler fest like Johto

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

I think the arc is hit or miss. There are some great moments in it such as Togepi learning Metronome but no one ever seeing it using the move until Johto with only Tracey mentioning he thought he saw it moving its arms but then is quickly dismissed. Tracey is the main issue with the OI. He hardly got any character development or personality and is just there most of the time. And he could have used his Pokémon a bit differently too as Marill is used as a sound detector and Venonat was basically a radar to find footprints. The ways to earn the Shell Badges were really weird and random at times. I mean what exactly does going down a hill in a block of ice have to do with Pokémon in general? Teamwork isn’t an acceptable answer as anyone not doing the challenge could still carve a block of ice into some boat thingy and slide downhill in it. And surfing definitely has nothing to do with Pokémon battling as that challenge was literally done on surfboards and not Pokémon.

 

[Observer]

I enjoyed it as a kid and still do now, it was a good season and the captures of Lapras and Snorlax was something I don't think a lot of people was expecting, let's not forget Misty and Poliwag.

The battles was a improvement over season 1, same goes for the league.

It had its problems like every other season, but all in all I still find it enjoyable.

By the way, the wacky watcher episode with the Groucho Marx looking character was one of the funniest episode in the season.

 

[Dynamic_Fusion]

I really liked it. I loved the Filler Episodes. I loved the witty humor. To me it seemed, that the Staff had more freedom with this Arc than they did for the Kanto & Johto Portions of OS.

 

[Redstar45]

I really liked it. I loved the Filler Episodes. I loved the witty humor. To me it seemed, that the Staff had more freedom with this Arc than they did for the Kanto & Johto Portions of OS.

And Satoshi feel like he is much closer to the ideals of Red in oi arc then kanto as it did piss job on his character outside few great episode

 

[Leonhart]

It was a great arc overall, although it did have its share of problems, namely Kenji being such a bland character who received little development. I also wasn't fond of the way that Satoshi sort of cruised through the Gyms with a team that consisted of several un-evolved Pokemon and a disobedient Lizardon for most of that era, although I suppose that that can be forgiven since half of those Gyms didn't involve battling.

 

[Redstar45]

It was a great arc overall, although it did have its share of problems, namely Kenji being such a bland character who received little development. I also wasn't fond of the way that Satoshi sort of cruised through the Gyms with a team that consisted of several un-evolved Pokemon and a disobedient Lizardon for most of that era, although I suppose that that can be forgiven since half of those Gyms didn't involve battling.

He did get Kabigon and lapris that better than few un-evolved Pokemon and out of control fire dragon

 

[JustAStatistic]

I liked how the gyms didn't all require battling, but focused on a different aspect of Pokemon like accuracy or speed. Also, I'm pretty sure this had the first canonical double battle in the series (maybe even the whole franchise) so that's a huge plus.

 

[Leonhart]

He did get Kabigon and lapris that better than few un-evolved Pokemon and out of control fire dragon

To be fair, Satoshi didn't use Laplace in a battle until his match with Yuji at Kankitsu Stadium, and even then Laplace only managed to tie with Yuji's Gangar. So I don't think Laplace was a particularly useful team addition outside of it being used as a ferry. And Kabigon was in a similar situation since it didn't battle much during the Orange Archipelago arc.

 

[wobbanut]

I really like the Orange Islands episodes. It may have been our first experience without Brock, but by now it's no big deal and Tracey is highly underrated. A lot of great episodes came out of the era- Pikachu Re-Volts, Meowth Rules, Bye Bye Psyduck, Charizard Chills being the top ones. The gym battles were unique and not unlike Alola's game's gyms, plus we had the first double battle with the fourth gym. Ash actually won his first league. The best Pokemon movie of all time came from this era. We had Crystal onix, which could probably be theorized to be a regional variant, even though such a thing wouldn't exist for years. I mean, what's not to like?

 

[Martinat388]

I enjoyed it a lot, I wonder if we'll ever get to explore them someday

 

[Orphalesion]

it was the last arc I saw from start to finish (I stopped watching the anime in early Johto) yet, I can't say I remember all that much about it. Was that were they had the episode about an island full of pink Pokemon?

I think the thing that most stuck out to me as a child was the idea that Pokemon could have different appearances in other climates. Weird how that never got added to the games (until, arguably the Regional Forms)
I also remember that a I and a lot of my friends expected the Orange Islands to show up in the sequel games to B/R/Y we kept hearing about.
Oh and they gave Lorelai the wrong name in the anime.