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Is Ash vs Leon the best Pokemon full battle?

Is Ash vs Leon the best and greatest Pokemon battle?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 39.2%
  • No

    Votes: 31 60.8%

  • Total voters
    51

Broseph08

Well-Known Member
Right now, I'll say yes. I think the emotional aspect of the ending gives it the edge to me. Of course, you could argue recency bias so maybe I'll change my mind in a year but at the moment, I'd say yes. Easily in the top 2 with Paul though. That and Pikachu vs. Charizard which IMO is the best 1v1 in the entire series to date

I think one of the reasons why I really like 3 or 4 episode battles is that it really allows every Pokemon to shine. The only one not to get a win, Sirfetch'd, was still pivotal to two of Leon's Pokemon going down. Funnily enough, it seems like popular consensus is that ep 2 of Ash/Leon was the weakest but that was actually my second favorite after the final episode. I really liked the strategies needed to take down Mr. Rime and Dragapult throwing Ash off his game with Dragon Tail. I actually think episode 3 was my least favorite because even though the animation was good, it felt like filler waiting for all the Pokemon to go down to set the stage for Pikachu vs Charizard and they made a mistake in not having Dracovish hit Cinderace with at least one Fishious Rend which would have helped make the start of ep 4 play out better
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
1.Paul vs Ash (Sinnoh League)
-Great Strategy
-Great Pacing
-Infernape vs Electivire

2.Paul vs Ash (Lake Acuity)
-Great Strategy
-Electabuzz vs Monferno

GAP

3.Ash vs Katie
-Great Strategy

4.Ash vs Alain
-Great Animation
-Great Pacing
-MCX vs A-G

5.Ash vs Sawyer
-Great Animation
-Great Strategy
-A-G vs MS

6.Ash vs Cynthia
-Great Strategy

7.Ash vs Drake
-Great Pacing

8.Ash vs Leon
-Pikachu vs Charizard

9.Ash vs Kukui
-Pikachu vs Tapu Koko

10.Ash vs Harrison
-Charizard vs Blaziken

11.Ash vs Gary
-Charizard vs Blastoise

12.Ash vs Tyson
13.Ash vs Tobias
14.Ash vs Morrison
15.Paul vs Brandon
16.Paul vs Cynthia
17.Ash vs Cameron
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Satoshi VS Yūji (Should be Wataru ) is still Hold up next to Satoshi VS Shigeru and Satoshi VS Shinji and at least Satoshi VS Alan
 

Trillion

Well-Known Member
my first thought is yes, but i think i'm gonna have to give it some time and proper thinking to have a proper ranking

it's definitely ahead of cynthia, kukui, and alain for sure

but it's hard to just dethrone sawyer, acuity paul, and league paul just yet

i can comfortably say it's top 4 though
 

PokemonBattleFanatic-

Well-Known Member
My 6-9 spots in my ranking are interchangeable which means I might make an adjustment in the future but anything above that are pretty much set in stone.
 

ash&charizardfan

Humans are tools
Recency bias says yes
Although I need to rewatch Ash vs Paul, Kukui, Alain, Sawyer and Cynthia along with Leon to make a set in stone list

And i would say nostalgia is the reason why ash vs paul SL is still considered best match of the series. This match was set from the start of journeys and considering ash and leon's similarities in personality and there interactions throughout the series this was well worth plus this match had incredible tactics, constant switching good pace, better animation and battle sequences and cameo appearances. Not to mention this match had way more on line, a quqrterfinal is a quarter final while a finals is a finals. This match is the best of the series to me.
 

SerGoldenhandtheJust

Deluded Dreamer
And i would say nostalgia is the reason why ash vs paul SL is still considered best match of the series. This match was set from the start of journeys and considering ash and leon's similarities in personality and there interactions throughout the series this was well worth plus this match had incredible tactics, constant switching good pace, better animation and battle sequences and cameo appearances. Not to mention this match had way more on line, a quqrterfinal is a quarter final while a finals is a finals. This match is the best of the series to me.
I will say this
If you take in a VACCUUM both Leon and Paul
Leon vs Ash definitely beats it. Purely battle wise only, the writing is so much stronger and each mons contribution is so much greater, not to mention the animation
 

Ryker101

Well-Known Member
I’ll admit what made Ash vs Paul stick out so much is their relationship. It’s built on conflict rather than admiration, which is inherently more powerful. Because Kukui, Leon, Cynthia and even Sawyer/Alain respect Ash to a level, but Paul always looked down on him

I’ll look into strategies sometime later but that’s the big thing rn
 

JustAStatistic

Super Casual Trainer
It's definitely a strong contender for sure.

Ash vs Leon joins Ash vs Kukui and Ash vs Paul SL in my top three, and imo all three of those fights are near perfect.
 

Peluched49

Well-Known Member
No, its second spot for sure though. I think if there was a battle that needed to be 4 episodes, its this one because it is a match of such calibre. However the cinderace and eternatus stuff really bogged it down and undermined the pacing of the battle.

For all its flaws, there is a lot of strategies, very good choreography, improvisations that include some out of the box thinking, abilities and status moves present, switching, psychology, fight progression, and an ongoing story of teamwork from both sides that is constantly build up and culminates with what is one of the best uses of the power of friendship ive seen in anime (soul eater is one of the other series that does this well). The final fight speaks for itself, its fantastic, the best one on one in the series.

The way leons pokemon were handled is to be praised for the most part. Each one of them felt like a threat, and had a gimmick of sorts that had to be dealt with, they really were champion level pokemon (Cinderace aside who was well handled till the final episode). Ashs team was well handled too, they all had a had significant victory for the most part and if not they help contribute to their teammates victory.

Great battle. My favorites are still ash vs paul two 6vs6 battles, which i think is by far the most perfect battles in the series.
 
Last edited:

Torpoleon

Well-Known Member
I would say no. Still a really great fight and I enjoyed ep 3 for the Iwane animation and ep 4 for the epic Pikachu VS Charizard conclusion. That ending really tried to redeem Journeys as a whole in my opinion. Still feel like this would be tremendously better if Ash used reserves, but I'm not going to continue to bring that up.

I would still put both Ash VS Paul full battles in the top 2 slots. Ash VS Leon is definitely in my top 6 though (fitting for it to be top 6 because a full battle is 6 on 6). Other battles are Ash VS Sawyer, Ash VS Alain & Ash VS Kukui.
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Ash vs Paul still remains the best battle in the anime.
One of the Best battles yes. but it wasn't THE BEST Battle In the anime.
 
Last edited:

vondecayle

Well-Known Member
Ya’ll sleeping on Drew vs May at the Kanto Grand festival!
 

Redstar45

The Anime/Special's canon know it all.
Ya’ll sleeping on Drew vs May at the Kanto Grand festival!
I think Haruka VS Satoshi is one of best friends battle in the series
 
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