Ooh boy
To start with, I think Project Mew and the concept of Trial missions as a companion goal was genius. It's a really interesting concept, and if executed well in next series I really believe Trial Missions can easily surpass contests as the best side companion goal. It's the best goal to utilise Pokemon goals and adventures you know
Back to Project Mew, it was a great direction for Goh but it came 20 episodes too late imo. It should have began after the DD arc ended and the Mewtwo episode, with Eternatus pokedex entry leading to Oak recommending Goh to PM rather than the lacklustre Suicune episode
I think Goh development and episodes before DD were necessary to set his character up, so wouldn't want Project Mew to begin way before that. Right after DD would have been perfect
Also, Goh got SHAFTED for Ash and PWC. Now, I am NOT saying PWC should have received any less resources or time or episodes, just that I wish Goh could receive even 1/4th of it. The finale was very underwhelming. It was rushed, shoddy animation and presentation, with an interesting idea to tie into Goh's arc so far that didn't feel as beautifully illustrated as it should have been.
Besides the finale tho, I think every Project Mew episode was top tier. The Moltres episode introducing the concept was AMAZING and also, the decision of introducing Gary and having Gary be Goh's rival was GENIUS. It fit so well, and in general one of the BEST things about PM was the character writing it had. The clash with Tsurugi vs Gary vs Goh vs Tokio was really interesting to me, and the Articuno episode is probably one of my fav because of how well it was illustrated.
The Alolan Ninetails episode was fun, the Volcarona episode was absolutely old school Pokemon adventures, the Kingdra episode utilising Drake was nice, the Battle royale episode again was really good and so were the regi battles.
I also really liked the 2 rivals we had introduced in the last 2 missions, they just came too late.
And that's where the major problem of PM comes from, it didn't have time to BREATHE. It only got 5 missions, so a lot of stuff felt rushed, and then the finale failed to properly utilise on the excellent character writing and setup done to give more catharsis, failed to properly utilise a great raid battle with all the mons they caught (the regi plotline ended up being freaking useless and only used as a game reference bruh) and failed to properly execute the concept it had for Goh's arc finish, which was nice and fitting imo
Overall, I think PM was pretty solid with a weak finale and was too rushed at times due to starting late and having less episodes, but brilliantly used Gary and had some great writing. I'd place it above showcases but below Contests
It's a boy.
Where did you get this "girl"?
Apparently it's high grade humor to continuously misgender someone to make fun of them