*Sighs* no one likes Hoenn but me?? Really??
I haven't finished Houen. Satoshi just got his 4th badge. But until now... I really can't think of a reason not to say this hasn't been the best league ever in the anime. (I didn't watch DP or BW yet)
In fact I'm really confuse with the whole 'original was the best' statements. The pacing of the original made me quit the anime when I was younger. The pacing of AG made me start watching it again recently.
I skip filler episodes (by filler I mean episodes that add virtually nothing to the overall plot/character development/team) and this is why I will never agree with the original lovers:
KANTO:
-Satoshi wins 6 out of 8 badges without finishing a battle.
-Kasumi: Constantly fought with Satoshi. Like the main post's example says she had virtually no development, not ever since she got Togepi. Except for her farewell and the 2-part Advanced Generations episode. She also had no goal at all. Unless you count the 'trainer beauty' talk she would pull off to justify battling someone once in a while and stalking Satoshi to get her bike back as goals.
-Skipping the fillers there were less than 10 pokemon battles (not counting sending rokketto-dan to the skies in 1 move or fighting their mechas) before the championship. Everything else has been pure randomness. Gyms included.
-Silph Co. doesn't even gets a mention.
-The Satoshi clone (Forgot his name) was a terrible excuse for a rival in my opinion. But I don't know how to explain what I didn't like about him. Probably because I felt like they tried to hard to make him friendly and kind just to push the idea of him becoming a great friend of Satoshi in few episodes. I for one was glad he was never seen again. (Up to where I watched)
+The Pokemon League itself was nice. The opening ceremony up to Satoshi's defeat made it very exciting. Back when I watched when I was younger I remember people were almost as excited about it as the World Cup.
+A lot of places/events based on the game weren't ignored. I know the anime and the game have their own plots but I like to see them sticking to the refferences since it's still the same world.
+Rokketto-dan was given some importance, even though it was quickly dropped.
+The final episodes were very well done. I doubt AG will do better, honestly.
ORANGE LEAGUE:
-Gyms basically consisted on 'minigames'.
-Kenji is... well I don't know how to put this either. But I guess since he didn't last long as Takeshi's replacement I wasn't the only one who didn't like him. Kenji had a few moments where he showed us he wasn't just a 'robot' who could make sandwiches and draw Pokemon. But oftentimes I asked myself why he was still following the team.
-Even if this part is short, half the orange league is made of fillers. It becomes surprisingly short when you skip them.
-Because the champion was a nobody that looked like a Wataru-wannabe Satoshi's victory felt a little empty. But I admit I might be exhagerating here.
-Even less battles than Kanto. Until I wrote this I was asking myself if that was even possible, but it is. I mean, it was.
+It was good to see Kenji wasn't just a Takeshi replacement until the end. He stickied in the series as Ookido's assistant and his goal became clear near the end. He's became even more bland than before since then, but I don't think his current role demands much of it anyway.
+Even if the gyms were lackluster the final battle was great. Kairyuu going against Rizadon was predictable but it wasn't bad at all. Altogether it's one of the most memorable battles.
+It was good seeing Satoshi win his first big victory. Even if by the time Joutou started it could be taken as an empty one.
JOUTO:
-I think everyone knows this. But this has arguably the worst pacing in the series history. If I remember well, more than half of Joutou's episodes are fillers. And most of the non-fillers are simply fillers with an evolution or new move tackled in to save it from the filler status.
-Kasumi loses all the little character development she had from the Kanto days. And to make things worse, Takeshi too becomes stale.
-I like Rokketo-Dan but Joutou has got to be the greatest overdose of Rokketto-Dan attacks in the entire series. Often there would be non-filler episodes with 3 attacks. Plus the writers were clearly trying to make them more of serious villains oftentimes, even though they work best as comic-relief. This contributed to making the Joutou's pacing worse.
-I found this very strange, but Joutou also happens to be (again, up to where I've watched) the season that deviated from the game, as far as important areas go, the most. I don't mind that they take a different approach in the anime, but ignoring or giving so little atention to certain little plots/areas from the game was inexcusable since Kanto (and AG) didn't deviate that much.
-Shigeru never used his Burekki against Satoshi. (Don't spoil to me in case he gets to use it latter in the series)
+Rokketto-dan was once again given some significant importance in two story arcs.
+This is when they finally start to give more focus to pokemon battles. I wasn't able to count the number of battles before the League this time! And the animation for some of the battles were great.
+I'm sorry that this doesn't contributes to anything but: I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE SHIGERU'S BUREKKI!
+Shigeru stops being a typical jerk of every cartoon show and shows he's actually maturing. Unfortunately if you only watch the 4kids version you may have a hard time realising this, since they believed for whatever reason that changing the dialogues so Gary could keep being the arrogant jerk from Kanto up til the last Joutou episodes would be better than letting him have his share of character development.
+Yogirasu turned out to be very cute. And I didn't mind that he took so many episodes for his story arc.
HOUEN:
(Note: I didn't finish the Houen league yet. Satoshi just obtained his fourth badge.)
-Masato. I don't dislike the character but one can't just ignore the fact he's sort of... he's sort of just there. He joined as the navigator but oftentimes the team leaves the navigation job to Takeshi. (Funny how that seems to always lead them to the wrong/longer road too...)
-The Muro Island episodes were very tiring. And I'm talking about the non-filler ones. (Although ONE particular Muro Isle episode was very funny)
-Satoshi somewhat seems to forget basic things he learned in the past. (I know this is a trend he will keep in future seasons)
+Even though they pretty much ditched Rokketto-Dan and ignored Silph Co. in the past, they went as far as including Magma/Aqua Dan and the Devon Corporation in the anime.
+Even if it feels like an afterthough, they come up with Nyasu's fantasies to explain why Rokketto-Dan will go after random pokemon that are featured in each episode. I picked this as a con because it adds nicely to the humor. Specially with Rokketto-Dan going back to the comic-relief seat in Houen. You know none of Nyasu's fantasies make sense but that's precisely the point.
+Masato. Why I'm including him as both con and pro? Because even if he's 'just there' as I said, he breaks the trend of the 3-man team. And I personally though it was nice to have an even younger character in the team to see things differently. He's not stealing anyone's spot (unlike Kenji tried to) either.
+Takeshi gets some active roles in certain episodes. This hasn't been done since the end of Kanto.
+Haruka. Well, I admit I'm a bit biased towards Haruka. But I'm gonna explain why:
First, I fell in love with her when she pretty much served Kasumi at her first episode. (If you don't remember/know: Satoshi accidently crisps her bike, but unlike Kasumi, Haruka gives up on scolding him about it as soon as she sees him taking care of Pikachu. And this is where she showed to be more mature and less picky than Kasumi) Second, she actually has a goal that is relevant to the watchers. And we see her actively battle for it during the entire series. (Kanto/Orange/Jouto=Series; AG/Battle Frontier=Another series) Third, she doesn't behaves like a tomboy, nor does she picks fight with Satoshi every 3 episodes. She doesn't acts like a know-it-all either. In fact we see she's a newbie and she knows it. But we also see her growing better as a coordinator, and gaining more confidence. And you know what that means right? ->Character development.
+There is absolutely no reason to complain about lack of battles. But I guess that's irrelevant by now.
+A lot of areas are featured in the anime. Even those roads from the game. And I guess that must be why they make sure to exhibit Satoshi-tachi's path in the map during the title introduction. Which makes the geography/environment less incosistant than back on the Jouto/Kanto days.
+A lot less fillers than Jouto and Kanto. (There are still some semifillers though)
+More subplots/characters from the game are featured in this series. And I'm not bringing Magma/Aqua/Devon up again. More often so than Kanto did with Red/Blue.
+While I won't lie there are some plots that feel like repeatition of certain past series' episodes, the episodes all in all had a little more variance. You didn't get a bunch of episodes in a row that was basically about Satoshi-tachi finding a stray pokemon and a random person turns out to be desperately looking/hunting/trying to catch it. I really can't see it differently: The writing has definately improved in Advanced Generation. The humour scenes included.