After a significant absence from the Pokemon world, I catched one of the XY episodes completely on accident. I started watching it with amusement and surprise (They're still doing this? After all this time?), and I didn't even realized how almost a entire week passed where I watched an episode after episode, at least 5-7 hours per day.
XY(Z) was simply good. Despite being almost twenty five yealrs old, this series made me feel in love again with the world and it's characters. Sure, it had it's flaws like for example showcases, where the creators didn't hand any idea on what to do with them, or poor planning where the they had a steady pace in storytelling for the first 100 episodes only to somehow rush the ending [hurting Ash's performance on the Pokemon League, his final match felt like it was rushed, only to immediately introduce the Flare arc], but the enjoyment was still there.
What I liked the most about the entire series, was definitely the four main characters. They had chemistry, you could definitely feel the bond forming between them. They were definitely friends, but sometimes they were something more.
We saw how Ash [who was really mature in this series, big plus] was doing a great job in mentoring Serena and Clemont during their journey.
We saw Serena who during the story definitely grew up, transformed from a shy, quiet and a little lost girl who didn't know what she wanted to do into a confident, determined one.
We saw Bonnie, who despite being a child, definitely gained much experience. She saw Serena and Ash as their sister and brother who also both inspired her to be a trainer.
The characters developed throughout the entire series, both individually and as a group. The feeling of their friendship was strong and honestly... endearing to watch. Their individual development was also done well with Clemont growing up to be a better trainer and finding love in his inventions, however the character that I found myself being definitely more attached to was Serena.
We were with her since the beginning, we saw her standing up to her mother and wanting to go on her own path, we were with her as she struggled to find her goal, we were with her through the ups and downs during her showcase performances. We were happy with her successes and felt sad for her lossess [the hair cutting scene from XY60 is definitely the most emotional, gutwrenching moment from the entire anime, even on the same level as Ash turning to stone from the first movie]. Hell... even her crush on Ash was part of her character, and while it was a little silly it was also part of her development. You were definitely rooting for her during her showcases, you wished her all the best, and her getting the man that she had a crush on felt like the icing on the cake. I totally did not squeal like a little girl during the kiss scene in the last episode... [I'm also totally not a amourshipper after that series, I swear!
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I liked the battles as well. The scheme of attack-attack [for me] got got bored quite time ago, and it was nice that the creators "turned up" things a little with the use of terrain, complicated but still effective strategy.
I did not like the rival. This time the relationship between Ash and the rival was build on respect and friendship but there were definitely more than just couple of moments where Sawyer felt more like a creep than a friend. Also his character was rushed he went definitely too quickly from basically nobody to a competent [and in some places even overpowered] trainer.
Of course the presence of Team Rocket was utterly pointless [maybe besides The Flare arc, but that was only a couple of episodes]. They were boring way before when I was younger and honestly it's sad to see that the creators still don't have any idea for them, except giving them the role of "time stealers" just to fill out the 20 min per episode mark.
XY(Z) was definitely one of a kind. Pretty decent story, nice characters that developed continuously throughout the episodes, amazing Pokemon fights. It was actually a little hard to say goodbye [considering that this is the last time we're seeing the characters, because when Sun&Moon comes out, all the XY(Z) progress lands in the dumpster ;_;], but I guess... it was fun while it lasted.