Pokemon League Tournaments

[Kamex]

Now that the Hoenn League is over in the dub (at least it just finished in America), what do you think of all the Pokemon League tournaments? The Hoenn League was definitely rushed...

The Indigo League was the best, IMO. Great characters (like the Astounding Mandy) and so on. Team Rocket actually had more interesting routines, too. Charizard not obeying made Ash's loss more interesting, also. And Gary losing before Ash gave us another thing to think about.

Then there was Johto, and the start of the -son's. Harrison and Jackson. And there were quite a few other interesting characters and Pokemon. Plus the long-awaited rematch with Gary... the one battle Ash excluded Pikachu from. :/

Anyway, I'm hoping in the next region the writers get more creative and twist up the formula for the tournament. What do you think?

 

[£añkaÑ]

Now that the Hoenn League is over in the dub (at least it just finished in America), what do you think of all the Pokemon League tournaments? The Hoenn League was definitely rushed...

The Indigo League was the best, IMO. Great characters (like the Astounding Mandy) and so on. Team Rocket actually had more interesting routines, too. Charizard not obeying made Ash's loss more interesting, also. And Gary losing before Ash gave us another thing to think about.

Then there was Johto, and the start of the -son's. Harrison and Jackson. And there were quite a few other interesting characters and Pokemon. Plus the long-awaited rematch with Gary... the one battle Ash excluded Pikachu from. :/

Anyway, I'm hoping in the next region the writers get more creative and twist up the formula for the tournament. What do you think?

I agree with u in somethings...truly right...

i'm sure Ash next time is in the TOP 4...in the tournament...

At a point soon, Ash is sure to go against most of his rival, which will be cool..i'm sure its not the next one, but it will be intresting...

i was sad that they didn't reveal any new pokemon during the hoenn, it would have been a nice thing, but oh well...

my one big hope is for a minor character to be able to win most of its battle usign many Baby Pokemon and one fully evolved starter...and let Ash vs who ever he/she is

those are my ideas of future events...

but currently what has happen Kanto was totally the best....

 

[Kamex]

i was sad that they didn't reveal any new pokemon during the hoenn, it would have been a nice thing, but oh well...

They did reveal Sceptile... unless you mean 4th generation Pokemon?

but currently what has happen Kanto was totally the best....

Yep. ^^

 

[Captain Brain]

I love the Orange because it was the only tournament Ash won.;025;

 

[CyberCubed]

Hoenn and Johto are tied for the best.

What did the Indigo league have again? The first match had Krabby/Kingler as an uber. Then for absolutely no reason at all, the second and third matches are rushed and we don't even get to see the full battles of either. They put two 3 on 3 battles in the same episode, and we only saw about one battle in each, the rest was filler with Team Rocket.

The 4th match against Janette was good, and pretty funny with Bellsprout.

And then we have the pathetic Ash Vs. Richie match, a match that is less than 5 minutes long, and Ash loses in an embarrassing way.

Compared to the battles we got in the Johto and Hoenn leagues, the Indigo league was horrible battle wise. It was still great story wise, but it had THE worst battles.

Now...

The Johto league suffered during the Gary/Harrison matches, both slightly rushed.

Hoenn skipped one of Ash's double battles, and Tyson was rushed into one episode. Aside from those two shortcomings, the Hoenn league was excellent. More later...

I just find it amusing that the Indigo league is "glorified" mostly because of nostalgia.

If the writers passed off crappy battles from the Indigo league NOW, people would be complaining about how much it sucked. Not to mention Richie was an Ash clone, easily the worst league rival ever.

 

[Gravy]

I'm sorry, but the Indigo tormanent hardly compares to the battles or characters we got out of the more recent league events. Mandy and Janette were decent enough trainers, fair enough. But two characters doesn't count for squat when it comes down to the wire. The battles themselves were outright crap, with only 3 of them being seen in full. And not even those were any good. The only one I can say that was enjoyable was Bellsprout vs. Ash's team, and that was only due to the fact that it was funny. And my word, did the finalé of the competition ever suck.
But snap! It seems as if Cybercubed beat me to it!

Johto and Houen on the other hand had an interesting character AND a decent battle pretty much every episode. We got trainers with fun personallities taking the stage (eg. Jackson & Morrisson), a slew of impressive pokémon used by both Ash and his opponents, as well as some truely awesome pokémon battling that brought in a slew of interesting strategies and creative useage of the battle field (Kecleon hiding in the tall grass/Kaede's switching tactics). Both the Silver and Ever Grande conferences were what the Indigo league should have been, and then some.

 

[Almighty Zard]

I think the Jouto league is still the best to me anyway, most of the battles were funny, and i enjoy as they call them KO fests.

 

[HoennMaster]

I think that the Johto & Hoenn Leagues tie for first.

The battles didn't seem as rushed in the Johto League but the Hoenn League had the all around hottie Katie! I love Katie so much and enjoyed her battle

 

[Magus]

I think the main reason people have problems with the Johto and Hoenn leagues is that Ash is so much better a trainer now than he was in Indigo, yet he seems to be barely closer to winning. If he's made it to the top 4 in Hoenn, it would've been much better.

 

[Chris]

If there's one thing I can say positive of the rushed Houen League, it would be that Kaede was the definition of a type of trainer that the anime should see more often. Her tactics were pulled off quite well and it made for a really great match.

 

[CyberCubed]

I think the main reason people have problems with the Johto and Hoenn leagues is that Ash is so much better a trainer now than he was in Indigo, yet he seems to be barely closer to winning. If he's made it to the top 4 in Hoenn, it would've been much better.

Well in the Johto league he improved his rank at least. In the Hoenn league Ash handicapped himself by only using his Hoenn team, so he deserved the place he got.

Maybe once he uses ALL of his Pokemon and doesn't stick with the same ones, he'll get further. Ash is a much better trainer now, but he's not good enough.

 

[intergalactic platypus]

The one thing that I hated about the Indigo League was Richie. Quite possibly the most cloying character in the history of the show

 

[Kamex]

Compared to the battles we got in the Johto and Hoenn leagues, the Indigo league was horrible battle wise. It was still great story wise, but it had THE worst battles.

Okay, okay. The battles weren't THAT great, but just like you said, the stories were great... and that's what the other leagues lacked. Who cares about great battles on their own? You need a good story to end the journies of a region.

And yeah, I was gonna mention how Richie was an Ash-clone and that sorta bored up the tournament a bit...

Every tournament so far has had some sort of rushing in it. The writers can't quite seem to extend the tournaments without making them boring, I suppose, so they rush parts.

One last thing. Meowth-in-Boots was an interesting character, but I wish they had done more with it besides a few battles and a quick flashback of its past. :/

 

[Kabuto]

There is a thread I made in anime polls like this. Anyway, Johto was best, then Indigo, then Hoenn. Hoenn was a huge disappointment and the only good match was Ash vs Katie. No character development, just a bunch of random trainers. The Grand Festival wasn't good but May's rivals spiced it up a bit. Ash needs the same for his league. Next league we need game characters like Brendan and FRLG girl, because these random nice guys don't cut it for me.

 

[HoennMaster]

Well in the Johto league he improved his rank at least. In the Hoenn league Ash handicapped himself by only using his Hoenn team, so he deserved the place he got.

Maybe once he uses ALL of his Pokemon and doesn't stick with the same ones, he'll get further. Ash is a much better trainer now, but he's not good enough.

I'll say. At the Inidgo League he came in the Top 16 while in Johto it went up to Top 8

 

[-=Darkness of Umbreon=-]

That shows that the Indigo was the better league. It was the hardest. Ash got lucky in the Orange. Then again all he does is get lucky with those unevolved pokemon. He should have lost in the round before he fought his friend. He just should have been trained better.

 

[CyberCubed]

That shows that the Indigo was the better league. It was the hardest.

Indigo wasn't hard opponents wise. Ash had a tough time because he was a newbie, it was his very first league and he made alot of mistakes.

The only trainer who gave him trouble was Janette, and that was it. He blazed through Mandy, the other two trainers, and he only lost to Richie because Charizard didn't obey him. How in the world is that a hard league?

The Johto and Hoenn league had *real* tough opponents, the Indigo league was nothing. I love how people continually look through the past with rose-colored glasses.

 

[Shadowcat]

Johto for the win.

Indigo only had Janette, who was great. Loved her. She should return one day, that is, if the writers are going to put her in.

Johto was good. Seeing Harrison and Ash head to head and finally having Charizard down was excellent. Both Pokemon suffered major injuries, which I like. Original. Gary's battle was good too.

Hoenn was okay, from what I heard. Haven't watched it yet because Singapore hasn't aired those episodes yet. We're still at the Lilycove Episodes...

 

[Gravy]

Okay, okay. The battles weren't THAT great, but just like you said, the stories were great... and that's what the other leagues lacked. Who cares about great battles on their own? You need a good story to end the journies of a region.

Gwah? What stories? All we got were friendship scenes with Richie and a pointless sub-plot involving Team Rocket and some pokémon center stuff. We didn't get any sort of backstory to the characters or anything, so in actuallity it was all pretty mediocre stuff.
Johto had the resolution to Gary and Ash's rivalry, a love interest, scorn between two opposing pokémon and Team Rocket actually doing something constructive with their screentime. Hell, even the flame of Ho-oh was elaborated on. Granted, the last stretch was rather slap-dash, but I fail to see how Indigo was better than that.

 

[CyberCubed]

Gwah? What stories? All we got were friendship scenes with Richie and a pointless sub-plot involving Team Rocket and some pokémon center stuff. We didn't get any sort of backstory to the characters or anything, so in actuallity it was all pretty mediocre stuff.
Johto had the resolution to Gary and Ash's rivalry, a love interest, scorn between two opposing pokémon and Team Rocket actually doing something constructive with their screentime. Hell, even the flame of Ho-oh was elaborated on. Granted, the last stretch was rather slap-dash, but I fail to see how Indigo was better than that.

I believe he's talking about the coming of age of Ash's character. Seeing Gary lose the league before him, and Charizard not obeying him during a league match was definitely a huge hit in the stomach. That was such a frustrating way to lose, that you can't help feel sorry for Ash.

Also, Ash crying after he lost to Richie, as well as being a sore loser the next day says something. Ash, being the immature little brat he was back then, was willing to head back to Pallet and give up training.

It was pretty neat to see Ash go through some development in his very first league, at least. The story of the Indigo league was much better than the battles.