I've probably seen the Orange Island episodes more times than any other season of Pokemon, chiefly because they were the ones which happened to be airing during the peak of my Poke-fandom (which had gathered steam throughout Kanto and then started to wane around midway through Johto).
Orange League had its plus points, but on the whole I have to say that I prefer its predecessor. With apologies to his fanbase, I was never really able to warm to Tracey. The first time it aired, I'd actually missed the three or four episodes which encompassed the connective arc between Kanto and Orange, including Brock's departure, so when I was finally able to tune in again, I must admit that I was mildly shocked to see Brock (probably my favourite of Ash's team) gone and what had struck me as a rather arbitrary character in his place. Tracey wasn't exactly overtly unlikeable as a character, but I always found him to a bit bland and uninteresting - whereas Brock had carved out a nice little niche for himself as an older brother figure to Ash, Tracey felt more like this random guy who'd tagged along primarily for the sake of it. Which is pretty much what he was, for the most part.
Early on in the series, I was slightly disappointed with how the Gym battles in the Orange Island functioned. I appreciate that it came in the interests of variation, but having the challenges revolve around sports games rather than actual battles did remove a fair bit of the appeal for me. I was relieved, in the latter half of the season, when the challenges made an effort to return to the franchise's basic roots of Pokemon battling, with an interesting twist in either case (matched-elements and double battles). The final battle against Drake was easily the most exciting and dramatic battle we'd had up to that point, so no complaints there.
It was a curiously short season all-round, with only half the number of Gyms of Kanto, and only one big final challenge. Perhaps because, as a whole, it was something of a filler Season, to give Ash something to do between Kanto, which had followed the basic narrative of the original games, and Johto, which would tie-in with the next generation of games and introduce us to the eagerly-awaited new batch of Pokemon. The abrupt, but fortunately only temporary loss of Brock left me somewhat cold, but there were some good and interesting adventures therein, and it took Ash and his friends to a variety of colourful new locations.
The Orange League!
