LilligantLewis
Bonnie stan
@GarchompChain's post stating that the Kalos League was a Unova-level League caught my attention in @Power Up's Kalos League Final thread, and rather than expanding on it there and going off topic, it gave me the idea to just make a straight up rank the leagues thread. You can include Orange if you want, but you don't have to, and people who only started watching the anime at some point in the middle and haven't seen all the leagues yet, you can just include the ones you've seen. The criteria are purely up to you. I expect a lot of vastly different rankings lol.
For me:
7. Unova League
This league barely felt like a league to me. It felt like a glorified Don Battle/WTJC. Something BW gets praised for a lot is all the tournament arcs, and I liked them too, but it feels like with how they got used to writing those with all 1on1 battles, they couldn't step it up for the league. How much of a joke is it that Ash faces his main rival in their final battle in just a 1v1? Don't even get me started on the Axew filler. And this is the only league besides Indigo to feature NO actual 6on6 battles. (Although I'm starting to wonder whether Alola will join it) (Cameron was 6on5). Furthermore, letting Ash lose to a buffoon who only brings 5, gets a DEM evolution, that too to a LUCARIO, just absolutely horrible writing
6. Indigo League
I want to say up front that despite this being #6 and Unova being #7, they are miles and miles apart for me. The Indigo League is closer to my #1 (Hoenn) than it is to my #7 (Unova) despite being #6. That's how much I hated the Unova League. lol.
I liked that the first four prelim rounds introduced the concept of the different types of battlefields, something that's remained in leagues since, I liked Mandi and Jeanette Fisher, I liked that a Pokémon that many kids would perceive to be weak, Bellsprout, was portrayed as strong, I liked the Krabby call-up and the Kingler evolution, which started the great tradition (sadly less frequent recently) of Ash calling up reserves for the league. I liked the plot twist of Ash and Gary not meeting each other, so I really liked a lot of things about this league, but absolutely hated the Ritchie battle, forcing this league to the low end of the totem pole for me.
5. Orange League
Obviously this is only one battle, which is why it's overall low on my ranking, 5 out of 7, but still above the Indigo League mainly because it has a better ending, not only because Ash won, but also just because I disliked the Ritchie ending as I said above.
I will talk about things I liked though: I liked the fact that it was the first 6on6 battle in the history of the show, I liked that Ash used a unique 6-team combo that included some Pokémon who otherwise didn't get much battles in the show, either before or after this league, such as Tauros and Lapras. I liked that Drake used Ditto, one of the rare times I can remember it being used competitively, outside of as a gimmick in a filler, in this show. I loved that Drake's Dragonite had ten moves and Ash still took it down, and I believe it's still the most moves any Pokémon in the anime has ever used in one battle. I also liked the unique gyms in the Orange Islands, even though that's not part of the league itself, and as a side note I sometimes wonder whether GameFreak got the idea of Alolan trials from the Orange gyms since there are 4 islands and the trials are unique tasks not always battling, just like the Orange gyms.
4. Johto League
I can't find too much to complain about about this league, so the only reason it's below 3 other ones is because I liked those 3 even better, I guess!!
Once again just like Indigo I liked that they showed the prelims, and I liked the unique format with the groups of 3, the points system, and the tie! And btw speaking of showing the prelims, I hate that starting with Sinnoh they stopped showing prelims, which is one of the reasons Sinnoh and Kalos both finish below Hoenn for me, but I'll get to that later.
Obviously the Ash vs. Gary 6on6 is epic, I just wish the flashback with the split Poké Ball was something that had been shown before, because it kinda came out of nowhere. The BLAZIKEN reveal was unreal.
3. Kalos League
The reason this finishes below Sinnoh and Hoenn for me is that full battles only start at the semifinals, which is a joke, and Hawlucha beating a Mega is suddenly treated like no big deal and not even properly shown, despite Megas being a big deal for 125 episodes before this. Furthermore, Ash vs. Astrid is not fully shown, and this is a separate point from the Mega Absol point (despite being the same battle) because for me here the bigger issue is that since Katie at the Hoenn League (another reason Hoenn is #1 for me), they haven't shown Ash battling a girl at a league. Even when he actually had a female rival (Bianca) in Unova, they made her Cameron-fodder to hype up the worst league rival in franchise history.
Obviously the Ash vs. Sawyer and Ash vs. Alain battles were great which is why this finishes really high at #3, but the paragraph above is why it finishes below the other 2
2. Sinnoh League
Overall a great league, the fact that four recurring characters all show up at the league, Conway, Nando, Barry, and Paul, instead of having a bunch of random characters like a lot of leagues do, is great as well. And I even liked the Tobias battle and that Ash took down a Darkrai and Latios. Absolutely incredible. The main thing I dislike about this league is that prelims weren't shown. At the time, I also remember being frustrated that full battles only started at the quarterfinals, after Hoenn had been incredible with starting them at the Top 32. I felt cheated out of seeing longer full battles in Ash vs. Conway and Paul vs. Barry. Looking back now, I feel thankful they even started at the quarterfinals considering that Kalos didn't even start full battles until the semifinals. I'm guessing we'll never again even come close to approaching Hoenn's amazingness of starting full battles at Top 32.
1. Hoenn League
Prelims are shown, prelims are double battles, it's the only league to feature any kind of battling besides single battles. Full battles start at Top 32, the earliest of any league, and Ash has 3 full battles, the most of any league, and Ash has a full battle against a girl, the only time in franchise history.
For me:
7. Unova League
This league barely felt like a league to me. It felt like a glorified Don Battle/WTJC. Something BW gets praised for a lot is all the tournament arcs, and I liked them too, but it feels like with how they got used to writing those with all 1on1 battles, they couldn't step it up for the league. How much of a joke is it that Ash faces his main rival in their final battle in just a 1v1? Don't even get me started on the Axew filler. And this is the only league besides Indigo to feature NO actual 6on6 battles. (Although I'm starting to wonder whether Alola will join it) (Cameron was 6on5). Furthermore, letting Ash lose to a buffoon who only brings 5, gets a DEM evolution, that too to a LUCARIO, just absolutely horrible writing
6. Indigo League
I want to say up front that despite this being #6 and Unova being #7, they are miles and miles apart for me. The Indigo League is closer to my #1 (Hoenn) than it is to my #7 (Unova) despite being #6. That's how much I hated the Unova League. lol.
I liked that the first four prelim rounds introduced the concept of the different types of battlefields, something that's remained in leagues since, I liked Mandi and Jeanette Fisher, I liked that a Pokémon that many kids would perceive to be weak, Bellsprout, was portrayed as strong, I liked the Krabby call-up and the Kingler evolution, which started the great tradition (sadly less frequent recently) of Ash calling up reserves for the league. I liked the plot twist of Ash and Gary not meeting each other, so I really liked a lot of things about this league, but absolutely hated the Ritchie battle, forcing this league to the low end of the totem pole for me.
5. Orange League
Obviously this is only one battle, which is why it's overall low on my ranking, 5 out of 7, but still above the Indigo League mainly because it has a better ending, not only because Ash won, but also just because I disliked the Ritchie ending as I said above.
I will talk about things I liked though: I liked the fact that it was the first 6on6 battle in the history of the show, I liked that Ash used a unique 6-team combo that included some Pokémon who otherwise didn't get much battles in the show, either before or after this league, such as Tauros and Lapras. I liked that Drake used Ditto, one of the rare times I can remember it being used competitively, outside of as a gimmick in a filler, in this show. I loved that Drake's Dragonite had ten moves and Ash still took it down, and I believe it's still the most moves any Pokémon in the anime has ever used in one battle. I also liked the unique gyms in the Orange Islands, even though that's not part of the league itself, and as a side note I sometimes wonder whether GameFreak got the idea of Alolan trials from the Orange gyms since there are 4 islands and the trials are unique tasks not always battling, just like the Orange gyms.
4. Johto League
I can't find too much to complain about about this league, so the only reason it's below 3 other ones is because I liked those 3 even better, I guess!!
Once again just like Indigo I liked that they showed the prelims, and I liked the unique format with the groups of 3, the points system, and the tie! And btw speaking of showing the prelims, I hate that starting with Sinnoh they stopped showing prelims, which is one of the reasons Sinnoh and Kalos both finish below Hoenn for me, but I'll get to that later.
Obviously the Ash vs. Gary 6on6 is epic, I just wish the flashback with the split Poké Ball was something that had been shown before, because it kinda came out of nowhere. The BLAZIKEN reveal was unreal.
3. Kalos League
The reason this finishes below Sinnoh and Hoenn for me is that full battles only start at the semifinals, which is a joke, and Hawlucha beating a Mega is suddenly treated like no big deal and not even properly shown, despite Megas being a big deal for 125 episodes before this. Furthermore, Ash vs. Astrid is not fully shown, and this is a separate point from the Mega Absol point (despite being the same battle) because for me here the bigger issue is that since Katie at the Hoenn League (another reason Hoenn is #1 for me), they haven't shown Ash battling a girl at a league. Even when he actually had a female rival (Bianca) in Unova, they made her Cameron-fodder to hype up the worst league rival in franchise history.
Obviously the Ash vs. Sawyer and Ash vs. Alain battles were great which is why this finishes really high at #3, but the paragraph above is why it finishes below the other 2
2. Sinnoh League
Overall a great league, the fact that four recurring characters all show up at the league, Conway, Nando, Barry, and Paul, instead of having a bunch of random characters like a lot of leagues do, is great as well. And I even liked the Tobias battle and that Ash took down a Darkrai and Latios. Absolutely incredible. The main thing I dislike about this league is that prelims weren't shown. At the time, I also remember being frustrated that full battles only started at the quarterfinals, after Hoenn had been incredible with starting them at the Top 32. I felt cheated out of seeing longer full battles in Ash vs. Conway and Paul vs. Barry. Looking back now, I feel thankful they even started at the quarterfinals considering that Kalos didn't even start full battles until the semifinals. I'm guessing we'll never again even come close to approaching Hoenn's amazingness of starting full battles at Top 32.
1. Hoenn League
Prelims are shown, prelims are double battles, it's the only league to feature any kind of battling besides single battles. Full battles start at Top 32, the earliest of any league, and Ash has 3 full battles, the most of any league, and Ash has a full battle against a girl, the only time in franchise history.