The already mentioned and continued refusal to give Ash a Lucario, if there was ever a good opportunity to give Ash one ever since the 2 Riley episodes, this is it. With all the talk of Mega Evolutions and Lucario being important to Mega Evolution Lore AND being the first pokemon you see Mega Evolve in the games. There's no excuse. Except the people running the anime are probably gonna pass over this chance again anyway because "**** what everyone else wants."
Team Rocket not being given back any of their old Pokemon besides Wobbuffet, and I'm sure they only brought him back because he's nothing more than a running gag character in the show. Seeing Team Rocket rely strictly on one Pokemon each to get the job done against a group of trainers with up to 6+ Pokemon the whole time is frustrating. Not to mention being someone who's watched the show since my childhood, seeing Jessie not have a snake as her primary Pokemon still feels wrong to me, especially now that the 'It would make you stand out' excuse they used in Unova is no longer valid. Their attempts at stealing peoples Pokemon has also gotten tired as well with little to no variety in their methods of capturing their targets, it's just the same tack of 'trapping their target in a cage and hoping they don't break out later' or 'taking Ash and his friends head on despite their strength in numbers and power/skill.' Really though, having seen Team Rocket since day 1 I have to say that seeing them still trying to capture Pikachu after so long and after so many failed attempts, they're just not funny anymore, they're just pathetic.
Clemont and Bonnie don't really bother me all that much. Clemont's whole science and technology stuff reminds me of Dexter's Lab, which was one of my favorite shows as a kid, so he get's points for making me feel nostalgic for that show. Bonnie on the other hand, while I don't hate her, I don't really see much point in her, when I see her ask every random girl she meets to marry Clemont, I think they were trying to bring back the old running gag of when Brock fell in love with every girl he met without actually bringing Brock back, and that's the problem. When Brock did the whole girl thing it was funny, especially when he got thwarted each time by Misty, Max, and finally Croagunk. When Bonnie does it....Just the thought of a little girl randomly coming up to you and asking you to marry her brother just comes off as awkward, very much so.
What frustrates me the most is Serena. With their being no contests in X and Y, Serena herself has little to no goal to keep herself interesting. In fact, her goal has already been met, to travel with Ash. So she really has no incentive or motive to grow stronger or develop as a character. She just feels like a fan girl cheerleader for Ash and it feels like that's all she is and ever will be.
After the Korrina arc I realized how much better off the show would've been if they had made her the female lead of the series instead of Serena. She actually battles, she has her own goals and motives to become stronger, and could've had her own reasons to travel with Ash: To battle other Mega Evolution trainers and develop her own skills as one herself. Not to mention with the possibility that Ash himself won't be getting a Mega Evolution they could've given the Mega Evolution stuff to someone else on the team, and Korrina would've been perfect for that, as she already has a Mega Evolving Pokemon and a very popular one at that. And before you go around saying the Korrina Arc was just them shoving Lucario down our throats, ask yourself this: Who would you rather have on the team? A one-dimensional girl that's just there to be a cheerleading Ash fangirl that's only following him around for the sake of following him around? Or a Mega Evolution Trainer that actually battles and could've had her own reasons for traveling the Kalos region?
And I think we can all agree on one thing: Ash, Pikachu, Team Rocket. All elements to the show that have been around since Gen 1 that haven't been relevant since Gen 2, and were only made relevant after that by the remakes, and even in the remakes Ash wasn't relevant because Red's design is completely different from his now. The point of the anime is marketing, the product they are marketing out right now is Gen 6 and it's games. Where's Ash in X and Y? Where are Team Rocket in X and Y? The big problem I see with the anime as an older fan of the series is that they are trying to market a current product while clinging to elements that aren't relevant to the Generation they're trying to market out. The only thing from those days that has any reason to be around is Pikachu, and even Pikachu I feel is riding exclusively on mascot status these days and nothing else. The simple fact remains, Ash, Pikachu and Team Rocket need to go, it's time to focus on elements that are actually relevant to the current Gen.
