Being completely honest it was pretty meh. A 5/10 on a rating scale. It’s no doubt the weakest out of all the three island arcs but that’s not to say it wasn’t completely bad.
To start things off, the introduction episode was pretty boring. Really, all that happened was the kids setting camp and meeting Hapu. There was that split blink and you miss it Team Skull foreshadowing which went no where during the entire Poni arc which means its something the writers are keeping for later. I didn’t really like Hapu’s characterization as opposed to the games where she’s my favorite Kahuna. Here she’s overly strict, a loner, and callous. Her drive to become a Kahuna is also completely different from the games, and they even took out her crush/friendship with Lillie. What a letdown.
Then there’s the Ash VS Gladion episode which was also pretty boring. You could really tell it was Gladion’s story because Lillie felt more like a side note throughout this entire arc. She didn’t really do anything and even after hearing about Fini’s Powers she kind of just brushed it off. The battle was also very mediocre and I don’t like at all how weak all the moves looked, especially the Z-Moves.
The evolution episode was bad. There wasn’t a balance between screen time and the evolutions really just happened. I wish they would’ve used Sophocles’ motivation to evolve Charjabug as development for his goal, whatever it is, instead of just doing it because. Lana’s training was off screen so we are left to assume Popplio spending the night making bubbles allowed it to evolve for some reason.
Kiawe’s Trial episode was weird. On one hand, it definitely should’ve been Ash doing the trial, but it was cool Kiawe finally got some action after a long time. What was strange was how they made it a big deal of him remembering Charizard knew Aerial Ace, instead of you know, just having it learn it. Then he gets the Flying Z-Crystal when Kahili literally appears two episodes later. It wasn’t a bad episode but it wasn’t really good either.
Mallow’s definitely takes the cake, though. Even though it felt completely random and kind of forced, best girl gets one of the best episodes of SM. And a Shaymin to hang with for a little while. Neat.
Grand Trial was the worst episode of the whole arc. Already ranted about it in the episode thread.
Overall, meh. Everyone had their moments, some better than others. The battles are still bad, the animation quality is still inconsistent, Lillie is still standing around enjoying the ride, same ole SM.