Times you've preferred matches that aren't the final one in a battle

[mehmeh1]

Has there been any time where the climax of a battle wasn't your favorite part of it? For me a recent example would be during Ash vs Gladion, where my favorite part was Pikachu vs Zoroark (Melmetal and Lycanroc's fights were too spammy, and Pikachu vs Silvally, even if it had a clever end, still felt a bit underwhelming), it had some good choreography, a (IDK if intentional) nod to Pikachu vs Latios, great animation, and I really liked the scene where Zoroark was revealed, I've been waiting for years for Illusion to be used in battle, and it did not disappoint.

 

[Leonhart]

I can't think of that many instances, although I did prefer Darkrai versus Jukain over Pikachu versus Latios at the Shinou League, because I thought that Jukain coming through and snapping out of his sleep state was more interesting than Pikachu tying with Latios.

 

[Ubermuk]

Pikachu vs Kecleon when Ash fought Harrison was better than Charizard vs Blaziken... to me anyway. Also I always thought Infernape vs Electivire was overrated as hell and I liked Gliscor vs Drapion more.

 

[RafaSceptile]

Ash's Pikachu vs Alain's Charizard instead of Ash's Greninja vs Alain's Charizard

 

[blizzardblaze]

Pikachu VS Samurott instead of Pikachu vs Lucario
Because the evolution deus ex machina came back to rob Ash of a match he could have won if he was more uh..well rounded? And didn't choose Boldore to go up against a Pokemon like Hydreigon(no offense, Boldore.) And the 6 v 5 thing too.

 

[Locormus]

Pikachu VS Samurott instead of Pikachu vs Lucario
Because the evolution deus ex machina came back to rob Ash of a match he could have won if he was more uh..well rounded? And didn't choose Boldore to go up against a Pokemon like Hydreigon(no offense, Boldore.) And the 6 v 5 thing too.

What's wrong with choosing Boldore vs. Hydreigon? It at least had Rock Smash which was super effective and Sandstorm could've provided it with a good tactic against Hydreigon. And Flash cannon and Rock SPAM were pretty decent moves in its arsenal. You're better off complaining about why Ash threw Oshawott into that match-up... whose only unresisted move was Tackle and didn't pull through. And then you could wonder why Ash insisted on Pignite fighting Samurott after having dealt with Hydreigon and Ferrothorn despite the obvious disadvantage - while he switched out Pikachu once Riolu came out in favor of Unfezant (which to be fair was a good call).

That match should've gone:
- Boldore vs. Hydreigon: Hydreigon
- Pignite vs. Hydreigon: Pignite
- Pignite vs. Swanna: Switch
- Pikachu vs. Swanna: Pikachu
- Pikachu vs. Ferrothorn: Switch
- Pignite vs. Ferrothorn: Pignite
- Pignite vs. Samurott: Samurott
- Oshawott vs. Samurott: Switch out.
- Snivy vs. Samurott: Snivy
- Snivy vs. Riolu: Riolu
- Oshawott vs. Riolu: Riolu evolves and wins.
- Unfezant vs. Lucario: Lucario
- Pikachu vs. Lucario: Lucario

But yeah, that didn't happen.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Ash's Pikachu vs Alain's Charizard instead of Ash's Greninja vs Alain's Charizard

Somehow the mini fight between them was honsestly (imo) better than the ninja frog.

 

[Shuriken Throw]

Ash’s Pikachu vs Alan’s Charizard in the Kalos League.

 

[Luthor]

Ash vs Stephan. My favourite bit of this battle is Leavanny vs Sawk

 

[SerenaRulez]

I liked Charizard vs Dragonite in the Pummelo stadium battle more than Pikachu vs Dragonite if that counts.

 

[Lord Starfish]

Already mentioned in the opening post but I too must give props to Pikachu VS Zoroark in the Alola League finals. While the final Lugarugan showdown was okay, it does not hold even half a candle to the Zoroark fight with its stellar choreography and excellent animation courtesy of mah man Takeshi Maenami. And the less said about Melmetal's battling debut, the better... (At least he got a better showing in the battle with Kukui.)

 

[Leonhart]

I liked Charizard vs Dragonite in the Pummelo stadium battle more than Pikachu vs Dragonite if that counts.

I liked how Yuuji's Kairyu managed to escape from Lizardon's Seismic Toss. I always thought that Satoshi's decision to use that move was silly since Kairyu is an aerial Pokemon, so it was expected that he'd somehow be able to shrug that off.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

Ash's Pikachu vs Alain's Charizard instead of Ash's Greninja vs Alain's Charizard

The best part about that was Alain bringing out Charizard specifically to deal with Pikachu despite Pikachu being severely fatigued by the Metagross battle.

 

[mehmeh1]

The best part about that was Alain bringing out Charizard specifically to deal with Pikachu despite Pikachu being severely fatigued by the Metagross battle.

He probably thought something like "oh crap that was not just a yellow thing on shoulder I better get rid of him before it's too late"

Already mentioned in the opening post but I too must give props to Pikachu VS Zoroark in the Alola League finals. While the final Lugarugan showdown was okay, it does not hold even half a candle to the Zoroark fight with its stellar choreography and excellent animation courtesy of mah man Takeshi Maenami. And the less said about Melmetal's battling debut, the better... (At least he got a better showing in the battle with Kukui.)

I'm really glad Maenami is working on the pokemon anime now, I love his scenes. I actually wasn't too bothered by Melmetal vs Silvally, sure, there was a lot of repeated animation, but I loved how much sheer impact all of Melmetal's moves had

 

[Luthor]

Ash vs Candice. My favourite part of this battle was Ash's Grotle vs Candice's Sneasel.
For a few reasons
1. Grotle actually got a victory.
2. It used it's defensive fighting style effectively.
3. When it used rock climb it just used it to make it run fast on the terrain (instead of making the ground raise up) which I prefer the simpler use of Rock Climb

The rest of the battle was still good but that was a standout battle for me.

 

[DatsRight]

I'm really glad Maenami is working on the pokemon anime now, I love his scenes. I actually wasn't too bothered by Melmetal vs Silvally, sure, there was a lot of repeated animation, but I loved how much sheer impact all of Melmetal's moves had

Same really. Melmetal vs Silvally felt more about raw power since it was the first proper 'Olympus Mons' trainer battle. Plus I felt like they wanted to sell this was new ground. Ash hadn't really been given this level of prestige before and Melmetal itself wasn't that experienced despite being powerful. It would make sense it wasn't the big event of the match, especially since they'd gotten really clever with Pikachu matches by this point.

 

[Leonhart]

Ash vs Candice. My favourite part of this battle was Ash's Grotle vs Candice's Sneasel.
For a few reasons
1. Grotle actually got a victory.
2. It used it's defensive fighting style effectively.
3. When it used rock climb it just used it to make it run fast on the terrain (instead of making the ground raise up) which I prefer the simpler use of Rock Climb

The rest of the battle was still good but that was a standout battle for me.

I admit that I never liked Rock Climb's dramatic animation and how it would usually form a mound of earth, so at least I appreciated that the animators used the move a bit differently in that battle to allow smoother movement. I simply disliked the animation when Suzuna's Nyula was skating on the ice.

 

[Applecorp]

I liked how Yuuji's Kairyu managed to escape from Lizardon's Seismic Toss. I always thought that Satoshi's decision to use that move was silly since Kairyu is an aerial Pokemon, so it was expected that he'd somehow be able to shrug that off.

I chalk that up to Original Series madness because back then the writing wasn't as good as it is now so I bet the writer of that episode didn't put much thought into how dumb Seismic Toss would be against a Flying mon like Dragonite.

 

[NeganTheSavior]

Ash's Bayleef vs Harrison's Houndoom was good since Bayleef pretty much got knocked out in one hit by Gary's Blastoise. Good redemption for Bayleef.

 

[Ignition]

Heracross vs Magmar
Pikachu vs Metagross (Hoenn League)
Pikachu vs Zoroark
Turtonator vs Lycanroc
Torracat vs Incineroar