Why is DP generally considered to be the best series?

[KungFuMaster]

I remember in my Pearl game (actually my first Pokemon game) I choose Piplup. After I started watching the anime, I loved this thing to death. What was coincidental... even before I started watching the anime, I named my Piplup Kenny (I'm not joking). After that, it became my favorite starter until I saw Sceptile. But I do have to say, the anime helped secure Piplup as my second favorite starter.

Lol I have also chosen Piplup because I was into Penguins (lol don't ask me why) but that was the first time I saw a Penguin Pokémon so I was in love with it. It was really cute too and I had no regrets after choosing him. I remembered how everybody was picking Chimchar but I realized I counter it so i was beating all of my friends xD. (Untill Close Combat one shots me) and not to mention how Turtwig was left behind. Poor Turtwig. But also I didn't even pick Piplup because of the Animé but looks like a lot of people were just in the same boat as me.

Result today: Piplup is still on the top 50 most popular Pokémon of all time (I thought something like 41?) + lot of DP Pokémons like Arceus are still in the top 10(0)

 

[DatsRight]

DP was alright to me. I think where some of the popularity lies is the fact that it was the anime which spawned in the 10th anniversary, which like SM is enticing fans in because it's a timing milestone.

I actually heard DP dwindled a little in popularity at the time it aired due to the older fans having grown up and Pokemon as a whole having lost most of it's original hype by then. Not to mention DP was the last to follow the 'classic' style and formula completely, which naturally some were thinking had been done to death. I think it got vindicated after fans had their breather and started tuning back in to Pokemon and the anime and liked what they saw, especially after BW and to a lesser extent XY, that drifted from the original formula (sometimes not for the better) leading the classic style to be now appreciated more.

Some things about it do still seem a bit driven into the ground. In some aspects it was just a smoothed out rinse and repeat of AG, the girl character even having a contest arc. Not to mention some of the original stuff being flanderized to the point the anime sometimes felt like a parody of it's former self (the dub only worsened this). The biggest saving grace with this was that even the writers seemed a bit sick of the repetition, and went far enough they actually started deconstructing it sometimes (eg. TR were so pitiful by this point that the only way to go was up, leading them to gain niches that stuck with their characters, and actually accomplish things sometimes, it was more dynamic and suspenseful knowing they could actually beat the twerps in events odd times now). It was also the last series to last longer than three seasons, leading to a bit of fatigue like the previous two, especially since unlike even them, it all stayed in one region.

It's villains and rivals are praised for being more effective and spotlighted than the previous two series however and while a lot of episodes have a 'samey' feel, they are some of the most entertaining, not to mention being the last series to really flourish in continuity instead of being mostly disconnected with the odd nod to previous series.

 

[Platinum fan.]

I pretty much agree with this more or less. Paul and the Ash-Paul rivalry and Infernapes development is the best thing of DP imo.

Whoa! I thought you would say Dawn was the best thing about DP. You've shocked me Pokegirl Fan.

Anyway while I do think DP has become a tad overrate in the past few years, I still enjoy it for all the new characters it gave me. It's still holds up as one of the best in Pokemon. Arguably where the series peaked. Paul, Dawn, Barry, Lyra, Conway, Ursula, and even Zoey are characters I always think of when a new season of Pokemon starts because Diamond and Pearl was the series that made me realize how much I love new characters and how much I want a reboot. DP is the closet thing in Pokemon you will ever get to a new main character in Pokemon, because Dawn owned half of DP for herself. Looking back on it now it's impressive because today you'd never see anything like it. Then there's Paul. We never had a trainer like him in the anime. He's one of my favorite if not my favorite characters in all of Pokemon. DP just had some really entertaining characters and I already listed them and I've already done hundreds of DP mini reviews on why I love these characters. So yeah.

 

[Xenon Blue]

What I liked about DP was how much the writers took good care of the core. Yes there are some random flaws lurking around (Brock possibly being unnecessary and fillers being uninteresting for the most part), but the core of the plot was really well done. The Ash-Paul rivalry was something special, and probably cannot be replicated to the same level ever again. It worked off a tide and true formula, yet it wasn't cliche. Dawn never felt inferior to Ash in terms of spotlight, and at times it even seemed like she was pushing Ash off the main stage. She had her own separate story, and although it became really bumpy near the end, it was still executed very well. The evil team arc was well done, and the league was top-notch despite it being "rushed". That is because the writers really focused on getting what matters right and made the other events passable, which is the theme of DP. Prepare the main course with all you got, and if this means you can't get the desserts ready, then so be it.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Whoa! I thought you would say Dawn was the best thing about DP. You've shocked me Pokegirl Fan.

Anyway while I do think DP has become a tad overrate in the past few years, I still enjoy it for all the new characters it gave me. It's still holds up as one of the best in Pokemon. Arguably where the series peaked. Paul, Dawn, Barry, Lyra, Conway, Ursula, and even Zoey are characters I always think of when a new season of Pokemon starts because Diamond and Pearl was the series that made me realize how much I love new characters and how much I want a reboot. DP is the closet thing in Pokemon you will ever get to a new main character in Pokemon, because Dawn owned half of DP for herself. Looking back on it now it's impressive because today you'd never see anything like it. Then there's Paul. We never had a trainer like him in the anime. He's one of my favorite if not my favorite characters in all of Pokemon. DP just had some really entertaining characters and I already listed them and I've already done hundreds of DP mini reviews on why I love these characters. So yeah.

The one time I don't say that it gets pointed out lol.
Dawn was indeed a nice character as well.

 

[DankOverlord]

I liekd it the best because it felt liek the one season that was almost perfect.
We had the best rival Ash ever had, Paul who nto only was introduced fo the beginnign and resembled Silver/Blue but also helped out fleshing Ash's character by bringign out both the worst and best in the latter.
Infernape had the ebst arc of any of Ash's Pokemon.
The E4s and Champion all got time to shine, we even got small moments of awesome from the FB.
Dawn was the ebst Pokegirl IMO and her rivals were threatening and hard to overcome.
Piplup was meh but I could stand it.
The villains arc were great.
In resume, DP despite all the fillers and forced League Loss had the best development of its run at least from my point of view

 

[PArnott]

nostalgia of people who grew up with it

 

[ChaosMage]

Well, first off you've got Paul, who was a legitimately skilled trainer who the viewer could take seriously, and the introduction of Reggie and their dynamic complimented it all well. And then there's the development of Infernape, who was one of Ash's most compelling Pokemon. The only way Paul could be improved in my opinion is if he'd been involved in the Team Galactic storyline; it would have been interesting to see Ash and Paul fight a common enemy. Also, they wasted a valuable opportunity having Gary and Paul in the same region and never having them cross paths.

Dawn was an engaging character herself- her contest storyline contrasted May's in many ways; she had always wanted to be a coordinator and her mother was an expert, so the pressure was greater, and they even had her lose a fair number of times. They even made it so that the appeal rounds mattered by showing her lose in the appeals, which May never once did. They built her losing streak up to eventually be broken in the Wallace Cup, where we met Wallace at last and saw Dawn beat May. It was excellently done. Her arc with Mamoswine was also a nice change from what we've seen before in contest Pokemon. Kenny and Zoey took a lot of flack at the time for being boring, but in retrospect it was nice to have less gimmicky and more grounded rivals for Dawn, and she got the quirkier rivals eventually for balance.

Then there's all the characters from the games- every gym leader had multiple episodes, every Elite Four member appeared, Cynthia was the first omnipresent Champion, we got all five of the "stat trainers" and we eventually got Barry as well. All were true to their game personalities. Compared to Hoenn where Steven had one forgettable appearance, Wallace and Wally never appeared and three of the Elite Four were left out, it was very satisfying.

Team Galactic had their moments too, especially when you factor in the anime-original Hunter J. My only complaints about Galactic is that they could have appeared more, and we didn't get to see Giratina and the Distortion World.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Well, first off you've got Paul, who was a legitimately skilled trainer who the viewer could take seriously, and the introduction of Reggie and their dynamic complimented it all well. And then there's the development of Infernape, who was one of Ash's most compelling Pokemon.The only way Paul could be improved in my opinion is if he'd been involved in the Team Galactic storyline; it would have been interesting to see Ash and Paul fight a common enemy. Also, they wasted a valuable opportunity having Gary and Paul in the same region and never having them cross paths.

------------^^This^^-------------

 

[MattySadler]

The Original Series is my personal favourite, largely because everything was so new and fresh at the time, plus the obvious nostalgia factor, but I think DP was still very good.

Personally, I put most of this down to Paul, the anti-Ash, who was a fantastically well done character, and his intense rivalry with Ash.

 

[Izanagi777]

Well, i thought D/P is overall the best is mainly because it's doing it's job perfectly at least compare to other generation in pokemon.. Gen I have a solid story and introduction but lack of rival (Gary back then is just a person who only talk without doing anything) and villain team (team rocket reduce into a joke characters).. Gen II is better than the first Generation, mainly because Gary become more relevant, but Team Rocket is still a joke and Ash team is one of his worst (incounting his Kanto team like Charizard).. Gen III was pretty nice, we have some Team Aqua and Team Magma sub-plot with the introduction of Pokemon Contest which is pretty unique on it's own.. But it's lack of rival which can make the league become more interesting.. 2 of Ash's rivals in Hoenn which are Morison and Tyson only introduced late in the game, which is just before the league started just for the sake having rivals.. Gen V is basically the lowest point of the show, the worst companion, worst pokemon team, one of the worst rival, and the worst league.. The only redeeming quality of Gen V is Episode N and everything that have things to do with Team Plasma which is pretty disappointing, given that Gen V is one of my all time favorite Pokemon Game..

Now if we look at Gen IV.. We have a great companion (Brock is a given, and Dawn is the best Poke-Girl for me), Ash's team while not overpowered it's competitive indeed, Paul is still the best rival in Pokemon to date, mainly because his ideal is the complete opposite of Ash's which make the rivalry become extremely tense (even higher than Gary IMO), Team Galactic while isn't as good as Team Plasma is still doing a good job in the anime (with the whole Dialga, Palkia, and the 3 Lake Guardian sub-plot), and last but not least they have the best league in the pokemon anime to date, which portray how Pokemon Battle should be done (at least compare to the other generation).. The only generation that even come close to D/P is the ones that just finished which is X/Y (which i thought is also a solid Generation in anime) since it's also pretty well balanced series.. So yeah, i guess that's the reasoning for why most people like D/P the most.. Well, Just my 2 cents

 

[Nevans]

Honestly I also hated the DP saga. The episodes felt stale because of all the running gags they gad to put into each episode. Also Team Rocket was just unbearable to watch, we want villains not the three stooges.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

Honestly I also hated the DP saga. The episodes felt stale because of all the running gags they gad to put into each episode. Also Team Rocket was just unbearable to watch, we want villains not the three stooges.

Agreed. I liked the DP series, but Team Rocket was just awful in it. They also seemed worse to me in the English dub than in the original for some reason.

 

[DatsRight]

Agreed. I liked the DP series, but Team Rocket was just awful in it. They also seemed worse to me in the English dub than in the original for some reason.

As obnoxiously pathetic as their villain role was in DP (especially in the dub which REALLY overdone the rhyming and hammy one liners), I liked DP gave them development in more incidental roles. AG had started on this, but they were still for the large part static losers. In DP, they actually started developing niches and putting them to use. Chekhovs skills became more apparent with them (Watch Noodles Roamin' Off and then Dressed For Jess Success for example). It was interesting to see Jessie actually start to win in contests and get her usually hopeless Pokemon pull off some great stunts. We also saw Cacnea and Carnivine actually learn new moves. There was something actually dynamic about them now, and abiding by XY this part of them stuck.

This was the series where TR started to become more divergent baddies, talented guys who merely picked the wrong profession rather than just all around failures.

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

DP would be the best for me if

• Ash won at the Sinnoh League
• Dawn had better contests and more likeable rivals
• Ash had the same personality from AG

But even then I'd probably still say that AG was the better series because it had a good blend of everything you could ask for in a series,had no problem with Ash not having a rival back in Hoenn because he didn't really need one at the time when Gary quit being a trainer,but I wouldn't mind Morrison and Katie being Ash's rivals from the start which would have made it even better.

 

[Jason3b93]

Two great reasons are Paul and Dawn

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Reasons for DP being considered the best series

• Paul
• Paul's Pokemon
• Ash's Progression
• Ash's Team
• Gym Battles
• Ash/Paul rival battles
• Sinnoh League
• Dawn
• Hunter J
• Team Galactic
• Elite Four
• Barry
• Ursula
• Reggie

 

[CMButch]

The best rival: Paul.
The most balanced team Ash had in screen-time and focus.
It was longest saga( not counting AG since, AG held place in Hoenn:around 120 episodes and around 60 episodes in Kanto: BF)
Team Galactic
The best league
Dawn was ,unlike other girls, actual co-star.
Ash and co caught decent number of Pokemon

 

[RedJirachi]

I assumed that the original series was considered the best, since it seems to be treated as a sacred cow

 

[PokemonBattleFanatic-]

I assumed that the original series was considered the best, since it seems to be treated as a sacred cow

Here in the United States a lot of people think the 1st season was the best.