One week later and XYZ is down. Once again with XY I knew very little of XYZ going into it. To save time I wont focus on the aspects I mentioned in the first review, since everything from it is still present here positives and flaws, fillers are fun, team rocket shows up too much, battles are great, etc. I'll focus this review on what new story elements were added and the ones that finished.
I'll get Serena and the Tripokalon out of the way first as I don't have too much to say with her. As for the Tripokalon's the remaining I believe three? I honestly already forgot were fine, I've basically signed off on being invested in them. They don't really change much with each new one, and Serena's rivals all feel so bland.
Millefeui is at her best outside of Tripokalons but in them she, Shuana, and Nene all feel like a generic rival with no real story outside or much personality of "I want to win, and you're now my rival" I couldn't care much when they all lost during the master class due to how little their is too them. Maybe if they had more screentime and Tripokalons would hit a lot more for me, but as for now Jessie outclasses Serena's rivals in these contest.
Thankfully Serena isn't even at her best here, I feel a lot of the moments Serena has outside of the Tripokalons themselves are way better. Her small but impactful fight with Ash, her growth with Sylveon, the goodbye kiss, her declining Yashio to avoid becoming too reliant on her are all excellent scenes of how well Serena has grown into the fan favorite character she is today.
Despite her involvement with Tripokalons being very lackluster Serena still manages to stand on even footing with the other characters this season due to how well she was handled outside of them. Undoubtly one of Ash's best companions
For once, in a really long time I have quite a bit to say about Ash. This season reminded me Ash is at his best when he replaces Pikachu as his ace. I adored Infernape in the DPP anime because of it and its the same here honestly even better, Ash truly gets to shine when the anime allows for him to have a Pokémon like this. I say that but Ash doesn't really do anything that drastically different compared to other seasons, but what is different is the existence of Ash Greninja.
It feels a little weird to mention Ash Greninja as if its new in the year of 2024 where Greninja is now a top five favorite within the entire franchise, beloved by countless fans across the world. But this is the season that really propelled it to the height its at now, Ash Greninja took the Pokémon community by storm and for good reason.
I could be wrong but for the first time ever, Ash had a Pokémon with its own form which debuted in the anime first and wasn't obtainable in game at the time. I say own but it feels more accurate to say his own form as it was even named after him, sure it was later renamed to Battle Bond but many fans to this day still refer to it as Ash Greninja.
They wasted no time after Frogadier evolved, they added some lore as to how Battle Bond came to be, and started Ash's trial and error process of trying to master this new power. We got to see a ton of great match ups during this, Ash vs Alan, Diantha, and Sawyer who surprisingly became a damn good trainer in between seasons and is the reason for Ash's loss against Wulfric.
The moments that came after that were very engaging and I even noticed I was a little worried on how things would turn out which made me realize I had become invested in this without noticing it. Sure I knew it'd end up fine at the end of the day, it is Ash after all. But I still enjoyed his final step in mastering Battle Bond, and especially the rematch against Wulfric. And past that, Ash is complete character wise for this season.
Greninja was definitely the main focus here, but Ash Greninja wouldn't of hit as hard if it wasn't for Ash. The Pokémon anime outdid themselves, and its a shame we literally never get anything like this again, which I'll touch more on later. Outside of these two Ash is still kinda whatever, but whenever these two are on screen I know I'm in for something good.
And after Ash's win against Wulfric we waste little to no time in getting straight to the most controversial league of the entire franchise. The ending of this league was known to even those who didn't watch or play Pokémon, but lets dial back first. This league, is very short. Apparently due to production issues on OLM's end the league was shortened down to just the most important matches. It goes from the opening first round immediately into semi finals the very next episode.
And I truthfully don't mind this at all. Despite the issues, the struggled production didn't really come into effect throughout the league matches. There was no fight that stuck out as being unfinished, low quality, not even just bad. If a studio is struggling with production yet still manages to deliver the fights they did here, that is truly an testament to how skilled the staff are, I only wish they were treated and respected well during it.
Secondly due to them cutting the league down to the most important matches, we don't have to sit through majority of the tournament. Granted they definitely would've skipped some fights but it would've been a lot slower and longer to get to the matches I and other fans actually cared for. But to be completely fair, this take is most likely influenced by the fact I've known the results of this league since the final episode aired all those years ago.
Lastly I wanted to briefly mention Ash's rivals here, Alan and Sawyer. I love both of these characters but Alan does not feel like a rival at all. He has his own story, goals, etc for wanting to become stronger and none of them are because of Ash. So when the two are presented as rivals during the league I can't help but feel their rivalry is missing something that Sawyer has.
I'm not saying that Alan can't have a story outside of being Ash's rival if anything that's a good thing that Serena's rivals desperately needed. I just wish there was more of a focus on them being rivals as the two times they did battle, the first was so Alan could see for himself what Battle Bond was like.
And the second was to help Citron with his theory on how Battle Bond works. During those two times I never really got that rival feeling from the two whereas with Sawyer they were rivals right from the start. Despite my odd feelings of the two's rivalry I still absolutely loved their battle though I think Ash vs Sawyer beats it out personally. Alan's disconnected rivalry with Ash didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of this league, and now that I know what he went through during the Mega Specials I feel it makes a lot more sense as to why Ash lost. ~~Though he absolutely was robbed, don't get it twisted.~~
Which FINALLY brings us to the Team Flare Arc. 131 episodes later and Lysandre finally makes his move and ends what's probably the longest build up to an arc in a Pokémon anime. All of Team Flare's in game appearances being replaced with Team Rocket, the strange Malamer that just apparently weren't connected to them in the slightest for whatever reason, the Mega Specials, and the bits of them we got to see before the league were all building up to this one arc. My expectations were high after waiting this long.
And well unsurprisingly it paid off in spades, this arc was phenomenal. A friend of mine worded it very well in that this arc is one big pay off for going through all of XY and XYZ and I could not agree more. This arc immediately begins after Alan's victory and puts Lumiose city into complete chaos and disorder. It's quite literally an all out war on Lysandre and Zygarde and its such a thrilling ride to be on, each episode only ups the intensity more and more.
Everyone here has a role they play that was a crucial part of their victory over Team Flare. Bonnie waking up Zygarde from Team Flare's control, Citron's sacrificing Citroid in order to save the other Zygarde, Serena and Manon storming their base along with Steven who honestly is kinda just there for ORAS representation, and Ash and Alan being the main heavy hitters fighting back against Team Flare. ~~Despite their being two Champions in the same city.~~
Each characters role small or big all feel important and that makes this arc hit as much as it does. I love when a series uses all of its characters for one big story and this is that presented so well here. Citrons scream sacrificing Citroid gave me goosebumps, Alan facing the fact that he was the one who unknowingly assisted Lysandre with his real plan, the Gym Leaders showing up. There's too many scenes to go over that I loved, so lets immediately change that and talk about my problems with this arc.
I don't have much and they're not really that big, but I gotta be fair of course. Everyone besides Lysandre and a little bit of Xerosic feel very one note and non existent, even the other "admins" who are always at each others throats and trying to one up each other don't have much to them outside of that. But that's more of a complaint towards the games for making them literally non existent, just thought it'd be wrong not to bring it up here.
Now for my real issue, Lysandre's very undercooked past. I'm glad they actually gave him a backstory because the games sure as hell didn't, but what we got here is just one very small puzzle piece as to why he became the villain he is now. Lysandre's back story to summarize goes as; He was a working or was the leader of a community service group that gave help to those struggling in need.
Those said people were happy at first but as time went on started to demand more and more from his group to which Lysandre then decides he should just kill everyone because this one group in this one town were just a little too greedy for his liking despite them clearly struggling to survive. You see what I mean with this? It's missing a lot of points that lead him to want to commit literal genocide on the world which is a drastic jump from one town.
Now to address the very obvious Copperajah in the room, yes there's is no way Pokémon would want to delve deeper into a story like that as it'd definitely be way too dark even for Pokémon. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if OLM struggled to even be able to get a backstory going for Lysandre, but even then I can't help but think this is just the one real blunder this arc has. But again, this didn't ruin any of my enjoyment of the arc, it just makes Lysandre feel incomplete as a character. Thankfully there is one character who I glossed over earlier who finally gets their chance to shine this arc and really the whole series.
I've never felt so happy to be a fan of the underdog in the Pokémon anime before because Bonnie got treated so damn well here, I'd go as far as to say even better then Gou and Koharu from Journeys. Which is a crazy thing to say considering that Bonnie still isn't even a trainer, but unlike those two she actually has proper closure. Bonnie really shined the most when she was with Squishy, and surprisingly Zygarde thought the same.
The two have a ton of cute moments together and Squishy really gives Bonnie a prominent role throughout this season. She finally feels important and again, she was my favorite in the first season where she had nothing going for her character wise. So it feels great to see her influence the story on her own, eventually leading her to fully befriending squishy.
And when we do finally reach the Team Flare Arc, when squishy is taken over by Team Flare Bonnie can hear it's voice and is the one who breaks it free of its control singing the song she made for it. Which just further reinforces that there is a genuine bond between the two. The goodbyes they had hit hard and its only cause of how well Bonne is handled this season.
But its a little odd too considering Bonnie doesn't have any drastic change this season to her character, she simply met a dragon, befriended it, and that's it. Though its through this that Bonnie begins to process into the character she was at the end of the series, no longer crying during sad farewells like she did previously.
Honestly I thought she was going to make a scene when Ash and Serena were leaving but to my surprise it was Dedenne and Bonnie who talked it into understanding the two have their own dreams. Bonnie doesn't get anything big until the Flare arc, but through her new found role shined even better here then everyone else. She quite literally is a Dragon Tamer, and I desperately wish we got to see her as a trainer.
For some final thoughts, I want to bring up a topic that has baffled me throughout most of this season. In that its viewed as the most mature the Pokémon anime has ever been. And while watching XY I just couldn't figure out why it was, Ash was the same as ever though he looked just a tiny bit older not by much really. There were a couple of filler episodes that had featured the aftermath of an elder passing away in both seasons but surely it wasn't just that.
Though after finishing the Team Flare arc and the epilogue I think I get it now (also thanks to the same friend from earlier). The overall tone of the Pokémon anime is more mature this season, things are still like you've seen in other seasons but they key difference with Ash specifically is that he's a beacon of inspiration to others around him, more so then ever before. Citron and Bonnie and Serena all join him going through Kalos because of how he's expressed this season.
They never really acknowledge it but Ash here feels like he's still aware of the crazy stuff that's happened in other regions, and that's why he's always quick to uplift others. He's back starting at zero, but the others wouldn't of been so quick to join him if he was fully at zero. I don't know how to properly would this but I think you get the general idea of what I'm getting at here, and I think that is what really separates Ash from this season compared to both past and future ones.
And I can't help but wonder now why we never got anything like this again, I loved Sun & Moon and am still going through a bad break up with Journeys. But we never got an Ash like this again, we never got another Ash Greninja, another war arc, another real love interest companion like Serena. The Kalos era surprisingly has a lot of elements that are only present here, and thinking about it that's probably why this is still viewed as the best the Pokémon anime season to this day.
Now that I've finally finished XYZ, I can finally understand fully on why it's been praised by so many fans. It's not my favorite but I can totally get why it'd be someone else's. It does nothing but improve on both the game and first seaons very lacking story, gives so much love to its characters and world. Gave us a ton of iconic and memorable fights, the closest we'll probably ever get to a war arc in a Pokémon series, and made a fan favorite Pokémon even more beloved then what it already was. OLM saw something special within the XY story and improved on it so much. This season is here for those who powered through everything that came before, its truly the ultimate pay off Pokémon has ever given to its fans in the anime. And I guess Ash winning against leon too lol.