Generations 1-6 of the Pokemon anime all follow a pretty similar structure, to varying levels of success. The original anime can be rough around the edges sometimes, whether due to budget or writing or something else. Generation 3 saw a stark improvement in just about every area. The same can be said about Generation 4 for the most part. Generation 5, however, is where things fell apart. The characters were annoying, the writing and characterization of Satoshi/Ash made no sense, a slight change in art style that just looks weird, etc etc. It is considered one of, if not the worst season of the Pokemon anime by a long shot depending on who you're asking.

Generation 6 gave the team at OLM a chance to make up for Generation 5's misgivings, however. And boy, did they redeem themselves. XY takes everything the Pokemon anime had done up to that point and utterly refines it. It is not perfect, but this is old Pokemon at its absolute best.

1. The Story

Or maybe lack thereof. I say XY is the best of what the old Pokemon formula has to offer, and while that may be true, story is something the Pokemon anime has never really shined in. It follows the same formula as the first 5 generations. Satoshi goes around a given region with a few friends and collects 8 gym badges, forming bonds with his friends, rivals, and Pokemon along the way, all the while stopping Team Rocket from stealing his Pokemon every 5 seconds.That's about all there is to it, honestly. In Episodes 92 and 93 it shows real promise in terms of things yet to come. But that's 93 episodes in. Before that, there is nothing inherently engaging about the story.

2. The Characters
This is where things get interesting. Satoshi is the same kid he's always been, except not quite. In this series the team at OLM decided to make him a bit more mature. This is shonen Satoshi, for all intents and purposes. He's still a dumbass every now and then, but he acts more mature and more action-heroey in this series than he ever has. And honestly I love this take on Satoshi. It's refreshing to have the main character grow up in some sense. He's still 10 years old but he feels like he's a teenager. It is honestly a bit upsetting that they never decided to age Satoshi up even a little bit to make this feel more believable.

Next we have Serena, Satoshi's apparent childhood friend from a summer camp he attended when he was a kid. Err, when he was even younger than he is now. She embarks on her journey when she sees Satoshi on TV. It's pretty obvious from the get-go that Serena has a crush on Satoshi. And at first that makes for a pretty interesting dynamic, and one that we've never really seen done in the Pokemon anime before. However, it gets to a certain point, where you're 40 episodes into a TV show and you start to wonder, "What is the point of this character?" Serena has no real purpose for the first 40 episodes or so. She purely tags along with Satoshi and friends because she has a crush on him. Which yes, makes sense I suppose, and is cute at first, but in the back of my mind watching this show I couldn't stop thinking about why she was really there. We finally find out about 40 episodes in, when she discovers her love for Pokemon performing. And there is when Serena truly becomes an interesting character. We see her shine, we see her struggle, we see her overcome fears and grow with her friends and Pokemon. Watching Pokemon Performances in XY is not the boring slog I thought Contests were in Generations 3 and 4. Pokemon Performances are genuinely interesting and oftentimes have fantastic animation. By the end, Serena becomes probably the most fleshed-out and dynamic character the Pokemon anime has seen....ever.

Next we have Citron and Eureka, the final two main characters. Citron is a gym leader and Eureka is his kid sister. Citron is by far the more interesting and well-developed of the two, though I enjoy them both. Throughout the show we see Citron come to terms with who he is, and how his friends inspire him to do better and become stronger, which is a theme that's pretty frequently used in XY, but I think Citron pulls it off the best, which results in the amazing gym battle between Satoshi and Citron, which is maybe one of the best battles in the entire Pokemon anime. Eureka doesn't really get her time to shine until the next season, XYZ, so I'll get to her more in that review, but she's a pretty straightforward character. She looks up to Serena, she's always looking after her big brother, and she looks after a Dedenne Citron caught for her early on in the series. She's a nice addition to the cast and balances things out well.

Next up, Team Rocket. Not much to say here honestly. They're the same as they've always been. Though I do enjoy their dynamics with their partner Pokemon Maiika and Bakkecha (later Pumpjin). They're still enjoyable to watch, though I do think they pop up a bit too often in XY for my taste.Team Rocket won't get their true time to shine until Sun & Moon anyways.

Finally, the side characters. I'm gonna be brief about these. Tierno, Trova, and Sana are a pretty good trio and serve as good foils for the main cast (minus Eureka). Professor Platane is one of the best professors we've had in the anime thus far, having a far more active role than any past professors, even Okido. Shota is one of Satoshi's best rivals. I love their dynamic. Shota is a boy from Hoenn who obsessively takes notes and studies to further his battling skills. At first he was the character I loved to see lose. He was too inexperienced to ever logically root for. But as the series went on you saw him grow more and more, becoming a fully developed character. He grows purely to surpass Satoshi. Their rivalry becomes even stronger in XYZ.

3. The Art Style
Not much to say here. They fixed whatever made Generation 5 look so unappealing to me. The character designs look great and none of the characters look out of place. However, because of the refinement of the art style, and how crisp everything looks, characters cannot be as expressive as they could. This would later be remedied in Sun & Moon with a new art style allowing for more expression and fluid animation in scenes outside of battles.

4. The Animation
Yes, there is a difference between art style and animation, Sun & Moon haters. Learn it. This is Pokemon at its absolute coolest in terms of animation. That is in no small part thanks to the addition of the 3D camera. Gone are the days (at least for now :( ) of static backgrounds when a Pokemon is performing a move or a character is running. Now we have a fully 3D dynamic camera and 3D backgrounds in scenes like battles. The 3D camera allows for movement and animation we've never seen in Pokemon before, and it's stunning. The battle in Episode 93 is drop-dead gorgeous. I love the battles in this series, and it only gets better from here. Aside from that, overall the animation in this show is great. It really shines in battles. And because of the art style change like I mentioned earlier, some character expressions aren't as good as they could be. And that applies to the animation as well. Sometimes movements can look a little stiff, and it's pretty noticeable. It's not deal-breaking, but I thought I should point it out.

5. The Music
Shinji Miyazaki KILLS it, man. His score is just great, and fits the Kalos region perfectly. Literally zero complaints here. I love this man. Aside from Miyazaki's brilliant score, the Opening themes in this show are AB. SO. LUTE. BANGERS. Do yourself a favor and watch XY in japanese. If you're familiar with the dub, I implore you to make the switch. The dub, ever since XY, has been consistently replacing a lot of Miyazaki's score with generic orchestral music done by Ed Goldfarb, who is unfortunately still working on the Pokemon anime to this day. The only reason this is done is because the Pokemon Company does not want to pay for the music to be used in other broadcast versions of the show. Meaning they hire someone cheaper to compose a new, insanely generic score for the dub. They do keep some songs, like battle themes, but not much else. At first you might think "Oh I don't care about the music, I'll just watch the dub". Please don't think like this. This is my second time watching XY. I watched the dub as it aired because I did not know any better. Starting with Sun & Moon I switched to sub because I had learned that the music was better in the sub towards the end of XYZ's airing. And it's true. The dub replaces many great songs by Miyazaki with the most milquetoast boring ass songs I've ever heard. Sometimes in the sub they use the opening songs as inserts to bring up the hype, and by god is it beautiful. In the dub they use some boring ass flute and triangle songs, and it absolutely kills the mood in some of the coolest action scenes I've ever seen in Pokemon. You have to trust me on this. WATCH. THE. SUB.

7. The Formula
I briefly touched on this earlier but I want to go more in-depth with it. The Pokemon anime usually follows the formula of:

Gym Battle
20 episodes of filler where next to nothing important happens
Gym Battle
20 episodes of filler where next to nothing important happens
etc etc.

Thankfully, XY strips this component down a lot. XY feels a lot shorter than previous Pokemon seasons because of how they've refined the formula. Yes, there are a few episodes where nothing really happens to further the plot, but for the most part I found almost every episode enjoyable in some capacity. Whether someone catches a new Pokemon, or a Pokemon evolves, or something else. The environment the characters are in changes practically every episode so it never feels like the old days of Johto where Satoshi, Kasumi, and Takeshi wander around a forest that doesn't exist in the video games for 20 episodes before they reach the 8th gym. Being a Pokemon fan my whole life allows me to have a deeper appreciation of this show, and while I was watching XY, it really felt like they were in the same Kalos region I explored in the games. No gym badge is just handed to Satoshi like in the original series, so no episode feels like a waste. It would absolutely suck if Satoshi spent 10 episodes travelling with Corni and Lucario, then showed up at her gym later and she just handed him the badge because the sprinklers went off during the battle. If that had happened, then what were all those episodes with Corni for? Just to add another character to the cast for a bit? Thankfully, XY does not fall into any of those traps and does not waste the viewer's time like Pokemon used to.

8. Final Thoughts
I love XY. It has genuinely interesting characters and dynamics, it has a killer soundtrack and score (Watch the sub), it has fantastic battles and great animation, there's really nothing to hate about this series. If you're a Pokemon fan and you want to get into the anime, THIS is where to start. Ignore Generations 1-5 because XY is where things get legitimately good. And it only gets better from here.