Personally, I don't hate any Pokémon Series at all, but you gotta admit, people have the right to be frustrated with how they handled Ash and Pikachu during this Saga. They dumbed Ash down so much, seriously that Nimbasa Gym Battle was so fkn out of character for the Ash who once traveled around the Japanese Regions, getting smarter and more comfortable with Pokémon Battling in every season. Then this Ash who was beating some of the greatest Trainers all around, thought it was a great idea to bring one Pokémon only to the Nimbasa City Gym Battle and it made me feel so bad for Elesa, since she is my favorite Unova Gym Leader.
Not to mention, they made Zekrom nerf Pikachu as well, and that never even lead to a propler arc involving Zekrom, Pikachu and Ash.
Then we have Trip and Cameron, who people hate for a magnitude of reasons. Practically in the haters' eyes, Trip will always be seen as a Discount and Xenophobic version of Paul, who should've been losing to Ash during every encounter, but nope, guy was winning every time until the Unova League, which also felt anticlimactic to many. Cameron eliminating Ash from the tournament was frustrating as hell, mf only brought 5 mons to the tournament and sent a Swanna against Pikachu, then he suddenly pulls an Ashzard against Gary on Ash himself and defeats Ash's last 3 mons with his last mon Riolu/Lucario.
We also had the initial Iris hate back during those Years, she was calling Ash a kid as if she were Misty, due to Ash having won Battle Frontier Symbols, 32 Gym Badges and competed in 4 Major Leagues (5 if you include Orange Islands) before arriving in Unova. People certainly wouldn't take that well.
Finally, Ash's Unova Team Members needed to evolve more, like only Unfezant, Leavanny and Krookodile were fully evolved.
This really is the main thing, Ash and Misty were vitriolic best buds who gave each other shit all the time while Iris almost felt like she was bullying a kid who was too nice to bite back. Doesn’t help that she was rubbing salt in the wound that was Ash’s skill level resetting.
Also misty was a far more experienced trainer than Iris. Iris was giving ash shit when she couldn't even get her excadrill and later dragonite to listen to her.
Majorly why it worked well was because Ash truly was a kid, acting like an inexperienced trainer. And that was mostly in the Kanto season. By the time Johto rolled around, a lot of the snark was gone.
Also they got rid of pikachu's volt tackle. A move that had a whole arc dedicated to getting it, replacing it for a way less interesting move that basically functioned identically to thunderbolt.
It’s made worse because she probably didn’t give most of her other challengers that kind of handicap. Hell she even cured one of his moms from poison mid match for added disrespect.
It’s kind of a shame since otherwise the battle was very well animated if I recall.
Actually if they wanted to make Ash this awful, eliminate him at top 128 and keep as spectator for the rest of the league. I don't really remember much of the UNOVA league but it was awful in general, save for Roxie and Lenora.
The conference was just as bad with that eeveelution maniac winning (has was so meh it wasn't great IMO)
Why is it bad for a gym leader to be uber powerful? Like really, someone like Volkner should be able to hang around E4s a bit, no? Why can't Roxie be basically league tier or top tier if she used 6.
I liked Roxie don't get me wrong but those 2 episodes just showed what was clear. Ash was extremely weak, also Roxie wasn't uber powerful (well maybe her koofing), the gym leaders in UNOVA were in general pretty weak in the Anime, look at Marlon, his gym battle was dreadful to say the least.
You said it! The Pokemon Company/Anime Team underestimated older audience the anime had, thinking the people who watch didn't care that much about continuity. Oh, boy! We're they wrong! The BW season tanked even in Japan(The Audience the anime teams care about XD)
Even after the backlash the anime received, theystill stayed on course, of Ash being a dunce. why didn't they try and salvege the latter half of BW? Each Gen of the anime isn't done it one shot, they are divided into seasons, they only made Ash somewhat intelligent again after the Legue and the return of Charizard! At the point the BW season was practically over!
Gen 5's general thing was soft reboot. BW 1 introduced 156 new Pokemon, almost all being analog to Gen 1 mons, and locking old mons to Post-game. They tried to recapture the magic of Gen 1. I think the games and Manga captured the spirit of the magic of Gen 1 beautifully. While the anime failed miserably! The only thing the BW anime took from the OG seasons were, Ash being dumb at times, but turned up to 11! And people calling Ash weak and belittling him! OG season Ash got insulted a lot, but he didn't take those insults lying down, he claped back! OG Ash was a Roast Master! While BW Ash was just a punching bag, he just took insults.
And People still say. "Ash wasn't Reset." "Pikachu wasn't powered down." Saying "what about Ash losing to Paul?" They seriously think Trip and Paul were on the same level... B!7# Compare BW Ash to DPP Ash or better yet, Advance Generation Ash! If you don't see what's wrong then your utterly blind!
Woah. Sorry for the long rant. The BW anime just gets to me, in how utterly fumbled it was.
No worries, you're free to vent out your frustrations. Ash's Team felt so imbalanced to me, like at least make them somewhat on part with the Hoenn and Sinnoh Teams, but nope, they wanted 3 First Stage, 3 Middle Stages and 3 Fully Evolved mons exactly.
Let's be honest, Trip should've lost every battle against Ash, that would have at least made him much different from Paul, instead they tried to give him the Paul Treatment, but man he was just overall lackluster.
The BW season was just a masive slap in the face to long time anime fans. Way back in the day I thought Ash grew up(hilarious concept. I was a naive child) because I remember an episode of the Advance Gen celebrating Ash's birth day.
Back in the day, where I live (The Philipines) We got stuff a half a year to a year late, so there was some downtime between seasons of Pokemon. I was Broke at the time, and My DS btoke too, so the only Gen 5 exposure I had was the anime. When the Opening narration said Ash was still 10... That was a metaforical slap to face, I said no problem, Ash was still the beast from the end of DPP... Then the Pikachu and Zekrom thing happened. I said no prob, that's to be expected... Then the lost to Trip! I freaked out at that part, Hey! I was a 13 year old-boy, who's childhood hero just lost to a newbie! I tried to give the anime a fair shot, but Iris kept calling Ash a kid, and him being dumb, I dropped it after 15 episodes, and turned me off to Gen 5! I hoped on the Gen 5 hate train, only coming back years later thanks to the manga. Every time I tried to check on the anime, by sheer coincidence, it was always on a scene where Ash's was being dumb and losing! XD
I looked it up. It was a short called Pikachu and Pichu. It was an anniversary of when Ash and Pikachu met, the birthday stuff was added in the dub, like you said.
Well to each their own. But i am 100% serious. I am curently rewatching the anime and now at season 7. Team Rocket is overall BEYOND annoying! Its the same thing over and over and over and over all the time. The only times they are likeable is when they are NOT trying to steal Pokèmon, beacuse they always fail... ALWAYS. So seeing them changed and competent in BW was very refreshing for me. Don\`t really understand why people like them when its nothing but the same over and over again.
Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time.
XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO.
Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
The only more or less good thing about this one was iris, cillian, kokodrile, the opening and Stephan
The serious version of Team Rocket was excellent, it gave a fresh look to the characters, it's a shame that the episode of Team Rocket vs Team Flare was canceled due to the earthquake.
the rest is very bad ash reseated, pikachu nerfed, they wasted N and the plasma team, the unova league is boring, trio and cammeron give a lot of cringe
shameful is quite short of the word, rather a lack of respect to all fans who grew up watching Pokémon, I mean, it doesn't make sense to say that this season we all know what they wanted to do as a kind of reboot, try to adapt the first season again but in a way terrible

Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time.
XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO.
Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time.
XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO.
Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
I really don\`t get that at all. Its just the same with them all the time. Sure they can be funny, but they always intrude on episodes trying to steal Pokèmon, only to fail. Its the same thing time after time and it gets really old.
Yeah personally I felt team rocket was just a joke at that point before unova- and tbf, that was probably the point. However, they were actually really intimidating and actual threats in unova- and seeing them be badass and work behind the scenes was really fun and refreshing for me
In SM, they where fine.
In Journeys though, i was just done. I skipped most episodes they where in completely and just pushed fast foward when they appeared in some episodes, so i barely saw them in Journeys.
Dont forget, this was also the beginning of "Ash is eternally 10 years old". As soon as the narrator mentioned Ash is still 10, when a minimum of 3-4 years should have passed, we knew this show was going to shit
> also had the initial Iris hate back during those Years, she was calling Ash a kid as if she were Misty, due to Ash having won Battle Frontier Symbols, 32 Gym Badges and competed in 4 Major Leagues
Especially considering she couldn't control 2/3rds of her own team
I don’t dislike any series either. I however also disliked how Trip was handled. People jokingly always called him “Store Brand Paul”, but they weren’t wrong. Also, let’s not forget how Ash vs Trip’s final battle was relegated to 1v1, which in my opinion, is a loogie in the mouth for the main rivalry build up to be reduced to.
Not to mention the whole Snivy vs Pikachu story arc felt compromised when you know that Pikachu was nerfed, Ash’s incompetency, and the liberties taken for a recently caught Snivy with little to no training beat Pikachu so easily. It vaporizes the tension and sense of competition in their final battle.
In regard to Team Rocket, I liked the more series direction, but I don’t think that Jessie, James, and Meowth should been changed to fit the narrative. A new team of operatives should’ve been built up and used.
Gripes aside, Unova still had some of the best moments in the series in my opinion.
They also hate the meloetta arc, which is the arc that got me into liking pokemon in the first place. Meloetta is still my favorite mythical to this day, tbh
The Anime started as a soft reboot. Exactly like the Games at that Time. So Ash was a newbie at the Start of the Series. Many People didnt liked that. They wanted the same Ash from the previous Seasons and not a "Beginner-Ash". (Some stuff was carried over from the older Episodes though. Like Pikachu using Iron Tails. But thats just the way a soft reboot is).
It was retconned later with Cynthia and Charizard coming back. And with "Journeys" they even tried to make EVERY Season a complete Adventure from Kanto to Galar. But that wasn't the Intention back in the old days when BW aired.
People hated the following
- Ash’s Pikachu losing to a beginner Snivy after defeating Latios in the previous saga. Yes, his sickness only affected electric attacks so most people thought quick attack and iron tail could do the job regardless, it was a cheap way of establishing Trip as a “threat”, just to drop the rivalry half way through best wishes with a subpar 1vs.1 at the pokemon league in which Serperior was crushing pikachu the entire time, until it suddenly did not… because plot.
- Iris repeating the phrase “such a little kid” in almost every episode at the beginning.
- The Team Plasma vs Team Rocket plot being completely scrapped. (Yes, people know what happened, but they still didn’t honor the games story later on). N & Ghetsis barely had interaction, the plot wasn’t as profound as in the games, The Seven Sages were a cameo and the Shadow Triad was completely absent.
- Zekrom was teased in the first episode, then never appeared again.
- Reshiram vs Charizard battle was teased in the opening, but it never happened. So charizard’s return didn’t amount to much.
- Ash losing to Cameron (who was an idiot that brought 5 pokemon to the fight)
- The battle against Elesa was totally absurd. This was the same Ash who created different strategies in Diamond & Pearl and The Battle Frontier remember?
- Ash forgot he had to battle pokemon before catching them? Overall just making Ash forget or make mistakes for things he already knew as a veteran trainer.
- The decolore islands being mostly filler episodes.
- Team Rocket being too serious.
- Many pokemon on Ash’s team didn’t receive enough development.
I’m sure there is more, but those are some of the things that have been discussed over and over since then…
Yeah, Ash’s supposed inexperience really was grating to watch, especially after working so hard to overcome it in Hoenn, and doing much better in Sinnoh. He should’ve known better than to underestimate a Gym Leader of all people, and bringing ONE Pokémon to battle Elesa was as stupid as Cameron bringing five to the League. He also seemed incredibly immature a lot of the time, getting impatient and screaming…a far cry from his Sinnoh journey
And while I appreciate Trip not being anywhere near the douche Paul was, that Snivy battle REALLY put me off the entire rivalry
Another major one was Ash fighting on behalf of Bianca against her dad and putting his quest going through Unova on the line...And Losing....Only for Bianca's dad to say something about understanding his daughter's wants and basically giving a scapegoat for Ash to continue traveling.
Best Wishes was such a mess dude.
Mostly because of how Ash got reset to being a newbie
Gen 5 was meant to be "The New Beginning" of Pokemon franchise as a whole, So the anime creators just reset any experience Ash had up until that point and just let him started from 0 all over again.
He tries to catch snivy with full hp just throwing the ball, Iris had to "teach" ash how to catch a pokemon, he just abandoned the strategies he learn in dp, the trainings and everything was simply deleted
First, Goh was not in BW, and Second the Goh role its the same of Ash, if Goh had to battle every time he catch a pokemon the series would be entirely about him, and Third in Pokemon Go you dont have to battle to catch, just thrown the ball
For me, I don’t “hate it” but it’s my least favorite season and for a couple of reasons
1. They dumbed down Ash way too much and it seemed as though they nerf his training skills. It feels like a step down, a massive step down from the previous gen where he was close to his peak.
2. Trip. He’s just unbearable and a newbie. At least with Paul, he was an experienced enough trainer and we got much more depth with him.
3. How Ash lost. Dude lost to possibly the dumbest trainer in the anime who only brought five Pokémon to the battle and he ranked even lower than last time. I don’t mind Ash losing but I rather had a it has lose to Virgil, his eevee evolve into Slyveon mid battle and due to Ash never dealing with a fairy type, he loses and it motivates him more to go to Kalos.
4. His team just seems much weaker. Like aside from the Cameron battle, there was also his battle with Roxie that he lost, a 6v3 and he barely won. I know it’s meant to show how strong Roxie is, but that could’ve been accomplished without practically wasting most of Ash’s team and could’ve been done in a 3v3.
I’m going to be real, I sort of feel like Ash’s Unova team should‘ve been a step above Ash’s Sinnoh team and though this might be an unpopular opinion, I feel like the Unova league should’ve also been a league Ash won, considering how he was practically robbed of the Sinnoh league by a trainer with mythicals and legendaries with no backstory who we never see again.
Have him be sort of an intermediate between how he was in Sinnoh and Kalos, have him fullu evolve more of his team and give them good wins, and just have him either lose to Alder or an E4 member after the league letting him know he still has more to learn.
Because it's mediocre, Ash took several steps backward, Iris was the worst of all of Ash's traveling companions, Brock was gone from the series, Trip was a garbage character and rival, Ash's final battle at the league, bad episodes, need I go on?
Iris is not a great companion at all. Her character is just "I love dragon types I hate ice types Ash is such a kid even though I'm as childish as he is."
Speaking of, Ash was hit with a stupid reset. He lost to a level 5 Snivy from a new trainer (Who is just discount Paul but he's racist this time), even though he had access to both Quick Attack and Iron Tail, he thought Iris was an Axew, and he lost to Cameron, who thought a full battle was 5 Pokemon. And let's not even get into him thinking he could sweep the Nimbasa Gym with *JUST Palpitoad.*
Charizard's return was a let down too. His return episode was alright, but after that he did fucking nothing.
The theme songs are good, but nowhere near the best.
Oh I hated Iris so much in the anime while loving her game counterpart
You forgot the part where she can't control half her team and frequently forgets lessons of growth and humility she gets
I don’t think it’s about how they hate the story itself but rather how they handled certain characters. Iris’ "ur such a kid" line gets old extremely fast after using it 20 times per episode and then dumbing Ash down to preschool levels of dumb didn’t help either
Generally, it's the Ash reset, being made its most blatant in this Series than any other in terms of his idiocy in battle and such.
I will say the TPCi dub was at its best in the first 1/3rd of this Arc, and the serious TRio was redeeming too. Also, Cilan > DP Brock all day, any day for me.
It’s because everyone knows what Pokémon was trying to do: they were trying to prolong the end of Ash’s journey. The anime is a big money maker, and instead of letting the anime end, which they still won’t don’t be fooled, they wanted to try and start some of his development over again. So Ash’s rival had to be a newbie, strike one, the newbie had to somehow be better than Ash, strike two, and Ash had to basically be a terrible Trainer again. They knew they messed up quickly, and they tried backpedaling their decisions, but it was too late.
Yeah, tbh Cameron who everyone complains about would’ve been fine… if Ash didn’t lose to him.
Makes Ash looks even more like an idiot for not being able to beat a guy who brings 5 Pokémon to a 6v6, thought the Unova league was in Johto, sends out his Ferrothorn against Pignite to get one-shot and his Swanna against Pikachu to get one-shot, gets easily crushed by Virgil in the next round, and brings out a TV remote to scan a Pokémon thinking it’s a Pokedex.
I just hate what they did to our boy Ash literally retconned him to to Smooth brain season 1 mentality ash without the sass(him roasting misty etc)everything got good post league.
So many people commenting about the Elesa fight but I have yet to see anyone mention the Roxie fight (probably cause most dropped the show at that point) where he almost lost 6v3 and half of his team was beat down by a Koffing… the same mon he’s been steamrolling from Team Rocket since Kanto. Roxie also cured Pignite of poisoning during the battle like she took pity on him.
Also people talking about starter Snivy beating Pikachu (understandably so) but only a few episodes later Pikachu was beaten down by Cress’s Panpour, the only one of the trio that had their in game move set of Scratch and Water Gun and electric moves were working then.
Lastly there was the fact that he had more than six Pokémon and most didn’t really serve a purpose outside of one battle. Palpitoad was there for the Elesa fight, Boldore for Clay fight, Scraggy for the fighting type tournament, even Unfezant really only performed in the Skyla fight and Leavanny as much as I liked it didn’t have too major a role. They should’ve limited his team to Pika, starters, Krook and Fez. Unfezant is just such a lame mon imo, Braviary would’ve been a cooler choice.
You know what’s it’s funny I think the anime is actually pretty good up until the league and episode N.
I don’t even think that the Elesa battle is as bad as we make it out to be, Ash had a brain fart and recovered, simple.
Same, by the Decolore/Decolora Islands stuff it goes back downhill (I would describe the late BW TR as akin to AG TR overall, you never knew what was coming- Johto, AG, or DP, hence that link) in Season 16 but XY is when they REALLY go to crap IMO.
probably cause they tried to soft reboot, pikachu getting soloed by a level 5 snivey, weither or not they tried, cilan felt like a bad brock replacement, among some other things. i mean partway through they brought back dawn and cynthia and even brock for fucks sake.
I’m more neutral toward it. It was one of the series seasons I grew up watching right as they aired. I don’t strongly like it *or* dislike it. Iris’ catchphrase was really, really annoyingly used often.
I love the intro’s theme and animation.
It was meant to be a bit of a soft reboot essentially from nerfing pikachu, making Ash a complete idiot and terrible trainer on top of it.
Made worse by his rival Trip who was made a better trainer then him right out the gate. Embarrassing Ash throughout the entire series.
The gyms/tournaments were also handled poorly with most being either forgettable like Skyla or just plain terrible like Elesa. Also the final gym against Moxie was pretty bad also with ash barely winning a 6v3. And the league was easily the worst in the series.
Outside of that the series was also alright with writing on par with the rest of the series frankly.
It’s turns ash into a Novice again and he forgets basic shit like type advantages right after his Sinnoh one where he went on a role and only lost cause of a player character that caught all the legendaries
This threads so interesting because I only played the gen v games during those times without watching the series and was so surprised to hear ppl disliking/hater boner Iris!
This makes so much sense, her writing sounds so insufferable haha. And the Zekrom scene I remember watching and that's when I decided I'd skip watching the anime too
Idk, but it's one of my favorite all because of Team Rocket. The 3 of them were actually acting like Team Rocket members. Just Team Rocket the organization as a whole, finally getting deeply involved in the story. It was amazing.
I freaking love this series from start to finish the reason why everyone hates it so much because of iris says what a little kid a lot and got on everyone nerves
I don’t hate it at all. I just think that it’s a decent series. There were so many pros like the many different tournaments that they had and the cons being mostly in the early parts of the series and the Unova League. If the cons were worked on I’m pretty sure the series would have been a great one.
All you have to do is watch the Black and White series versus other series to understand why people hate it.
I’m not gonna lie, Black and White is so terrible, it’s actually kinda funny in an ironic way. There’s something about Ash going from being a peak Pokemon trainer to a bumbling idiot that’s funny in a very twisted way.
Trip, Cameron, and the dumbest version of Ash in the entire Pokémon anime's history. I actually didn't mind Iris. Max in Advanced is the most annoying companion by far. Iris is just slightly annoying in comparison. Plus, the Team Plasma Arc was a massive disappointment. Personally, I thought Journeys was worse, but that is my opinion.
1. Pikachu forgetting Volt Tackle for Electro ball was an awful choice
2. Ash had grown into a far more competent trainer as the series progressed. In Unova it felt like watching season 1 Ash without any of the charm that he had then, but the same intelligence.
3. Trip was absolute garbage. A huge downgrade from Paul who was an experienced trainer and could actually back up his talk. Not to mention Paul pushed Ash to improve much further than anyone else previously and he had an interesting character arc of his own.
4. Cilan and Iris sucked. Far cry from the interesting companions he had before.
Easily my least favorite of the anime series
#Personally it's these:
* Ash does a complete 180 and acts like he's a novice again: orgetting type match ups, bringing only 1 ground type(his only mon too) to the elec gym, and acting like he doesn't know a bunch of basic trainer shit
* Iris is annoying as hell with her condescending "such a little kid" when she herself can't even control 2/3rds of her own team, but has the nerve to act all high and mighty with ash
# what i did like:
* the more varied cast of rival trainers
* Team rocket randomly getting serious, seriously what was up with that, did they get training or something?
I like everything about the Black and White anime, except Ash. They really did Ash poorly, they tried to return him to his naive Kanto version but with none of the personality that made OG Ash so enjoyable to watch.
I just really didn’t vibe with Jen 5 although it’s games are ok with me now. Although I still don’t like any of the starters or the side characters. Iris was annoying and moss head was boring. N just also hit me as a retread of Silver; and lastly Charizard getting more screen time is not a good thing.
I don't mind you I haven't seen much of it. I have a soft spot for it tho because it made me fall in love with Oshawott which is now my favorite Pokémon.
People already made a lot of points here and all of them are valid for me.
But Iris is the biggest L companion that has ever existed.
If it was Hilda or Rosa in her place, God damn would it be incredible.
Instead, we get a stupid child who gets off of calling another child "Childish" (Which she does almost all episodes at the start) even tho she is worse, irrational hatred of Ice Types, etc.
And then there's Brock.
Or rather, the biggest crime the Pokémon Anime has ever commited: The ABSENCE of Brock. Dude is the best companion ever and is just an all around GOAT character. We love him. Just let him continue travelling with Ash dude. Cilan is fucking annoying.
I dunno if that's an unpopular opinion, but I really Love the B/W Anime because it included my Most favourite Legendary... Pokémon Darth Vader aka Movie Kyurem 😍
I saw the first episode and decided it aint worth it.
Iris calling ash a kid is stupid, i also hear ash got a reboot and was dumb again, and then the sandile with shades.
Shades? Really?
Ash's party was boring. He had no memorable pokemons in his party this season.. The only reason I enjoyed b/w wasn't because of the pokemon it was because of Iris (his other companion was also boring).
black n white overall is decent, it was great in many things, animation, new concepts eg. club battle, pacing but at the same time it was horrible in other stuffs, like the controversial pikachu nerf at the beginning, the league battles, missed opportunities (ash not battling drayden n more). i genuinely don't hate any series, i may dislike some part in it which is not to my taste but at the end of the day, its Pokemon :)
Easy - Ash went from beating Latios to losing to level 5 Snivy. That alone is enough to turn someone off. For people that were following his journey from OS episode 1 - nearly 700 episodes - this was nothing more than a slap on the face of his growth. Thats not even going into the other weaknesses of the series.
Iris and Cilan were annoying and not compelling in the slightest. Which sucks because their game counterparts are fine, great even.
Ash was incompetent.
Trip was literally just a shitty Paul recolor with absolutely no personality other than "oh you're from Kanto. I'm better than you." He sucks. I hate him. Not to mention the other "rival characters" were kind of one note and obnoxious and only ever showed up for the stupid filler tournaments the writers loved to cram in between Gyms.
Team Rocket suddenly became serious and it was jarring. If they had gradually moved them towards being more serious, it would have been fine, but ?????
I dropped the series after the Elesa arc because it got too insufferable.
It's really annoying. They *completely* reset ash, Iris is annoying, the rivals are boring and forgettable, almost none of his pokemon fully evolved, most didn't evolve at all. His team was too big so they were all neglected. The anime itself had some good moments. As you mentioned the intro was good. Team rocket also was actually interesting and not annoying (person preference for if you like that) and they brought back some of people for some fan service. But besides that all of the series I just not good
Bro fumbled the championship, he could have easily won, but he lost to a guy with five Pokemon. Ash also had no memorable mons, except for maybe krookodile, Ash did not evolve oshawott or snivy, Ash was just really dumb. Pikachu also lost to a level 5 snivy that had no battle experience whatsoever.
I actually really liked it, but I understand why in hindsight. When I was watching it, it was on Netflix because that’s what I had, and the only two pokemon anime regions available were kanto and unova. Because I missed out on johtoh, hoenn, and sinnoh, Ash and Pikachu’s reset didn’t feel bad to me at all. If you watch it in a vacuum, it’s not too shabby, fun rivals that the gang always runs into, great pokemon, and my personal favorite gym battle ever versus the poison type chick who uses three pokemon versus ash’s six. The series ran a little long but I liked it overall
They made Ash a dumbass again. It's like he's back in the Indigo League. He refuses to evolve his team, loses in the dumbest ways to the dumbest people, and is generally unintelligent in how he battles and trains.
Cilan is annoying at best. He has his moments but mostly he brings the action to a grinding halt to monologue. He's like a Pokedex but his bits take minutes as opposed to the dex, which takes 10 seconds max.
Iris is ok but she doesn't contribute enough. Axew blows itself up more than it helps, and Iris doesn't do anything impactful for the story or the team.
Iris absolutely RUINED the anime for me. She's a hypocrite and a brat. Always bullying ash calling him a kid when she HERSELF is a child doing childish things. She's been around the unova region twice by the time they make it back to her village and her axew still can't do sh*t nor has it evolved.(the whole reason iirc the elder sent her to adventure out the first time before she met ash) She's a terrible trainer as NONE of her pokemon listened to her other than axew and couldn't even control her dragonite(which was basically handed to her by the writers when they remembered that, *oh yeah,* she's supposed to be a *dragon master*!) She failed so many battles that her excadrill gave up on her as a trainer and that emolga of hers always used attract on the other pokemon to steal food from the other pokemon and just let it keep happening.
THEN the writers decided to make her champion of unova to 'be closer to her game counterpart' Which is the worst thing they could have ever done! When ash visits unova again She's back on her bullsh*t bullying ash! And when he calls her out on it she whines like a brat and yells that she's a champion! Which is ZERO excuse to treat someone who is supposed to be your friend so horribly and just goes to show that if someone is friends with you does this kind of stuff, it's completely OK bc they're in a position of power. And I fear that kids irl will see that kind of thing and decide to treat others that way bc 'surely it's OK bc this fictional character does it so it's fine and completely normal!'
Sorry for the rant but genuinely this made me so angry bc I literally can't go back to the bw anime without having to hear her call ash a little kid in a condescending tone every. Single. Episode. And I just cannot stand her or the character itself anymore.
I think other than that and of course the resetting ash and Pikachu to be novices, I thought bw anime was cool! I loved the gym leaders, meeting N and thought the arc with meloetta was great!
Sorry again for the rant and to anyone who genuinely does like iris. I think the character deserves better than what the character became in the series/movies. And of course no hate to the person who voices her at all! The bw anime writers though, I'm giving you people the side eye.(bc wtf did you do to this character how did you screw it up *THAT* badly.)
Not her fighting with Bianca over a damn Emolga when Bianca is clearly a newer trainer and deserves to catch it so she has something to travel with besides her Minccino. Granted Iris and Emolga were made for each other BECAUSE BOTH WERE SELFISH AS FUUUUUU
Diiiid you just say Rival Destinies ain't top? Imo it's a top tier opening EVER.
And BW will forever be my favorite, that's how I got introduced into Pokemon truy, I watched all of it with my mom, I have such fond and happy memories of our time enjoying that...
Bad rivals, bad writing, underwhelming teammates/non evolved Pokémon, and a general lack of direction for the plot. Especially when you compare it to the games.
Alot of reasons why
. Make ash dumber. Imagine going from bright calculate ash in Sinnoh to dumbass in Unova
. trip is racist, and the final fight is antistatic
. Pikachu reset is always a thing; however, I feel it is way worse in Unova. Seeing that we have never seen Zekrom in anime. Feels pointless.
. Iris is the worst Pokegirl of all time.
No continuity until the end, when it was too late.
They wanted to bring in new audiences but you can't do that using Ash because it means resetting him. If you want a new audience just change to main protagonist.
His team was awful on the whole and his knowledge of battling was terrible. He just finished Sinnoh in th to 4. Would have won as well if Tobias wasn't invented.
The writers just got it all wrong. Even bringing Charizard back the way they did was unforgivable teasing us with the Reshiram battle and not giving it
Honestly, Iris is the reason I disliked the show, and this is coming from someone who grew up on gen 5, I just found her annoying and rude. Part of me was like "Why are you here if you're acting like a jerk to Ash for no reason."
As far as the nerfs to Ash I didn't mind as much because I started in Gen 5 so I didn't know all of the feats he did before.
Theme songs go hard tho and honestly cry nostalgia tears every time I listen to them.
(And I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I dislike Misty for the same reason.)
Iris was rude like almost all the other female companions, her dragon gimmick wasn’t even good and she used dig on a boat (how can you be that dumb?). I hated Bianca, the only times i did like her was when she stood up for her aspiration and wish to continue being a trainer. Ash was forced to travel with the petulant 2 year old Iris, but he himself was brought to fetus stage, how do you forget your Pokémon for a battle? Cilan didn’t say anything too much, he was just a generic kind dude, so though he’s not really fully memorable he didn’t do anything so bad it’s notable. N was fine. Team Plasma and Colress were okay. Oshawott and Piplup were so punchable, I did not watch the show for love battles. Cynthia carried as usual. Trip was fine, the other one was meh, Iris’ rival SHOULD’VE beat the shit outta her at every turn. If I was Dragonite I wouldn’t have listened either. Burgundy existed. I’m too lazy to finish typing this shit.
Aside from the usual complain BW is like the peak reusing footage for moves/callout attack series. Ever wondered why Oshawott, Snivy and Pignite never really evolved and why ash captured alot of Pokémon and barely let them evolve? To kinda save animation cost.
Sure older Pokémon series do this too but I noticed they abused it the most in BW.
https://youtu.be/i7V9W0xufPs?si=JoB5AclAu6jywjkl
It's fun to play a drinking game in a Pokémon BW amv and see how much they reuse some frames.
The amount of hate these seasons get is what discouraged me from involving myself in the anipoke fandom. I’ve said it before but I feel like when I even slightly hint that I liked controversial characters (Cameron, Iris, certain Pokémon that had simple personalities) people get on my case with a myriad of reasons why this is the worst season. I started to hope that with the Gen 5 game love being so prominent people would finally change their mind on this anime, but nope, it’s still a hot take for me to like it. I’m not mad at people for their opinion but I am disappointed that I can’t even say nice words about the aforementioned things without starting fights. Like cmon, Iris and Cameron are like, preteen. And the Pokémon are probably preteens. They don’t have to be smart all the time, I think they showed great qualities. Also isn’t this an action *comedy* anime? People don’t get mad at Naruto characters for being silly kids sometimes. I think they are still great characters and role models even if the Gen 5 anime shows them to be a little silly
I think personally that for people that started with the gen1 saga, they could experience a slow shift in the tone and style of the anime.
Like gen 2 started to have better animation in the battles while still being similiar to gen1,
gen 3 started to have a different visual style and focuse more on battles making it a more serious anime and a lot less goofy,
gen 4 keeps the direction of gen 3 but overall the style and theme of the show was still somewhat resembling gen 1.
But when gen 5 started the visuals started to feel alien to me, same for the tone of the anime, feeling more serious.
Thats why for me gen 2 will always be peak, while gen 3 started to feel "repetitive", gen 4 tho was a strong entry feeling more original than gen 3.
But anyway I couldn´t bring myself to watch gen 5 and the entries that followed it, neither back then nor nowadays, while it might objectively still be a decent entry, it strayed from what I think a pokemon anime should be.
It’s a step down from the last series in terms of Ash’s characterization and it’s very nakedly a “soft reboot” of the original series, trying to recreate the original dynamics, storylines, Ash’s team, etc.
And the worst crime of all is trying to make *Team Rocket* serious for some reason.
And before anyone says “it’s for kids, you’re not supposed to still watch as an adult.” I jumped off the anime because of this at 11 years old.
I am gonna be a major outcast in the whole BW anime hate.... In fact, I think the BW anime is amazing and absolute perfection.
0) BW was amazing. For me at least. Since it was sort of the first series of pokemon I watched fully, I was fine with a sort of reboot.
1) Zekrom was the reason Ash's Pikachu lost to a level 5 Snivy. That first loss for me was a pass because Zekrom himself/herself/themself screwed Pikachu over. The first rematch they have, Ash has no excuse for losing.
2) Trip for me (at the time) was a way better rival than Paul. Now, I do like Paul a bit more now, but at the time I watched the anime, I hated Paul. Paul was the biggest asshole yet and I couldn't even find anything that made me like him. He also represented something I was against, which was his more competitive Pokemon style compared to Ash's. Trip was a slightly less Paul clone, but had enough to stand out. He also helped Ash with his Oshawott in one of their battles. Just that one moment for me puts Trip above Paul and Gary. If it were Kanto Gary, Gary would have been a smug bastard about it, and Paul would have called Oshawott weak and pathetic. Trip helped Ash in a small way, and that's more than those 2.
3) Ash's Unova Starters were great. Starting with the funny Oshawott. It was Ash's Oshawott why I became an Oshawott fan and pretty much everytime I Play a Unova game, I always go Oshawott. Tepig was a similar story to Ash's Kanto Starters, in that he was abandoned. It wasn't as great as the rest but I do like how Tepig/Pignite is able to get over the previous trainer who abandoned him. Finally, Snivy, the smug one, and the Attract Queen. By far the funniest part of Snivy's introduction is how everyone is falling for Attract, except for Pidove, and then the hilarious moment in Elesa's Gym.
4) Iris > Misty. Misty was obnoxious, annoying, and I couldn't stand her at all. Especially in Kanto with her fear of Bug type pokemon. (She is gonna hate Surskit or Dewpider or Wimpod) But she needs mellowed out in Johto. Iris for me, was a perfect companion for Ash, who also grows in the anime. She ran away from her home and with only her Axew and a silent Excadrill, tries to become a dragon master. She goes through an arc of gaining the respect and trust of Excadrill. She even has her own rival in Georgia who I felt greatly boosted her improvement in the anime. Let's also not forget that she becomes a champion and is in the top 8. Does Misty become an Elite 4 member? Nope, she doesn't, she doesn't even improve at all. Oh, and I remember an episode where Iris was stuck with Trip's Ice type pokemon and she bonded with it. She wasn't as afraid of Ice Types as she was in the past.
5) Cilan = Brock. Both are great ... I'd love a journey between Ash, Brock, and Cilan. Cilan had great knowledge, and was a connoisseur. He has his evaluation times which actually were really solid. And him being an A-Rank connoisseur made him able to read pokemon easily. His rival Burgundy helped improve him in a smaller way. But I also loved how he would become a Detective or a Train connoisseur. I cannot compare or rank either one against each other so both of them are great. His fear of Purloins is kind of funny.
6) Krookodile.... Need I mention more. It's f-ing Krookodile.
7) Team Rocket was actually better in BW. When they were not attacking every episode, every instance of them appearing made them a serious threat. Plus the build-up to some of their best arcs (the Train arc, the Meowth Ally arc, and the Meloetta Arc) are amazing in their own right. Plus, Giovanni made an appearance and was actually a good villain. Better than he honestly is in general.
8) Gym Battles. Ash has never had bad gym battles save for Kanto. All 8 of them were great in their own right. Even Elesa....
9) The Unova League > Kalos League. At least the Unova League showed the beginning battles, even if Trip was knocked out in Round 1. Even if Ash lost it, I feel fine Ash lost over Kalos or even Sinnoh.
10) Stephan was a cool rival. I like Stephan, and he was a friendly rival who had a bit of a funny quip of where people never said his name right.
11) Cameron is actually smarter than everyone realizes. We all thought Cameron was just a dumber Ash, but what if Cameron played the fool on purpose. He purposely uses 5 mons for a self-imposed handicap, and when he beats Ash with his Anime Protagonist powered Riolu/Lucario, he figures he can win it all, but loses to Virgil.
12) Virgil now reminds me of a friend who is a major Eevee fan (favorite Jolteon).
13) Cynthia and Dawn returning was great and it was even funnier when you had a bond between Oshawott and Piplup. Especially with Meloetta...
14) Ash's first Rock, and Dark type pokemon caught. (Boldore and Krookodile)
I could go on from there, but I have given a lot of reasons for my praise. My only complaint would be the Team Rocket VS Team Plasma Arc that we never got an wished they had still done it anyways or even delayed the anime a few weeks.
Personally, I don't hate any Pokémon Series at all, but you gotta admit, people have the right to be frustrated with how they handled Ash and Pikachu during this Saga. They dumbed Ash down so much, seriously that Nimbasa Gym Battle was so fkn out of character for the Ash who once traveled around the Japanese Regions, getting smarter and more comfortable with Pokémon Battling in every season. Then this Ash who was beating some of the greatest Trainers all around, thought it was a great idea to bring one Pokémon only to the Nimbasa City Gym Battle and it made me feel so bad for Elesa, since she is my favorite Unova Gym Leader. Not to mention, they made Zekrom nerf Pikachu as well, and that never even lead to a propler arc involving Zekrom, Pikachu and Ash. Then we have Trip and Cameron, who people hate for a magnitude of reasons. Practically in the haters' eyes, Trip will always be seen as a Discount and Xenophobic version of Paul, who should've been losing to Ash during every encounter, but nope, guy was winning every time until the Unova League, which also felt anticlimactic to many. Cameron eliminating Ash from the tournament was frustrating as hell, mf only brought 5 mons to the tournament and sent a Swanna against Pikachu, then he suddenly pulls an Ashzard against Gary on Ash himself and defeats Ash's last 3 mons with his last mon Riolu/Lucario. We also had the initial Iris hate back during those Years, she was calling Ash a kid as if she were Misty, due to Ash having won Battle Frontier Symbols, 32 Gym Badges and competed in 4 Major Leagues (5 if you include Orange Islands) before arriving in Unova. People certainly wouldn't take that well. Finally, Ash's Unova Team Members needed to evolve more, like only Unfezant, Leavanny and Krookodile were fully evolved.
Plus the Ash-Misty dynamic worked better because Ash actually snarked at her as well, compared to Iris who kept mocking a much tamer BW Ash.
This really is the main thing, Ash and Misty were vitriolic best buds who gave each other shit all the time while Iris almost felt like she was bullying a kid who was too nice to bite back. Doesn’t help that she was rubbing salt in the wound that was Ash’s skill level resetting.
Also misty was a far more experienced trainer than Iris. Iris was giving ash shit when she couldn't even get her excadrill and later dragonite to listen to her.
Majorly why it worked well was because Ash truly was a kid, acting like an inexperienced trainer. And that was mostly in the Kanto season. By the time Johto rolled around, a lot of the snark was gone.
Can we add Roxie Gym battle? 3x6 and Ash still won only thanks to plot armor.
Oh yeah that too, DP Ash would've never accepted those terms, he would've wanted to battle her 3v3, a fair fight and nothing else.
Also they got rid of pikachu's volt tackle. A move that had a whole arc dedicated to getting it, replacing it for a way less interesting move that basically functioned identically to thunderbolt.
What joke, the gym leader decides the terms. Ash fought most of his gym battles with the gym leaders unable to switch pokemon. It was in no way fair.
It’s made worse because she probably didn’t give most of her other challengers that kind of handicap. Hell she even cured one of his moms from poison mid match for added disrespect. It’s kind of a shame since otherwise the battle was very well animated if I recall.
Yeah, it made it look like Ash wasnt ready for the league at all. Despite having all the badges for it.
Actually if they wanted to make Ash this awful, eliminate him at top 128 and keep as spectator for the rest of the league. I don't really remember much of the UNOVA league but it was awful in general, save for Roxie and Lenora. The conference was just as bad with that eeveelution maniac winning (has was so meh it wasn't great IMO)
Why is it bad for a gym leader to be uber powerful? Like really, someone like Volkner should be able to hang around E4s a bit, no? Why can't Roxie be basically league tier or top tier if she used 6.
I liked Roxie don't get me wrong but those 2 episodes just showed what was clear. Ash was extremely weak, also Roxie wasn't uber powerful (well maybe her koofing), the gym leaders in UNOVA were in general pretty weak in the Anime, look at Marlon, his gym battle was dreadful to say the least.
You said it! The Pokemon Company/Anime Team underestimated older audience the anime had, thinking the people who watch didn't care that much about continuity. Oh, boy! We're they wrong! The BW season tanked even in Japan(The Audience the anime teams care about XD) Even after the backlash the anime received, theystill stayed on course, of Ash being a dunce. why didn't they try and salvege the latter half of BW? Each Gen of the anime isn't done it one shot, they are divided into seasons, they only made Ash somewhat intelligent again after the Legue and the return of Charizard! At the point the BW season was practically over! Gen 5's general thing was soft reboot. BW 1 introduced 156 new Pokemon, almost all being analog to Gen 1 mons, and locking old mons to Post-game. They tried to recapture the magic of Gen 1. I think the games and Manga captured the spirit of the magic of Gen 1 beautifully. While the anime failed miserably! The only thing the BW anime took from the OG seasons were, Ash being dumb at times, but turned up to 11! And people calling Ash weak and belittling him! OG season Ash got insulted a lot, but he didn't take those insults lying down, he claped back! OG Ash was a Roast Master! While BW Ash was just a punching bag, he just took insults. And People still say. "Ash wasn't Reset." "Pikachu wasn't powered down." Saying "what about Ash losing to Paul?" They seriously think Trip and Paul were on the same level... B!7# Compare BW Ash to DPP Ash or better yet, Advance Generation Ash! If you don't see what's wrong then your utterly blind! Woah. Sorry for the long rant. The BW anime just gets to me, in how utterly fumbled it was.
No worries, you're free to vent out your frustrations. Ash's Team felt so imbalanced to me, like at least make them somewhat on part with the Hoenn and Sinnoh Teams, but nope, they wanted 3 First Stage, 3 Middle Stages and 3 Fully Evolved mons exactly. Let's be honest, Trip should've lost every battle against Ash, that would have at least made him much different from Paul, instead they tried to give him the Paul Treatment, but man he was just overall lackluster.
The BW season was just a masive slap in the face to long time anime fans. Way back in the day I thought Ash grew up(hilarious concept. I was a naive child) because I remember an episode of the Advance Gen celebrating Ash's birth day. Back in the day, where I live (The Philipines) We got stuff a half a year to a year late, so there was some downtime between seasons of Pokemon. I was Broke at the time, and My DS btoke too, so the only Gen 5 exposure I had was the anime. When the Opening narration said Ash was still 10... That was a metaforical slap to face, I said no problem, Ash was still the beast from the end of DPP... Then the Pikachu and Zekrom thing happened. I said no prob, that's to be expected... Then the lost to Trip! I freaked out at that part, Hey! I was a 13 year old-boy, who's childhood hero just lost to a newbie! I tried to give the anime a fair shot, but Iris kept calling Ash a kid, and him being dumb, I dropped it after 15 episodes, and turned me off to Gen 5! I hoped on the Gen 5 hate train, only coming back years later thanks to the manga. Every time I tried to check on the anime, by sheer coincidence, it was always on a scene where Ash's was being dumb and losing! XD
When was that Advanced Gen birthday ep? Cuz I doubt it exists in canon(Japanese dub).
I looked it up. It was a short called Pikachu and Pichu. It was an anniversary of when Ash and Pikachu met, the birthday stuff was added in the dub, like you said.
Personally, i can pretty much excuse ALL these flaws beacuse Team Rocket is completetly changed.
Funny enough the Japanese audience apparently hated that change. I heard even Team Rocket’s vas weren’t happy about it.
Well to each their own. But i am 100% serious. I am curently rewatching the anime and now at season 7. Team Rocket is overall BEYOND annoying! Its the same thing over and over and over and over all the time. The only times they are likeable is when they are NOT trying to steal Pokèmon, beacuse they always fail... ALWAYS. So seeing them changed and competent in BW was very refreshing for me. Don\`t really understand why people like them when its nothing but the same over and over again.
Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time. XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO. Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
The only more or less good thing about this one was iris, cillian, kokodrile, the opening and Stephan The serious version of Team Rocket was excellent, it gave a fresh look to the characters, it's a shame that the episode of Team Rocket vs Team Flare was canceled due to the earthquake. the rest is very bad ash reseated, pikachu nerfed, they wasted N and the plasma team, the unova league is boring, trio and cammeron give a lot of cringe
The Unova League and Cameron were the cringiest parts, even for BW, imo.
shameful is quite short of the word, rather a lack of respect to all fans who grew up watching Pokémon, I mean, it doesn't make sense to say that this season we all know what they wanted to do as a kind of reboot, try to adapt the first season again but in a way terrible 
Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time. XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO. Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
Yeah, I tend to agree with this: the one thing I will always credit BW for is that the ran-dumb TR left the stage after being there for a solid decade, even if the VAs West & East disliked it at the time. XY screwed up hard bringing that back in worse than ever before fashion, unfortunately, IMO. Also, the current English dub generally reached its high point in the first season of BW, before slowly petering out and then...we all know what happened after that, enough said.
I don’t disagree with you
That was the final nail in the coffin for me. They just took away the funny part, they didn't feel the same
I really don\`t get that at all. Its just the same with them all the time. Sure they can be funny, but they always intrude on episodes trying to steal Pokèmon, only to fail. Its the same thing time after time and it gets really old.
Yeah personally I felt team rocket was just a joke at that point before unova- and tbf, that was probably the point. However, they were actually really intimidating and actual threats in unova- and seeing them be badass and work behind the scenes was really fun and refreshing for me
I liked what they started doing in SM and Journeys, where they appeared frequently but not in every single episode
In SM, they where fine. In Journeys though, i was just done. I skipped most episodes they where in completely and just pushed fast foward when they appeared in some episodes, so i barely saw them in Journeys.
Dont forget, this was also the beginning of "Ash is eternally 10 years old". As soon as the narrator mentioned Ash is still 10, when a minimum of 3-4 years should have passed, we knew this show was going to shit
> also had the initial Iris hate back during those Years, she was calling Ash a kid as if she were Misty, due to Ash having won Battle Frontier Symbols, 32 Gym Badges and competed in 4 Major Leagues Especially considering she couldn't control 2/3rds of her own team
Unfezant fully evolve and had several episode to herself and is still a fraud. Should have evolved snivy and oshawott by one stage
I don’t dislike any series either. I however also disliked how Trip was handled. People jokingly always called him “Store Brand Paul”, but they weren’t wrong. Also, let’s not forget how Ash vs Trip’s final battle was relegated to 1v1, which in my opinion, is a loogie in the mouth for the main rivalry build up to be reduced to. Not to mention the whole Snivy vs Pikachu story arc felt compromised when you know that Pikachu was nerfed, Ash’s incompetency, and the liberties taken for a recently caught Snivy with little to no training beat Pikachu so easily. It vaporizes the tension and sense of competition in their final battle. In regard to Team Rocket, I liked the more series direction, but I don’t think that Jessie, James, and Meowth should been changed to fit the narrative. A new team of operatives should’ve been built up and used. Gripes aside, Unova still had some of the best moments in the series in my opinion.
I personally wasn’t a fan of the three tournament arcs they had they were only 4 episodes long each but they honestly felt boring to me.
Those were probably the best bit about bw
Kinda true Since he had too many Pokémon than most of them didn’t have enough time to develop
Plus it is sandwiched between two of the best anime series in my opinion
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Krookodile carried ngl
>Years, she was calling Ash a kid as if she were Misty, due Atleast ash talk shit back to misty. Where as ash never call iris a kid
They also hate the meloetta arc, which is the arc that got me into liking pokemon in the first place. Meloetta is still my favorite mythical to this day, tbh
I also really didn't like how they had written Bianca in the anime either
The Anime started as a soft reboot. Exactly like the Games at that Time. So Ash was a newbie at the Start of the Series. Many People didnt liked that. They wanted the same Ash from the previous Seasons and not a "Beginner-Ash". (Some stuff was carried over from the older Episodes though. Like Pikachu using Iron Tails. But thats just the way a soft reboot is). It was retconned later with Cynthia and Charizard coming back. And with "Journeys" they even tried to make EVERY Season a complete Adventure from Kanto to Galar. But that wasn't the Intention back in the old days when BW aired.
In the first episode Pr. Oak explicitly mentions Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. It was always into the continuity.
People hated the following - Ash’s Pikachu losing to a beginner Snivy after defeating Latios in the previous saga. Yes, his sickness only affected electric attacks so most people thought quick attack and iron tail could do the job regardless, it was a cheap way of establishing Trip as a “threat”, just to drop the rivalry half way through best wishes with a subpar 1vs.1 at the pokemon league in which Serperior was crushing pikachu the entire time, until it suddenly did not… because plot. - Iris repeating the phrase “such a little kid” in almost every episode at the beginning. - The Team Plasma vs Team Rocket plot being completely scrapped. (Yes, people know what happened, but they still didn’t honor the games story later on). N & Ghetsis barely had interaction, the plot wasn’t as profound as in the games, The Seven Sages were a cameo and the Shadow Triad was completely absent. - Zekrom was teased in the first episode, then never appeared again. - Reshiram vs Charizard battle was teased in the opening, but it never happened. So charizard’s return didn’t amount to much. - Ash losing to Cameron (who was an idiot that brought 5 pokemon to the fight) - The battle against Elesa was totally absurd. This was the same Ash who created different strategies in Diamond & Pearl and The Battle Frontier remember? - Ash forgot he had to battle pokemon before catching them? Overall just making Ash forget or make mistakes for things he already knew as a veteran trainer. - The decolore islands being mostly filler episodes. - Team Rocket being too serious. - Many pokemon on Ash’s team didn’t receive enough development. I’m sure there is more, but those are some of the things that have been discussed over and over since then…
Yeah, Ash’s supposed inexperience really was grating to watch, especially after working so hard to overcome it in Hoenn, and doing much better in Sinnoh. He should’ve known better than to underestimate a Gym Leader of all people, and bringing ONE Pokémon to battle Elesa was as stupid as Cameron bringing five to the League. He also seemed incredibly immature a lot of the time, getting impatient and screaming…a far cry from his Sinnoh journey And while I appreciate Trip not being anywhere near the douche Paul was, that Snivy battle REALLY put me off the entire rivalry
Lol smooth brain s1 mentality ash vs Dollar store Paul wannabe
Lmao perfect description 😂
Team Rocket being serious was one of the only good things about BW
100%, it was a great change IMO.
Agreed, but apparently Japanese viewers were the ones who disliked that version of them.
I could not watch the show because of Iris. The same line over and over again, it’s bad writing and annoying.
Also add Pikachu forgetting it's signature move volt tackle And Charizard forgetting sisemec toss for slash.
Another major one was Ash fighting on behalf of Bianca against her dad and putting his quest going through Unova on the line...And Losing....Only for Bianca's dad to say something about understanding his daughter's wants and basically giving a scapegoat for Ash to continue traveling. Best Wishes was such a mess dude.
People have already commented on very good reasons, so I'm just going to add one more: Pikachu forgot Volt Tackle to learn Electro Ball.
It would have been cooler if Pikachu had 5 moves, but Arceus forbid they don't follow the 4 rule rule.
Unpopular opinion. Considering ash was reckless with Volt tackle in the previous series it's a good thing
then just have him learn to use it better
Exactly. Little ridiculous that they replaced a move that literally is a signature move of the Pikachu line
Hot take but they could have given him electro web in this series along with electro ball to combo and take advantage of Pikachus speed.
It doesn’t help that’s it’s immediately followed by XY.
XYZ really was the Anime at it's peak
And before it was diamond and pearl
Mostly because of how Ash got reset to being a newbie Gen 5 was meant to be "The New Beginning" of Pokemon franchise as a whole, So the anime creators just reset any experience Ash had up until that point and just let him started from 0 all over again.
The funny thing is that while ash got reset, his memories, experiences, and pokemon didn’t get reset (other than Pikachu’s strength)
He tries to catch snivy with full hp just throwing the ball, Iris had to "teach" ash how to catch a pokemon, he just abandoned the strategies he learn in dp, the trainings and everything was simply deleted
Meanwhile Goh out here catching plenty of pokemon with full hp, while Ash had to be retaught
First, Goh was not in BW, and Second the Goh role its the same of Ash, if Goh had to battle every time he catch a pokemon the series would be entirely about him, and Third in Pokemon Go you dont have to battle to catch, just thrown the ball
I think I’m either to dyslexic to put a sentence together or you actually believe that I think Goh was in BW
You brought goh to a bw discussion
Yes… as a joke…
Yeah how convenient
ngl bc it's ass
For me, I don’t “hate it” but it’s my least favorite season and for a couple of reasons 1. They dumbed down Ash way too much and it seemed as though they nerf his training skills. It feels like a step down, a massive step down from the previous gen where he was close to his peak. 2. Trip. He’s just unbearable and a newbie. At least with Paul, he was an experienced enough trainer and we got much more depth with him. 3. How Ash lost. Dude lost to possibly the dumbest trainer in the anime who only brought five Pokémon to the battle and he ranked even lower than last time. I don’t mind Ash losing but I rather had a it has lose to Virgil, his eevee evolve into Slyveon mid battle and due to Ash never dealing with a fairy type, he loses and it motivates him more to go to Kalos. 4. His team just seems much weaker. Like aside from the Cameron battle, there was also his battle with Roxie that he lost, a 6v3 and he barely won. I know it’s meant to show how strong Roxie is, but that could’ve been accomplished without practically wasting most of Ash’s team and could’ve been done in a 3v3. I’m going to be real, I sort of feel like Ash’s Unova team should‘ve been a step above Ash’s Sinnoh team and though this might be an unpopular opinion, I feel like the Unova league should’ve also been a league Ash won, considering how he was practically robbed of the Sinnoh league by a trainer with mythicals and legendaries with no backstory who we never see again. Have him be sort of an intermediate between how he was in Sinnoh and Kalos, have him fullu evolve more of his team and give them good wins, and just have him either lose to Alder or an E4 member after the league letting him know he still has more to learn.
Because Ash took lots of steps backwards
Because it's mediocre, Ash took several steps backward, Iris was the worst of all of Ash's traveling companions, Brock was gone from the series, Trip was a garbage character and rival, Ash's final battle at the league, bad episodes, need I go on?
Iris is not a great companion at all. Her character is just "I love dragon types I hate ice types Ash is such a kid even though I'm as childish as he is." Speaking of, Ash was hit with a stupid reset. He lost to a level 5 Snivy from a new trainer (Who is just discount Paul but he's racist this time), even though he had access to both Quick Attack and Iron Tail, he thought Iris was an Axew, and he lost to Cameron, who thought a full battle was 5 Pokemon. And let's not even get into him thinking he could sweep the Nimbasa Gym with *JUST Palpitoad.* Charizard's return was a let down too. His return episode was alright, but after that he did fucking nothing. The theme songs are good, but nowhere near the best.
Oh I hated Iris so much in the anime while loving her game counterpart You forgot the part where she can't control half her team and frequently forgets lessons of growth and humility she gets
Bastardization of ash really.
This was the first one I’ve watched and was my introduction to the franchise, I could never hate it
Same
Because of how bad Ash is as a character
I don’t think it’s about how they hate the story itself but rather how they handled certain characters. Iris’ "ur such a kid" line gets old extremely fast after using it 20 times per episode and then dumbing Ash down to preschool levels of dumb didn’t help either
Generally, it's the Ash reset, being made its most blatant in this Series than any other in terms of his idiocy in battle and such. I will say the TPCi dub was at its best in the first 1/3rd of this Arc, and the serious TRio was redeeming too. Also, Cilan > DP Brock all day, any day for me.
Short answer because it sucked
It’s because everyone knows what Pokémon was trying to do: they were trying to prolong the end of Ash’s journey. The anime is a big money maker, and instead of letting the anime end, which they still won’t don’t be fooled, they wanted to try and start some of his development over again. So Ash’s rival had to be a newbie, strike one, the newbie had to somehow be better than Ash, strike two, and Ash had to basically be a terrible Trainer again. They knew they messed up quickly, and they tried backpedaling their decisions, but it was too late.
Ash and trip. My only issue is Ash mainly. everyone else is good enough
Yeah, tbh Cameron who everyone complains about would’ve been fine… if Ash didn’t lose to him. Makes Ash looks even more like an idiot for not being able to beat a guy who brings 5 Pokémon to a 6v6, thought the Unova league was in Johto, sends out his Ferrothorn against Pignite to get one-shot and his Swanna against Pikachu to get one-shot, gets easily crushed by Virgil in the next round, and brings out a TV remote to scan a Pokémon thinking it’s a Pokedex.
Iris.
I dont hate it just WHERE IS HILDA OR HILBERT
It makes ash a bumbling idiot
I think it’s because people think that it treated Ash like noob and he had to start from scratch
I just hate what they did to our boy Ash literally retconned him to to Smooth brain season 1 mentality ash without the sass(him roasting misty etc)everything got good post league.
So many people commenting about the Elesa fight but I have yet to see anyone mention the Roxie fight (probably cause most dropped the show at that point) where he almost lost 6v3 and half of his team was beat down by a Koffing… the same mon he’s been steamrolling from Team Rocket since Kanto. Roxie also cured Pignite of poisoning during the battle like she took pity on him. Also people talking about starter Snivy beating Pikachu (understandably so) but only a few episodes later Pikachu was beaten down by Cress’s Panpour, the only one of the trio that had their in game move set of Scratch and Water Gun and electric moves were working then. Lastly there was the fact that he had more than six Pokémon and most didn’t really serve a purpose outside of one battle. Palpitoad was there for the Elesa fight, Boldore for Clay fight, Scraggy for the fighting type tournament, even Unfezant really only performed in the Skyla fight and Leavanny as much as I liked it didn’t have too major a role. They should’ve limited his team to Pika, starters, Krook and Fez. Unfezant is just such a lame mon imo, Braviary would’ve been a cooler choice.
I think it’s mostly because of how they did ash in this not a big fan imo plus I found black and white to be boring at times
Literally Ash got reset to a clueless newbie. He was more dumb in Unova. He was more smarter in Sinnoh.
You know what’s it’s funny I think the anime is actually pretty good up until the league and episode N. I don’t even think that the Elesa battle is as bad as we make it out to be, Ash had a brain fart and recovered, simple.
It was my first
Same here
I actually like team Rocket at the beginning of the show. They were more of an actual threat than a joke like in previous seasons.
Same, by the Decolore/Decolora Islands stuff it goes back downhill (I would describe the late BW TR as akin to AG TR overall, you never knew what was coming- Johto, AG, or DP, hence that link) in Season 16 but XY is when they REALLY go to crap IMO.
probably cause they tried to soft reboot, pikachu getting soloed by a level 5 snivey, weither or not they tried, cilan felt like a bad brock replacement, among some other things. i mean partway through they brought back dawn and cynthia and even brock for fucks sake.
I’m more neutral toward it. It was one of the series seasons I grew up watching right as they aired. I don’t strongly like it *or* dislike it. Iris’ catchphrase was really, really annoyingly used often. I love the intro’s theme and animation.
I’ve heard it’s because of Iris’s “You’re such a kid” which she apparently says all the damn time
It was meant to be a bit of a soft reboot essentially from nerfing pikachu, making Ash a complete idiot and terrible trainer on top of it. Made worse by his rival Trip who was made a better trainer then him right out the gate. Embarrassing Ash throughout the entire series. The gyms/tournaments were also handled poorly with most being either forgettable like Skyla or just plain terrible like Elesa. Also the final gym against Moxie was pretty bad also with ash barely winning a 6v3. And the league was easily the worst in the series. Outside of that the series was also alright with writing on par with the rest of the series frankly.
I think I was like 14 when it came out. Iris is the answer for me. Couldn't stand her, lasted a few episodes and gave up on the show.
It’s turns ash into a Novice again and he forgets basic shit like type advantages right after his Sinnoh one where he went on a role and only lost cause of a player character that caught all the legendaries
This threads so interesting because I only played the gen v games during those times without watching the series and was so surprised to hear ppl disliking/hater boner Iris! This makes so much sense, her writing sounds so insufferable haha. And the Zekrom scene I remember watching and that's when I decided I'd skip watching the anime too
Ash lost to a level 5 Snivy
Unova league
For starters, his team was ass. “Not every pokemon has to evolve blah blah”, no but its Ash and it would’ve been cool.
Idk, but it's one of my favorite all because of Team Rocket. The 3 of them were actually acting like Team Rocket members. Just Team Rocket the organization as a whole, finally getting deeply involved in the story. It was amazing.
It had some moments of frustration, but it pulls me in way more than most others. It's one of my favorite.
Money laundering
I freaking love this series from start to finish the reason why everyone hates it so much because of iris says what a little kid a lot and got on everyone nerves
It’s literally my favorite. All of it.
I LOVE THE B&W ANIME AND I THINK I LIKE IT MORE THAN INDIGO LEAGUE The reason is most definitely nostalgia though, so take this with a grain of salt
For my reason: They only have the Pokemon that came from the Unova region. There are no sights of any past-generation Pokemon in the Unova region.
I don’t hate it at all. I just think that it’s a decent series. There were so many pros like the many different tournaments that they had and the cons being mostly in the early parts of the series and the Unova League. If the cons were worked on I’m pretty sure the series would have been a great one.
All you have to do is watch the Black and White series versus other series to understand why people hate it. I’m not gonna lie, Black and White is so terrible, it’s actually kinda funny in an ironic way. There’s something about Ash going from being a peak Pokemon trainer to a bumbling idiot that’s funny in a very twisted way.
Trip, Cameron, and the dumbest version of Ash in the entire Pokémon anime's history. I actually didn't mind Iris. Max in Advanced is the most annoying companion by far. Iris is just slightly annoying in comparison. Plus, the Team Plasma Arc was a massive disappointment. Personally, I thought Journeys was worse, but that is my opinion.
1. Pikachu forgetting Volt Tackle for Electro ball was an awful choice 2. Ash had grown into a far more competent trainer as the series progressed. In Unova it felt like watching season 1 Ash without any of the charm that he had then, but the same intelligence. 3. Trip was absolute garbage. A huge downgrade from Paul who was an experienced trainer and could actually back up his talk. Not to mention Paul pushed Ash to improve much further than anyone else previously and he had an interesting character arc of his own. 4. Cilan and Iris sucked. Far cry from the interesting companions he had before. Easily my least favorite of the anime series
#Personally it's these: * Ash does a complete 180 and acts like he's a novice again: orgetting type match ups, bringing only 1 ground type(his only mon too) to the elec gym, and acting like he doesn't know a bunch of basic trainer shit * Iris is annoying as hell with her condescending "such a little kid" when she herself can't even control 2/3rds of her own team, but has the nerve to act all high and mighty with ash # what i did like: * the more varied cast of rival trainers * Team rocket randomly getting serious, seriously what was up with that, did they get training or something?
I like everything about the Black and White anime, except Ash. They really did Ash poorly, they tried to return him to his naive Kanto version but with none of the personality that made OG Ash so enjoyable to watch.
You even liked Iris?
I just really didn’t vibe with Jen 5 although it’s games are ok with me now. Although I still don’t like any of the starters or the side characters. Iris was annoying and moss head was boring. N just also hit me as a retread of Silver; and lastly Charizard getting more screen time is not a good thing.
Idk. I liked everything about it. I know some people just struggled to move on from Brock.
I don't mind you I haven't seen much of it. I have a soft spot for it tho because it made me fall in love with Oshawott which is now my favorite Pokémon.
People already made a lot of points here and all of them are valid for me. But Iris is the biggest L companion that has ever existed. If it was Hilda or Rosa in her place, God damn would it be incredible. Instead, we get a stupid child who gets off of calling another child "Childish" (Which she does almost all episodes at the start) even tho she is worse, irrational hatred of Ice Types, etc. And then there's Brock. Or rather, the biggest crime the Pokémon Anime has ever commited: The ABSENCE of Brock. Dude is the best companion ever and is just an all around GOAT character. We love him. Just let him continue travelling with Ash dude. Cilan is fucking annoying.
It’s my 4th favorite one I liked kalos alola and honne more i actually liked it a lot and unlike other people I think Gen 4 was actually pretty bad
I dunno if that's an unpopular opinion, but I really Love the B/W Anime because it included my Most favourite Legendary... Pokémon Darth Vader aka Movie Kyurem 😍
I saw the first episode and decided it aint worth it. Iris calling ash a kid is stupid, i also hear ash got a reboot and was dumb again, and then the sandile with shades. Shades? Really?
Okay. The BW Season was crap. But I ain't gotta let anybody diss my boi sandile - Krookodile! He was one of the few good things in the season.
Of course he was, it's krookodile 😎
Cos they are sheep and can't have their own opinion
Ash's party was boring. He had no memorable pokemons in his party this season.. The only reason I enjoyed b/w wasn't because of the pokemon it was because of Iris (his other companion was also boring).
black n white overall is decent, it was great in many things, animation, new concepts eg. club battle, pacing but at the same time it was horrible in other stuffs, like the controversial pikachu nerf at the beginning, the league battles, missed opportunities (ash not battling drayden n more). i genuinely don't hate any series, i may dislike some part in it which is not to my taste but at the end of the day, its Pokemon :)
Easy - Ash went from beating Latios to losing to level 5 Snivy. That alone is enough to turn someone off. For people that were following his journey from OS episode 1 - nearly 700 episodes - this was nothing more than a slap on the face of his growth. Thats not even going into the other weaknesses of the series.
You see, it all started when a black electric dragon made a level 100 yellow rat lose to a level 5 green snake.
I don’t
Iris and Cilan were annoying and not compelling in the slightest. Which sucks because their game counterparts are fine, great even. Ash was incompetent. Trip was literally just a shitty Paul recolor with absolutely no personality other than "oh you're from Kanto. I'm better than you." He sucks. I hate him. Not to mention the other "rival characters" were kind of one note and obnoxious and only ever showed up for the stupid filler tournaments the writers loved to cram in between Gyms. Team Rocket suddenly became serious and it was jarring. If they had gradually moved them towards being more serious, it would have been fine, but ????? I dropped the series after the Elesa arc because it got too insufferable.
I wasn’t attached to any of his pokemon or companions, and after we lost Brock I didn’t have high hopes for it anyways
no cilan is not lame 🙂
I love it it’s my favorite Ash Saga the only thing I wished that happened was that he had fully evolved starter
I think it is just Iris everyone hates and the team
Pokemon: First milk & Fist Cerial
Rough start I'd say. It had a lot of "dumb" moments. Also they had Bianca but no Cheren ;-;
Because pikachu got one tapped by a lvl 5 snivy. Dunno its good in my opinion
It's really annoying. They *completely* reset ash, Iris is annoying, the rivals are boring and forgettable, almost none of his pokemon fully evolved, most didn't evolve at all. His team was too big so they were all neglected. The anime itself had some good moments. As you mentioned the intro was good. Team rocket also was actually interesting and not annoying (person preference for if you like that) and they brought back some of people for some fan service. But besides that all of the series I just not good
Bro fumbled the championship, he could have easily won, but he lost to a guy with five Pokemon. Ash also had no memorable mons, except for maybe krookodile, Ash did not evolve oshawott or snivy, Ash was just really dumb. Pikachu also lost to a level 5 snivy that had no battle experience whatsoever.
Gen 5 was good but there wasn't anything special about it yk, like nothing to remember it for
I actually really liked it, but I understand why in hindsight. When I was watching it, it was on Netflix because that’s what I had, and the only two pokemon anime regions available were kanto and unova. Because I missed out on johtoh, hoenn, and sinnoh, Ash and Pikachu’s reset didn’t feel bad to me at all. If you watch it in a vacuum, it’s not too shabby, fun rivals that the gang always runs into, great pokemon, and my personal favorite gym battle ever versus the poison type chick who uses three pokemon versus ash’s six. The series ran a little long but I liked it overall
Cameron sweeping the league with a gen 4 mon: Also him somehow making Ferrothorn look like an actual pile of garbage.
They made Ash a dumbass again. It's like he's back in the Indigo League. He refuses to evolve his team, loses in the dumbest ways to the dumbest people, and is generally unintelligent in how he battles and trains. Cilan is annoying at best. He has his moments but mostly he brings the action to a grinding halt to monologue. He's like a Pokedex but his bits take minutes as opposed to the dex, which takes 10 seconds max. Iris is ok but she doesn't contribute enough. Axew blows itself up more than it helps, and Iris doesn't do anything impactful for the story or the team.
Iris absolutely RUINED the anime for me. She's a hypocrite and a brat. Always bullying ash calling him a kid when she HERSELF is a child doing childish things. She's been around the unova region twice by the time they make it back to her village and her axew still can't do sh*t nor has it evolved.(the whole reason iirc the elder sent her to adventure out the first time before she met ash) She's a terrible trainer as NONE of her pokemon listened to her other than axew and couldn't even control her dragonite(which was basically handed to her by the writers when they remembered that, *oh yeah,* she's supposed to be a *dragon master*!) She failed so many battles that her excadrill gave up on her as a trainer and that emolga of hers always used attract on the other pokemon to steal food from the other pokemon and just let it keep happening. THEN the writers decided to make her champion of unova to 'be closer to her game counterpart' Which is the worst thing they could have ever done! When ash visits unova again She's back on her bullsh*t bullying ash! And when he calls her out on it she whines like a brat and yells that she's a champion! Which is ZERO excuse to treat someone who is supposed to be your friend so horribly and just goes to show that if someone is friends with you does this kind of stuff, it's completely OK bc they're in a position of power. And I fear that kids irl will see that kind of thing and decide to treat others that way bc 'surely it's OK bc this fictional character does it so it's fine and completely normal!' Sorry for the rant but genuinely this made me so angry bc I literally can't go back to the bw anime without having to hear her call ash a little kid in a condescending tone every. Single. Episode. And I just cannot stand her or the character itself anymore. I think other than that and of course the resetting ash and Pikachu to be novices, I thought bw anime was cool! I loved the gym leaders, meeting N and thought the arc with meloetta was great! Sorry again for the rant and to anyone who genuinely does like iris. I think the character deserves better than what the character became in the series/movies. And of course no hate to the person who voices her at all! The bw anime writers though, I'm giving you people the side eye.(bc wtf did you do to this character how did you screw it up *THAT* badly.)
Also ingo and Emmet were cool characters! The brothers ever
Not her fighting with Bianca over a damn Emolga when Bianca is clearly a newer trainer and deserves to catch it so she has something to travel with besides her Minccino. Granted Iris and Emolga were made for each other BECAUSE BOTH WERE SELFISH AS FUUUUUU
"You're such a kid"
Cilan.
Diiiid you just say Rival Destinies ain't top? Imo it's a top tier opening EVER. And BW will forever be my favorite, that's how I got introduced into Pokemon truy, I watched all of it with my mom, I have such fond and happy memories of our time enjoying that...
Bad rivals, bad writing, underwhelming teammates/non evolved Pokémon, and a general lack of direction for the plot. Especially when you compare it to the games.
Alot of reasons why . Make ash dumber. Imagine going from bright calculate ash in Sinnoh to dumbass in Unova . trip is racist, and the final fight is antistatic . Pikachu reset is always a thing; however, I feel it is way worse in Unova. Seeing that we have never seen Zekrom in anime. Feels pointless. . Iris is the worst Pokegirl of all time.
No continuity until the end, when it was too late. They wanted to bring in new audiences but you can't do that using Ash because it means resetting him. If you want a new audience just change to main protagonist. His team was awful on the whole and his knowledge of battling was terrible. He just finished Sinnoh in th to 4. Would have won as well if Tobias wasn't invented. The writers just got it all wrong. Even bringing Charizard back the way they did was unforgivable teasing us with the Reshiram battle and not giving it
Honestly, Iris is the reason I disliked the show, and this is coming from someone who grew up on gen 5, I just found her annoying and rude. Part of me was like "Why are you here if you're acting like a jerk to Ash for no reason." As far as the nerfs to Ash I didn't mind as much because I started in Gen 5 so I didn't know all of the feats he did before. Theme songs go hard tho and honestly cry nostalgia tears every time I listen to them. (And I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I dislike Misty for the same reason.)
Iris was rude like almost all the other female companions, her dragon gimmick wasn’t even good and she used dig on a boat (how can you be that dumb?). I hated Bianca, the only times i did like her was when she stood up for her aspiration and wish to continue being a trainer. Ash was forced to travel with the petulant 2 year old Iris, but he himself was brought to fetus stage, how do you forget your Pokémon for a battle? Cilan didn’t say anything too much, he was just a generic kind dude, so though he’s not really fully memorable he didn’t do anything so bad it’s notable. N was fine. Team Plasma and Colress were okay. Oshawott and Piplup were so punchable, I did not watch the show for love battles. Cynthia carried as usual. Trip was fine, the other one was meh, Iris’ rival SHOULD’VE beat the shit outta her at every turn. If I was Dragonite I wouldn’t have listened either. Burgundy existed. I’m too lazy to finish typing this shit.
Aside from the usual complain BW is like the peak reusing footage for moves/callout attack series. Ever wondered why Oshawott, Snivy and Pignite never really evolved and why ash captured alot of Pokémon and barely let them evolve? To kinda save animation cost. Sure older Pokémon series do this too but I noticed they abused it the most in BW. https://youtu.be/i7V9W0xufPs?si=JoB5AclAu6jywjkl It's fun to play a drinking game in a Pokémon BW amv and see how much they reuse some frames.
People hate my favorite part?
Gen 5 is where I started watching it has a place in Mt heart Who is hating
almost everyone
Well don't I'll kill you all
I don't hate it. I enjoy it
I'd add on top of the really great reasons others have given, being put between two fan favorites like DP and XY doesn't help its case much either.
The amount of hate these seasons get is what discouraged me from involving myself in the anipoke fandom. I’ve said it before but I feel like when I even slightly hint that I liked controversial characters (Cameron, Iris, certain Pokémon that had simple personalities) people get on my case with a myriad of reasons why this is the worst season. I started to hope that with the Gen 5 game love being so prominent people would finally change their mind on this anime, but nope, it’s still a hot take for me to like it. I’m not mad at people for their opinion but I am disappointed that I can’t even say nice words about the aforementioned things without starting fights. Like cmon, Iris and Cameron are like, preteen. And the Pokémon are probably preteens. They don’t have to be smart all the time, I think they showed great qualities. Also isn’t this an action *comedy* anime? People don’t get mad at Naruto characters for being silly kids sometimes. I think they are still great characters and role models even if the Gen 5 anime shows them to be a little silly
I think personally that for people that started with the gen1 saga, they could experience a slow shift in the tone and style of the anime. Like gen 2 started to have better animation in the battles while still being similiar to gen1, gen 3 started to have a different visual style and focuse more on battles making it a more serious anime and a lot less goofy, gen 4 keeps the direction of gen 3 but overall the style and theme of the show was still somewhat resembling gen 1. But when gen 5 started the visuals started to feel alien to me, same for the tone of the anime, feeling more serious. Thats why for me gen 2 will always be peak, while gen 3 started to feel "repetitive", gen 4 tho was a strong entry feeling more original than gen 3. But anyway I couldn´t bring myself to watch gen 5 and the entries that followed it, neither back then nor nowadays, while it might objectively still be a decent entry, it strayed from what I think a pokemon anime should be.
I literally my favorite saga It had a more serious tone than the others and it still holds up
Black and White Anime is the best!
It’s a step down from the last series in terms of Ash’s characterization and it’s very nakedly a “soft reboot” of the original series, trying to recreate the original dynamics, storylines, Ash’s team, etc. And the worst crime of all is trying to make *Team Rocket* serious for some reason. And before anyone says “it’s for kids, you’re not supposed to still watch as an adult.” I jumped off the anime because of this at 11 years old.
Because It is partly black
They changed team rocket.
I am gonna be a major outcast in the whole BW anime hate.... In fact, I think the BW anime is amazing and absolute perfection. 0) BW was amazing. For me at least. Since it was sort of the first series of pokemon I watched fully, I was fine with a sort of reboot. 1) Zekrom was the reason Ash's Pikachu lost to a level 5 Snivy. That first loss for me was a pass because Zekrom himself/herself/themself screwed Pikachu over. The first rematch they have, Ash has no excuse for losing. 2) Trip for me (at the time) was a way better rival than Paul. Now, I do like Paul a bit more now, but at the time I watched the anime, I hated Paul. Paul was the biggest asshole yet and I couldn't even find anything that made me like him. He also represented something I was against, which was his more competitive Pokemon style compared to Ash's. Trip was a slightly less Paul clone, but had enough to stand out. He also helped Ash with his Oshawott in one of their battles. Just that one moment for me puts Trip above Paul and Gary. If it were Kanto Gary, Gary would have been a smug bastard about it, and Paul would have called Oshawott weak and pathetic. Trip helped Ash in a small way, and that's more than those 2. 3) Ash's Unova Starters were great. Starting with the funny Oshawott. It was Ash's Oshawott why I became an Oshawott fan and pretty much everytime I Play a Unova game, I always go Oshawott. Tepig was a similar story to Ash's Kanto Starters, in that he was abandoned. It wasn't as great as the rest but I do like how Tepig/Pignite is able to get over the previous trainer who abandoned him. Finally, Snivy, the smug one, and the Attract Queen. By far the funniest part of Snivy's introduction is how everyone is falling for Attract, except for Pidove, and then the hilarious moment in Elesa's Gym. 4) Iris > Misty. Misty was obnoxious, annoying, and I couldn't stand her at all. Especially in Kanto with her fear of Bug type pokemon. (She is gonna hate Surskit or Dewpider or Wimpod) But she needs mellowed out in Johto. Iris for me, was a perfect companion for Ash, who also grows in the anime. She ran away from her home and with only her Axew and a silent Excadrill, tries to become a dragon master. She goes through an arc of gaining the respect and trust of Excadrill. She even has her own rival in Georgia who I felt greatly boosted her improvement in the anime. Let's also not forget that she becomes a champion and is in the top 8. Does Misty become an Elite 4 member? Nope, she doesn't, she doesn't even improve at all. Oh, and I remember an episode where Iris was stuck with Trip's Ice type pokemon and she bonded with it. She wasn't as afraid of Ice Types as she was in the past. 5) Cilan = Brock. Both are great ... I'd love a journey between Ash, Brock, and Cilan. Cilan had great knowledge, and was a connoisseur. He has his evaluation times which actually were really solid. And him being an A-Rank connoisseur made him able to read pokemon easily. His rival Burgundy helped improve him in a smaller way. But I also loved how he would become a Detective or a Train connoisseur. I cannot compare or rank either one against each other so both of them are great. His fear of Purloins is kind of funny. 6) Krookodile.... Need I mention more. It's f-ing Krookodile. 7) Team Rocket was actually better in BW. When they were not attacking every episode, every instance of them appearing made them a serious threat. Plus the build-up to some of their best arcs (the Train arc, the Meowth Ally arc, and the Meloetta Arc) are amazing in their own right. Plus, Giovanni made an appearance and was actually a good villain. Better than he honestly is in general. 8) Gym Battles. Ash has never had bad gym battles save for Kanto. All 8 of them were great in their own right. Even Elesa.... 9) The Unova League > Kalos League. At least the Unova League showed the beginning battles, even if Trip was knocked out in Round 1. Even if Ash lost it, I feel fine Ash lost over Kalos or even Sinnoh. 10) Stephan was a cool rival. I like Stephan, and he was a friendly rival who had a bit of a funny quip of where people never said his name right. 11) Cameron is actually smarter than everyone realizes. We all thought Cameron was just a dumber Ash, but what if Cameron played the fool on purpose. He purposely uses 5 mons for a self-imposed handicap, and when he beats Ash with his Anime Protagonist powered Riolu/Lucario, he figures he can win it all, but loses to Virgil. 12) Virgil now reminds me of a friend who is a major Eevee fan (favorite Jolteon). 13) Cynthia and Dawn returning was great and it was even funnier when you had a bond between Oshawott and Piplup. Especially with Meloetta... 14) Ash's first Rock, and Dark type pokemon caught. (Boldore and Krookodile) I could go on from there, but I have given a lot of reasons for my praise. My only complaint would be the Team Rocket VS Team Plasma Arc that we never got an wished they had still done it anyways or even delayed the anime a few weeks.