"Why I personally think the Sun and Moon anime has been an improvement over the previous seasons (along with some of the spin off OVAs/specials)"

So, initially, when the previews for the Sun and Moon anime were coming out, I was...apathetic, maybe a mix of apathy and anger, but the preview images alongside the disappointment with how XYZ's League ended left a bad taste in my mouth. The art style was fine, but I (initially) agreed with the sentiment that Ash and what little we saw of Team Rocket before the actual images came out looked weird (ironically, if that still of the official Sun and Moon design for Ash where he's just holding a Pokeball was the first thing we saw of him, people would've probably guessed he was 13) This was only increased with the actual ending to XYZ, in which they decided to go "oh hey, Ash, we're taking your frog away, no, we're no taking the Super Mode but allowing him to go back to Oak's place, he's gone forever, but don't worry, here, have a kiss from a girl who will be more remembered for pinning over you and kissing you than any actual arc she had, that'll for sure make up for everything (right?...), and with Generations coming out (I wanna say at) roughly at the same time as Sun and Moon, a lot of people, again, myself included, were pretty fatigued with the current anime.Then Generations came and went, I initially followed the hype and wanted a series that dealt more with that...only to later go back and realize that, in my quick judgement, I don't think Generations would've been well received that much. My problems with Generations were as follows: I found the character designs to be weird and overly detailed for Pokemon's standards (and in some cases like Lorelei's tits, Cheryl eating Plankton's Invisible Meatloaf with a perpetual blush, the Yandere Magma chick, and whatever the fuck pose Shelly did in Episode 8, oddly over fetishized), the voice acting (dub) with the exception of Ben 'Numbuh 1' Diskin and a few others, and the promise of "untold stories" effectively being more "untold stories...except not really". As an aside, I'd like them to try again with another spin off, but go back to more of an Origins style (both in artwork and VA work) that's expanded.After all that, though, the Sun and Moon anime finally came, and to my utter surprise, as someone who swore off the anime a long time ago, I watched the first couple episodes and it somehow thawed my chilly heart. Stuff that would've certainly bothered me in early seasons now feel endearing, their attempts at comedy hit more than they miss, and the overall laid back, slice of life vacation theme of the series, combined with the lively as all hell art style, make the show feel more genuine compared to most of the past arcs of the show, even the fan-favorite ones in most cases.One of the things that I actually like about the show is how they handle Ash this time. For one, they actually got me to like him, namely in making him act like a 10 year old. In past series, they were too focused with either making him a brat, making him incompetent, or making him a badass full time when we know full well the League's gonna come and waste that in a few months, but here, they strike a balance. He's clearly strong (it's a toss up between him and Kiawe for being the strongest in the school), his only actual legit losses are with the Island Diety and Gladion, and Gladion had to power up Null twice with Swords Dance to get over the disadvantage, but he's not boring, nor is he overly stupid, nor do the class go out of their way to either snub him nor circle jerk him like half the cast of XYZ did at times, they just treat him like one of their own, and his victories all feel earned, as do his catches, like all of his catches were done without him fighting the Pokemon beforehand with the partial exception of Litten, and I'm fine with it because they feel so earnest and they're all given personality.Another thing they were able to do right is how they balance the main cast and the filler. This is the first season where we have 6 trainers in the main cast (Gladion being the 7th), usually, you get like 3 and then sometimes some kid tags along, and every one of them gets at least a few episodes to themselves. Sure, characters like Kiawe, Lillie and Lana (best girl, fite mi) get more than Sophocles and Mallow, but there's almost always something that's gonna happen to either them as characters or their teams when they get the focus (Kiawe and Sophocles getting new members, Mallow evolving her stuff and getting drunk, Lillie and her development, and Lana mastering Z-Moves). The filler this season also benefits from the setting, in the past, it would just be a case where half the episodes take place in some random forrest the cast were traveling in to get to the next time, here, we get them doing stuff like baseball, Charjabug racing, or anything that helps flesh out the culture of the region without it getting either too expository or too boring, and when they do go serious, it hits harder.And to go back a bit, the art style is lively as all hell. Everything is expressive and animated, these people actually feel and look 10-14, as opposed to them all looking like...15 before. The animation for the Misty fight was chaotic and frantic, the first Gigavolt Havoc and moments like all of Ash's dramatic ass poses in the Olivia fight are all vibrant. The art style that everyone initially ragged on ended up feeling like a long overdue revamp.But to keep it short (before the tldr), I think what makes this season so endearing compared to the previous seasons is that, with the school setting (ironically the most panned thing about this season), the anime potentially found a better, more logical reason to keep Ash around without making it too redundant. They found a substitute for the League that feels more satisfying than the League. In the past, no matter how much the heroes train, we all knew that the League/Pretty Pageant for the girl was gonna be were it all went down the drain, with the school, they could, go on and have Ash graduate WITHOUT ever introducing the League (I know they teased one), and I'd feel that it'd be more rewarding than waiting for him to fail the League after 3-4 years, and if they keep it up and have him just participate in whatever gimmick Get 8 land has, that could work more. Like have Ash go "fuck the League, graduating felt good, I wanna walk the Earth and do more weird and outlandish shit" at the end of Alola, and I'd feel that'd be the best route to take for a 20 year long character.tl;dr: The Sun and Moon anime ironically redeemed the anime in my eyes with it's endearing art style (that's like the Hosada Digimon movies, Little Witch Academia and Sugimori's art fucked and this came out), it's comedic moments feel more earned, and they potential found a better reason to keep Ash around than to promote the League.What do y'all think, though? via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2zi6une