"MY RANKING OF THE ANIME SEASONS"

TIER LIST:S - DP, SUMO, XYZA - ADVANCEDB - KANTO (+ORANGE ISLAND)C - JOHTO, JOURNEYSD - BW​Explanations:Indigo:+ The comedy is on point.+ I feel attached to Pikachu and all of the starters.+ More unique concepts can be explored. Aka creative freedom since there is no status quo set by game freak yet.+ It's shorter which makes it have important episodes next to each other.+ The orange island is a great placeholder series with an engaging narrative and a satisfying conclusion- Butterfree and Pidgeotto lack personality (Especially Pidgeotto who is just a bird).- Inconsistent worldbuilding.- Lackluster gym battles where Ash gets pity-badges- Boring rivalry, Ash and Gary fight once.- Ash's league loss is an asspull. He fights team rocket before and Charizard falls asleep- Misty and Brock have no goals of their own and get shafted in terms of development (their Pokémon are also boring (a few exceptions exist))​Gold and Silver:+ The gym battles are actually great.+ Great. ABSOLUTELY GREAT movies.+ Awesome league with different battles that explore different characters.+ Some great filler episodes.+ All of Ash's Pokémon have unique personalities.+ How they handled Ash's loss and the transition to Hoenn.- Too much filler.- Several rivals don't come back for the league.- The Johto Pokémon are shafted for Kanto ones (Heracross is the extreme example).- Misty and Brock have no goals of their own and get shafted in terms of development. Their Pokémon are also boring (a few exceptions exist).- Gary is barely present and we get the weird Pokéball retcon at the league.- It also lacks diversity when it comes to arcs like there are only gyms and one-offs.​Ruby and Sapphire+ Ash's Pokémon actually train for gym battles and learn new moves.+ The team is diverse with great variety rather than him just catching starters.+ His Pokémon all feel distinct and they managed to make Swellow awesome rather than just being another bird.+ May feels like a character that develops.+ Drew is a great rival for May, no the entire cast of rivals is great.+ The league is awesome with a diverse pool of trainers.+ Great gym battles (except for 7)+ Ash is too cocky and gets to develop from that.+ The battle frontier. It is the perfect handling of nostalgia while also feelings satisfying. The battles are great, the frontier brains are all distinct and Ash feels like he grows.+ May's team is also great. Each Pokémon serves a purpose and matches May's personality.- May's Bulbasaur gets the short end of the stick.- Ash doesn't have a consistent rival.- May's goal is treated as lesser than Ash's.- Brock is once again side-lined and Mudkip doesn't get much screentime or development.- Torkoal and Glaileget shafted.- Thunderarmor.- Contests are too formulaic with May meeting a new one-off almost every time and the combinations aren't that creative until Kanto.- Max doesn't have a companion Pokémon.- Team Rocket is overused.- Team Rocket appears during gym battles and just waste time that could be used to give the battle further depth.​Diamond and Pearl:+ Paul. Awesome rivalry with a great clash of ideals and a satisfying final battle.+ Great mini-arcs that progress plot points. I.e. Summercamp, Hearthome tag battle.+ Brock actually gets some interesting things with him reevaluating his goal and choosing to become a doctor.+ Croagunk is a distinct partner for Brock that almost feels as present as Pikachu. Evert Pokémon on his team has a purpose and a personality rather than just being a Geodude that he has to represent the game.+ Piplup is a distinct partner for Dawn that almost feels as present as Pikachu. Her whole team is great (Except maybe Cyndaquill) and showcases another part of her personality.+ Dawn has multiple interesting rivals and is an awesome character.+ Contests are treated better and are a lot more explosive.+ Infernape and how it connects to Paul. Truly feels like an ace.+ Ash's team is awesome and each Pokémon feels distinct.+ The gym battles are great.+ Strategy takes the center stage like nothing before. Countershield, spin, and random strategies during battles make Ash feel competent.+ Team Galactic arc feels earned and is divided up over the entire series+ The champion is developed and we get to see the entire elite four.+ The league is awesome with rivals that have been set up for the series. Conway, Nando, Barry, and Paul are almost a perfect cast of rivals for Ash.+ Ash brings back old Pokémon for the league and it actually feels earned. His sinnoh team gets the spotlight which is the most important thing.+ The gym leaders get their own episodes to make them distinct.- Some league battles are skipped over.- Amibipom's handling. Having all of that buildup for Dawn to release it to play ping pong? Like what were they thinking? They could at least have given it to Zoe.- Torterra getting the shaft.- Team Rocket is overused.- Too much filler.- Too large gaps between gyms.- Team Rocket during gym battles.- Can be formulaic at times.- Tobias.​Black and White:+ Alder is awesome.+ Ash's Oshawott, Snivy, Krookodile, and Scraggy are awesome Pokémon with unique personalities and a struggle to overcome.+ Iris feels unique despite being a rip-off of Misty but I wish that we got more from her. She could have been great if they had leaned into her being a rival for Ash and her relationship with Drayden.+ All characters have rivals (Even Cilan!)+ The tournament arcs are an awesome way to show off the cast and develop them.+ The gym leaders get their own episodes to make them distinct.+ Team Rocket actually does something different and has cool arcs.- Dropped plot points like Zekrom.- Team Rocket vs Team Plasma is cut (not to the fault of the creators).- Ash only has two fully evolved Pokémon.- The filler season (Decalore) is lackluster. (Could have done Sinnoh Battle frontier instead.)- Ash's rotation strategy is uneven since the starters always are present which means that Boldore, Palpitoad, and Leavanny are shafted.- Pignite is the third fire starter to have been abandoned by its trainer.- Ash doesn't have a fully evolved starter.- It is obviously too close to the OG series. Ash's personality is retconned, his team is reminiscent of the OG, the companions are close to the OG, etc. The general soft-reset.- Team Plasma feels like an afterthought.- Having Roxie use 3 and Ash 6 feels condescending.- Ash loses to Cameron.- Trip is unfortunately not developed a lot.- A lot of awesome characters from the games are very boring in this. Bianca and Cheren could have been great rivals for Ash. N would have been an awesome philosophical thing if the whole plot had been adapted.​X and Y:+ Greninja is an awesome ace.+ The battles are epic.+ Each gym battle adds something.+ Sawyer is a great rival with a unique angle of being someone that admires Ash.+ Serena, Clemont, and even Bonny get a lot of development+ The team flare arc is great+ The gym leaders get their own episodes to make them distinct.+ The Pokémon Special system is an awesome way to introduce a rival.+ Serena and Clemont have great teams with personalities.+ It's shorter which means less filler.+ Serena has great rivals.+ The romance aspect is surprisingly good.+ The Professor is reoccurring.- Ash's other team members (Particularly Noivern) get shafted in XYZ because Greninja eats up so much screentime- The league is rushed.- Ash sometimes feels too straightforward. Like where's the comedy?- Introducing both main rivals after the 6th badge isn't a great idea.- Ash never beats Alain. He could at least have gotten ONE win before the league.- Ash losing the league feels weird since he never beats Alain and because the Pokémon formula changes the next season.- Showcases are underdeveloped. The Grand festival was a event almost as big as the Pokémon league, but the showcase finale is extremely rushed in comparison.- The evil team is not present until XYZ. I wish that they'd get something to do in the earlier series so that there could be some villain plots spread out over the entire narrative.- Serena has too few Pokémon. At least give her a Mudkip.- Ash's team is unbalanced. He did not need to have another dragon/flying type.Sun and Moon:+ A change in formula.+ The region really feels alive.+ Team Rocket is great.+ Ash's true strength is represented rather than having him reset. Pikachu is OP as it should be.+ Ash getting a father figure is great. Kukui is such a great character.+ The villain plot is spread out over the entire series rather than just in the end.+ More expressive.+ Awesome animation.+ Gladion, Lillie, Lana, and Kiawe are great. They have their own goals, and personalities and get episodes to show them off.+ The battles look great.+ The filler is great and actually feels important.+ Ash's team is awesome. Rowlett, Litten, and Lycanroc each have their own personality and their own rival.+ The companions have good Pokémon.+ The Kahuna are awesome and feel like characters.+ The slice of life, comedy thing is cozy and is a great change of pace.- Ash is sometimes too goofy.- The Eevee problem. It’s teased for so long to become a background character.- The league is great but having it be Ash's first win feels lackluster.- Melmetal and Nagnaneedel show up and don't get a lot of screen time. They feel asspull-y.- Too few battles.- There are too many companions, or rather some don't really get great episodes or cool goals. Mallow and Sophacleas feel underdeveloped.- The first season isn't the best.- Some of the comedy feels overdone.- The art style needs perfecting in season 1.Journeys:+ A change in formula.+ Projekt Mew is a great idea and it has been improving Goh's random catching.+ Ash catches fan favorites.+ Traveling around the world is a cool concept.+ The returning companions and characters are handled great.+ Team Rocket is great.+ The art style is the best of two worlds.+ Ash's fighting (pre m8) is handled great.+ Each team member for Ash has their own unique personality.+ The comedy is on point.+ Koharu was a unique character in the beginning.+ Ash's Pokémon have personality.+ Ash's true strength is represented rather than having him reset.+ Goh being an introverted guy who doesn't like battling is actually great.- Some of the filler is too much.- Too much focus on gimmicks. Dracovish, Dragonite, and Sirfetched are shafted due to them not having gimmicks.- Goh's episodes are just boring and he just doesn't feel like he has any development. Like the Raboot situation was built up to be something great but they're just friends again all of a sudden. Like lean into the drama and have Goh have to make up for not believing in him.- Lucario is favored over most others- Almost all of Goh's Pokémon feel like background things. Just seeing him chuck a ball at a piece of wood doesn't do anything for me and they almost never come back.- Koharu was a unique female companion but she feels like a side character and her whole Eevee thing feels extremely lackluster.- The M8 choreography is boring. Dodge...please.- Alain's treatment. I had no problem with no Charizard vs Greninja rematch, this is another series where other Pokémon deserve the screentime. But having him go out to two Pokémon is an embarrassment.- No focus on Leon.- Galar gets too little screentime. At least put Sakuragi Lab in Galar. The gym leaders and rivals from the game are just gone and we're probably never going to get a proper series with them.- Kanto is overrepresented.- Feels too random, like they'll just go somewhere just because of the plot.- The SWSH plot is pretty meh and doesn't have much to it so it is adapted into 2 episodes isn't bad but they could give Galar more screentime.- It feels like three different plots stringed together (project mew, Eevee, and PWC rather than a complete narrative)- The legendaries don't feel legendary (which is more a problem with Pokémon as a whole recently).It's not bad by any means but it feels meh to me. Maybe the ending or a rewatch will make it better for me? But it's always felt directionless and too random for my liking.Final comment:Sorry for the long post. These are just my feelings about the Pokémon anime. Feel free to disagree and tell me what you think! via /r/pokemon https://ift.tt/57LzvlP