Thread: Do you have any unpopular opinions about the anime?

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

The original series characters are, by far, the worst overall handled of the entire anime due to the writers lack of experience at the time. And this includes Gary and Tracey.

I would say its more other way around.
With Misty you could say writers never explored much on her goals thats true, but they did pretty good job at developing her in personality sense which got carried over onto her story. I feel she definitely changed the most as character right after May having believable and memorable growth while bringing lot of comedy, fun interaction and conflict in main cast ,helping Ash in growth by serving as motivator and someone who push him forward, often heped in resolution of plots and saving people lives or towns from destruction through heroic acts bringing indentity and appeal toward this show(more than other girls imo). In nutshell she grew from short tempered, frustrated girl into more mature, filled with confidence person who got out of sister shadow, started to take more initiative herself, discovered value of fruiendship appreciating Ash and Brock friendship to point of being to her "new family" and overcome some fears like Gyarados while remaining playful and spunky in more mature light. In that aspect i appreciated writers work puttong lot of thouight in conveying this in captivating and fun manner.

Compared to Iris, Cilan and most sidekicks and in some aspects even Dawn which never really changed much as person growing mostly in goal sense, i find Misty went through more believable growth containing more vulnerability and hard work when episodes focused on her growth and trials she had to overcome. And as result of that writers portrayed her change as person and trainer in better, conceivable manner.

In comparison issue i have with Iris is lack of believable growth staying more or less same for most part not going through any real struggles, being followed with very little growth as far as Emolga , Excadrill and especially Axew goes.
And Cilan remained stagnant not changing much at all.

As far as Brock goes while his role wasn't big and direct like we got used to(or better term would be spoiled), he still had pretty good treatment as supporting character providing humor and fun interactions, being of big importance for Ash growth as trainer teaching him basics, preparing strategies and preventing him from doing reckless mistakes being valuable asset to group through his wisdom role of older brother he played while getting some decent development himself.

We can see that in finding common language with dis functional family becoming more compassionate and full of understanding compared to early days.
During time he traveled with Ash he transformed from at times impulsive guy which had to take care of younger brother and sisters want in more level headed and wise person learning many new things about pokemon, enriching his knowledge as breeder by learning to prepare food, potions, settle down conflict between wild enraged pokemon and about new ways of healing and taking care of pokemon eventually coming to realization what he wants to do with his life, slowly starting to lean toward doctor calling deciding to become one.

He definitely got better treatment than Max, Tracey and even Cilan whwen taking in account whole run.

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

I don't mean as a group, I mean as individual characters. For Brock this includes his AG and DP run.

Thats more unpopular than popular. Worst handled characters in fandom judging by what i read in here and other sites were Tracey, Max, Iris(here mostly) and to my big surprise Dawn on pokeelite, pokecommunity and similar sites.

The writers obviously had no long term plans for Misty and Brock. This is because the show was planned to end with Kanto, so they originally had no reason to develop them much if they were just going to be there that short time. This is why after being surprised by the success of the show, both Orange Islands and later Johto were created, but nothing really changed at the time.

Its only likely because Tracey was even less important than they were, so it seemed like they were getting this great screentime but really weren't.

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

The writers obviously had no long term plans for Misty and Brock. This is because the show was planned to end with Kanto, so they originally had no reason to develop them much if they were just going to be there that short time. This is why after being surprised by the success of the show, both Orange Islands and later Johto were created, but nothing really changed at the time.

I beg to differ. It can be clearly noticed how writers expanded on Misty and Brock stories after it was decided to continue on with show past Kanto. We can see that through Orange Islands and Johto where they focused more on Misty own dreams such as water master goal, her passion for water types, backstory learning more about her preference for water types and sisters along with dedicating several episodes on her learning how to establish bond with pokemon like Psyduck, Marill, Poliwag, Wooper etc.
In addition to that they build up on established personality focusing more on her romantic and flaming side playing valuable love subplot in OI, had her meet idol Lorelei, catch new pokemon etc. On her dedication and passion toward battling being highly determine about becoming best water trainer entering various events(Whirl Cup, Seaking contest, Baloon race to name a few), battled various trainers learning new things such as Andreas, Sakura, Egan, Dorian etc, improved as trainer having several changes to her team gradually becoming more mature and independent breaking free from sister influence and earning their respect afterwards in chronicles.

Same applies to Brock enriching his knowledge about pokemon and ways of healing practicing his acquisition by taking care of Stantler, Golbat, Sudowoodo, learning how to deal with mischief pokemon like Wooper or Teddiursa etc. Exchanged knowledge with several breeders entering breeder convention with Suzie,enriched his pokemon roaster through new evolutions and captures along with writers focusing more on his flirty side and quest of finding true love through dr. Anna, Temaku, girl from ruins when Golbat evolved etc not staying just on gag.

Contemporary both Brock and Misty provided lot of humor, drama and flaunting dynamic on daily basis, still played role in Ash growth as trainer giving him great deal of inspiration and support through Johto and Orange along with often contributing to resolution of plots, helping fight villains whether its TR, ufo fighters, how to solve issue with legendary or enraged pokemon etc receiving more focus on themselves and story Compared to Kanto where most of their spotlight was in some way connected with teaching Ash basics and preventing him from rushing in trouble,

Granted there was room for improvement and things could've been handled better but writers definitely expanded on their stories and gave them some notable growth past Kanto (especially in Misty case).

Its only likely because Tracey was even less important than they were, so it seemed like they were getting this great screentime but really weren't.

I had no objections for amount of focus they received in Kanto, Orange Islands or second half of Johto (more specifically Master Quest) getting enough screen time and development for supporting characters.

I don't find Tracey boring at all, I think he's a fun person. :)

I think the Unova saga is by far the worst

Also, I think Ash and the other characters NEED to be replaced. Instead of ruining existing charaters like they have done to ash (making him forget the last 10+ years of pokemon training experience)

I don't mind the "pity" badges if done right. (Such as the boulder Badge, Marsh badge, and Rainbow badges in kanto)

Originally Posted by sonic10158

I think the Unova saga is by far the worst

Actually, most people here think Unova is pretty bad. That's not really unpopular ^^;;

The reason Johto didn't stand out is because its the only saga not to introduce a new main character. Other than Brock returning, there was no new lead.

Even in terms of rivals, the only new character was Casey who barely appeared and was just a minor character anyway. Johto really tried too hard to be a Kanto rehash with Johto pokemon

Thought of another one:

I liked Tobias vs. Ash.

Why? Because I usually like it when Legendaries appear in the show than in the Cash Grab Fanfics Movies. I especially liked seeing Latios in action after the underwhelming movie almost 10 years prior.

Originally Posted by SammyW27

Thought of another one:

I liked Tobias vs. Ash.

Why? Because I usually like it when Legendaries appear in the show than in the Cash Grab Fanfics Movies. I especially liked seeing Latios in action after the underwhelming movie almost 10 years prior.

Yay, I'm not the only one. :]

Originally Posted by The Fighting Misty

The reason Johto didn't stand out is because its the only saga not to introduce a new main character. Other than Brock returning, there was no new lead.

Even in terms of rivals, the only new character was Casey who barely appeared and was just a minor character anyway. Johto really tried too hard to be a Kanto rehash with Johto pokemon

To be fair, the games relied on Kanto as well, so I think that was an issue for the second generation in general. I still think that Johto had some really solid improvements over Kanto, such as Ash's Johto Pokemon having more personality than most of his Kanto Pokemon and much better Gym battles than the other two journeys had. It definitely could have been better, but Johto had some solid points in its favor in my opinion.

I think the worst kinds of developments in this show aren't the ones that are rushed, but ones that are painfully drawn out when there's just no substance to them. The Aipom/Buizel trade and all the events leading up to it is the worst offender in my book. Did we mention that Aipom loves contests and Buizel loves battling today? No? Well guess what, Aipom loves battling and Buizel loves contests! Gee, I sure wish there was something we could do about that.

I always thought I was the only one that wanted jokes like this and this to return ("I don't hate them by any means..."? What hell Takeshi?! You know it's Kojirou! LOL).

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who thinks Best Wishes Satoshi is nothing like "First 80 episodes of the Original Series Satoshi", where he actually had an amusing personality, though.

Zoey is the best rival and one of the best characters in the entire anime.

I actually thought this would be a popular opinion, but upon viewing past threads, I was surprised to see that so many people disliked her.

I was shocked since I thought that Zoey was such an intertaining character. I loved the way she had such amazing contest appeals and battles. She also had a lot of interesting personallity quirks I really wish had been expanded on. For example, she dislikes loud noise which can be understood from several of her quotes.

Buizel your way out of this: "Just as noisy as ever I see." Ash and Dawn stop bickering "That's better."
A stand up sit down: "Well if you're gonna bring help, might as well be someone who loves to talk." "I'd rather hear Dawn talk."
Classroom training: "One of Snowpoint City's nicest things is its peace and quiet. Even the townspeople are peaceful and quiet. I love this town."
Opposites interact: "Good grief. Kind of early to be making this much noise."

Now I'm sure Zoey's dislike of loud noise stems from her comming from the quiet snowpoint city, but I kinda wish one of the other characters would have asked her about this. But anyway, I wish Zoey could have had more appearances. I would have liked to see her in more episodes that weren't focused entirely on contests. For instance, I would have liked the Snowpoint episodes to last a but longer so we could have learned more about her childhood and school days with Candice. Obviously, I was totally dissapointed when Dawn didn't mention her during her return in BW2. I also loved how she was a kind person since it was a nice transition from May's mean/taunting rivals. I was so thrilled when Zoey won the GF because there were so many rumors that Dawn was going to win when she clearly doesn't even compare to Zoey's skills.

Anyway, that's my unpopular opinion.

People hate zoey because she was a mary sue who never got her rightful comeupptance by the main character to which she was a rival to. Even paul who was probably 3+ tiers higher up on the threat lidt finally lost.

Originally Posted by pokemonsquared

People hate zoey because she was a mary sue who never got her rightful comeupptance by the main character to which she was a rival to. Even paul who was probably 3+ tiers higher up on the threat lidt finally lost.

Dude, I agree with you. I don't like DP myself, and I don't like Zoey, but that's really how I feel myself. :D