Oct 27, 2016
Another journey is over for Ash, off he goes to a new region, most likely to follow the same formula as every other season yet. He starts over, makes new friends, briefly reunites with old companions (I hope?), builds his way up to the next League, loses it, says good-bye to its friends to head to yet another region. It's an non-stop cycle each generation. But with the XY&Z anime, Nintendo actually did a pretty good job, despite a number of decisions where the fandom has had it's disagreements on. And from what I have seen, that is an understatement.
Just note I take XY in
...
consideration along with XYZ.
Story - 6
The story gets the lowest score, as it is all right, but has a couple of flaws. For starters, the story regarding Zygarde is an interesting one that was more consistently running through the XY&Z arc. My only real complaint is that the battle around Lumoise City feels a bit rushed, probably due to lack of time, because of Sun & Moon.
Another good thing is seeing how Ash has become a mature and experienced trainer and actually looked to be in reach of becoming champion. Unfortunately, he lost. Now I wasn't outraged by this, just disappointed. And the outrage is for a lot of fans justified as Nintendo made us believe Ash was actually going to win. Bit of a dick move. A pretty big one, really. So big it deserved it's own place at the controversy section at the Wikipedia page of the anime!
Thirdly we had romance. There was a lot of talk around AmourShipping. Despite a number of clues put in the anime, I feel Nintendo never took it that seriously. The entire romance was one-sided, as only Serena has shown to have a crush, while mature-yet-naive Ash never gave me the impression to have feelings for her, or even realize it for that matter. So realistically, it was predictable that Ash ♥ Serena is something that won't happen. But I could help feeling the dissatisfaction. Secretly I did hope it would come true.
Art - 10
What's there to say about it? Pokémon XY&Z has arguably one of the most gorgeous anime around when it comes to art.
Sound - 10
Like the art, the music around the Pokémon is also fantastic and I have very little to add to it.
Character - 9
Unlike almost any other seasons of Pokémon, Ash has barely given the impression that he is an idiot. As mention above, his character has made a great improvement, even though I had my doubts at first when he came off the plane in the first episode of XY.
Unlike the B&W anime, the companions were also really good. Serena has gotten some very good character development, probably the best I have ever seen in Pokémon. I also like Bonnie a lot. She is young and playful, but not in a way that is annoying. Clemont is also a pretty fun character, though I must say he does not stand out as much as the girls do.
Enjoyment - 9
All these things combined make it a very likable anime to watch. It's got great looks, sound and characters throughout the show and made me excited for each episode that came next, even after the Kalos League finale, as we jumped straight into the attack on Lumoise City.
Overall - 8
It is not strange to say that XY&Z is the best series yet. It would probably battle with Diamond and Pearl and the original series for the throne for the very best, but while the latter is out of pure nostalgia and is not as good as the other two, Diamond and Pearl was actually a really good anime as well.
I think overall the XY&Z is slightly better than Diamond in Pearl on all areas, but showed some downsides towards the end of the series. So whatever your favorite was, is your own choice. But if I had to pick, I think that the XY&Z anime is my favorite.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
