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Okay, OLM, you did better this time.
I'll give you that.

Ash is competent in battle again, well mostly.
You brought back contests, sort of.
His companions are useful and complimentary. I even see myself in Clemont.
My biggest issue though, it takes too much time for miss Serena to do anything and her calling isn't even in the games.
This generation in general has been strange to the max. Sure, we had representation of both Kalos and Hoenn Pokémon in the series, but NOT ONE that was obtained for the main team was from Hoenn. NOT ONE. You had the odd other regions which works mind you but were ... jarring to say the least. You know, I missed that from Diamond and Pearl where they advertised Johto BEAUTIFULLY in the story. Every main character had a Johto mon at least once in the show. Instead, the secondary characters have the Hoenn Pokémon, and Ash and company have mainly Kalos. Ash also has a HUGE affinity to one type in this particular series and it seems to be meant for one feature of the games which only is explored officially ONCE. Oh and there's a release in this series that pissed off me and many others, which made me hate Iris even more. It's definitely an improvement from stupid Best Wishes (the games are still great mind you), but it had a few steps back.

For starters, as a Pokemon series, it had a lot to live up to. It had to be more developed than the previous two series that came before it. It had to have its own identity. It also had to have its own look. To be honest, this series did the most right. In fact, I would go and say THIS is the series to study if you're going to make subsequent shows. AVOID BEST WISHES LIKE THE PLAGUE! (Okay, watch the highlights, but that's all, to get some continuity.)

Despite a dash of forced mascot syndrome, see Piplup for that, the characters chosen for the ... cast were overall very charming and lovable.

Two established characters of the series got very satisfying character development, new characters proved their worth on many occasions, and EVERY significant human character in the games were showcased here with the exception of Lucas and key Frontier Brains.

Ash and Dawn - our stars this time - in this particular iteration demonstrate a connection that benefit the other almost symbiotically where in the other series it was one-sided (May) or not at all (Iris).

The pokemon of the show had their share of nuanced character development as well which some had extraordinary results (Chimchar, without a doubt) and some not so much (a certain Grass type which will not be named). You'll have to see for yourself.

So as for my scores, I gave this show a 9 in story because of its consistency and polish, though I'm not happy that some pokemon got the shaft in the long run. The obstacles in the story and the battles were all top notch though. The first gym battle was actually pretty awesome for starters and each of the contests have merit in their own right. The fact this series ties BEAUTIFULLY into a narrative for a Johto reunion of sorts is also pretty awesome.
It got 9 in art because the battles are gorgeous! But the animation can be inconsistent at times.
9, if you're watching the Sub, for the music - it's fantastic! The dub's music, however, is rather cumbersome considering how some tracks just don't mesh well in the overall scene.
The characters got a 9, because their representation on screen were VERY faithful to the in-game counterparts if they had one. Plus, they were not completely annoying like in other generations. Some characters were enhanced like Gligar and Plusle/Minun who had incredible spirit and flexibility. I can say that each pokemon got a fair and just amount of screen time.
My enjoyment was a 9, because of how everything just fit together so nicely and how memorable the battles were as a whole.
My overall was a 9, you'll never see a Pokemon series that used what its games had to this degree possibly ever again.