Pokemon Best Wishes! Season 2: Decolora Adventure

My first review (Updated 10/22/15)

First of all, I'm been watching this show since the first season that began in 1998 when it first aired on TV (the English version). I'm watching in Japanese from near the end of the Diamond and Pearl to now.

After I had completed this show, I'm starting to lose interest because its not the same feeling as I usually do when I watch the original to the Diamond and Pearl but I still try to watch X and Y since I saw the trailer and it looks cool with the new animations

Story - 6

The story is the usual common story-line, Ash ... and his two friends, Iris, and Dent, goes on on a boat adventure for most of the time and seeing the characters from previous seasons like Professor Oak and Clair. During the 2nd half of the show, a character from the Kalos region arrives and the story continues there. Even though, the Decolora adventure is giving hints for the X and Y series that is coming next month; however, the episodes feels lacking and a bit predictable for most of the time.

Art - 7

The art is the same as it usual is in the black and white series. Overall, its nice and simple with a bit of 3D animation and its not bad for a long anime show.

Sound - 7

The sound is good as it always is in this show, even the music is good. Even though it does get repetitive by just listening to the soundtrack. The sound of the pokemon and their moves is usual as always. The voice actors did a great job with the roles.

Character - 7

For Ash:
Well, he's still the same as always since the beginning of his first journey. Not much with his character development, just traveling with his friends and Team Rocket getting in the way for the entire boat adventure and now Kalos too.

For the rest of his friends
Not so much character development for Iris and Dent.

Enjoyment - 6

Well, not as enjoyable like the previous seasons since the plot is getting a bit boring and uninteresting since this series is to make more time for the X and Y series. It can't be helped, either they can rerun a few of previous episodes which they never did or make new episodes that drag out till the next season starts since it is for the kids who are starting to watch this show.

This show has continued for a while and the creators are starting to run out of ideas. Hope the next season will be better than black and white since its not interesting as the diamond and pearl series. Also this series is common with going on a journey, getting badges, meeting new people and battling just like the games.

Overall - 6/7

For the Decolora adventure, it is recommend for people who likes Pokemon and can handle the sort of same events in every episode since the beginning of this show. This is not the last season maybe the next one will be the last one because of lack of plot and ideas of black and white series. Ash is still the same age as he always been except for the one episode in the first season with the journey for a year. Well, hope this review is ok, since I'll probably go on a rant if I continue.

This part of the series is the worst because it's just fillers. In the previous series, the fillers were balanced between the main episodes. They feel stale here because they are all lumped together.

There are few fun episodes like the Oshawott scalchop competition and the episode where Emolga joins the Team Rocket. But many episodes are unnecessary.

Charizard is here for no reason.

There is nothing to talk about in this arc and mal wants me to write a longer review.
why do I need to write a long review for a show where there is nothing to talk about?

Well, I ended Episode N with my only hope being that this last Unova arc wouldn't be a total waste of time... Was it? Eh... Kind of. It follows the end of the Pokémon formula. After Ash participates in the region's Pokémon League, he always returns home, albeit briefly, before becoming acquainted with a new region in some way or other and then setting off on another adventure. Was this season terrible? No. But did that last step of the journey really need to be stretched out to last 20 episodes? Also no.

It's like this... Each season is always a collection of mini adventure ... plots with the occasional important bigger plot episode thrown in. This last season of Best Wishes was kind of like the mini episodes without a bigger story to tie them together. There were pieces of it that I liked. Alexa's inclusion felt tasteful. It was nice for Ash to get to spend some time appreciating the new Kalos Pokémon before he decided to rush off and catch some himself. Usually, all we get is Ash's mother mentioning a new region he's never heard of and then he's off. Especially because the ending of this formula is usually a little rushed, I kind of enjoyed not seeing Ash's journey home and plans for the future crammed into a single episode. (Though it is worth noting that his decisions being very last minute is totally in character for Ash.) So I would have liked seeing it spread out a little... Just not quite as much as it was. And then the conclusion of his travels with Iris and Cilan were rushed anyway.

I didn't think they would be at first. Three episodes out from the end, we get to meet back up with Cilan's brothers who've come up against a challenger threatening to take their gym if she succeeds in defeating all three of them. Cilan manages to come out on top, using some of the things he's learned over the course of his travels, but this does leave him worried for the sake of his gym. And though it's been done before, I was totally expecting him to cut his travels short and return with his brothers to Striaton, and I would have been totally okay with that. I think that would have been the end of a good character arc for Cilan, and he could always set back out on another journey in the future after affirming that everything was all right at home. But he doesn't... His brothers assure him that they can handle the gym (despite all evidence to the contrary) and send him on his way.

It was just a little strange to me, because the writers had such a fitting, heartfelt place to leave Cilan... And they didn't take it. Though he does depart the very next episode, on a note that doesn't feel nearly as well-thought out... And we get even less for Iris. Basically, she just meets up with the Dragon gym leader from Johto over the course of their travels and decides to go challenge her. It's just... they were both so excited about getting to Kanto, and then they're both only there for, like, a day before they go rushing off on their own adventures elsewhere. It just felt very... perfunctory. Like, the writers knew they had to get rid of Iris and Cilan somehow, they just didn't have a good way to do it. And honestly, they didn't even look that sad to be going their own ways. It all just felt a little lukewarm to me.

But whatever. I've been excited to get out of Unova for a while. So I guess I wasn't terribly sad to see them go either.

STORYTELLING: Nothing sort of a great story as expected. Generic as Pokémon has always been but this time the execution was nowhere near what its predecessors have otherwise offered in the past. Some arcs like the Tournaments Arcs were good and the N arc was fantastic. But that's about it. Every time time it feels the show is about to peak, it goes downhill straightaway.

PACE: Highly inconsistent. Intolerably slow at times, extremely fast in the other times resulting in a Filler Arc in end. Spread of fillers was still better than last series. Though, the fillers were mostly incredibly terrible.

CHARACTERS: Ash was one dimensional and ... back to zero after years of development. It was strange and his goofiness was annoying. Although, I found Cilan to be the most annoying character. His connoisseur gag got old too quick and thankfully the spam stopped by the time Unova League arrived. Iris, on the other hand, wasn't bad but she didn't recieve huge chunk of development and remained poorly stagnant throughout. In the end, both of their ambitions remained as ambitions and recieved no temporary conclusion like the past characters. Besides, none of the the side characters were memorable. Trip, the rival of Ash, in particular was bland and edgy for no good.

POKÉMON: The Pokémon of the three main characters had good chemistry mostly. But that's about it. No Pokémon in the entire series stood out to be an ace or icon of the series. But I liked how most of Unova's Pokémon were gradually shown.

REGION PORTRAYAL: Pretty good, much better than the previous generations (maybe except Johto). But the annoying extra vibrant and one dimensional backgrounds made it look bad.

TEAM ROCKET: First half was about seriousness for nothing, second half was a hard attempt at redeeming their characters, resulting in a mess. Lack of chemistry with their own Pokémon resulted in an even dull Team Rocket than ever. The comedic relief aspect of their characters were long gone.

TEAM PLASMA: Just why couldn't they appear beforehand? Their relevance pretty much lasted only for the N arc and that's very disappointing considering the immense potential they had for the plot.

GYM BATTLES: No memorable battles at all. Not that great battle choreography either. Animation was mostly mediocre (pathetic in fact for a 2010-2013 show).

LEAGUE: Outright pathetic. The worst league ever. No more comments.

ANIMATION: Great character designs. Bad and extra vibrant background arts. Negligible animation update from its predecessor, resulting in a mediocre animation for its era.

THEME SONGS: All the theme songs were extremely great. Probably best set of theme songs Pokémon have ever delivered alongside Advanced generation!

VOICE ACTING: Ash sounded extra childish but other than that, I believe this was the peak of English dub alongside its predecessor.

OVERALL DIRECTION: Inconsistent. The potential for the series was immense and it failed to cash in on that unlike its predecessor. It feels as if the franchise would've been much better without this series' existence. The director was probably clueless throughout.

MOVIES: Two bad movies. One good movies. The movies' qualities were very much relatable to its core series.

SPECIALS: Both Cilan & Iris' special were decent enough. Much better than most of the episodes of its core series.

FINAL RATING: 6/10, at best. Two or three good arcs, with three or four "great episodes" in the entire series. Much too disappointing.