Do not get me wrong, XY series did a lot of things RIGHT. But it doesn’t mean it was perfect one hundred precent all the way through.
In this review, I will try to pinpoint where XY succeeded, where it failed, or wether, it was just half baked.
Let’s start with: Plot.
The plot of Pokemon XY is the same as almost most of Pokemon anime - Ash starts his journey in a brand new region, Kalos, which inspired by France. It doesn’t take so much time to see, though, how XY differs from other seasons. Already on the first episode, you can see how XY try to renew things. As a matter of characters and plot, XY presenting more mature and different line of story. Not THAT different, but enough so it will make Ash journey in beating gyms and collecting badges a unique experience.
With that being said, I’m referring to more character development stories, as Ash, once again, feels much more like the senior trainer in his group. Much like his treatment from DP. And there’s also a great story of Ash and his Froakie, which takes much more room than even Pikachu in the series plot.
But all that doesn’t remove some bad stories that XY have. While the pace is essentially better than other seasons, the quality dropping a lot when fillers starting to appear. And it seems that the creators really had bad time thinking of those. Do not get me wrong, I do not think there’s “good” fillers on Pokemon, last time I watched the Johto season, it was dreadful watching. The whole format of “Ash and gang meeting a Pokemon and its trainer” had lost its taste long time ago. But in previous seasons, you could still feel there’s some creativity in them. in XY you can feel how the creators lost its creativity and struggle making those.
That’s actually where fans memory is bad on, mostly because Pokemon is not used for rewatching. But when rewatching the series, when I got into those episodes, I felt cheated by my good first impression of the series. While those fillers ARE common, the plot of the canon episodes is just BETTER, and that’s probably the cause for the XY fillers to be forgotten from people hearts.
Truly enough, the story is getting better as the series is coming to its last third. Mostly it’s due giving Serena a plot to revolve on. And also for giving more themes and plot for the series to rely on. You can really feel how the writers change of heart toward the last third of XY. But utterly, this gave XY the half baked definition. The ups and hills of XY feels like a game of minds of the writers, as you can really feel how the canon episodes are much better, and maybe the best in the Pokemon overall anime. While the fillers feels like an afterthought, losing any creativity the writers ever had in previous seasons. But then, closing to its end, the plot quality getting a real 90 degrees change.
Next is the character.
To be honest, some the characters in XY could be hit or miss, and mostly, it’s hit.
Ash returned from its infamous childish nature in BW to it mature nature of DP. His confident coming alone with great ideas for pokemon battling, and his bond with his Pokemons are one of the greatest. With almost any Pokemon he catch in this series he have great plot and theme, and the one most importantly is Froakie, who leaves Pikachu in much more side character than main one. Ash and Froakie plot can be felt as a reminder of Ash and Chimchar for the most part, but toward the end of XY, their relation feels like entire different story of trust and bond.
Clemont is probably the best Brock replacement up to date. Where Cilan tried to copy Brock girls thingy to other area of expertise, and Brock with his girls stuff, were anime original, Clemont gimmick is game original materials. Yes, he can annoy sometimes with his inventions, but those can be much more fresh than what Cilan or even Brock could offer.
The hit or miss character is probably Bonnie, Clemont’s little sister. Last time we had fourth character for the gang, and also in the shape of child and sister/brother, was Max in the Advance series. At that time Max felt fresh at start, but his affection over the series had been fading slowly into being side walk character. Now, it’s not only because Max was filler character, while Bonnie is actually based on her game appearance, that her character succeeds in the series. But in the way of her introduction and characteristic, she were much more fitting into the group. Truly enough, you can feel how this was hit or miss, but in the overall she’s just a hit. It’s something about how - even in the episodes the focus is away from her - she felt much more natural. Truly she can be pushover sometimes, but unlike Max, where I just wanted to punch him in the face sometimes, Bonnie was more native. This great and delicate balance the writers gave her, that makes Bonnie little more memorable.
The half baked character in XY, is actually Serena.
Truly enough, Serena is another Misty replacement, and the writers seems to push her in a different way to makeover that rule in a brand new way. And so, Serena is much more like May in the sense that she didn’t went out to her Pokemon journey due her love for Pokemon or something. However Serena had been given a twist - she wanted to take that route because of Ash. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m one of Serena X Ash shippers as well. But in the long time test, you can feel how her character falling apart slowly. Where the writers gave a lot for her to follow Ash as a fellow trainer, something that resembled Misty, it fails where they wanted her to shine. Her emptiness in that area lead the writers, only in the last third of the series, to give her a gimmick similar to May and Dawn, in the shape of Showcase. No, you didn’t got it wrong, Showcase, not contests. While it felt once again more like a side story, as much as May’s contest, than Dawn’s. It did gave Serena the right push to her development, even to change her design and characteristic a bit. While this change was lovable to see in her, the fact the it took her so much time to get there, is enough for criticism. Truly, the writers gave her a lot of depth at the start, but until they didn’t fully used it in the last third, her character were just that, half baked character. And also where fans memory might failed them, as they remember Serena fondly due to her start and end of the series attitude, but forgotten most of her middle one.
But that’s not all where fans remember fondly the XY series, and that is coming to this review last part - Art and animation.
Truly enough, the animation in the XY was probably one of the bestest the Pokemon anime could provide. Finally gym battles felt realistic and freely, and maybe even more shounen’ish. Despite trying to fit the game mechanic, this is truly where XY series got lot better. While it’s not “too bad”, this animation improvement wasn’t through the whole series, but in the important battles. This isn’t making the animation of XY anyway wrong, but it’s also support why fans may remember more of those parts better than other.
The art, on the other hand, is probably between BW to SM treatment. I won’t deny that XY had good art, but compare to the BW more “round” design, XY feeling little more “square”. That’s probably what OLM tried to fix in SM designs, only to squashing the design to feel not square at all, and where SM art felt lacking. And where XY succeeded little more in that area than SM, though the more fresh and stylish designs - square design isn’t necessarily bad. And as I could think of, XY art is Probably the best the series had ever was before going Journeys style (where it fixed SM art. but on that, in future review).
While all that being said, it’s only for the XY series. The XYZ series, on the other hand, is entirely different issue, because it improved and fixed a lot of where XY hadn’t fixed, as I mentioned in this review. So as for XYZ, it deserves its own special review in the XYZ entry.
On that note, see you in the XYZ review.
To be continue.
