So what do you actually *like* about Best Wishes?

[Dogasu]

So there are a lot of us who are unhappy with the way Best Wishes is going. Many people seem to think the series has hit a low point and wonder how much longer they'll be willing to watch the show the way it is.

But the series can't be as bad as everyone says it is. There must be something keeping us here, right?

So, what I wanted to do is list off all the things we *like* about the series. What are they doing right? What do you hope sticks around in future series?

Here's my list:

• I absolutely love the opening theme. After the string of disappointing DP themes, it's nice to go back to a Matsumoto Rika song again. It feels like it could have been a theme song to one of the earlier series, and I mean that in the best way possible. It took me a while to get used to the animation, but I've come around and really can't imagine that song with any other clips behind it.
• I really like the art in this series. The characters seem to be drawn on-model more often, things move more fluidly, and the CGI, for the most part, manages to enhance the scenes they're in without sticking out too much.
• The background art, in particular, has gotten a lot better. I really like the way the leaves on the trees and the clouds are drawn in this series, for example. I also really love how each of the cities have a life of their own: from Shippou City with all its art to Raimon City and its various lights / attractions to the town in that early Darumakka filler, every location is unique and has its own character.
• I missed some of the older background music at first, but the new stuff Mr. Miyazaki has created is working out just as well. I especially like the battle music that starts off with the evolution theme playing and Dent's theme music.
• I think it's awesome that the made-up language that's been created for this particular series is actually translatable. The people behind the TV series could have just drawn random symbols without any thought, but to actually create this whole other alphabet and then throw it in there as an Easter egg for us older fans? That's pretty amazing.
• Dent. Enough said.
• The Nyagotiator Nyasu arc was a great "what if?" story. Making Nyasu a good guy for a few episodes was a lot of fun to watch and I'm quite surprised the writers hadn't thought to do this sooner.
• Cabernet is a lot of fun. She's full of energy, she's ridiculous, she holds grudges over the stupidest thing...she's basically all the best parts of Harley and Urara mixed into one character. Langley's interactions with her in the Don Battle arc were a treat as well.
• The trenchcoats the Rocket trio wears over their uniforms really help make this whole "secret misson" thing much more plausible. I mean, how secretive can you be when you're running around with a big red "R" plastered on your shirt? These trenchcoats help make the fact that nobody has caught on to the Rocket-Dan yet that much more believable.
• This series is actually experimenting. Sure, some of the experiments may not have worked out all that well, but at least the writers are *trying* to make things fresh instead of just doing the same thing every episode. No non-Isshu pokemon, no Pokemon Contest side arc, no Rocket trio appearance in every episode, more antagonistic pokemon...the producers have really made an effort to make Best Wishes stand out.

What about you guys? What do you like about Best Wishes?

 

[Cybersai]

When it first started I loved the idea of Giovanni returning and being the main villain again, but we all know where that went. :/

Other than that I love Cilan, he's basically what I wanted back in DP. I've waited like 10 years to see what a Brock replacement would be like, and the writers actually made him his own entertaining character.

Bianca is funny for what she is. And Burungly and Georgia have potential. Some of Ash's Pokemon are entertaining this saga, like Palpitoad, Krok, and a few others. I also like the fast pacing, as good as DP was sitting 4-years in a single region was tiring. That's all.

 

[CommanderPigg]

Dento.

Anything else, I'd have to use past tense.

 

[YamiiDenryuu]

Cilan and Iris's personalities and interactions are what really makes BW for me. The fact that they can bring out Ash's personality as well (like in the haunted museum episode where he was basically the sane one) is also great. Bianca is also awesome. And Ash's Snivy. Yes.

The buildup to the Plasma two-parter was good as well, and I can only imagine how awesome it would have been if those had actually aired. But, what's done is done.

 

[Ampharos King]

- First and foremost, I love that the writers are allowing Ash to use more than six or seven pokemon in this region. Ash practically used the same five or six pokemon during the first 130 episodes of AG, including the Hoenn League Competition where those were the only pokemon that he used in that tournament. Ash began to use some of his roster pokemon during the Battle Frontier portion of AG, but his main party in that saga included the first three pokemon he caught in Hoenn. Ash's team had slightly more variety in DP, since he had access to Aipom in the earlier parts of the series before he traded it away, while he began to use some of his later captures such as Gliscor and Gible near the end.

However, Ash has used the majority of the pokemon he obtained in both series for well over a hundred episodes, and in some cases, these pokemon did not evolve or learn a lot of moves. I am glad that the writers are providing Ash with a wider variety of pokemon to use in some of his more important battles, even though some of them may not have as much screentime as some of the pokemon from the past regions.

- I am enjoying the BGM that plays throughout the entire series. It is very nice to hear themes that have not been played in past series and in some of the earlier films (pre-DP) in Best Wishes. It was hard to believe that the final episodes of DP used scores from the original series.

- The opening theme song was well done and I enjoyed the song that played with the CGI animation. It was such a shame that the opening did not change the pokemon that were featured in it after the thirteenth episode, but exclusively using CGI animation for an opening is a fresh change for an anime that usually uses drawn animation for its openings and endings.

- Even though I may not be as obsessed with Cilan as some of the other users in the anime forum, I am glad that the writers have managed to create a replacement of Brock that isn't so stale or mundane (talking to you, Tracey). He may be a little eccentric to my tastes, but I feel that the move to replace Brock with Cilan was one of the best decisions that the writing staff had implemented with this series. Brock hardly contributed to the main storyline of DP and his recurring gag was overused to the extent of boredom and disgust. It is nice to see that Cilan has many interests that provide the writers with enough flexibility to develop and to showcase his character, even if these interests may be forced or unrealistic.

- It is nice to see that the writers are finally giving Ash a female rival who appears enough times to leave an impression on the audience. Bianca may not be as competitive as some of the other rivals in this and past series, but she has some very unique traits that set her apart from the usually sporty and aggressive characters that Ash had fought with in other regions.

 

[ravenclaw1991]

I love a lot of things:
-the Pokemon in general
-Cilan
-Iris
-the look of it looks wonderful.. colorful and just plain amazing
-I kind of like the new Team Rocket.. not being in every episode, not trying to steal Pikachu all the time, seem more professional
-the main characters' choice in Pokemon.. among my favorites are Ash's Snivy, Scraggy, Krokorok.. Cilan's Pansage and Crustle.. and Iris's Pokemon.
-gym battles, in my opinion, they have been some of the best ever.. I didn't say the best, but some of the best ever
-Krokorok being the Pokemon to follow them around. Jigglypuff was annoying.. Krokorok, even as Sandile, was cool. I'm glad Ash caught him
-the opening theme in one of my favorites since early on in the anime's run
-Professor Juniper, she's awesome
-While I don't like it to rush by, I do love that there aren't really a lot of episodes between gym battles.. the longest so far I believe was between Castelia City and Nimbasa and that was only a month or 2 wait, way better than the, what was it? year between Snowpoint City and Sunyshore City.
-and finally the movies.. the Victini movies are my favorites.. behind the second movie, The Rise of Darkrai, and the Zoroark movie.

In all, this is my favorite series from the anime as a whole. I loved the Original Series though and I loved Diamond and Pearl.

 

[Adil]

Other than Dent's awesomeness and a wild female companion instead of same old "Ms. Pretty Pink Princess" version.

- More fun fillers, with an actual mini plot.
- Animation has improved drastically
- Bianca
- Mini-arcs i.e Don Battle, Subway Arc.
- Party rotation

 

[Bouffalant Herdier]

- It's much less repetitive than before, especially without Team Rocket appearing in every single episode. Even the most boring episodes feel unique in some way.

- The art is better than ever before. It's strikingly bright & colourful, the CGI effects are no longer as jarring as they used to be, and the landscapes are utterly beautiful.

- I'm a sucker for orchestrated remixes of video game music, so naturally I adore the BGM. It gives the show an incredible and epic atmosphere.

- Cilan. He's kind, lovable, hilarious and enthusiastic. His awesome scream should become the new Wilhelm.

- Several of the main Pokemon and their fun personalities, particularly Ash's Snivy, Scraggy and Krokorok. Snivy's dismissive and tough attitude is a joy to watch, Scraggy is interesting and troublesome, and Krokorok... I can't explain why, but he/she improves any episode by just being there.

- Bianca. Like Cilan, she's lovable and enthusiastic. Her bad luck makes her easy to root for and relate to.

- Burgundy. Unpleasant, rude, arrogant and mean... all in the best way possible! It's great fun to watch lose her temper over Cilan and refreshing to see a rival on the loser side.

- Georgia. Not as good as Burgundy, but still cynical in a hilarious way.

- Alder. Badass yet goofy, my favourite personality combination. Much more interesting than the bland and perfect champions from before.

 

[Jaye]

To start off with, I find the artwork and animation of the series to be very impressive and a huge improvement over previous sagas. Everything is very colourful and vibrant. Even a little thing like making it so we could see Ash had brown eyes all the time and not during certain moments is a step in the right direction, not to mention the improvement made to all the attack animations, like Pikachu's Iron Tail actually looking a tail made of metal, not just a glowing tail. Everything just looks better, in my opinion.

As a big fan of the soundtrack in the Black and White, I was very pleased to discover that Best Wishes uses new tracks. A lot of the older stuff was great, but after 600-something episodes I got a bit bored of listening to them. This includes the new opening, too, as I thought Diamond and Pearl's openings left a bit to be desired.

I like how the series at least tried to be new, even if it did fail in some departments. Unova-only Pokemon falls in line with the games and I'm glad they went down that route, because at least this way we no longer get pointless episodes about Pokemon we've already seen before. Ash catching more than five Pokemon was something that we hadn't seen since Kanto and something that'll hopefully pay off when it comes to the league, where we will, again hopefully, see his various Pokemon in battles instead of the same ones over and over (looking at you, Hoenn League).

Furthermore, they're trying to make their episodes at least somewhat unique, in that they're not reusing the old and tired "Ash and co. drop everything they're doing to help random stranger and blast off Team Rocket". Sure, we've had Characters of the Day appear fairly often in Best Wishes but the lack of Team Rocket means we get something different in those episodes.

I think there's only one character that's been introduced so far that I dislike, and that's Trip. Everyone else I find to be entertaining and add various enjoyable aspects to the cast and character interactions whenever they appear.

 

[Cybersai]

Another thing I like, is how Cilan really is getting a lot of screentime. It really is a role reversal from previous arcs, where the female character would always get more screentime than Brock.

For the first time it feels like the two males are the leads, and the female is the sidekick. Granted it means Iris is getting little screentime in comparison, but the fact that Cilan is enjoyable and is getting quite a lot of screentime is quite good.

 

[chimera]

The colors are really nice, and the writers are trying new things. That's about it.

 

[Aestivate]

Dento.

Anything else, I'd have to use past tense.

This.

Although I will say I still do quite like the girl rivals though I am still not quite sold on Bel because of how jarringly different her personality is from her game counterpart.

 

[Insanish Danish]

Honestly, I feel like I'm the only one with no real complaints about Best Wishes. I love both Cilan and Iris, I love the rivals, I love the Pokemon, I love the music, I love the animation, and I've loved most of the episodes so far. I really don't get the hate for Best Wishes, I think it's really fun and entertaining and I've got no problems with it.

 

[Bandit Keith]

Iris not being a Ms. Pretty Pink Princess!

Ash's 2-team development!

Leavanny and Palpitoad on Ash's Team=AWESOME

Elemental Monkey as a main Mon! Yes!

Emolga of the Total Drama!(She acts like Heather form that, too!)

Female Pokémon?! In Ash's Team since Bayleef? More than one!? WOOHOO!

Stunfisk popularity realized by TCPI!

Pokémon as antagonists, not always the victim!

Ash has a Cruncher!

Professor Aurea Juniper and Fennel!

CUUUTTEE Victini in M14!

Dragon Rage looks cool now!

OUTRAGE PROPERLY THIS WAY IS HERE!

TEAM ROCKET'S ROCKIN!

Cut looks cool finally!

More Toxic!

Sludge Bomb looks like feces, for once!

Joltik is even CUUUTTEEERRR than before, w/BW062!!!!

NO ASH SUPERPOWERS!(Aura, willpower, etc.)

CUUUTTTTEEEEEE Yamask(all of them so far)!

The scene w/Pidove in Ash's hand was so CUTEEEE!

Hyper Voice looks like more than a glorified Supersonic, animation-wise!

FLASH...CANNON!...THE SAVIOR OF THE UNOVAVERSE!(a Coke for the reference)

BGM is AwesomeXCross

ATTENTION:VOLT SWITCH! That is all...

All you need is Attract.....All you need is Attract.....All you need is Attract, Attract...Attract is all you need(Repeat 8 times), Snivy loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, Snivy loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah

Snivy is one bad mothaf...Shut yo mouth!..Man, I'm just talking about Snivy...

Oshawotter you gonna do, the odds are stacked against you...

Aqua Jet, Water Pulse, Water Gun, Razor Shell, Hydro Pump, Supersonic, the list of awesome sauce goes on and on...

 

[Rex Kamex]

I need to watch more of the series, but...

I like the Kanto parallels (Ash traveling with two people who are gym leaders in the games, Ash with all three Pokemon, etc.), Ash's new uniform, the artwork from what I've been seeing... Meowth being with the group for a while seems interesting.

 

[Spindae2]

-The animation! They really went huge step in the right direction! From the pokes, over to the charcters to the amazing moves!
-Bianca's buddy character amazing(the trainer/rival part big nooooo gooo!).
-Trip's Pokemon party(but not so much his copy cat Paul character)
-Oshawot is a sweetheart, which hopefully evolves!.
- and the concept of Cilan's character is awesome, but it has place for improvement!
-I like Ash having caught 9 Pokes, but hate he doesn't shares attention enough for all of them! Swadloon didn't had a strong battle since BW23(25) almost 50 episodes, and now it shoul evolve??????

 

[Peachy]

I like the detailed backgrounds. Also Cilan is very good.

 

[Sheep]

BURGUNDY. Yeah, she's actually one of my main reasons XD; But in all seriousness...

- Cilan
- Emolga
- Vibrant colors, much more appealing than D/P was
- No Rockets interfering in almost every episode (probably the most important thing)
- Better animation
- BURGUNDY
- I actually still enjoy Trip, even though he can be done better

I really like most of the characters this time around; the chemistry between them makes up for many of the mistakes that are simultaneously invading this series.

 

[FinalArcadia]

- Cilan is definitely the best thing about Best Wishes. Best traveling companion in the series.
- Chili! Hey, I know he's relatively minor, but I have hopes that he will return yet again.
- I'm mixed on Team Rocket. I love that I don't have to see them all the time, but they've become so boring that it's almost a moot point...
- The music. I like the BGM in Best Wishes, for some reason.
- Oshawott, because... I just like him. He's adorable, after all.
- Georgia, who has joined the ranks of my favorite rivals (though still far behind Paul and Barry, of course XD)

I think that mostly covers it. Yeah, despite its flaws, I do still look forward to watching BW every week, so it is doing some things right.

 

[Hellion]

• I absolutely love the opening theme. After the string of disappointing DP themes, it's nice to go back to a Matsumoto Rika song again. It feels like it could have been a theme song to one of the earlier series, and I mean that in the best way possible. It took me a while to get used to the animation, but I've come around and really can't imagine that song with any other clips behind it.
• I really like the art in this series. The characters seem to be drawn on-model more often, things move more fluidly, and the CGI, for the most part, manages to enhance the scenes they're in without sticking out too much.
• The background art, in particular, has gotten a lot better. I really like the way the leaves on the trees and the clouds are drawn in this series, for example. I also really love how each of the cities have a life of their own: from Shippou City with all its art to Raimon City and its various lights / attractions to the town in that early Darumakka filler, every location is unique and has its own character.
• I missed some of the older background music at first, but the new stuff Mr. Miyazaki has created is working out just as well. I especially like the battle music that starts off with the evolution theme playing and Dent's theme music.
• I think it's awesome that the made-up language that's been created for this particular series is actually translatable. The people behind the TV series could have just drawn random symbols without any thought, but to actually create this whole other alphabet and then throw it in there as an Easter egg for us older fans? That's pretty amazing.
• Dent. Enough said.
• The Nyagotiator Nyasu arc was a great "what if?" story. Making Nyasu a good guy for a few episodes was a lot of fun to watch and I'm quite surprised the writers hadn't thought to do this sooner.
• Cabernet is a lot of fun. She's full of energy, she's ridiculous, she holds grudges over the stupidest thing...she's basically all the best parts of Harley and Urara mixed into one character. Langley's interactions with her in the Don Battle arc were a treat as well.
• The trenchcoats the Rocket trio wears over their uniforms really help make this whole "secret misson" thing much more plausible. I mean, how secretive can you be when you're running around with a big red "R" plastered on your shirt? These trenchcoats help make the fact that nobody has caught on to the Rocket-Dan yet that much more believable.
• This series is actually experimenting. Sure, some of the experiments may not have worked out all that well, but at least the writers are *trying* to make things fresh instead of just doing the same thing every episode. No non-Isshu pokemon, no Pokemon Contest side arc, no Rocket trio appearance in every episode, more antagonistic pokemon...the producers have really made an effort to make Best Wishes stand out.

This would pretty much be my list too, although I would add Bel on their who, with Dent and Cabernet, is just one of my favourite characters, not only in the series but in the entire history of the show's main characters and rivals. Their episodes are just first class and my favourite episodes of the season usually involve them. Oh and Chili, he was awesome.

I would also add some Pokémon like Tsutarja, Zuruggu, Yanappu, Iwaparesu, Chillarmy that are just great.