What Makes a Good Anime Battle to You?

What makes a good anime battle to you?

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Cascada

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In general, the Pokemon Anime has evolved in terms of characterization, regions, and battles. It is natural, IMO, for every fan out there to have a specific objective when watching this show. One of the major things that are apart of the show's plot devices are battles.

Battles make the show go round, IMO. After all, 4 of the most popular main characters of the show all have professions that revolve around battling.

The thing is, when a fan is watching a battle, they could be looking for anything in that battle that might keep them interested, or at the very least, leave them satisfied.

As fans of the show, what do you look for in battles that you think would make them good? These can include contest battles as well, I love contests, but not everyone is a contest fiend. Contests weren't on the show to begin with, so it is natural to be more fascinated by regular battles, which the majority of the fanbase prefers anyway.

Also, I'd like you to share your anticipation of future battles, and what you look forward to in BW.

Try to answer: What makes a good battle? What makes a good contest battle? What makes a battle cheap? What does a battle need to have to be considered decent? What Pokemon make the battle awesome? What battles are ruined because the Pokemon in them have already gotten much battle screentime? What characters make a good battle?

If you could, please name some past battles that you thought were decent, favorites, and some horrible ones you thought were bad examples.

What makes a good battle to me is the Pokemon in the battle, the characters I like that are battling, and nicely paced battles. I don't like to see the same Pokemon battling again and again, so no redundant battling or anything, and I love the intensity.

Some of my favs have been Dawn vs Ursula, Misty vs Ash, and Ash vs Paul battles. They all had intensity and characters that I liked in them. As well as Dawn vs Lila, and Misty vs Andreas, simply because I love Misty and her Poliwhirl.

So, what makes a good anime battle to you?
 
I like my favourite characters winning in hard, intensive battles, no matter what they Pokemon use.
I also like when some "loser" characters (read: Jessie and James) win. Go Team Rocket!
 
A long battle, something like Pikachu vs Latios and not a short one like Aipom vs Geodude or Darkrai vs Torkoal. That what is called "cheap" battle.
 
Pikachu vs. Latios would my example of a good battle, because it showed ingenuity on the Trainer's part.
 
Intensity with Strategy. A battle should keep me on the edge till the end and should "Oh wow, that's clever!" moments.

I mostly enjoyed battles where either Sceptile, Corphish or Swellow battled. Some of favourites were Ash vs. Norman, vs Juan, vs. Morrison, vs. Drake(Of OI), vs. Tucker, vs. Spencer, vs. Brandon(Registeel), vs. Paul(League).

A power-based match is fine with me.
 
I just want a battle that will entertain me. That's the key thing. Whatever components make up the battle aren't super important - as long as I can watch and not be like, "Oh that's completely dumb", it's cool.

So what does that mean? Anything is fine. A nice strategy-based match is cool as long as fairness is observed, but sometimes pure power battles can be cool to watch too.
 
I picked all the above, but without the pokemon you like choice. as long as there's intensity and the trainers know how to counter attacks well, then the battle should be fine.
 
The most important thing to me is that the pokemon in battle don't faint too quickly, one after the other. I don't like seeing OHKOs, especially when they are caused by cheap moves. Each pokemon deserves some amount of action time before he leaves the battle.

I also like the moments when something not possible in the games happens, while staying logical of course. Like when frozen Pikachu used Volt Tacle to break the ice.

But what matters most is that I won't get bored. It has to stay entertaining from the beginning to the end.
 
I like surprising turns in battle, like in the battle between Kecleon and Pikachu, Johto league. I thought it was pretty clever that Pikachu grabbed Kecleons tongue. Power based battles are fine to me, as long as it's got strategy.
 
I don't know. I hated the johto and Hoenn league battles for some reason (while I really liked the gym battles in Hoenn), while I didn't mind the frontier brain battles.

Although I do want something to happen, unlike in Fantina's battles, where the same thing kept happening over and over again. Plus that tactic made no sense anyway.
 
ive found i prefer ash's charizard to have an epic showdown, with cool stratigies
 
All of the listed is what makes a good battle to me. Intensity and the characters involved are the two major things that make me decide whether or not the battle is as great as it is, IMO.

An example of a favorite of mine would be Dawn vs. Ursula in the Grand Festival.

The battle was really intense for one thing. More than contest battles usually get. Plus, I love both characters to death and there were a lot of contest combinations. Strategy is something I look for in a battle, too, so naturally I love contest combinations.

So yeah...
 
I voted for all of the above, since all the asepcts mentioned, when together, will really make the battle the best it can be.

Personally, I really like battles that are well balanced. It annoyes me when just one pokemon hogs the spotlight and gets all the KOs, and though the pattern of "one trainer dominates the fight, and then the opponent makes a last second comeback" can be exciting and has been used well a few times in the past, it can get old with overuse. I'd say the prime example of how *not* to do it was the Ash vs Gary full battle in Johto. KOs were split up with 1 for Heracross, two for Snorlax, and 3 for Charizard, with the other pokemon hardly contributing much at all. Plus Charizard came in at the very end and beat three pokemon in a row, including two it was weak against (one of which was supposed to be Gary's strongest). The one exception though, Paradoxicly, is when Ash is the one greatly ahead. It seems like Ash is so often the under dog in his battles, always coming down to his last pokemon, and barely winning by the skin of his teeth, that its actually a nice subversion to see him cream someone every once in a while.

Also really like to see matches that last a little bit, with the pokemon sparring and using different atacks against eachother, and showcasing clever stratigies, and not just quick one or two hit kills or beam spamming. Ash vs Paul was an excellent example of this eliment.

I think one important element that should have been mentioned in the poll though was Good animation. Sometimes you can have the other elements, but the quality of the battle can still be reduced if you don't have smooth eye catching animation.
 
All of the elements combined make a great battle. Though I voted for intensity. There is nothing like a long, intense battle. When both trainers do their best and display their skills, resulting in a difficult, hard to win match. But if there is a lack of all the other elements, the battle still won't be as good.
 
I would have to say the intensity and strategy used would make a good battle. Also if there is history between the trainers and a decent build up helps a lot too.
 
I think Tomioka + Iwane combo makes the best battles.

That said, I voted for intensity. Ever since I was a kid, I liked the adventures more than the battles while watching the anime. Nowadays I hardly follow most battles, but important battles can get me really hyped up if they have the combo I mentioned. I always like when they use stuff from the games we haven't seen before, too.
 
I said strategy, but intensity is also high on my list. Also, a good anime battle should have a severe shortage of OHKOs.
 
I voted for all the of the above, but battles especially interest me when there are characters that are battling that I find interesting. I particularly like it when Satoshi is battling a gym leader.
 
something where Ash isnt like "PIKACHU I BELIEVE IN YOU BLAH BLAH BLAH"

oh, and those ones where type advantages actually matter. :C
 
I suppose my favorites involve powerful, somewhat evenly matched opponents. If a Charizard whups a Chikorita, for example, that's not exciting. Charizard v. Dragonite, on the other hand...that's a fun matchup.

Sometimes it's fun when a Pokemon defeats a stronger opponent, but if the difference in power and skill is too great, then the underdog's victory loses its credibility. This includes so many of Ash's Johto battles, where his unevolved Pokemon consistently defeat fully evolved opponents. Once or twice is okay, but it's been seriously overdone.
 
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