Pokemon (2019)

Does "fanservice" make a show automatically great? (This review does not include the 'Mezase Pokemon Master' miniseries) What I liked about "Pokemon (2019)" / "Pokemon Journeys": (+) Unpredictability (any story anywhere makes you wonder what comes next) (+) New world-scale Pokémon battle ranking system with all gimmicks (+) Continuity and fanservice (it remembers the past) (+) Yuki Hayashi was one of my top requests to make Pokémon OSTs (+) Some battles worth a look (vs Volkner, vs Bea, vs Cynthia, vs Leon) (+) Some nice little self-contained arcs and some of the best episodes in the show (mostly thanks to continuity) Even as someone who has followed this show for 20 years, I'll try to patiently explain why Ash's last season is one of my least favorites and whether I would still recommend it or not. 1. Formula / World-building / Fillers / Legendary 2. Goh / GO / Project Mew 3. Ash / Ash's Team / PWC 4. Chloe / Team Rocket 5. Fanservice / References & Callbacks 6. Conclusion / Recommendation _____________________________________________________________________ 1. Formula / World-building / Fillers / Legendary TL;DR - The "open world" format was an interesting new setup that many fans have been asking for for a long time and it definitely feels refreshing, but the seeming lack of planning brought a lot of pacing and world-building issues. 1.1. Journeys is finally showcasing off the world of Pokémon, which is what the series is supposed to be about, and it looks like a decent job when it transports us to some of the postcard locations, but even then Kanto is probably shown more times than all of the other regions combined, which may be an issue in itself. The new Galar region that we should know better didn't get enough attention and many of its characters and locations were shown hastily or not shown at all (like half of the gym leaders). They could easily have Sakuragi institute in Galar, replace the legendary birds with the galarian versions, train Ash with Leon's master, replace some Project Mew member with Peony and so on. In the later parts of the series, it seemed like they realized that the generation was ending without showing many Galarian Pokémon and then desperately started stuffing more than a dozen debuts into a single episode to make up for it. 1.2. About that, maybe one of the most noticeable mistakes they made with this new formula is how they try to cram practically everything into one to two episodes when it would be better to have a multi episode arc. The more episodic and less directed nature of Journeys, with little use of very effective narrative devices like build-up and foreshadowing, makes for a dragging experience when you don't feel the same sense of progress and fluidity as in the pre-Alola regions and this also affects the way we experience worldbuilding: traveling on foot and camping between towns, you really get a sense of scale in the region and feel like you're on an adventure with the traveling group, but now Ash and Goh quickly jump from one region to another from one episode to the next, barely giving us time to feel that we're in a distant and different place from the previous one, and even casually meeting the TRio on the other side of the world. For a series called "Journeys" that encompasses all regions, it's ironic how the Pokémon world has never felt so small. 1.3. Now this might be a hot take: fillers are actually a good thing. Filler is supposed to give insight into the daily lives of the Pokemon trainers, where Pokemon can develop, show more of their personality with fun interactions, or even learn new moves. We've seen in previous series that MC's Pokémon often shine during filler while still provided more interesting ideas for scenarios for the traveling group, and even Sun/Moon had so many of them but yet it was mostly entertaining and successful especially because of the character moments (in addition to fitting the theme of the season and its region). However, I usually notice that Journeys fillers don't really say anything. There are lots of food contests, random races, weird rap battles, boring COTD's, tiresome two-parter comedy episodes, but all without much use with writers not even trying to fix the lack of screen time of Ash's Pokémon. 1.4. Despite being a commercial series and having made mistakes with Legendary/Mythical Pokémon in the past, the writers still have done a noble job maintaining the proper sense of rarity. When they weren't chased by rich and powerful organizations & people with broad resources and knowledge, they were usually only seen captured by powerful and mysterious Trainers or under unique and special contexts with some fair development. In Journeys however, we see 2-3 'Legendary encounters' almost every month with some episodes cramming 5 to 7 Legends into it. There are novices easily locating and catching with just a regular Poké Ball and a can-do attitude; characters having 3-4 Legendary with them; kids casually pulling one from their pocket out of nowhere etc; and of course, the infamous EP053 - one of my worst Pokemon episodes of all time - in which a fan-favorite one was featured intensely weak and incompetent to inexplicably let himself be part of a kid's collection at the end (they even made a part 2 in which the majestic Pokémon reappears only to clean up Grimer's waste in a stream; yes, that's how low Legendary has come). What would Takeshi Shudo - who literally got depressed when they simply 'gender-swapped' another beloved legend from Johto - think about this? (which now two kids climbed onto the back of it just for the sake of riding it) These creatures are suppose to be a fundamental segment of the mystique of the Pokémon world that keeps kids dreaming and seeking the unknown, now they're something so expositive and merchandising that I wonder why producers even bother calling them by that name. All the magic is gone. 1.5. Goh's story and Ash's battles feel like two completely separate direction teams that have nothing to do with each other, which makes the season just aimless and random - there's a prevailing sense of lack of overall storyline. This becomes less noticeable in the last third of the series as Ash approaches his climax, but for majority of the season the anime staff seemingly struggled with the dual protagonist story formula not knowing how to suitably balance screen time between Ash and Goh while still trying to find space for Chloe. __________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Goh / GO / Project Mew TL;DR - Goh/Go is the most controversial companion Ash has ever had for reasons already talked to death. A gary stu rookie trainer with inconsistent skills and personality who follows his own special set of rules in the universe, while making it feel like Ash's PWC goal and his team's development are frequently taking the backseat for Goh's casual adventures. 2.1. Worldbuilding. As is known, battling and weakening or befriending the Pokémon in order to catch it somehow does not apply to Goh who's not only filling the Pokédex but getting a ton of special treatment. The goal of catching Pokemon could be a useful show for kids if it talks about the types of pokeballs and the different ways to catch a Pokemon, but instead he just throws a pokeball and the mon is all his, which it makes a large number of his accomplishments feel handed to him on a silver platter without any impact or entertainment. I know how they want to make the anime familiar to the crowd that got into Pokémon through GO to capitalize on the audience, but there just downright bending the long-established in-universe rules set up for the anime for one singular character are a different thing. The fact that Ash, who embodies the older audience and took 20 years to start getting bigger stuff, is always there by his side, not only shows a certain contempt for the demographic that played Pokémon long before GO became a thing,…

This series was something that as I returned to just because of the nostalgia bit. Told myself I would watch the finale, the same way I swore in grade school I would watch Naruto, Bleach, One Piece to the very end. (Of course, that doesn't imply any obligation towards movies, spin-offs, legacies and so on.) What could I say, other than the fact that I enjoyed one or two battles and reunions, there isn't much of that nostalgia brought back in here. The show oscillates between couple fillers, couple interesting episodes, but this gamble actually killed some expected interactions, some reunions got lost in the filler spectrum of events, training for relevant battles sometimes is expected to be imagined, the alternative stories struggle to make a point or to become relevant, and some characters are so empty of their nostalgic originality that it's depressing to watch. Other than the fact that the show is ridiculous as it always was (what can you do, that's the risk of the job), some fights are decent enough, some bonding moments are heartwarming and you're happy that everyone's happy and almost everything stays the same even after the end. Maybe they do a better job to close the curtain in the next short series about Ash, who knows? Overall, on one hand I am thankful that I got to see the end, on another it was pretty much no difference if I didn't. Thank you, Pokemon, for that reunion that I expected at the end, that made my day, but it wasn't enough for the whole impression. No thank you for the new side stories, fillers and redundant dialogues, zero real character development on the humans, and arguably on the Pokemons too, since getting new moves isn't relevant to character development in almost any way. It's a company. This it how it makes money. The previous seasons are almost no different. But take a look back at the first few seasons, and you will see a huge difference. Just stop getting it mediocre scores or better because of the nostalgia bait. It incentivizes it to create further crap content, and you are directly responsible for it. 3/10 with huge efforts and bound by nostalgia, otherwise 1/10.

Before I get started, This is going to be a sort of conclusion to the Pokemon review series I have been doing for the past few years. now. By doing so, I might reference previous reviews, especially the Sun and Moon one, since Journeys follows that series, Some ideas presented in that review are going to be referenced in this one. When I started writing this review, I didn’t plan to include any breaks, but as I progressed, I realized it was worth adding breaks here and there for the reader. since I’m going to pour my thoughts in the purest way in this review, this review became longer the more I thought about it, both before and after writing. thus, this became my most ambitious review to date. so while the review was written in one breath and on the same note,, if you feel the need for a breather or a stop between here and then, I put up to 8 parts stops to make the reading easier to come back to. so while the optimal way is to read this review in one go, I realize that won’t be ideal for many people. Now, let’s begin. Part 1 - How should Pokemon anime translate the games? Pokemon as an anime, rather than just one product in a larger franchise, it has gone in many different directions in its presentation and story, despite not being very different at its core. It’s all going down by the source of the franchise and the anime that centered around it - the Pokemon games. At their core, the games have two main aspects working together - one aspect is the adventure, the travel across a big region in the Pokemon world. the other is the battle aspect, beating the Gyms and the Pokemon League. and the way both are working is quite harmonic and send the fantasy of the setting. One cannot simply play the game while ignoring the other aspect - to keep going forward, adventuring and seeing every Pokemon you can find, one must battle the Gyms to move forward. all the same to become the very best in the region of the game, one must find the best Pokemon he can, and this requiring adventuring and exploring the world. the way to translate this feeling to the anime, had gone a long way through the seasons and the series. seeing how this translation from the game changed through the seasons is important to us in this review, to analyze what brought Journeys a great change in this translation. the first series, the OG, the Kanto and the Johto series, had definitely took the translation of the game to an extreme edge. “what is the core idea of the games”, the writers might had asked, and they came with the idea that the adventure and the coming of age is the important aspect the game had featured. and so the first series had presented much more adventure/coming of age content. most of the gyms aren’t even presented as a Pokemon battle that must be conquered, but as an obstacle for Ash to win over. the battles were more to make the adventure engaging, but less then progressing the plot. the Johto arc had started to change that a little, the balance between the adventure and the action had maybe gave more emphasis for proper Gym battles, but rather the less the emphasis on adventure was still crucial part o it. in a way if the Indigo League arc was more about Ash coming of age, the Orange Isles and the Johto arc was about how his character is dealing with different kind of cases. pay notice I haven’t done any criticizing here. to come and say the altitude of the first series on the adventure aspect had been a mistake, is wrong. the first series had a charm of it’s own thanks to the adventure theme the writers wanted to emphasis. and this charm came to a test when the series continues. when the Hoen arc and the DP arcs came around, the balance between adventure and battle come more closely to how you would think the games might translate. the issue was less “how to translate” and more how to build the characters around the translation. Ash gone a big change through the Hoen arc, emphasis around the battles and action were added, yet there was a lack of struggle in the story, mostly due the action genre requiring a rival that the Hoen arc was lack of, it was done to not lose the adventure vibes I believe. this is where the DP series definitely moved to the more action genre introducing Paul as a main rival to Ash. this change also marked the point where the anime balanced much better the translation of adventure and battle from the games. the adventure is still inside the content, but the action is huge part of it. you don’t necessarily play the games just for the battles, but without them the game is lacking competition and struggle. yet when you translate the story of the game into anime, DP writes down the story as more of an action story than an adventure story, while the adventure is still necessary to keep going on. if you will come back to the early review here, you will see that this is touching what I wrote about the game battle aspect - the adventure is necessary to keep going up ranks in the games. this aspect takes DP greatly into account making the action as the center. while the OG series takes the other opposite - the adventure aspect takes the battles as a mean to progress in the world, thus changing Gyms stories drastically. where the Hoen arc takes sort of balance between those. and this is comes in full opposite in the Black and White series. whereas OG series went above and beyond the adventure genre, the BW series takes the battle and the action as first priority. the adventure is there, but it’s takes much dominant rule than anything. almost every character have a rival and a route to becoming their own best in the battling aspect. BW translates the game in an extreme way toward action. all this is of course hasn’t done just because, there was clear purpose in the writing team to make every series unique. there’s a limit and imagination of how much you can do (pay notice here) with a single character and a single format of journey. the journey across a region to collect badges and go the league repetition is working well in the games, because games needs those sort of gameplay loop in order to keep their DNA. but as an anime story, there’s a limitation on how much you can tell the same format in the same way. the deep intention of how much the translation of the game changed from the OG series definitely was to differ each arc and season from each other. yet, this writing style and the limitation of single main character the writers putted themself in kinda get exhausted over the years. and its seems very carefully over Pokemon XY. the writers clearly wanted something fresh in the take of the Pokemon anime, so they went in a more coherent continuous story progression style. it’s clear from the characters like Serena and the like, that the writers wanted to put little more mature and seriousness in a more continuous shounen story style, while going back to the DP translation of the games for more action yet adventurous genre than what BW was to fit this style of writing. and yet I couldn’t bear to notice that in Pokemon XY, despite making a good coherent storytelling, there’s hiding sort of exhaustion toward the format the anime limited it in. the XY series used it well, but the change in Pokemon Sun and Moon was clearly done to try a different style of format of the anime. if you read my Pokemon Sun and Moon review, I wrote in that one that the change of the Pokemon formula was done by the game map structure, rather than the gameplay structure. because while the game changed its gameplay somewhat, it wasn’t an extreme change to the journey structure. yet the anime writing team saw this as an opportunity to give the anime a different vibe and style. Pokemon was always episodic, but there was always sort of progress in the journey to match the game progression. SM took the episodic way to a more centered and grounded style. Ash have a main hub now, and from there he might go to different occasions, but always return to the hub wh…

Pokemon has been an incredibly big part of my life and especially so during my childhood. I would wake up in the early hours of the morning and plant my backside right in front of our family TV, anticipating another new episode of Pokemon, wondering what new species I'll witness next. I would play my Gameboy Color that I got for Christmas in 1999 along with Pokemon Gold, under my blanket during bedtime, hiding it away from my parents as I relentlessly played it through the night. I would nag and nag at my Grandma the following year to buy me Pokemon Red, which was seemingly still on the shelves for sale, and eventually got what I so desired. I would collect Pokemon Trading cards, trade and battle with friends, buy figurines, I would eat, sleep and breathe Pokemon. Suffice to say, I was very addicted. Twenty plus years later, I am caught up with the latest installment of the Pokemon anime, and while I still check out the newest games, I have only ever played through Gens 6-9 once over. Personally, it just doesn't hit the same. The previous series, Pokemon Sun and Moon was a highly controversial anime that split the fanbase with it's newly non linear story line and a lack of gyms, Pokemon Journeys follows suit as Ash does not travel a single region, collecting badges along the way. This was very refreshing to see after so many years, something different than the bog standard story and I enjoyed the change. Ash's homebase is in Pallet Town, Kanto, at the Sakuragi Institute where he works as a research assistant alongside new companion Goh, and travels to different regions investigating or simply observing Pokemon. We can't talk about Ash and not talk about Goh, another controversial thing about this series. Goh is quite simply the co main character for the first half of the show, an energetic, emotional and sometimes naïve boy who's goal is to capture Mew. He spends all his time capturing anything he sees, wanting Mew to be the last Pokemon left for his Pokedex. A lot of people didn't like Goh stealing the limelight from Ash and also absolutely abhor some of the decisions made from the creators when it came to what Pokemon he captures (he's just doing what every little kid did, capture every single damn Pokemon). Purists. I had no problem with it and hoped to see more. His character develops as he deepens his bonds with his main Pokemon and finds courage in battle, something he lacked. Another recurring character is Koharu, this seasons Misty, May, etc. She's a lot more laid back and her screen time or importance isn't as great as previous heroines, but she also gets some nice development. Struggling with an identity crisis, and the pressure of having a Pokemon Professor as a Father, she grew up not liking Pokemon at all, or at least indifferent to them. A chance meeting with an Eevee who cannot evolve leads to a significant relationship, and they both help each other understand their own predicaments and grow from it. Now we have Ash. He's mostly along for the ride until the latter half of the show where the World Championships arc is in the forefront of the narrative. This arc is by far the most interesting arc of them all and has many older characters making small cameos and comebacks from time to time, quite a bit of fanservice for us older fans. Ash's team is absolutely stacked in terms of popular Pokemon and even strength wise as well. There are many things to like and dislike about Ash's battles and his Pokemon this time around... Strengths: - The useage of abilities and in game mechanics and tactics are comfortably the best I've ever seen them used in a Pokemon series so far. A lot of first time plays as far as I'm aware. - A lot of switching in and out Pokemon from Ash's rivals. - Sublime soundtracks for stand out Pokemon. Weaknesses: - A complete lack of simple dodging, something that used to be a common occurrence. - A lack of a sense of hard, episode to episode training, it never felt that Ash's team was the best it's ever been. - Which in turn garnered a bit of disbelief as to who he was facing often times. - Some Pokemon didn't really get their dues. Look, it's something different. I'm well aware that this will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the ride and am excited for what's to come in the near future. There's already a few brilliant shorter series out there, released in the last 3-4 years, what I would give to a TV show in similar quality.

I just want to say thank you for the memories and the childhood that this series gave me for 15 years of my early life. Although the anime is not perfect, nothing is, this show will always hold a special place in my heart forever. The animators and directors remember the small details of all of the events that occurred throughout Ash's 24-year journey, and I appreciate that fact as nostalgia is one of the most powerful forces anything can bring for a person. As the series came to a close, we finally witnessed history, that Ash is finally a Pokémon World Champion after watching him develop as a trainer as we developed ourselves as people. Is Ash a Pokémon Master? Thats up to him to decide since it's an arbitrary term. Either answer, I salute Ash in honor of him completing his journey and being a person who does not give up on his goals. Thank you, Ash and Pikachu, for the memories. As for the anime itself, it was pretty bland at times, but I loved the call backs throughout Ash's journey across the Pokémon world. The finale of the show really made up for the show. For nostalgia purposes I am giving this show a 6/10. Memories are full of bliss, and to each their own. We finally conclude an era of our lives as Pokémon Anime fans. If you're a Pokémon Anime fan revisiting the anime series, definitely watch this and you'll be going on a nostalgia trip at points of the show. If this is your first Pokémon season, please do yourself a favor and watch the series back from the beginning. This season will only hit different if you already watched the Pokémon series up to date.

I actually ended up watching this season all the way through twice. Which ended up being a good thing, because it really hit different the second time around. I wasn't that impressed with it during my first watch-through. What really made the difference was that, going into it the second time, I was already aware that this would be Ash's farewell season. That gave me a different opinion on the way Journeys is structured. So to get some of the initially negative things out of the way first... Pokemon Journeys can feel pretty disjointed at times. The idea of Ash and Goh being research fellows and going on a different adventure-- visiting a different region each time-- every episode or so sounds fun. And it was at times. But I've mentioned countless times before that I'm not really one for episodic storytelling. I miss the long continuous journey through a region. Now I'm a little torn about this aspect. On the one hand, I can really appreciate the opportunity it afforded them-- to go back and revisit all the people Ash had traveled with before. That helped contribute to a really beautiful sendoff. On the other, I can't help feeling that, because it had to share the season with all the other places in the Pokemon world, the Galar region wasn't really done justice in Pokemon Journeys. That was another big thing that changed for me. The first time around, I hadn't played Sword/Shield yet. The second time, I was already familiar with this region. But I'm a big believer in an adaptation being able to stand alone. I don't feel like you should have to play the games to feel like you got the full experience. And the first time around, I felt little to no connection to the episodes that went into the main storyline of the game with Eternatus and the Darkest Day. We'd just spent too little time in Galar up until that point. It definitely clicked better the second time, but I'm standing by my 'blind' opinion of that particular flaw. But aside from that one aspect, I really have nothing but praise for this season. Particularly, Journeys crafted some of the best characters Pokemon has ever seen. Chloe's story was a little weak, but Goh really impressed me. I can't remember another time a Pokemon character's backstory held such a clear influence over who that person grew up to be. There is such a clear pipeline from: Lonely kid whose parents didn't have time for him, so he comforted himself with solitary research... to Know-it-all kid who couldn't make friends and learned to get defensive and combative at the slightest hint of judgment after the first few bad experiences. It really makes his character growth-- watching him make his very first friend in Ash and becoming the open, well-adjusted person he is today-- kind of beautiful. Especially because you really get to watch him grow over time. It is by no means effortless. I loved the little details they threw in along the way-- how awkward and on edge he'd get the first few times he met some of Ash's older friends, having to acknowledge that other people had a claim on his new friend too. For a character I initially found annoying, it was really great. Similarly, there was a lot of depth to Leon. Even not having as much time to explore him, that's one place I felt the anime did one-up the game. I loved the episode where he spent one-on-one time with Ash and revealed that, as much as he loved being champion, that stress of being known as 'unbeatable' was starting to get to him. I don't feel like it's talked about enough that the Galar region's presentation of the Pokemon League is a very modern one. Its stars are celebrities in an age of social media. Their fans are constantly watching. They never get a break. There's this really great little scene, when our heroes first meet Sonia and she's talking about how she grew up with Leon and watched him become the star he is today. It's this still-shot of a much younger Leon, surrounded by adults aiming to capitalize on his early success, and just looking totally overwhelmed, almost fearful even. A picture is worth a thousand words, indeed. That really tells the whole story, right there. Which all goes towards making it so satisfying to see him hand over the crown at the end. Those last few minutes of the Pikachu v. Charizard battle genuinely gave me chills. And overall, I think this was the best tournament arc Pokemon ever had. I don't think there's ever been another League where I felt connected to all of the competitors and everyone felt like real competition. Pokemon Journeys got off to a questionable start but bloomed into something beautiful by the end. I thought I was ready to say goodbye to Ash years ago. Now I'm sad to see him go.

Sounds weird but.. the further you go, the better it gets. Especially the last part... damn just awesome meeting so many fellow souls and seeing some eastereggs for old fans especially the one with movie 5 got me so well <3 Is the story unique? - i mean yes in the end I totally felt nostalgic and miss the fact that I wont be able to watch it anymore. Didnt expect this feeling, afterall sun and moon destroyed my whole opinion about the anime Do you think the art style is fitting for the story? yes Were the characters well-rounded? Did they have flaws and strengths, or were they unusually strong/smart/stupid? well you knew most of them... ofc it just felt nice to see them again Did the characters react to situations and events in a realistic way? uhmm depends, it was fitting for those characters and how I got to know them over the years Do you think others will enjoy/dislike this series, even if you didn't? Why? Well I bet if you loved pokemon back then, you would like or even love the nostalgic parts in masters.. I guess even more but some parts especially at the beginnng with those stupid goh guy annoyed me tbh

Not my favorite Pokémon series but what a ride! After winning his first regional Pokémon League and becoming the Alola Champion, Ash returns to Pallet Town. Eventually he goes to Vermillion City where he meets Gou and together they become a researcher duo. Both Ash and Gou have different goals. Ash eventually decides to participate in the PWC aka the Pokémon World Championships (which was teased in the Diamond & Pearl series, gotta love some forshadowing!) where Ash eventually wants to enter the Masters Eight, which are the eight strongest trainers in the world with Leon being the number 1. Gou wants to meet Mew and does so by catching as many Pokémon as he can. Honestly, I needed some time to get used to him but I eventually learned to love him. At some point he also joins Project Mew which is a group of people that want to find Mew but not everyone is allowed to join. The people who want to join have to collect Mew tokens and only if you have the right amount of coins, you can join. Because of this Gou does have a few rivals like Tokio and even Gary, Ash's old rival. Overall I loved the series. It's not like all the previous Pokémon series where Ash just stays in one region. Ash and Gou go to every region, including Galar, the only one of these regions that Ash has never fully discovered. Because of this we do see older characters returning like Iris, who now the Unova Champion (and member of the Masters 8), Dawn (who still does contests) and more. Ash doesn't really have a rival like he usually has. His 'main rival' is basically Leon since that's the one he wants to beat. The only other trainer that comes close to being a rival is Bea. There are a lot of things I didn't like. I didn't like how they didn't spent more time in Galar or how there weren't more two parters and the pacing felt very off too at times. Ash jumped many spots in his PWC ranking at once. I wanted more PWC battles. I hated Team Rocket's treatment. Luckily there are more things that I did love. Ash and Gou are a great duo. Koharu is a great addition but she deserved better. Ash becoming the world champion was so satisfying and I cried when it happened. Ash vs Leon is the best battle in the entire history of the Pokémon anime and I don't think they'll ever be able to top this (to be fair, I did say this about Ash vs Kukui too....) Seeing all the character returns and cameos was a blast. I grew up with this anime since 1999 and it means the world to me. It's clear that this series wasn't just catered towards kids but also to the adults who grew up with this show. This is the last full series with Ash as the main protagonist and it's clear they wanted to celebrate his past with this series. Overall a great show, my second favorite Pokémon series.

A lot of things happened and I'm all for it. Never in my wildest dream that I'm expecting that this is the last Pokémon anime with Ash/Satoshi as the main character. Throughout the series, there are too many theories and speculations but I used to take it as a joke, not until it became real. As someone who's been a fan of the franchise since the day I first watched this on our local television channel, watching the end is too much for me. I know that they're not yet released the final set of the last episodes which highlights the farewell of Pikachu and Ash, but thinking about it was already been a sad one for me. Going back to this season, one thing is for sure; it's hard to love Goh as compared to the companions of Ash from the previous seasons. It feels like, the franchise somehow switch Goh as the MC instead of Ash. It's a refreshing idea since they give plenty of screen time to another character but it became too much to handle. I remember when Goh catches Suicune and the fandom lost their patience. One of the legendary beast trio has fallen into the hands of a new trainer, Goh. However, as time passed by, I tend to understand and change my hatred for Goh since I realized, Goh is like us all when we play various Pokémon games. We never missed the chance to catch all the Pokémon that we see, compile them in our Pokédex, or use it against battles. Honestly, they miss the chance to introduce a new Eeveelution to the audience. Koharu's Eevee has been a rare one and most of us are hoping to finally welcome a possible new tying evolution. On the other hand, I didn't understand why some hated Koharu/Chloe for some reasons. The girl is such a cutie and has pure love for Pokémon with her innocent approach to everything. The best thing about this season is the several reunions between Ash and his old Pokémon and friends, as well as the World Championship battles. These were the highlights that I surely adore that much. Every single time that a familiar and memorable character appears on an episode, I can't help but always put a smiling face throughout the scenes. And finally, our boy has been crowned as the World Champion after all the journeys he has been through. The one thing that I feel disappointed about is once again, the franchise miss the chance of letting Ash strongest from each region compete in the final round against Leon/Dante. With all things said, I am ending the anime with a happy heart that after all these years, Ash and Pikachu have been the very best and climb their way to the top with plenty of adventures and lessons they acquired from traveling in different regions. Pokémon Journeys was a great season and did an amazing job of setting the mood of saying goodbye to the characters that engraved impact on our lives. A big thank you to Ash, Pikachu, Team Rocket, and all of the humans and Pokémon presented in this anime for being my source of happiness for more than two decades. I love you with all my heart! I wanna be the very best and I'm gonna catch them all!

Must recommend, it may have many down's to it, but it's good. The art style and animation were good, even though sometimes it disappointed me. The story could have been a lot better if it was executed even more brilliantly. Even though some episodes were not good, it made me laugh, cry and enjoy pokemon as a whole. Ash was really well developed, but sad it didn't go well for both Koharu and Goh's development, it could have been improved which would make the series more better. The action was there and it fulfilled it's rule very well, there were emotions and many more, hope we could have got more. I give it 7/10.