>>35278664The difference is that SM is not trying to give you either one. The current season explicitly told you from the start that this was a comedy series. Pokemon has always been about to the bond between trainer and pokemon. Before those bonds could only be represented in battle. Now they are trying to show you those bonds with different methods. There is a sense of community instead of traveling aspects that had before carry in the show. Instead of cotds hugging screen time for no reason we have 6 characters that get little development but have a natural feeling of companionship. SM is probably the first since the original were all bonds between human characters feel legitimate. SM is not trying to be your usual pokemon anime season and it is carrying on and sticking to what they want to accomplish. There is no grandious hero shit (yet) nor an evil villain trying to takeover alola. Only friends having fun and looking out for each other.
think I lost my train of thought somewhere but I already typed all of this out so might as well post it. 