>>12780475I mean, people shouldn't really expect anything from a kids show and compare it to OS. As for me, the show was okay except that Ash had somewhat of a brain and that Dawn wasn't that particularly bad. People get blinded by nostalgia just don't give her a chance and just compare her to other girls. I liked for what she is because she wasn't overtly masculine and was actually feminine.
I avoided the dub for DP because they really tried hard to butcher Dawn and her Piplup and make the show as unappealing as possible.
I didn't particularly care for the pacing, sure it was slow as shit, but many of them were Dawn-centric episodes and she was the co-star of the show. For the writers, making Dawn into what she is actually made her a lot more popular in Japan, especially with the cute feminine girls doing cute things.