I fucking loved all the continuity references and how battles were portrayed. That episode with Buck where he had his Claydol make stepping stones for him to run up with its psychic powers is some of the coolest shit ever and what I wish battles in the anime were more like. The OST was solid, most of the remixes hitting the mark just right. Some episodes were weaker than others, mostly the ones that were just scenes straight from the games in animated form, not that those were bad (in fact, the Ghetsis one was one of my favorites).
I also liked how animal-like the Pokemon were, making sounds that sounded like animals such as Pikachu squeaking like a mouse. You'd see Pokemon in the background in the wild or in society and you'd see how they fit in which was great. That really helped with the immersion, it felt like the most lived in version of the Pokemon world where you could see yourself living in it.
I think where it really shined though was where it got to fill in the gaps that you never could explore in the game. Things like the police raiding the Viridian Gym, getting to see Lysandre's public life as a villain with good publicity to actually sell him as the last guy you'd expect to want genocide where the games failed to. The Old Chateau episode was especially creative, atmospheric, and legit unsettling. I unironically think it worked great as a short horror film. The Archie one was also notable in how well it showed just how fucking devastating a Legendary Pokemon like Primal Kyogre is capable of ending the world and making a new one, with a pretty damn dark ending for a Pokemon animated short.
As much as I wish there was more of it and less of the Ashnime, I'm glad it exists it all and GF actually threw the hardcore fans of the games a bone that big.
