>>51309816It managed to be good at times only from the strengths that come from being a simpsons-long anime with an infinite episode count, like how DBZ was only good because it had the time to do inhumanly long build-ups to some moments.
See the preamble to Piccolo vs 17; we know that it will mean nothing and that it's as shallow as it gets because there's like ten backups to what made Piccolo important and he never acknowledged Mr. Popo's existence afterwards to confirm he was indeed part-Kami but since we had several character arcs related to him intersect at that moment it seems like it's a huge important moment.
In Pokemon's case, something like Paul vs Ash could only work because we had God knows how many fucking episodes of Ash training Chimchar and helping him get through his traumas and getting stronger and all of that with the occassional brush up with Paul in the journey. It's not something you could hope to do without the resources that brings you having hundreds of episodes to build up to.
It's a big reason why Origins is actual shit from an anus; they tried to do this without having that so it ended up feeling like it was all about CHARIZAAAAAAAARRRRRRRDDDDDD with the rest of the team being plastic toys that come out to get hit just to build up some tension instead of being what they meant, a trainer and the team he made surpassing every obstacle on their adventure to be the Very Best™ and his weak, shitty starter that grew up from needing his support to always having his trainer's back.
Other than that, no, it was garbage.
Zero in at any episode of any season and it will most likely be garbage without context save for one or two episodes, and even those have several candidates for better use of your time than watching a single episode of the Pokemon anime.
Knowing as an adult that it killed Spiderman Unlimited makes me seethe with anger.
