>>51424878I honestly don't like it as a whole. The change in art style was really jarring at first and I don't think the animation impressed enough to justify it until much later into the series. Being more light hearted and comedic the action isn't as well written and I found many battles battles be rather low energy, though that might just be because XY's stupidly high energy 3D camera battles preceded it.
Yet at the same time, there are some SM episodes that are unmistakably peak comfy and show some of the greatest understanding of the world and lore as well as just letting Ash be himself, something I feel the character hasn't been able to so since the end of DP.
Those episodes where he's just exploring islands, being a dumb kid on vacation and doing nice things for his new friends warm my heart and seeing him leave such a profound impression upon alola and his friends to the extent of becoming a local legend was nice to see. I teared up a bit seeing him say farewell to his "alolan parents" (reminded me of moving out) and it was a series that allowed the character to flourish and win a league and even catch UBs and a mythical (even the league wasn't the most intense).
I have plenty of misgivings about SM yet at the same time I feel the anime would be worse off if this season didn't exist. I loved the first 20 of so episodes, the Lusamine arc and Ash vs Kukui and a couple random episodes here and there but I wouldn't be able to watch the whole thing.
