>>52782147As the final series? No, it wasn't a good way to go out. Ash didn't use any reserves, and not all of his companions got returns. On top of that, Ash's participation in the PWC and Master 8 was under baked and lacked the tension/intensity worthy of a tournament intended to crown the strongest trainer in the world.
Now I like Journeys... all of Ash's capture episodes were great, and I particularly loved his Gengar. I really like Goh a lot too, and the episodes that explore his backstory, as well as the ones with Scorbunny, are really good, and his dynamic with Ash is a high point of the series for me. The fillers are generally among my favorites in the anime's history. What brings Journeys down is that it tries to do way too much with way too little direction, all the while serving as a final series.
Journeys could've been one of, if not the best, series, if only it had been better planned out and the full support of OLM. Being a four year series as opposed to the shortest would've greatly helped, especially if the extra episodes went toward Ash's advancement (and setbacks) in the PWC, multi-part companion returns, additional PM focus and Goh character development, and lastly something for Koharu that actually ended up leading somewhere. Oh and more world tour stuff that focused on revisiting places Ash had been to as well as locations from the games that the anime ignored. I would've been over the moon had we gotten something like this.
