I watched the entire Pokemon Diamond/Pearl Anime in 2 weeks. Here are my thoughts

Back Story

So, two weeks ago, I was in this sub when I saw that Ash and Misty had a match in alola so I went to go watch it. Gotta say, it was actually a great match and I appreciate that match a bit more now because it calls back to something ash did in sinnoh, but anyways, this caused my Youtube recommendation to show me Paul vs Roark. I didn't watch that match, but It did remind me of the Ash vs Paul match in the sinnoh league. So, I watched that fight, and that led me to search how Ash got Paul's chimchar. And after, I watched that episode, that led me down the rabbit hole.

So, before I write my thoughts on the series, I will say that I didn't watched the series in order. I watched from the episode where ash got the chimchar, watched the rest of the series and then went back to catch the episodes I missed. Also, before this, I had never seen a pokemon series all the way through the end. I watched it as a child and saw the iconic fights as I grew up but never fully watched the series so I didn't know what to expect.

My Thoughts on the series overall

This series was GREAT. The biggest thing this series does right is the evolution of characters and pokemon in the series. Ash in the series does a great job of using his experiences in previous battles and using it in future battles. Also, the pokemons that ash carry around, along with Brock and dawn have very distinct personalities which gives the series a lot of life.

One thing the series really struggled with however, is developing the antagonist. We see J very randomly until the Team Galactic saga. Speaking of which, team galactic, there is probably the most disappointing thing about the entire series. I didn't feel like they were built up well at all. One episode, they are trying to steal the orbs, then we get introduced to Cyrus and within a span of a few episodes, we are already at the climactic finish. And that's another thing. The actual D/P/P (Particularly Platinum)game did a GREAT job of explaining the motto behind team galactic and what their goals were. The anime, however, didn't. There are a lot of questions left unanswered and a lot of disappointment when it comes to the antagonist getting their comeuppance. So, we are left to assume that Cyrus went to another dimension and we are left to assume hunter J died. Why? Give us resolute answers. While J was built up very well, being very despicable throughout the series, the way she goes out is just......beh. The explanation behind Cyrus's end game was very spotty and not explained well at all.

The gym battles in this series were great though. The use of contest moves to win in battles showed how ash was influenced by the people around him, which was great to see. The evolution of Paul was done well though. While he is still not likable at the end, you figure out that while his training methods might be harsh, he just wants to bring out the best in his pokemon. That was thanks to Reggie which I thought was a great addition to the series. (But I was still laughing my ass off when paul got destroyed by brandon).

One thing which was surprising was brocks motivations chaning so late into the series. At the end of the series, he decides to be a pokemon doctor but its comes so out of nowhere that its almost hard to take serious. I'll talk about the sinnoh league in a bit, but I want to talk about contest battles. Contest battles were a great upgrade from hoenn (I haven't seen advanced but I have seen a few of the more famous contest battles ). The way they were done were just great and dawn having her own rivals in zoey, nando and kenny were also a nice touch. (Ursula was an asshole though. Even at the end, there wasn't much likable about her).

The sinnoh league. What can I say about you. I know pokemon is not known for great continuity, but I wish a lot of the people that ash and friends meet along the way would also make it to the league, but thats neither here or there. I don't really need to say anything about ash vs paul that hasn't been said before. Its just an awesome battle. Tobias on the other hand..... well, he is something I guess. He literally feels like a boss in a game that the developers expect you to lose to. He is just there to add the continuing narrative of ash never winning in a leauge alive.

Good

• character development was the best thing about this series by far. For both the development of ash, dawn and their pokemon, everything was done very well.
• The fillers didn't feel as bad. The early episode fillers didn't contribute to the series, but the later ones felt like they were great for developing the indivudial pokemons. And even though nothing might have happened in the episode, you still felt like you saw growth.

bad

• The biggest bad was just the antagonist. Their stories feel super rushed and it feels like you don't even get a satisfying ending, which is a bummer.

TL;DR

The series overall was awesome. The series did a good job of character development. The series lacked a good build up and finality to the antagonist. Next up, i'm going back from the beginning and watching the indigo league. I've never fully seen it so it's going to be interesting to see how the series has evolved.