Acting stupid? Ash seems to retain some of his experience from previous regions... And Team Rocket seems to be carrying some of their experiences and Tech over as well. There seems to be some continuity which is a massive improvement over the previous seasons. TR still had their derp pikachu getto da ze moment but watch the next 2 episodes.
I mention the games because... The city they are in for the first 2 episodes is home to the 5th gym. Which happens to specialize in electric pokemon. Guess who has some connections with said gym? Yep Citron, meaning he should have some prior battling experience and be a fairly competent trainer, especially when electric pokemon are involved. Now if he happens to be an Iris and just have connections to the gym in the anime as opposed to being an actual gym leader like he is supposed to be who knows.
I mention the games not for the mechanics having too much of a bearing on the anime adaptation, but because of who Citron is supposed to be.
The Bunnelby wouldn't be a level 5 equivalent either, it was only a recent capture not a starter. Nice way to use game mechanics to complain how Pikachu should be 1-shotting everything though, there aren't quantifiable "levels" in the anime and there seems to be upper limits to what certain species of pokemon can do. Pikachu isn't shattering things with its Iron Tail because its a small rat, not a level 100 capped mon with a beneficial nature and maxed IVs/EVs... sure it probably does a decent amount of damage but come on.
Rewatch the DP pilot, I wanted to throttle Dawn and the whole Pikachu thing was almost an exact copy of the Hoenn opening episode. Rewatch the BW pilot, the fucker didn't even remember he had to weaken pokemon before attempting capturing them, which is retarded since in DP he actually was fairly competent at the end. A total rookie mistake, one he should not be making. It wasn't attributed to him not ever seeing a pidove before either, that was all his derp.
Ash's "to dumb to live" speil when he got off the train was just him jizzing over the fact that he gets to be in a foreign region. He didn't make any rookie mistakes attributed to his own stupidity, and the only difficulty he had in the bunnelby fight was attributed to him not being familiar with his opponent's pokemon (And his opponent is supposed to be an expert on electric types, Pikachu included as it is native to Kalos).
As for the froakie? Its not a fresh starter pokemon either, but that is for episode 2.
If what you took from my posts was that it is an all new 100% fresh experience and the writers are skillfully weaving a masterfully crafted story than you didn't read what I wrote.
There are plenty of elements from previous seasons they used in the first couple episodes, but they way they implemented them felt more natural, and didn't seem as though it was literally the same old shit with a new episode number. Lets face it, the games themselves are the same old shit with a fresh coat of paint, so why do you play them? Why does anybody continue after 15-17 years? Like the games there was enough new to mix with the old that it doesn't feel like the exact same thing or the exact same formula.