MagonRex

Pokemon is becoming like that drunk brother you keep hoping would get sober someday, but never did, so you stuck with him for years like a fool. Then one day you realize that things will never change.

Even with its best season, Pokemon XY, I was still reminded constantly of just how little substance there was in the plot. It could be summed down to, "Bad things happen. Protagonist doesn't give up. The power of hope and love wins." Basically, every typical shounen plot, ever. The repetitive formula became even worse when mixed with the slow-paced slice-of-life genre in Sun & Moon, a genre which doesn't work for many people, myself included. Do note that I'm not saying shounen anime in itself is bad; it just so happens to not be the kind of anime I could enjoy or tolerate any longer. 

Pokemon Sun & Moon sees our never-aging protagonist, Ash Ketchum, landing in yet another new region, Alola. He meets new friends and Pokemon, but this time, he's no longer pursuing his childhood dream of "being the best that no one ever was," and instead chooses to settle for a more peaceful school life full of hijinks and quirky comedic antics. Basically the perfect plot for 7 year olds. So don't be mistaken - Pokemon is essentially a show for kids, now more than ever. In spite of its TWO episodes with more mature themes (which are still family-friendly parables designed to teach children about the meaning of death anyway), it's not really the "darker and grittier" kind of show some have exaggerated. It's Pokemon, a shounen show where the power of friendship triumphs over logic. Whereas the previous seasons had the excuse of being entertaining with its more fast-paced battle scenes, those moments are now few and far between, replaced by cutesy moments of Ash and his friends fooling around with whatever Pokemon they wish to market for the day. Basically your average filler episode of Pokemon filled up to 90% of the season.

The characters are written decently enough, but I didn't watch Pokemon for some deeply complex characters; I watched it for the epic fight scenes that were once prevalent in XY. Decent and functional character writing just isn't good enough to cut it for my entertainment. Most of the characters are written in such a way as to teach about familial bonds and not giving up in the face of failure anyway; basically your average shounen moral lessons for 7 year olds. They are characters designed to educate children about the most generic and basic form of humanity, the kind that have been seen many times over in thousands of other shounen anime. Unless you're some Pokemon superfan, you'd find yourself spending your time much better watching far more quality and original writing elsewhere.