I like to think of myself as a casual expert of Pokemon. So I’m a bit out of touch with the series beyond Gen 6, but I know the other gens like the back of my hand. I grew up with Pokemon, I grew my blog about rewatching the show. Sure I’m only on season 7, and have spent like 3 years now slowly going through Hoenn but I have noticed a pattern. There are many bad episodes of Pokemon, I have 3 lists dedicated to the topic. As the seasons go on, what makes an episode a slog to watch through remains the same. So I decided to delve deeper into the topic. What makes a bad episode of Pokemon? The following are three habits bad episodes tend to have.
- Characters make bad choices or act out of character
I don’t think anyone wants to see plots where Ash needs humbling for arbitrary reasons or Team Rocket callously kicked Victreebel from the group. I sure don’t need to see Misty forget she can call her pokemon back into pokeballs and instead we see her risk her life to save Togepi. Scare in the Air didn’t make her look smart. It’s just infuriating and even though this show is for kids, these are established characters. Keep to the rules and stories you made creators and let things flow naturally. You’re either going to cause forced drama or make everyone watching think these characters are idiots.
2. The side characters take the focus and aren’t well developed
I think the best episode to explain this is the infamous Kangaskahn Kid. Our heroes get to be sidekicks to the completely unlikable parents of Tommo. I don’t feel good watching our main characters helping these fools. Now most of the time the one off characters are just underdeveloped than straight up bad, but it’s wasting screen time that could be used on our heroes.
3. The episode is action focused but the action isn’t good
I think the best example for this is Fit to be Tide. It’s an episode centered around Ash doing Orange Island challenges against Cissy. The challenges involved racing on ice and shooting targets. But the animators used so little animation it made the whole thing boring. There are other examples of Ash having important battles that take up most of the episode, yet are animated using still shots. There’s no energy or impact. I don’t want to watch characters just yelling moves at their pokemon, I want to see the effects and impacts. They can do clever things with fights and animations, so there’s no point in centering an episode with poor animation around battles and other actions.
Rewatching Pokemon 