Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
I touched on this briefly with Mai, Hilary and many times with Chloe, the point being that alot of popular anime don't do their opposite gender justice. No order for this list.
1. 90% of Harem anime
The lead male is dumb, the lead female is oblivious.
Get the obvious one out the way first, a typical male is frequently beaten up, a loser, accidental pervert; while the typical female is completely oblivious to her situation and has no concept of red flags. Harem is kinda out of fashion thankfully, so it's not really a factor so much anymore.
2. Dragonballz
Bulma dominates the female cast too much.
For much of Dragonball history the very few female fighters we do get were limited to Android 18; Super and FighterZ bridged the gap but even now, Bulma still dominates as the female representative.
3. All Digimon seasons bar Tamers
Female digi-destined were kinda just making up numbers.
It started with Tai and Matt getting all the attention, then it was Davis despite the fact Kari and TK were meant to lead, Tamers did it right but then it reverted back to old habits with future seasons. While Kari provided actually plot relevance, Sora and Mimi didn't.
4. Medabots
They did Samantha dirty.
The sad thing about Medabots is that they had a really good female character in Samantha but they cut her relevance to the plot so much that she may as well have left the anime.
5. Beyblade
It took three seasons to get a decent female blader.
Mariah and Emily were strong bladers refused to be allowed any actual battling. The less said about Hilary the better. Took until G Revolution to finally fix this issue.
6. Pokemon Galar Season
Chloe had nothing to do.
They gave Goh a mission to catch Mew, Ash is the lead so enough said, Chloe had one Pokemon contest and advice from previous female leads, that's Chloe's entire contribution to the anime.
7. Non UC Gundam
It's taken about 30 years for a decent female pilot.
Nothing really against female casts of the non universal century Gundams as they all have strengths in their own way, but the only really decent female pilots we've had are Allenby of G Gundam and this seasons Witch from Mercury, that's pretty poor from a franchise with well balanced gender casting.
8. Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters
Female duelists get a bad rep.
I've covered this already with Mai, other than Ishizu, every female duelist is average, terrible or get through with hand holding, future seasons fixed this.
9. Naruto
Female ninjas are pretty terrible.
Much has been said about Sakura's history, Ino has a poor move set for combat, Hinata is in the wrong anime, Temari lost much of her role after marrying Shikamaru. The adults fair much better but they are not main characters. Oh yeah there's Tenten, what did she do again?
10. Pretty Cure
Despite promoting inclusiveness, there's still no official male Precure.
Hugto Precure broke the mold with the now legendary line "Boys can princesses to" this followed with the first ever male Precure and a season devoted to the message of everyone is Precure, young, old and any gender. That was Season 15, Season 20 is next year, and were still no closer to the elusive male Precure, current season discount Tuxedo Mask does not count.
To continue this mini series of eras and Generations lets look at the Pokemon anime
To clarify were looking at Ash Ketchum, his companions, the defining moments and the what worked and what didn't.
Updated: Re-done the current anime season.
Kanto
Looking back, Kanto is kind of goofy, but among all the seasons you can pick more memorable episodes from this over the other seasons any day.
It is to the detriment of Ash who is woefully amateur as a trainer and gets away with way too much.
Brock and Misty are fairly down to Earth but I say Brock has the better personality while Misty more often than not feels like she is just "the girl" in the group.
Orange Islands
I found it interesting to go off on a non game world as it built in some fun battle dynamics that are now part of canon game mechanics and explored some of the more interesting parts of Pokemon history.
Ash is actually getting better showing that he is learning from his mistakes.
Misty barely improves while Tracy is so one dimensional that any character of the day could replace him.
Johto
Like Kanto but not as memorable, mostly because it fixed many of Kanto's short comings losing it's cheesy edge but the Pokemon league was something to behold finally settling the score with Gary.
Ash has kept steady progress but gave away wayyyyy too many pokemon.
Misty is still the same while Brock returning was very much welcomed and he came new and improved.
Hoenn
Hoenn felt like it hadn't learned much from Johto, it kept the same dynamics as Johto but it did give a more defined goal to the female lead, again the later part of the season was the strongest.
Ash leaving his Pokemon behind with Professor Oak was a much smarter decision than you think as he got to grips with newer Pokemon, Ash was starting to look like a better trainer.
Brock sticking around was welcomed and continued his goofy big brother role for Ash while we have a new female in May who I like for being on Ash's level as a second protagonist but I dislike walking dictionary Max for just being an annoying kid brother. This is also the first season where Team Rocket finally gets something other than incompetent villains.
Sinnoh
Sinnoh was incredible, it massively improved in quality and gave Ash and Dawn both top billing. This is Pokemon at it's best.
This is the strongest Ash will ever be as a Pokemon trainer.
Dawn's arrival is very much welcomed and something the series needed, a solid multi dimensional female lead. Misty was one note while May was copying notes from Ash, Dawn gave us the best girl. Brock is still there but was running out of steam by end of season and again I welcome Team Rocket being more than incompetent villains.
Unova
Oh no, ohhhhh noooooo, what happened? Quality just dive bombed and never recovered and it's mostly down to characters.
To be fair on Ash, this is the closest he will get to acting like his game counterpart as his training style reflects how the game is played.
Iris is trying to be Misty and fails, this would've been fine if she was only in a couple of episodes but no were stuck with her for a whole season. Don't get me started on Cilan, his deal is that he's a Pokemon Connoisseur which means he can identify how compatible Pokemon are with their trainers, so in short they made him the walking friendship rater from the games. It's a stupid idea, this is the worst season and I wish it never happened.
Kalos
Oh thank god you learned some lessons from the previous season; probably the best in quality animation and has a lot of set pieces and moments that create some spectacular scenes like in the finale.
Ash brought back some bad habits of freeing Pokemon and his team is unconventional to say the least.
Clemont is a welcome replacement to Cilan being a goofy inventor and works really well with little sister Bonnie as a foil who isn't annoying but the Zygarde plot dragged out too long and made Bonnie into a babysitter. Serena is at least better than Iris and Misty but somehow stands out even less than May and Dawn despite her contests being more about being an Idol which is about standing out. I also feel that her storyline is not terrible but I feel that her crush on Ash came to nothing.
Alola
Ummm, okay, that's a different approach. Let's be real the animation is really distracting as it seems more suited to slap stick, but I do give it props for using self aware humour and throwing in scenes that older seasons not even Kanto dare not try, so it's at least ambitious.
Ash kept much of his Kalos traits but seems to grow younger when entering the region and seems to forget all he learned previously.
There is now a group as opposed to two or three companions so to list.
I like Kiawe for his comically serious routine.
I find Sophocles okay, at least it's better than the game.
I like Lana, I feel she's the Misty we deserved.
I like Lillie as well as her character seems more believable than the game.
I never liked Mallow, I felt like I was watching Iris again.
Brief mention on Team Rocket, the whole Bewear adopting them was just weird.
Galar
Now the season is reaching it's climax I have to say that it's the weakest season.
A lot of good characters from the Galar region were done dirty in favour of a more open world narrative with the idea of the world championships.
It's great if you're Ash Ketchum as he finally got to show his full strength but not so good for anyone else.
Team Rocket were left with not much to do.
Chloe had nothing to do but watch an Eevee and take notes from previous female protagonists.
Goh can f**k right off, as his story about finding Mew and just randomly catching Pokemon didn't make for a good narrative in an anime adaption, I think I only remember four out of around 100 or so he captured.
I'm glad Ash is now a Pokemon master, I just wish the season reflected that achievement more.
Paldea
Nothing announced yet.
The game follows a three story structure.
The only way I see Ash going to Paldea is if he's personally invited by the Paldea Region's Chairwoman and Champion to compete in the Gym challenge.
There is room for Chloe to redeem herself should they choose to.
Go should never come back.
A different scenario is Ash goes it alone with Nemona, Arven and Penny in tow.
A while ago, I gave Sasuke Uchiha a pass on his character mostly because Boruto made him more mature and surprisingly chill. Let's see if I can do the same for Ash Ketchum.
Ash Ketchum is easily the most frustrating character ever to come from anime as everything from plot armour to dumb luck sees him advance from each season smelling of roses despite not winning the league on multiple occasions but breaking the league performances down he did an admirable job in each.
Kanto he earned half his badges through kindness I guess and it showed by how Charizard treated him, Team Rocket didn't help but up until his loss he was doing pretty well.
Orange Islands to this day is still his most deserved trophy beaten only by the Battle Frontier.
Johto felt like the league we should've got in Kanto and beating Gary was one of Ash's finest moments, still lost the next round.
Hoenn was more of the same but the puss in boots Meowth is a little bull shit but Battle Frontier more than made up for it.
Sinnoh was really unfair to Ash, after beating one of his strongest rivals he battles an OP legendaries trainer.
Unova was a downgrade after following such a good season but it was nice to see Ash switch out Pokemon frequently like a proper trainer.
Kalos felt closer to Sinnoh but another OP trainer had to be put in front of him.
The game changer was Alola where he finally won but there was bullshit involved to get him up to the top but I blame shoddy writing.
So coming to now and Ash has some pretty OP Pokemon, along with Pikachu is Mr Mime, Dragonite, Gengar, Riolu and Galar Farfetch'd. That's one OP team and were barely 20 episodes in and considering who travels with him now, he's no longer the worst character, and that's crucial.
When you put yourself in Ash's shoes, he's no different to the millions of trainers who started out playing the games, so his interaction with the world and people around him only serve as a learning experience and I don't think you can fault the guy for some of his dumber moments when in most cases this is the first time he's seen the new Pokemon that turn up every episode; travelling around with his numerous companions and how they play off Ash is crucial as well. It's also because he loses tournaments that Ash feels more human and over 20 years of this we can finally look at an Ash Ketchum who you can proudly say that he's a good Pokemon Trainer. My hopes for the current season as there is no limit to where he can go, Ash has a chance to redeem his Kanto mess ups in his quest to enter the Championship setup in Galar.
So is Ash bad? No, at worst he's frustrating and a bit moronic on days where he should know better but 22 years of trying and succeeding, I can't help but feel proud that he managed to achieve his goal.
Season 1 from the Pokemon anime is jammed packed full of moments where Pokemon that shouldn't be that powerful are capable of some unbelievable abilities or have been over hyped far too much.
Dishonourable Mention
Any non fully evolved Pokemon that belong to Ash is not counted as that's more plot armour than being over powered. I'm also letting Ditto slide as well.
10. Tauros
I'm starting low as very few people have watched the banned Safari Zone Episode. To sum up, Ash manages to capture 30 Tauros because they kept getting in the way of his targets, in the Gen 1 games, Tauros is likely the last Pokemon you catch, it's stupidly rare and frequently runs away. Despite it's rarity it lacks any decent moveset.
9. Paras
While the majority of it's victories were from Team Rocket throwing fights for it to help it evolve, but then it pulls off a legit victory on Charmeleon with one hit that was by accident.
8. Caterpie
Shouldn't be physically possible for a Caterpie to defeat both Koffing and Ekans, this is where it all started for Team Rocket's downfall.
7. Jigglypuff
Her singing is overpowered, far too often it's become a convenient plot device to retcon the episode.
6. Togepi
Togepi is another Pokemon with a convenient Deus Ex Machina, what doesn't help is that the anime has no clear mechanics for Metronome in the anime.
5. Krabby
The image says it all, keep in mind that was Krabby's first ever battle and evolved shortly after to white wash the whole of Mandy's team. It's never had a major role since.
4. Psyduck
Yet another Pokemon with convenient plot solving powers, Psyduck only adds to the frustration by being infuriating to watch.
3. Sandshrew
Early in the series we see a Sandshrew way more powerful than it should be. Keep in mind the trainer has a reputation for a 100 win streak but even so his backup Pokemon make him the equivalent of Mt Moon trainers at best, this Sandshrew is capable of One Hit KO moves.
2. Bellsprout
Somehow Jeanette Fisher trained her Bellsprout as a Kung Fu master, what really hit it home is throwing and slamming Bulbasaur about and one shoting Pikachu with a single kick which should be physically impossible for a Bellsprout.
1. Gastly
The Ghost of Maiden's Peak really confused matters when it came to Ghost Pokemon. In a number of confusing moments Gastly was able to take on multiple forms including inanimate objects, human ghosts, non existing animals and Pokemon Fusion. Oh yeah it talks as well.
This will be fun, looking at characters who really aren't as great as their popularity suggests. No order in this one.
1. Tenten from Naruto
Tenten is the resident weapons master of Konoha and had so much potential only to be humiliated in the Chuunin exam and be thrown into the background despite standing on the same level as Rock Lee and Neji. She had practically no role afterwards.
2. Tyson Grainger from Beyblade
For the supposed leader of the Bladebreakers, he's a terrible leader, it's any wonder his much more popular teammates left for their own interests in G Revolution, not to mention he ignores much of the advice given by his team overall.
3. Usagi Tsukino from Sailor Moon
I'd forgive Usagi so much more if the original didn't make her so incompetent, needy and whiny, it's any wonder Precure destroyed this series in ratings.
4. Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune from Happiness Charge Precure
Speaking of Precure, a Cure at worst is forgettable, generic or plain. Iona is a bitch; she blames Hime for all her problems despite the fact that it was her own fault that her sister got taken. Even when she joins the team, it's hard to forgive her for her behaviour.
5. Hatoko and Suzuka from Angelic Layer
She was built up as the main rival to Misaki and Hikaru and was wise above her years but she was defeated before given the chance and even burst into tears afterwards, child or not, you cannot build a character like that and then expect her to act her age afterwards.
6. Chao Lingshen from Negima
Supposedly Negi's descendant but her motives are confusing, does she want to reveal magic or not? Sadly this doesn't get answered. As for her non canon roles she's just a seat filler. Even her canon role is reduced to nothing once it ends which fills half the manga run.
7. Char Aznable from Gundam
He's the eternal rival of Amuro but looking on his history, he has an unhealthy obsession with underage girls. One out of possibly five female characters was actually an adult, the rest were teenagers.
8. Gary Oak from Pokemon
Was built to be Ash's eternal rival, he lost before Ash in the Kanto league, made little to no impact in 90% of his appearances, when he did battle Ash it was the best episodes of the franchise but after that his job was done. Paul from Sinnoh was a better rival.
9. Fuko Kirisawa from Flame of Recca
For the lone female fighter of team Hokage she's awful! Gullible enough to fall for enemy tricks twice, wasted Fujin's powers, got lost, trapped, brain washed multiple times and rescued by Raiha just as many times. Are you sure Fuko is meant to be the fighter? Yanagi is stronger despite not even being capable of fighting.
10. Future Trunks from Dragonballz
Controversial but justified, his only real contribution is killing Freiza. If you consider the Android 13 movie canon, he failed to mention six other androids next to 17 and 18, inadvertently unleashed Cell on the very timeline he tried to save, even when battling Cell he performed worse than Tien and even when he has to save another future he gets called out on all the times he messes with time and how frequently it brought about worse scenarios including attracting the attention of Babidi and Majin Buu triggering Super Saiyan Rage. It gives Vegeta much more father points when you consider the original Trunks to be a better character who even calls out his own future self.
