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SPOILERS AHEAD

This is my first post since I am new to wordexpress, and also a post about something I adore: Pokemon XYZ.

Pokemon XYZ is the 19th season of the Pokemon anime featuring Ash Ketchum as the protagonist. It is also the third and final season of the Pokemon XY anime which are seasons 17-19 of the entire anime. Pokemon XY anime is a fan favorite among the community, including myself, so many fans love it. I want to talk today about XYZ specifically, and why for me personally it is the best – and my favorite.

The XY/XYZ part of the Pokemon anime is where Ash travels to the Kalos region. When he goes to Lumiose City, he meets Clemont and Bonnie for the first time. The show already starts with great animation, which is the best the anime has ever pulled off. But, I am here to talk about XYZ, the third season of the XY anime.

XYZ start was perfect with the episode where Bonnie meets Z1, aka Squishy and the first Zygarde core. I love the way Bonnie cares generally about Pokemon as we see in the whole XY anime, and especially for Squishy. It is a perfect start to a banger season, letting you feeling excpectation regarding the Team Flare, the main villain goup of XYZ.

Ash was at his best in the XY ane especially in XYZ, where his storyline with Greninja was really tight. Serena is a nice character to hang around with, and I enjoyed every Pokemon Showcase she participated in. Clemont (Bonnie’s big brother) is easily the funniest of the group, and her gag inventions never get old. The chemistry and the dynamics of the four main characters of XY/XYZ is my favorite I have ever seen in any anime, with each member bringing their own charisma, charm, and personalities in the air. Let’s not forget about Ash and Serena’s chemistry, which leads up to the ending of the show where Serena kisses Ash.

The pokemon battles and fights of the XY and XYZ anime are so well done. Almost every fight of XY anime is entertaining to watch, with Ash Greninja vs Sawyer’s Sceptile being the best from the Kalos league arc. Ash Greninja vs Alain Mega Charizard X was also peak battle. Not only that, the dynamics between Ash and Sawyer, as well as with Alain, were perfect to me. The reason is because Ash’s rivalry with Sawyer & Alain were not hostile, but had full of support with each others individuals. That is something I have never seen before until I watched Pokemon XY anime for the first time in summer 2022, because any other rivalry in shows I have seen, the rivalry between the main character and his/her rival was either hostility, cold, or toxic. That was something I never liked even as a kid, but Pokemon XY redeemed it for me.

As for Z1, to be fair, Z1’s first appearance was in Mega Evolution Special 4 episode, which is part of the 4 Mega Evolution Special episodes starring Alain as the protagonist, and also the main rival of Ash for XYZ. Z1 also has a connection to Z2, the second Zygarde core. I absolutely like how both Z1 & Z2 were able to communicate telepathically with each other, and telling Z1 about the threat that will come to Kalos.

I absolutely love Alain as a character. In fact, he is actually my favorite character of the entire Pokemon anime. He’s the type of character which might appear to be a bit cold, but has a heart of gold. I absolutely enjoy the dynamic between Alain and Mairin in the Mega Evolution Special episodes, as well as in XYZ. He is definetely the true main character and also the MVP of the XY/XYZ anime in my opinion, I love his personality and his Mega Charizard X is OP. I know some people give Alain a flack for winning the league, but I think that excuse for disliking Alain is childish and doesn’t make sense. Sure, it would have been cool if Ash won the league, but heck, Sun and Moon Ultra Legneds did favor (which was great as well).

I have to say that the show istelf is not perfect. It legitimately has some episodes which are awful, such like Team Rocket disguising themselves as the main characters and doing stupid stuff to frame them, or that god awful episode with the cliche bullshit princess, even the two part Goodra episodes were ruined by Team Rocket for being plot holes. Another thing I dislike about the XY anime is Clemont’s Chespin. That pokemon has potential in epsiode 15, but then he fell apart and decided to have with Serena’s Pancham a pointless, stupid rivalry. Also, for some reason the Rocket trio were mostly weird in the XY anime. They were at their seconf worst of the entire anime in XY, not as bad as they were in the terrible Black and White anime, but yeah.

Now let’s talk about Team Flare and Lysandre, the main villain of XYZ. I have heard how in the games Team Flare was laughable as villains, but in the anime…holy hell they were amazing. Lysandre is definetely the best villain of the entire Pokemon anime, and puts every other villain of the anime to shame. Lysandre also has a connection to Alain as we see in the Mega Evolution Specials, and their connection is so tight.

And now the moment I’ve been waiting to talk about, the magnificent, incredible, TEAM FLARE ARC!

Oh boy! The Team Flare arc is so freaking good. I loved every second of that arc, from the first till the last second of the arc. It is my favorite climax of ANY pokemon related content. Seeing Alain and Ash standing together against Lysandre was super, the fights are great, Clembot’s sacrifice is top notch, the Team Rocket trio acting as tv reporters was funny, and of course the final battle is beautiful. “Forming a more perfect union” is the greatest Pokemon episode I have ever watched. I adore every second of it. It is a top 5 favorite episodes of all time for me, it’s up there with One Piece episode 1015. The Team Flare arc itself is, in my opinion, on par with arcs like the Shogun Asassination arc from Gintama, Return to Shiganshina from Attack on Titan, and the Chimera Ant arc from Hunter x Hunter. Absolute masterpiece from start to finish.

The finale of XYZ is perfect. That’s all I have to say about the finale.

Overall, Pokemon XYZ is the single greatest Pokemon anime season I ever had the pleasure to watch. It’s the only Pokemon anime season I will rewatch over the years and I am happy for that. I am also really happy to own the japanese dvd collection of the whole show. It is something that I will always remember till the day I die. That’s all I have to say, have a nice day.