I love tokusatsu shows! I've been a fan for years, but last decade was when I started to really get into it.

Like a lot of western fans, my first exposure to it was definitely Power Rangers, albeit I'm not completely sure which was my first full series. I remember watching some bits of Lost Galaxy as a kid, and some Wild Force, but Ninja Storm was when I really got into it, enjoying the tropes and the like. Didn't quite make the jump to Dino Thunder right away, but I got to see the Abarenger episode and it was very entertaining.

My proper return to tokusatsu roughly started around 2011 thanks to a friend very much into it, leading me to read about Gokaiger and Fourze, but my proper return was with Kamen Rider Gaim, very interested about the idea Gen Urobuchi of all people was writing a Kamen Rider series. It really made me a big fan of tokusatsu as a whole and got me to start watching ToQger once it began, and since then I have been following each Toei yearly series to one degree or another, while recently starting out Ultraman from Blazar onward (I did dip my toes into other entries but not regularly enough to stick).

As for what I think of them, I quite appreciate them as fun, often well-directed action shows: I do think starting Kamen Rider with Gaim kinda spoiled me some since it made me a bit reluctant to enjoy Drive due to, frankly, stupid tribalistic reasons, but nowadays I'm fairly open to various styles of tokusatsu, being able to find something to enjoy from both something very serialized like Kingohger or an episodic show like Gotchard. All in all, a very fun time I'd recommend anyone to at least try.

It's a pretty tricky question, overall: I feel like I have softened my stance on SM a lot over the recent years, but it's still ultimately a series I don't really enjoy as much as some others, partially for story and writing preferences and partially because I don't feel certain turns and choices were particularly well-executed. As such, there's a lot that I genuinely like that could come across like backhanded compliments, and it's hard to find something I consider 100% caveatless good as a whole.

That said, I do think SM is generally good at creating 'moments' that can be meaningful and impactful in their own vacuum, and if one gets invested in the characters that way, the show is filled with memorable instances. I also feel the show is capable of using its premise for good storytelling sometimes, as I believe the Litten pre-capture arc works as well as it does also due to the stationary setting and the Ultra Ruin arc puts an interesting twist on the theme of loving Alola by showing us a version of Melemele completely destroyed by Guzzlord and the one person willing to still try to save it. I also think Jessie, James and Meowth are generally handled well when used as characters, and they managed to make the jump to a more comedic show more gracefully than Ash overall. I also find Sophocles and Rotomdex themselves pretty solid characters overall even if saddled with a few less than stellar episodes which are not their fault in the slightest.

While I may have a few nitpicks or issues on the larger picture and even some of the traits I mentioned, I can see where the appeal of SM can lie at least, and those are things I can say I enjoyed on the whole confidently enough.

I would say there's definitely room for many sorts of Pokémon Anime, and I'm somewhat glad in the last decade or so TPCi branched out enough to the point these alternate miniseries and shorts have now become a common occurrence rather than a very occasional diversion from the main Anime series.

However, solely going by trends, I kind of doubt if TPCi would ever invest in a long form take on the concept, at most relying on short miniseries. I also believe 'anime' is a pretty important qualifier in this sense: Path to the Peak was clearly written in the style of a western cartoon and did quite well with it, but it also often skimmed over parts of the actual card game to focus on the interesting moment. While I'd love to see a more YGO/Duel Masters/Vanguard-flavored take on the material, I believe the way the TCG is often very passive and low on counters in the opponent's turn would risk to not make a show cinematic enough to allow the counterplays and back-and-forth a Duel Monsters clash would provide.

That said, I'd definitely be interested to see it happen and which form it would take, even if it's somewhat unlikely.

Overall, while I'm probably not as critical on Dawn's usage in JN as some other users online (I don't actually think she needed new evolutions per se, for example), I do think she unfortunately got the short end of the stick in spite of her large amount of returns.

Specifically, I believe she was an unfortunate victim of the latter half of Gen VIII needing to promote Sinnoh and Hisui, since a lot of her return appearences feel more about spotlighting what he represents (the Gen IV player character) than her character, especially considering the Dialga and Palkia arc turned out to be fundamentally inconsequential to JN and Arceus Chronicles was a deliberate out-of-series 'reunion show'-esque adventure for the DP gang.

I actually think her first return is the relative best in this sense, as the general idea of adventuring with Chloe and passing down some of her experience with Piplup and her relationship with her mother is a good one and there were some solid interactions between the two. I do however think that her writing felt somewhat off: stuff like getting distracted on the way and climbing trees for fun was kinda weird coming from her (especially the latter, as that's much more of an Iris thing), as while she was often reckless and eccentric I don't recall her being this brand of an oddball in DP. I feel while the general idea of teaching Chloe about enjoying the journey and not just go straight to the destination isn't bad, I believe Dawn either wasn't the best character to teach it, or at least not in the way the show went with it (my own attempt at things would've probably involved something like highlighting Dawn's experienced recklessness as causing the temporary rift between her and Chloe, contrasting dangerous shortcuts to the safest option to get to Eterna City as a way to still push Chloe out of her comfort zone and relate a similar message). I do however respect how this arc ultimately feels like the one Dawn return in JN that actually tries to be meaningful and purposeful for the story in some fashion.

I'm far more mixed on the Dialga and Palkia arc: while being kinda inconsequential to JN is a mark against it, I do feel there's a lot of very fun concepts and ideas in the arc: reversing time so Pokémon devolve all the way to Eggs is incredibly nightmarish, and what little we see of most of the alternate world is pretty tantalizing (especially the idea of Dawn having been a professional trainer here, but ultra-confident Goh and hacker Chloe really steal the scenes they are in). The arc however really suffers of just not having time to develop a lot of these fun concepts, and the ending relying on a very literal deus ex machina resolves the matters very unsatisfyingly and not making it feel like the cast really did much to solve the crisis all things considered. Not one of the best showings for either Dawn or JN, in my opinion.

The Arceus special is a bit of a special case: there's a lot of very self-indulgent continuity and it's only slightly less inconsequential than the Dialga and Palkia arc (and only because Roserade does appear in Cynthia's team later), but I feel being a made-for-Amazon special outside regular episodes gives it a free pass as something outside JN's regular story. Reuniting the DP gang plus Goh makes Dawn's presence a bit more understandable here, and I think she gets at least a better showing in terms of proactivity and personality compared to the prior listed episodes. While she still doesn't come off as 'central' to the arc (I'd argue Brock gets the best portrayal in terms of showing progress of him working as a doctor there), it's an enjoyable enough adventure that gets some props for feeling like an old school villain arc in JN, and successful enough in its goal.

Her appearing in the Ash VS Leon fight honestly felt more like her and Chloe being there to fill Goh's seat after he left than actually giving much to do to either, given they mostly offer some commentary here and there and Dawn fundamentally vanishes from the story as soon as the match's aftermath is over. Part of me kinda feels like she may as well have been one of the cameos watching on TV, given the amount of importance felt roughly the same.

All in all, I understand why her appearances are pretty controversial: there's definitely little done with her compared to her amount of appearences, and I feel the biggest issue is also that the show didn't just bring her back to Sinnoh but also didn't really elaborate much on what she's up to beyond generically doing Contests, which is probably what makes her come off as stale (I assume May would've had similar issues going by her cameo during the finals implying her participation in Spectaculars and being back in Hoenn, but given she didn't get a dedicated episode, it was far less noticeable). All in all, a shame that her returns weren't handled the best all things considered, even if I was happy to see her back.

I would actually say that in broad strokes, JN plus MPM does provide a great framework for Ash's journey ending: partaking in a global tournament and facing a trainer deemed the strongest of the world and eventually realizing what a Pokémon Master is roughly how I would've wrapped his storyline, and I also believe an open ending of Ash heading out for his next adventure is the most fitting closure for the kind of character Ash is. I am however not the biggest fan of the series's execution of it, and I have my doubts about if JN was even initially conceived as Ash's final series until the halfway point or so.

That said, my personal preference would probably lean towards making understanding what a Pokémon Master a core part of his arc rather than something asked and addressed in the final episode only, something to give an emotional center to his final series. Probably have a check in or reference to all past companions and other major characters to give us an idea of how everyone has grown, and probably leave the door open for future challenges and adventures in a vaguer way than the Anime did in MPM's final episode: I feel by the end of MPM the series closed a few too many doors to leave Ash doing more than basically just 'Pokémon of the week' encounters going forward, and it's part of why I feel the implications of reunions and new encounters of JN's proper finale hit the same notes a bit better for me.

As this question predated the Sea Mauville episode, I'll make some notes about which element came before and after that, though for the most my feelings didn't change much.

I feel Project Mew was one of the better ideas JN had, but also one that showed the series's flaws very clearly. To go in the specifics, I believe the concept itself was a great call: while Goh had several good episodes by then and was a likable character with realistic flaws, the way his goal was handled wasn't the best: not so much for the method and amount of catching, and more for the fact simply catching Pokémon to metaphorically get closer to Mew didn't allow his character a lot of room for growth beyond episodic adventures. Project Mew allowed to reframe said goal in a way more resembling prior parallel quests, making it a better match for Ash's side of things: rather than having them both making progress in incidental parts of another's episode, this allowed for a clearer set up of 'Goh goal progress episodes' and 'Ash goal progress episodes', which provided better structure. Paired up with some downplaying of Goh's catching (specifically, while he does keep catching Pokémon, after Absol he never has entire episodes built around catching eventual minor additions to his team), this helped giving Goh the direction he needed while downplaying the weakest elements of his character and goal.

However, this arc also puts into stark display how poorly planned Journeys was as a full series, as not only Project Mew was never part of Goh's goal narration the same way Ash's PWC climb is, the most important episode to set it up (Goh's capture of Suicune) only happens fifteen episodes before, with Horace taking quite a bit longer to tie back into it afterwards.

This feeling of a hastily put together plotline is unfortunately keenly felt throughout, as characters like Danika and Quillon have only hints of backstory at best in spite of owning legendary Pokémon, and Professor Amaranth gets very little focus for the man in charge of the whole expedition. This is even felt in the first few episodes, as Goh's earliest missions made sure to include Ash even at points where it would've probably been best for the story if he weren't involved (the offscreen Regice battle and having him included as the only non-challenger in the Articuno raid battle being notable examples), which was only accounted towards the end around the time the show also introduced more rivals. It felt like the show was still figuring out how it all would work well after it started, and the cracks at the seams are hard to miss.

But in spite of that, I do think Project Mew ended up telling a pretty fulfilling story, bringing focus to Goh's character flaws and issues working with others, alongside providing interesting scenarios. Introducing Gary to act as his rival was an inspired choice that keeps up Gary's shift to researcher from prior series to the forefront while not feeling like a regression to his character, and I particularly liked how Gary and Horace were involved. While this happened after the question was posed, I feel by the final episode the structure of Project Mew was crystalized enough to provide interesting challenges (and while they had small roles, I did like Sterling and Lyla as minor more antagonistic rivals), and while Regigigas ending up as just a cameo rather than a major challenge was a bit weird, I feel the exploration of Faraway Island proved a nice enough capoff to Goh's arc.

So all in all, I feel Project Mew was a flawed but much needed and ultimately fulfilling addition to JN, and one of the reasons why I consider Goh's character and arc a highlight of the series.

Hmm, this is a tough one; there's plenty of things big and small I'd like to shift around of this show, and the one I eventually landed on risks coming off somewhat loaded, so I hope my explanation will be satisfactory.

Specifically, if I could change one singular thing and only one, I'd probably make it so Ash is officially retired as a protagonist after XY, keeping everything the same before then. While I'm aware this can come off as 'haha SM/JN bad', that is not the intent at all.

Specifically, I believe with the benefit of hindsight, XY's ending really marks the transition between older and modern Anipoke; while DP's ending is also a major breaking moment, XY's ending led to the departure of several writers that had been with the series since the early days, and we know from interviews during MPM that Tomiyasu actively wanted to portray Ash differently than he used to be, ontop of the general structural and tonal shifts like decreased emphasis on action and a wackier style of humor. And from there on out, even with its differences, the following series have never quite been like the older ones.

Therefore, I find that SM and JN occupy an awkward spot where they're still technically connected to the past, but still feel quite different in ways that are often more harmful than beneficial. I feel for JN in particular, Ash's story arc and general writing is the weakest of the main trio, not really attempting to advance his character and with not great handling of his team, battles and plot points, keeping a lot of expected energy but feeling somewhat phoned in in execution. There's definitely quite a bit I could say on this topic, but in general, I think most of what I like of SM and JN comes from elements that aren't Ash.

I think HZ shows well that SM and JN could have benefitted from a different protagonist: Roy may fit an Ash-like niche, but being a new trainer means no one is up in arms when he loses a fight or when he's not acting in the way expected of him, avoiding situations like how the excellent debut episode for Project Mew was overshadowed by people disliking Infernape's handling and Ash's performance against Moltres. While this would also mean a lesser amount of continuity, I honestly believe that could actually improve JN given how several cameos and nods detracted from the story told more than they helped, and quite a few of them didn't actually require Ash's presence to be kept.

In general, I believe A different protagonist would free SM and JN from the constraints attached to following the past series, and allow them to be more of themselves. While I would probably be slightly dissatisfied by Ash never winning a League if his run ended in XY, I feel that's one change that would be to the show's benefit as a whole.

I'm actually of two minds about it, now that everything is said and done.

I'm not the biggest fan of Iris going all the way from okay trainer that could become a Gym Leader to the Champion of the Unova region in 'two regions' time, since to me it felt like a move made because she was the latest Unovan Champion in the games rather than because it was where her arc was heading, like a lot of JN's most 'commercial' decisions. I also wasn't a fan of how the battle itself went, both for awkward pacing and because I believe having a newly born Pokémon that Ash admitted could only use Water Gun mere episodes before defeat Dragonite easily kinda undermined the idea she's grown stronger. So, on the whole, I'm not the biggest fan of her reaching the Masters Eight since it felt like result of the show trying to promote the Masters Tournament as a 'Tournament of Champions' plus Ash and Alain (and relatedly, I recall someone also pointing out logically speaking, she couldn't have reached the Master Class before Ash given he entered Ultra first, all matches are scheduled, and Ash lost none of his).

However, in spite of that, I actually think Iris VS Cynthia is a very good battle: it actually pays off Cynthia and Iris's relationship in BW, is a nicely character-driven fight compared to all the other matches in the quarterfinals, and aside from a few JN-typical issues of some Pokémon ending up way too frail and going down too quickly, it's a fairly fun brawl. Even if Iris didn't win I believe that battle is a much more fitting capoff to her arc than her battle with Ash, and I'm glad we got it in spite of my grievances.