Best Wishes! Appreciation

Pokemon Best Wishes! (Pokemon Black & White) is the anime based on the fifth generation games of the Pokemon series. it follows the adventures of Ash & Pikachu, along with new friends Iris and Cilan, as they travel through the Unova region (based on New York!) and some surrounding islands, meeting many new Pokemon, friends, and rivals.

Although he originally arrives there on vacation with his mother, he quickly falls in love with the region full of only new Pokemon he'd never seen before in the eastern regions, so recognizing this, his mother lets him go on another journey. (Don't worry, he goes on a proper vacation with his mama in the Hawaiian-inspired Alola region in the Sun & Moon series, where he attends a school and also accomplishes a major milestone in achieving his goals).

The league is also not its strongest point, so a lot of viewers (especially the older fans and English-speaking fans) vocally despise it and only bring it up in a negative light, or misunderstand the supporting characters due to the way the dub handled them (Iris' teasing is supposed to sound friendly and playful after the first few episodes...), or dislike Team Rocket's darker and less personable portrayal [at least until the second season gives them more downtime and chance to show their personalities] depiction, but it also has a lot of positive aspects people overlook:

Defense: It's got lot of humour, it focuses more on the journey than the end destination, it still has a focus on travelling with a sense of wonder about the world, and a fresh new art style that maintains the charm of the 90's designs while updating a few things (better animation, more "real time" attack shots and use of the environment in battles, Ash's eyes now show their brown colour not only in close-ups and when shining with tears as in previous series), it's also a very easy show to pick up and watch (the oft-praised Diamond & Pearl series, my previous favourite, suffered from very, very boring long stretches of filler, but the filler in BW! is evenly distributed and almost always fun), the pacing is very good, it has fun and endearing characters, and a huge cast of rivals (Ash has Trip, Stephan, Bianca, Luke, Cameron, and Virgil as rivals, Iris has Georgia, and Cilan has Burgundy and [one-off] Pinot Noire), and there are many, many other tournaments before the league which made use of the huge cast of rivals. Another thing it was the last series to do (until, hopefully, the upcoming series!!) was that it respected the continuity of the show in terms of having Ash speak about his past, bring back old Pokemon, travel again for a while with the girl he travelled with last region (Dawn!), and had an absolutely lovely ending animation (unfortunately, the dub as usual did not preserve it, despite the fact that its animation also acts an epilogue for the various rivals in the BW! series) where it showed Ash and all his friends and even his biggest past rivals keeping in contact, Let's Join Hands (Te wo Tsunagou).

Aside from the usual reasons Pokemon is best enjoyed in Japanese (a beautifully fitting score, the original openings and endings with full new animation meant to match the song and little to no recycled footage, and excellent and capable A-list seiyuu/voice actors), there are a few more reasons why Best Wishes! works best in Japanese, so it's very fortunate that it's the first Pokemon series to be fansubbed in full!

[A more detailed defense, if you don't mind major spoilers for the entire BW! series, mentions of abuse and bullying/ostracization.]
Best Wishes! was my last favourite Pokemon series, as one of the later series ever managed to appeal to me as well as this one did. I loved the characters, the fun of shipping characters (Wishfulshipping ♥), art style, improved animation quality, Rocket missions and the fact that plotlines were finally allowed to span longer than two or three episodes outside of the league (my favourites included the Meloetta Arc, Operation Tempest, the “Nyagotiator Nyasu” stretch of episodes where Nyasu/Meowth travels with the group to Nimbasa.) I also enjoyed the Episode N arc, especially Secrets from Out of the Fog, which had gorgeous art and a very moving story, including N's loveliest anime line: "Physical wounds can be treated without much difficulty, but emotional wounds are not so easy"—spoken in regards to the abused Pokemon his sisters care for, far away from humans, but as this is also the episode where N opens up about his past, it's clearly meant to be analogous to his and his sisters' situation as well, used and betrayed by a father figure, now wary of humanity.

A theme of Best Wishes!, mentioned on the official TV-Tokyo website's story section, is growing up... and the memories and the differing attitudes towards childhood is part of that. This applies to major characters like Iris (she has the most flashbacks and most developed story of any Pokemon heroine up until that point; her ostracization made her shy away from trusting others and opening up to them, which also delayed the development of her Dragon empath powers—she needed to learn to trust and communicate!), rivals like Trip (who denies being a child, having a negative view of it, and in a hurry to grow up... until he learns the importance of bonding with his Pokemon and appreciates Alder's guidance) and Georgia (who embr, antiheroes like N (who has difficulty believing in a world where humans and Pokemon can coexist happily, because of his father figure's influence and the abused Pokemon he was surrounded by.)

Even minor characters, like the medical intern Sally, who had just returned to her home after leaving for medical school, and her Gothitelle who recreates the world of its memories in the fog, repeating the days when Sally was a child and they worked together on the ferry, before the bridge was completed, ending their old job forever... Sally misses those days on the ferry and her old home too, that's why she chose to have her internship in a hospital here, but she sympathetically tells her friend, "We can't return to that life, no matter how much you or I think we could." They can cherish those memories together, but they must accept that the bridge was built, that the ferry is no more, and live in the present, even so.

There is also Fujio's insistence that he had once traveled into the past and befriended a Protoga/Tirtouga. His friends disbelieved him, but he believed in that encounter, until he met it again in his adulthood. He was left without proof of it again, but his skeptical childhood friend Stella had seen it, and asked if he was alright with having no proof of the incident. As for Fujio, he was satisfied with the chance to meet it again as an adult.

Another minor character with a moving story is Robert, who sets out to prove his grandfather's photograph of Sawsbuck in all four seasonal coats was not faked—his grandfather wandered into a sort of liminal space in the mountains, a hazy border between worlds, where time flows differently, and captured a photograph of Sawsbuck... he insisted the story and photograph were true. Robert sets out for it, but has nothing to prove of his magical adventure, except the memory of his experiences and the reassurance that his grandfather's words were true.

There are characters who have changed their past ways, who have learned what is truly important is not what they believed it to be before, but rather than dwell on the past, focus solely on what they can do better now. This is a good thing, especially if you consider what sad event in the games caused his change of heart...

Memories of youth and past adventures are also cherished, even if there is nothing left of them and no way to prove them to anyone else, it is enough to cherish those memories, dreams, and experiences; no matter how small or insignificant they may seem to others. It is because of stories and themes like this, that Pokemon Best Wishes! fills me with a great sense of nostalgia, even though I was in my late teenage years when it debuted. Sally's story especially affected me, as I was set to go to medical school. It came to me in a time of great change in my life and quickly became very dear to me and remains this way, even a decade onward. It is precious to me, even if Ash didn't win the league or fans hated certain writing or stylistic decisions... it is precious to me and those who can see its charm. That is enough.

The companions, Iris and Cilan (named Dent in the original) are best enjoyed in the Japanese version!

While Jason Griffith plays a calm and charming Cilan, Mamoru Miyano (the voice of Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club and Light Yagami in Death Note, among many other roles) plays Dent with all the hilariously over-the-top theatrics and drama of Tamaki, which perfectly fits Dent's character. He truly brings him to life and makes him a very entertaining character to watch, bursting with excitement over every odd hobby (fishing, detective work) or obscure interest (the Nimbasa subway system) he has!

Another major difference between sub and dub is that, for censorship reasons, Cilan is a Pokemon Conoisseur, so he speaks in a lot of odd food puns, while evaluating the bonds between trainers and Pokemon... but Dent is one Gym Leader of a set of triplets who all run the Striaton Gym/restaurant together and a Pokemon Sommelier. A sommelier is a wine expert proficient in the marriages of food and wine. As such, he speaks in a very flowery way in the Japanese version, judging the bonds between Pokemon trainers and their Pokemon in battle in wine-tasting metaphors.

Cilan starts out as a very arrogant character (and his cruel tastings inspire at least one person [his rival Burgundy] to change her career entirely, just to get back at him!), but through meeting Ash, realizes the standard way of approaching battles isn't the only one and becomes more open-minded and kind.
His past is a mystery, we only see a glimpse of him and his brothers with their elemental monkey trio, learning to battle, in academy uniforms. Presumably, from Cilan's luxurious tastes and his very strange idea of a humble bedroom (ridiculously fancy), they were probably on the richer side when they were young, but we never see any parents in the present, and the fact that they now work two jobs (three different professions in Cilan's case and he's still working on gaining the highest classification, S-Class Sommelier) as teenagers might mean they don't have anyone else supporting them. He also has a fear and mistrust of the often shifty cat-like Pokemon Purrloin, (interestingly, they're commonly used by the villainous Team Plasma, which feeds into an old fan theory). The viewer never learns what terrible thing a Purrloin once did to Cilan, although Ash and Iris do hear it near the end!

Iris is a half-wild child from the Village of Dragons! She grew up between her village where she was taught legends by the Old Matriarch (the inhabitants are the Pokemon world's equivalent of a Native American!) and the surrounding forests, where she learned to be swift and strong from Pokemon, as well as how to forage for fruits and berries. She is also good at identifying and mixing herbal remedies. She is very motherly and kind to her toddler-like Dragon type partner Axew, who starts off very weak, but becomes stronger over time!

She's an unusual character, she starts off very secretive and teases Ash rather harshly, but her teasing soon turns friendly (and she apologizes if it hurts her more sensitive friends, like Cilan), and we slowly learn why she's so guarded (she tells her story, after some reluctance, in the second season!): she suffered bullying and ostracization for being so different from others, so she became depressed and homesick (missing her childhood friend in the village and her forest Pokemon friends), and started having trouble empathizing with others...

Her trouble empathizing with others is doubly a problem for her, as we find out in the second season, that she's a Dragon empath. Her powers can only awaken after she learns to open up to others and sincerely desire to understand them... this is something she starts working through from the first season even with her non-Dragon type Pokemon, Excadrill, leading to her being able to rescue two Dragon type Pokemon who were misunderstood by humans, as well as find out the truth of something that happened between Axew and her Emolga (who she blamed unfairly at first, based on Emolga's admittedly awful past of being gluttonous, selfish, deceiving and willing to hurt others just to get more of her favourite food: apples!).

Iris tends to tease people about their childishness, despite being very much a child herself! It doesn't work on her rival Georgia, who fully embraces it ("I am a child, so what?!"), her teasing is more friendly later on (again, more obvious in Japanese) and Ash doesn't mind it, but her teasing can also come in handy when convincing Trip to battle Ash...
[Spoilers for Iris' return in Pokemon Journeys:] Over time, as she becomes more in tune with her powers and opens up more about her past, she learns what Drayden and the Old Matriarch have planned for her future (Drayden offers to let her succeed him as Opelucid Gym Leader when she's ready) and she also becomes the student of another Dragon Type Gym Leader, Clair.

In the Pocket Monsters (2019)/Pokemon Journeys series, Iris issues a challenge to Ash as they are both competing in the Pokemon World Championship (Pokemon World Coronation.) Goh runs into her while she's napping in the forest, accidentally hitting her with a pokeball and mistaking her for a Pokemon in the tree, similarly to how she first met Ash. But as Iris has matured past getting very mad, she laughs it off and thinks people don't often see others sleeping in trees. Remembering her battle, she takes off, swinging on vines. Later, she's revealed as the Champion of Unova, introduced as such by Drayden in his gym, while she appears wearing her Champion dress and tiara. She twirls around and asks Ash if he thinks it's pretty and asks if he's surprised, happy when he is! She also helps Ash's Dragonite calm down and gain confidence, trying to teach it to battle for fun, as both Ash's Dragonite and Iris' Axew both began rather disliking battling... Dragonite learns Dracometeor, which may be a reference to how Champion Iris is the move tutor for Dracometeor in the game. It's a great battle, but Ash wins, advancing forward in rank. Ash and Iris promise to meet again in the Hyper (Ultra) class.

Trip, the prodigy trainer from Nuvema Town, who often takes pictures with his digital camera to record his journey, is very proud and tries hard to be taken seriously as an "adult" (not realizing that insistence shows he's a child still!); he is another character that doesn't translate well to the dub or sub and an unusual character, in that the series frames him as the main rival (although that role is arguably better filled by friendly rival Stephan), as for the longest time, Ash's rivalry with him is quite one-sided, as Trip's focus is on the Unova Champion Alder...
Trip spends most of the first season ignoring or disliking Ash, due to Trip's focus on endless training, battling, and studying to the detriment of learning how to bond with his Pokemon or even other people, as well as their clear class difference and Trip's prejudices, but his relationship with Ash is also significant for two reasons:

Although he clashes with Ash on issues of morality in Castelia city, as he's too cynical to believe in peaceful means until Ash shows they can communicate with the Venipede, despite the danger, they also show they can work very well together.

Trip idolizes Alder since he met him as a child, but putting Alder on a pedestal all these years sets him up for a great disappointment when he meets his idol again and realizes he's a human with some very glaring flaws (namely, womanizing, forgetful in his old age...), but with time, he learns there's still much to respect from a man with years of wisdom to offer, despite some foolish behaviour here and there.
(To read more about Trip, check this page I dedicated to him!)

Bianca is a cheerful and naive, somewhat childish, but determined and friendly rival of Ash's. She gets along well enough with the BW! trio, minus the fact that she has a habit of running around everywhere and is awfully clumsy... the target of this clumsiness is always Ash, who gets thrown into the nearest body of water, which makes him a bit grumpy. ^^;;
She loves sweets and cute Pokemon! She likes to dress them up, too, especially Luke's Zorua. Unfortunately, Zorua doesn't share Bianca's enthusiams for dress-up...
The reason for her childish behaviour (she acts a lot younger than the ten year olds, but is clearly in her early teens, about 14) is that she was held back by her father, who worried she wasn't mature or reliable enough to go on a journey...

Although she can need a supporting friend, she can make a stand and clearly grows as a trainer, although she needs her friends' help initially to make her stance known to her father, she's a good battler and uses her Pokemon's moves in unique ways which more by the book trainers can't predict! One of her strategies even inspires Ash.

Georgia is a self-proclaimed Dragon Buster and she's Iris' primary rival! She has a grudge against Dragon specialists after being severely defeated by one from the Village of Dragons, Iris' home; she has a very proud and confident demeanour, but she's also very sarcastic, which makes for very amusing fights and interactions with Iris... despite looking older, she's actually very comfortable with being a child ("I AM a child, so what?!"), unlike Trip, so Iris' teasing does NOT work on her! She's also a very caring person underneath it all and sincerely wants Iris to reach her full potential (so she can take down a worthy opponent!) and while she does snark at everyone with Burgundy, she doesn't like kicking folks who are already down.

Georgia's theme is knights, which is fitting, as she's described as a "dragon-slaying maiden" and is named for the legend of St. George and the Dragon in the dub. She mostly trains Ice types, as the Dragon type is weak against those (in later generations, Fairy types are also very effective against Dragon types, I'm sure she'd love to train one in the future!).

Her Pokemon include the polar bear-like Beartic, the blade-covered Bisharp, and an infrequently seen two-headed ice-cream-looking Vanilluxe who is Georgia's own problem Pokemon. Georgia's unique call to battle (at least in the Japanese version) is "Take to the front!" and when she releases her Beartic, it's posed like a kneeling knight!

Georgia's name in the original Japanese version is Langley, much like Asuka Langley Souryuu from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is a rather funny coincidence, as Souryuu city is also the Japanese name of Opelucid city! Langley itself comes from the Old English lang (long) + leah (wood), (glade); there is also the Old Norse female given name Langlíf, made up of lang (long) + líf (life). I think it'd fit someone who'd train a Fairy type too, right?

Georgia makes her first appearance casually and shamelessly stealing and consuming, on the spot, a meal meant for three people, then having the audacity to complain about the cooking! But in her last appearance, in the Te wo Tsunagou ending animation that serves as the epilogue for the rivals, she stares wistfully into the sky after hearing Ash and friends have left Unova...

Champion Alder is the current Champion of the Unova region! Although he has some bad habits (obnoxious, Brock-like flirting) and the years seem to have taken their toll on him (he wanders all night and tends to doze off in the day, he forgets people's names consistently)... he also shows great power in serious battles, as well as a mentorly kindness, as he encourages the younger trainers to love their Pokemon and put their bonds with their Pokemon and the trust they share first, attaining strength second. He preaches the importance of enjoying the present moment and not lingering on the past.

Professor Aurea Juniper is the regional professor of the Unova region! Similarly to Professor Oak in Kanto, she helps new trainers get their Starter Pokemon and keeps track of their progress, guiding and encouraging them along the way! Her field of interest is the origins of Pokemon and she's well-versed in the mythology and folklore of the Unova region. Her father, Cedric Juniper, is also a scientist and an archaeologist!
In the Japanese version, she has a habit of sayinig "arara" (an explanation similar to "oh my, my!").

Fun fact: Cedric and Aurea do not have revealed given names in the Japanese version, so they're both, confusingly, called only Professor Araragi!