I watched it entirely for Araragi, but I might stick around for Iris and Dent. (Dent hasn't shown up yet but I'm looking forward to it.) Araragi seemed pretty standard fare for professors who aren't Prof. Oak. She didn't get much of a personality, but I'm hoping this will change in the future. She got excited over Pikachu since he's not from Isshu, but otherwise didn't come across as anything special, which is a shame.
Iris on the other hand is adorable. She does a lot of making fun of Ash, but I think my favorite thing about her is that her Kibago lives/rides in her hair. I'm looking forward to what she brings to the series since she seems very different to Ash's previous 3 female side-kicks. she's is excitable and not as egotistical or vain as the past three.
I am less impressed with Shooti, who seems to be the basic douche-canoe rival, this time with the "exciting" twist of obsessively taking pictures of everything. His only redeeming quality is that he chose Tsutarja as his starter pokemon. Though, I really don't blame him for being kind of a jerk to Ash. Shooti was trying to pick his starter and get his journey started, and Ash was kind of up in his space and being a pain in the ass.
Shooti and Ash had a battle in the first episode which Ash lost because Zekrom broke Pikachu's electrical abilities... And then... fixed them? I'm really confused by this event. I'd heard about it before I watched the episodes, but it sounded like it was something that was going to go on for a while. But it was cleared up in like five minutes. And while it was hilarious to watch Ash tell Pikachu to use all of his electrical attacks on him, I'm bothered by this. Unless it's going to be something that happens regularly (which may just get annoying), it is a really unnecessary plot hiccup.
Though, so far, I think my favorite part is Mijumaru...
Don't be fooled by his cute face. This little guy is the craziest stalker. He was disappointed that Shooti didn't pick him as his starter, and I guess decided to follow Ash around. He saves them all from Team Rocket, who surprisingly would have finally gotten away with stealing Pikachu (and Kibago) if Mijumaru hadn't stepped in. I'm sure eventually Ash will catch him officially, but for now he's just following them around, akin to that crazy old stalker Jigglypuff.
So, I'll keep watching to see where it goes, but for now it seems like Best Wishes is following the set-up that the previous seasons have created. I'm hoping that Best Wishes will break out of it a bit in the near future. We'll have to see.
