3 words. Massive.Ship.Trolling. The Pearl was full of these, but due to the creators wanting another focus, they dropped the shipping in BW, great ERROR. Not only did it get negative critics, but even with N, japanese magazines called it "too plain" even for pokeymon. Now, with Serena, they more or less caught the public eye, since she canonically has a crush on ash, seen in the XY material with a pink line connecting her to him, with the phrase "likes".
The trolling couldn't get any worse wheen viewers expect ship teasing each episode and get nothin'. Well that's the japs for you, it's like heating and cooling an oven. Someday, it has to heat up to work. Poor, poor shippers.
Leaving that aside I loved Bonnie and Citron, her Gratious french and his "The future will be built by science!" are pretty cool and, surprise! a female companion who can cook. It looks decent enough.