In terms of art style, the new series has it in spades. It's not perfect, but it is most certainly quality. Watching the Reloaded special episode (23 in Orion), it was awesome to see some of the old strange designs ironed out for past characters. Unlike the original, the pacing of the story has ramped but not because the over arching storyline was complicated, but rather poor pacing of character growth. Like the original series, lots of characters don't get much development (ie. Handa, Shourin), but this is especially so given the shorter run time for this new series. Many characters just don't seem to belong or should be where they are given the pacing and lack of character development. I will go through it in some detail, but that will be past the spoiler warning below. The overarching story is way more believable than the last few story lines we had in recent Inazuma Eleven. It's 5th Sector, but more grounded. That said this is a show predominantly for young children so it's not the most crazy story line ever. Overall, I would say the greatest appeal of the show is in the new characters with the aftertaste of the classic Eleven characters. Though the true villain was honestly different, most that led to that was less than ideal. I believe the show would've done much better if it invested more character development (Haizaki & Hoshinari) into the stories they did start rather than ending them abruptly and frequently.
tl;dr: Cool new art style and cool animations with cool new characters and returning characters! But be warned, they are bogged down by not-so-cool new characters. Also this is an alternative timeline pre-Alien Academy, post-Zeus.
----SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT----
Inakuni Goods:
In Aries, Inakuni works very well as a close, tight-knit group of friends, but given the pacing most don't get much time to develop individually. Those that did had varying results. Unexpectedly, Iwato, the new Kabeyama, is one of the more interesting characters from Inakuni. He has multiple gag partners and even teams up with Aphrodi and Hiroto. Michinari also had a great moment with Endou and I really wished they continued that instead of "Junk Food Funny Time with Goujin" in Orion. Finally we have Umihara, whose design I love very much. She had some interesting internal conflicts, but none were given much time to develop. There have been multiple times where her character development starts, but the plot had to move forward before we could get to see a well paced progression both in Aries and Orion.
These characters aren't from Inakuni but I figured this would be the best place to mention. Haizaki Ryouhei and Nosaka Yuuma (and by extension Nishikage) are the de facto main treat of this new series. They brought an interesting storyline that carried all of Aries and most into Orion.
tl;dr: Overall, I think there are a few decent new characters additions, but most were discarded in Orion and for some reason those that shouldn't have were. (Umihara, you should've came back earlier...)
Inakuni Bads:
Goujin Testsunosuke is funny(?) I suppose, but he is really just a punching-bag gag character that is in debt. The cost of keeping this guy in the story was to have lackluster team. He shares the forward position with 5 other characters that are way more relevant and interesting than him. I would've preferred if he was benched like Megane in the original series. Similarly, I honestly don't understand why Mansaku and Hiura are on the team. Especially Mansaku, who really hasn't done anything since learning his first hissatsu. For the most part, these Inakuni members don't truly interact with anyone but themselves. However, these members pale in comparison to these two characters:
Inamori Asuto is just a copy-pasted version of Endou, with the added plot relevant detail that may or may not resemble Luke Skywalker. The problem with his character is simply the fact that he has little character growth and what growth he could have gotten is either non existent (Aries) or is swept under the rug (Orion). The writers demand that he must get screen time, but there really isn't much to write about for him. The more interesting details about his character, like how life was back at Inakuni or what he thought about his fake father is treated too lightly. This would not be that much of a concern if he was a supporting character like everyone else from Inakuni. The biggest deal breaker for me is the fact that all his lines are literally things that Endou would've said, who now has to shut up and just stare. This simple fact makes it pains me. This worked in GO and Chrono Stone because Endou had justifiable reasons to take a backseat and let the children pave their own path, but here it feels more like Endou isn't being the captain he truly is and his spirit was programmed into a talking robot.
Mikado Anna is a terrible character. Her role in Aries was disgusting to watch and she has no purpose in Orion. Managers of Inazuma Eleven have been declining in quality since the original series and Anna takes the cake. The three managers from the original series all had plot related relevance to varying degrees. In GO, they were around but their character brought liveliness to the commentary. Ootani Tsukushi (who really does look like a background character) serves the bare-bone requirements. Anna, however, takes being dislikable (like Natsumi initially) to incomprehensible. Her conflict like the Inakuni members doesn't even go anywhere. Honestly, it kind of feels like they sort of forgot about it because they were to busy thinking about winning the next match. Instead of redeeming or doing something cool for the team (like Natsumi) she proceeds to care about the enemy?? Her obsession over Nosaka is simply put really irritating to watch. All managers of the past have showed team spirit and comradery in all past series. Anna lacks this. She simply dos her dues and moves on to more loftier concerns about Nosaka, an enemy villain at the time, rather that those suffering on her own team. He nosiness in Nosaka's business and stalker behavior is unlikable. If they wanted to add this romantic plot they should've have done it in Orion, which did not happen as Nosaka straight up rejected her at the end of Aries. It is such a waste of a nicely designed character.
tl;dr: Less than stellar character development and pointless character developments made moot.
Return of the Originals:
To be honest, I think they did pretty well in terms of the balance between screen time for the old and new characters. Kidou was effectively utilized in Aries and smoothly exited in Orion. His role is similar to Gouenji in the original season 3. I don't know how much better they could've handled Gouenji, but they most certainly didn't have to cut Endou that much. Endou is basically a shell of his former self given how much screen time he had in the original. As I mentioned before, Inamori has basically poached his character (episode 44). Times when it should have been Endou to pull the team together, it was Inamori doing the mood-making. It feels especially disingenuous when he runs off with his "dad" in Orion. Endou had the same situation with Daisuke in the original and considering the pacing of the show, Endou running off to spend quality time would have been way more justifiable. There are also some nice new character developments for (not dead) Kira Hiroto and (not Gran) Kiyama Tatsuya. It is simultaneously fan-service and actual plot at the same time. The Fubuki twins are the same, but on a much smaller scale. Saginuma was pretty much shafted. It was great to see one of the coolest characters there, but he really just suffered most of the way through and left to dry.
tl;dr: Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with how they handled the OG characters, but Endou.
