I both really love and really hate aspects of E series. It has some of my favorite art but my least favorite card design. I don’t like the look of the borders and the lack of symmetry in the card layout. I would pay up for reprints of E series cards with a different card layout.
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When I look at a binder full of E-series cards, especially holos/reverse holos, they look like computer chips with incredible art on them. I know the borders are a love/hate thing but the fact it was meant to introduce new technology to the card game and actually looks like, “technology” is so cool in my opinion 
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As the guy going for a full PSA 10 Skyridge holo set, I can safely say e-series cards are the pinnacle of the franchise. I actually have zero nostalgia for these cards as I didn’t collect them as a child, but coming back into this hobby and discovering them was like experiencing the end of a epic book, movie or game that you had only heard about.
For me personally, the e-series represents the absolute peak in art quality for the Pokemon TCG. It was a time period brimming with creativity as artists were allowed to push the boundaries of how Pokemon were able to be depicted. The earlier WOTC sets, as memorable as they were, tended to present Pokemon in a more “basic” manner, where the card art just featured the Pokemon in a trademark pose on top of a static background. As sets went on, Pokemon art became more dynamic and experimental, showcasing each creature in a new light. Rocket and Neo Destiny especially took big steps by showing the dark Pokemon in fiercer poses or in a style that went against popular perception of what a Pokemon should look like.
However, come the E-series, they really cranked all of that up to eleven. Lead by a charge of talented artists - many of which would become mainstays in the franchise - like Komiya, Himeno, Nishida, Arita, Kusajima, Masago, they absolutely revolutionized Pokemon art during these sets. This was a time period where many of them would further develop their individual styles and come into their own, and the best part was they were given complete creative freedom to depict the Pokemon characters however they liked.
Haijime Kusajima’s surrealist take on Magneton was absolutely mind-blowing when I laid eyes upon it. I did not expect this sort of art from Pokemon as I was more used to something like Sugimori’s Magneton growing up. It’s incredible that both of these cards are of the same Pokemon yet one feels like card art while the other feels like it should belong in a museum.
I could go on for ages about e-series cards but I’ll let the artistry from some of Pokemon’s GOATs speak for itself. This isn’t even getting into sets like Vs and early 2000s JP promos which also adopted this ethos.
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The E-reader sets will always have a special place in my heart. Only vintage era where I care about the japanese side as well. Several time periods of nostalgia, turbulent times as well. A bit of a complicated relationship with Aquapolis and especially Skyridge. Early EX is best EX. And VS.
Actually, if we’re going at it from a proportional angle, E-reader is the era where I love everything. It’s also the vintage era I own the least cards of, but that’s a story for another time.
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These artworks are too good. It would be awesome to see these original artworks expanded out in a full art card form or something. I want to see what Pidgeot is diving at! Perhaps a delectable Magikarp!
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I freakin LOVE the asymmetry in e series, and they have some stellar art. PLUS the themes for aqua and sky are some of the strongest in the franchise. A+ IMO. Not necessarily “the best” but certainly a strong point as far as design goes. They do hurt the wallet, but DAMN does it hurt good! 
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All of e series is top tier.
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Totally agree with you – just interesting to see you include the Sceptile. I’ve usually seen “e-Series” used to refer to Expedition/Aquapolis/Skyridge and not the e-Reader EX Series sets. In actuality, though, there’s a lot more in common between e-Series and e-Reader EX than there is between e-Series and Neo (in terms of aesthetics). I feel like the e-Series aesthetic really was maintained up through EX Dragon. The really dramatic shift was TMTA, IMO.
But yeah, (for me) e-Series blows everything that came before it out of the park.
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Something about the large set sizes of e-series also increases their collectibility imo. Makes it so you see new things every time you revisit the sets.
It’s really hard to know every card in modern sets these days and having that characteristic transfer over to a vintage set is pretty understated.
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Probably my favourite era of cards. Pretty much every holo card in e-series is nice
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E-series is a group of sets that I really have no personal affinity towards, but I think are something really special. Pokemon was a multi media frenzy in the late 90s. It was a magical time where no one could escape it. that sparked all of this here even, but that immense popularity would have to slow down at some point and in late 2002-early 2003 it was about that time. That doesn’t mean that the quality dropped though. The 3 e-series set, but to me specifically Aquapolis and Skyridge are such a fantastic send off for the original era of pokemon. An homage to gen 1 and 2 of Pokémon, these sets really pull out all the stops and truly feel like the the end of pokemon’s amazing beginning through its abundance of quality art and fan favorite Pokémon on full display.
After these sets WOTC didn’t have the license to the cards anymore, we got a whole new region on an updated console, and the stories of Kanto and Johto for now were concluded. Things changed and though I believe that gen 3-5 is the true golden era of Pokemon, I can’t deny just how special the first 2 gens were and still are to this day. Its hard to articulate the feeling I have when I think about Aquapolis and Skyridge, like I said earlier I really don’t have a special liking towards them, but I believe what they did for the original era and the time they encompass was really special. They are sets I will always respect and wish I could have experienced in their time.
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Just realized last night that the card layout of the first couple EX sets is different between English and Japanese and the English ones look more like a mix between E series and later EX card layouts:
While I personally prefer the aesthetic of the Japanese versions (and that’s what I collect,) I do appreciate how the English versions show more of this historical transition.
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Im loving everyone’s responses! So thought out and interesting!
I included the Sceptile because I wanted to show exactly that: e-series encompasses all of WOTC, EX and any JP promos that use the card layout (JR Rally, McDonald’s etc.). Like you said, the EX e-reader cards do a fantastic job in continuing that aesthetic that started with Expedition. They absolutely deserve to be up there with their predecessors and it’s criminal how cheap some of the regular holos from R&S - Dragon still are when their art is on par with Aquapolis & Skyridge.
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E-series is my favorite next to Team magma v Team aqua 
but i have strange nostalgia and taste haha
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Spot on! Especially the Japanese eSeries just takes the card layout to another level! The energy and text lines are so clean compared to their English counterparts.
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I really like the art, and I think the three sets fit together really nicely. But the layout with the wide borders isn’t that great, and they don’t have that much nostalgia for me as I wasn’t in the game any more at the time.
What people tend to forget is how absolutely terrible these sets were from a player’s perspective. That was one of the things that really hurt the hobby at the time. Neo Destiny came out in early 2002. It was followed by a reprint set (Legendary Collection) which affected the standard format by making lots of old cards tournament-legal again, but players tended to already have older copies the cards they needed for their decks. Then followed the three e-series sets with maybe half a dozen cards somewhat relevant to the metagame (such as Copycat and Town Volunteers). At the same time, WotC lost the licence to produce the TCG outside Asia, leading to big uncertainty what would come next. Then finally, Nintendo took over, released a really strong set (Ruby and Sapphire) but rotated the Neo block AND Legendary Collection out of the standard format at the end of summer 2003. Lots of players hadn’t been buying many new cards in one and a half years, many weren’t as enthusiastically in the game as they used to be (particularly since WotC axed the 15+ age division and replaced it with the Professor Program), and there was now a format in which they would have to basically start from scratch. So a lot quit, and others continued to play but only at casual events or among friends, using older cards. Since the fad was over, losing these players had a big impact on the hobby. Add in the fact that the generation 3 video games required a different console and had the controversial “dexit” issue (no national Pokédex until FireRed and LeafGreen came out), there was just a lot of factors driving older kids away from Pokémon entirely.
So while they are beautiful sets, they contributed to the decline of the hobby.
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These issues all seem to be due to WOTC’s overarching mismanagement of the competitive scene, rather than any negative of the E-series sets themselves. Rotating properly and not completely axing an age division aren’t the fault of the sets.
I wasn’t playing at the time, but I love reading about the competitive history of the game on Jason Klaczynski’s blog. (I’m sure you know him from your knowledge of the formats, but for anyone else interested - 3 time world champion). He speaks very highly of an E-series only format if it had been rotated properly here.
You are right about the e-series only format being quite interesting. It is only alongside the neo block or alongside the ex era sets that the sets just don’t hold up. However WotC couldn’t really create an e-series only format as it would have meant rotating out the whole neo block.
As to mismanagement, there were conspiracy theories at the time it was not just that but also some “sabotage” to target a future competition product to MtG.
Jason Klaczynski’s blog is a great resource by the way!