For YMMV tropes pertaining the original series, go here.
- Base-Breaking Character:
- Asuto in the western hemisphere. Some like him for being mature than the previous Genki Boy protagonist like Endou and Tenma, while others find him a bland Static Character compared to the aforementioned protagonist. Detractors also state that when he is compared to the likes of Haizaki and Nosaka, Asuto's storyline in Ares doesn't provide anything worthy to be contributed about the Ares no Tenbin program, to the point where he doesn't even meet the Big Bad, and even in Orion, they feel that he doesn't have a noteworthy contribution for Inazuma Japan, making him come off as a Flat Character in the process. Especially as Asuto is supposed to be one of the protagonist for Ares and Orion. There's a third party who feel that They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character because Asuto's character has potential but his character arc goes Out of Focus due to the heavily rushed pacing of the Anime and comes out as underwhelming.
- Broken Base:
- Ares and Orion are extremely divisive. Debating about rushed pacing aside, in Ares case, some like the Alternate Universe, with some of the new characters being as interesting while also interacting with many fan favorites from the original series, the soccer matches to be still as engaging, and the plot. Others find certain characters to be boring rehashes of old chracters and wasted original timeline characters such as Terumi and Someoka.
- Orion has fans split down the middle. Between the arguments regarding the members of Inazuma Japan who were picked, certain members of the team being Out of Focus, and times when certain characters leave, the fanbase can't agree on Inazuma Japan as a whole this season.
- There is also the Orion Foundation as villains. Sticking true with Surprisingly Realistic Outcome, supporters like their Villain with Good Publicity and the inner war between many of the Orion Foundation members. Detractors question the effectiveness of Orion's Disciples, with certain matches feeling too gimmicky with cheating and boring minus a few Ensemble Darkhorses to keep them interesting.
- Contested Sequel: Ares and Orion had a divided opinion when compared to both the original and GO. While some of the older fans come to like the cast in Ares and Orion, others find themselves think that it's a step back from both the original and GO in general. For the latter, this is mainly because they disliked how some of the older characters from the original series got sidelined and in their view, got Nerfed when compared to their original series incarnations. And there is also the absence of some of the memorable characters back from the original series such as Tachimukai, Tsunami and Toramaru. Some older fans also felt that Ares and Orion both pander a tad too heavily towards the Periphery Demographic of Fujoshi's and think that the pandering ruins the series as a whole. There's also the issue of how the anime adaptation is heavily rushed.
- Critical Dissonance: The sales for merchandise related to Ares and Orion is doing well. But fan reception to them is heavily divided. Especially with the Japanese fanbase. Most fans generally agreed that it doesn't have the same charm that made them like the original series in the first place.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Seishou academy team in general is one to the fandom, given that they got a spin-off manga all about them in Inazuma Eleven Penguin No Tsugumono. Individually though, Mizukamiya Seiryuu, Seishou academy's captain is very popular, with the spin-off making him even more popular due to his Team Mom personality and being a good senior and captain in general to his team. Being a Bishounen also helps. He's so popular that he ended up being one of the three players chosen by fans to join Inazuma Japan in Orion, with the other two being Fubuki Atsuya and Aphrodi.
- Shiratoya Nae of Hakuren. Her personality won over many and it helps that she is also a quite good player herself despite her lack of experience in soccer. She also came close to being one of three players chosen by fans to join Inazuma Japan in Orion, coming in 5th place, losing only to Midorikawa Ryuuji and the three above-mentioned winners of the poll, Mizukamiya, Atsuya and Aphrodi.
- Orion brings Satan Gaul from Australian team, Shining Satans who has the cool ability of changing personalities.
- Tanukigahara Ponko from Tonegawa Tousen also has many fans, mainly due to being a Tanuki with shape-shifting abilities, as well as due to her cute personality in her human form.
- Epileptic Trees: Goes around in Orion in regards to three things:
- Who is Mutekigahara Fujimaru? Many evidence pointed him towards the theory of himself being Lee Koubun without his mask due to their shared voice actress. Confirmed by episode 15.
- Due to image shifts and angles in several scenes, there are theories where Ichihoshi is actually the little brother who took on his older brother's identity and agreed to be a part of the evil organization so his older brother can be a soccer player again. Confirmed in the worst way possible, depending on how one see's it. The Ichihoshi we all know is actually Hikaru and his older brother is dead.
- There have been several theories about who is Asuto's father, but the most widely accepted answer is Shinjou Takuma. Even before the start of Orion, people started speculating this and throughout the season, there have been several hints that point out to this (Bernard's interest of making Shinjou's son a Disciple of Orion and Bernard knowing who his son was, Shinjou and Asuto exchanging numbers). This theory didn't die even after the introduction of Inamori Masato, whom fans theorized to be just a trap and not his actual father, a thing that eventually turned out to be true in episode 33. Confirmed in the last episode.
- Fanfic Fuel:
- After the appearance of Taiyou in Orion, fan content and fanart regarding the GO cast in the Ares no Tenbin timeline is dime a dozen.
- With the exception of Kira Hiroto and Atsuya who are dead, fanworks about what the Ares characters are doing in the course of the Original series are also abound.
- Fan Nickname: Kozoumaru is called by some "Fat Gouenji", because most of his techniques, such as Fire Tornado and Bakunetsu Storm, are also Gouenji's techniques, whom he is a fan of. He now gets the nickname "Alola form Gouenji" due to him becoming slim and taller by Orion.
- Franchise Original Sin: Some people complain that Inakuni Raimon wins its matches to easily and pulls new hissatsus out of nowhere. The problem is that the first season of every series including the original had the same problems if not even worse since in the original, half of its original members only recently started playing soccer and only two members had hissatsu and had only a book to teach them techniques while also having little to no guidance from their coach before Hibiki. In comparison, every member of Inakuni Raimon already played soccer, were part of a club before, and had a weird, but still competent coach to teach and guide them.
- Harsher in Hindsight: The scene where Iwato discovers that Hikaru, the person whom he has been writing love letters to, is actually a guy, which shocks him so much that it keeps him awake all night. After it's revealed who Hikaru really is (Ichihoshi's ill brother), this scene went quickly from Funny to this. Made worse when episode 13 of Orion reveals that the brother is Dead All Along, and it's actually Mitsuru, not Hikaru himself, who died.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: Saginuma, in the original series, had a burning desire to be in the Inazuma Japan, enough to ask Kira to train him, but in the end he never got to join the team. Come Orion and guess who is part of Inazuma Japan.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Nosaka's "weird sitting pose" is already memetic, but what's even funnier is that according to one of Akihiro Hino's interviews, it wasn't even an original concept, but an idea that comes from a random sketch of an animator.
- I Knew It!:
- Lee Kobun being the same person as Mutekigahara Fujimaru is one for most people during Orion. However, the fact that Fujimaru is actually one of China's representatives and China's very own captain, plus the fact that China's team are also personally coached by Zhao Jin Yun before, caught many by surprise.
- Many fans called for Atsuya being chosen as one of the new members of Inazuma Japan in Orion.
- Iron Woobie: At the start of Ares, Asuto experienced a very heavy Trauma Conga Line in the form of having his old school's soccer club abolished followed with his mom dying. All at the same day. Yet he keeps on moving.
- It's Short, So It Sucks!:
- The biggest complaint about how Ares anime was how short it was with special mention to the match between Inakuni Raimon and Zeus which only had a few scenes.
- The final match in the Orion anime is only one and a half episode long which kinda makes it underwhelming compared to other final matches of the season which at least take around 3 episodes.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- In Ares no Tenbin, there are Haizaki, Nosaka, and Kira Hiroto, to note:
- Haizaki Used to Be a Sweet Kid until his only friend then, Akane, got put into a coma due to the Ares no Tenbin project which left him bitter and wanted nothing more but avenge his friend.
- Nosaka himself was abandoned by his mother because she couldn't take care of him anymore and his father absent, and continuing to follow the Ares no Tenbin project had his emotions drained and suffer from Brain Tumor by the start of the show (Though he is fortunately healed by the time of "Orion no Kokuin").
- For Kira Hiroto, he spent most of his childhood alone and neglected by his father who started to focus on his projects to the point of almost being a neglectful parent and seeing that his father focused on the orphans in the sun garden, especially Tatsuya (Who was the Hiroto we know in the original series), in particular, more than his own son caused him to go on the route of delinquency and convinced that the orphans are the children that his father wanted than Hiroto himself.
- In Orion no Kokuin, there's Ichihoshi Mitsuru, the traitor who seeks to sabotage Inazuma Japan. It turns out he is actually Hikaru, the real Misturu's little brother, who has dissociative identity disorder. Mitsuru? He's dead.
- In Ares no Tenbin, there are Haizaki, Nosaka, and Kira Hiroto, to note:
- Memetic Mutation:
- FIRE LEMONADE Explanation
- Super Saiyan Kozoumaru Explanation
- Moral Event Horizon: Ichihoshi from Orion crosses it in episode 4 when he tries to injure or even kill Endou with a spike he attached to the ball. If that didn't convince some people, framing Kidou for doping and later, Endou for a violence Endou never commited would do it.
- Ships That Pass in the Night: For whatever reason, several Japanese fans had taken to shipping Kira Hiroto and Norika. They don't interact by much but these fans took liking at the thought that Hiroto respects her spunk as a goal keeper and soccer player and went from there.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
- Similar to the original series having half of Raimon's team being Out of Focus, some people wish more had been done with members like Michinari and Hiro.
- Sakanoue Noboru was liked for being a unique character and having a few genuine moments, but even as a member of Inazuma Japan, he did not receive much screentime barring his contributions to Shining Satans, with many wishing he had done more.
- A lot of characters not being picked for Inazuma Japan in 'Orion'' had fans wishing certain Ensemble Darkhorses like Nae and Midorikawa would eventually join the team.
- Saginuma finally gets to be part of the national team like he wanted in the original series, but he never got to play as a keeper even once and his biggest contribution was helping Endou create The Asura along with Nishikage. Even his change to midfielder didn't amount to much since he doesn't have any noteworthy contribuation nor does he even use any of the hissatsu techniques of the original.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Inakuni Raimon vs Zeus was criminally short and could have lasted longer than one episode, especially with Perseus as a new member of the team.
- Fans wish Ares had been longer (reportedly Ares was planned to be 55 episodes long) in order to show off more with the new alternate timeline. Specifically, seeing what teams members of Raimon & Second Raimon have joined and competing against the three main teams
- Even though Haizaki becomes the 11th-Hour Ranger for Inakuni Raimon at the end of Ares, he and Asuto never perform a combo hissatsu shoot together.
- At least several were hoping that Ichihoshi's brother was kept hostage by Disciples of Orion instead of The Reveal that he is actually Dead All Along as fans believe that it makes a good potential of conflict against the other Inazuma Japan members with the hostage situation that Ichihoshi is under and felt that the revelation of Ichihoshi's brother being Dead All Along felt flat and not as interesting.
- Unexpected Character: Nobody expected Taiyou from the GO series to make an appearance in Orion.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Asuto gets this at the start of Orion for defending Ichihoshi. While wanting to defend him from violent shoots and not wanting soccer to be used for hatred may sound pure and innocent, the problem is that Ichihoshi is part of the Big Bad organization whose players have injured Gouenji to the point where he's unable to participate in the FFI for a large portion of the season. Ichihoshi has also tried to injure, if not outright kill Endou with a spiked ball which would have succeeded if it wasn't for Kidou's intervention, later framed Kidou for doping which caused him to be unable to participate in the FFI by planting drugs in his bag, and lastly bribed a few street thugs to frame Endou for committing physical assault, which lead to Endou getting arrested and being forced to sit out the next match. It's also clear that Ichihoshi will cause more problems for the team by continuing to sabotage them in order to make them lose and what also doesn't help is how blind Asuto is to how Obviously Evil Ichihoshi's intentions are. This later changed after Ichihoshi has a Heel–Face Turn and his Dark and Troubled Past is revealed.
- Unnecessary Makeover: In Ares, Kozoumaru has a rather unique design for a forward due to his small stature and rotund body. In Orion, he slimmed down and grew causing him to have normal body shape like the other characters, which turned his design more generic and essentially turned him into a clone of Gouenji.
- Unpopular Popular Character: Ichihoshi from Orion is disliked by his team-mates sans few of them due to his role as The Mole (Early in the story before his Heel–Face Turn at least), but he's nevertheless popular enough to the fanbase.
- Values Dissonance: Irina Girikanan was viewed as a complete Hate Sink by the majority of the fandom after her Abusive Parents treatment to Bernard is given to light and outright hate her for it because abuse is frowned upon in general in the present. Russian watchers, on the other hand, thought and speculate that her actions may have to do with local Russian culture and how The Mafiya is involved. But even then, some Russian watchers felt that Irina comes across as Unintentionally Unsympathetic because of how horrid her abuse to Bernard was.
- Viewer Gender Confusion:
- Kiko has long hair and ends up looking tomboyish, but he's a boy.
- Nino is short, girlish looking, and wears a bunny-eared hat. He's not a girl.
- Valentin's pronounced eyelashes make it easy to mistake him for a girl.
