Ash Ketchum Finally Wins a Pokemon League! Will His Anime Run End? By: Water Pokémon Master Posted 1 month ago to Anime 33 comments The Internet is celebrating! After more than 22 years, 1,082 episodes, and seven Pokemon Leagues, Ash Ketchum is finally a Pokemon Champion! In today’s episode of Sun & Moon, Ash took home the Alola Champion title after an intense battle with Gladion. Ash Ketchum has been a part of millions of lives & while many stop watching the Pokémon anime Ash continued to be a role model trainer for new generations. He’s lost every Pokémon League to teach children it’s ok to lose & today he finally won. What a day to be a Pokémon fan :) pic.twitter.com/Gzbf9j08N9 — Aero (@ActualAero) September 15, 2019 While Ash did win the Orange League, the Orange Islands are not considered a Pokemon region. Ash’s overdue victory is now trending on Twitter. Congraulatory Tweets were sent from the official Pokemon anime Twitter account and the official English Pokemon Twitter. Even Junichi Masuda threw his hat into the ring. グラジオとの激闘を制し アローラポケモンリーグの 頂点に輝いたのは #サトシ🏆 実はポケモンリーグで優勝したのは 今回が初めてなんです💡 サトシ、本当に本当におめでとう✨✨#アニポケ #サトシ優勝おめでとう pic.twitter.com/SXvmLwZX6G — 新アニメ「ポケットモンスター」公式＠9/29(日)情報解禁！ (@anipoke_PR) September 15, 2019 Anything’s possible when you believe in yourself, Trainers. 😉 🏆 pic.twitter.com/kee0Wshv1m — Pokémon (@Pokemon) September 15, 2019 おめでとう！ Congratulations! — 増田順一@GAME FREAK inc. (@Junichi_Masuda) September 15, 2019 However, Ash’s victory comes with some fear from longtime Pokemon anime fans. With news that the next Pokemon anime will feature multiple regions, there’s questions of whether or not Ash will continue to serve as the star of the show. In my 2008 interview with Pokemon anime director Masamitsu Hidaka, he stated the writers would end the show if Ash ever became a Pokemon Master. There is no official definition on what qualifies someone to be a Pokemon Master — even Pokemon.com has said this in the past. But in the context of the anime, fans probably associate winning a Pokemon League as major criteria for becoming one. Still though,the writers haven’t answered who Ash’s father is. If they were to end the show, you would think they would also conclude longtern questions about Ash’s character (assuming they even care to answer that question). That’s just my opinion, though!
I would love to see Ash in the next series — but as the professor! Hear me out. After winning a league, Ash’s dreams are finalized, and he retires from the trainer life. However, he loves Pokémon so much that, years later after he’s (finally) grown up, he becomes a Pokémon Professor and begins the journey of the next generation of trainers. This, in my opinion would be both an amazing twist and a suitable, victorious end for the character.
Why Pokémon! He should have won three seasons ago! But I guess for Pokémon’s to move on then Ash has to win... But still in one of the worst seasons of the show....
I mean, he was offered the title of Frontier Brain, which imo exceeds any Champion title haha. Side note: #BringBackBattleFrontier pleaaasssseeeeee GameFreak ;___;
This is where the bombshell is dropped that Pikachu was finally willing to evolve, with the kicker that he becomes Alolan Raichu as a memento of Alola and Ash becoming champion there
Unbelieveable scenes, as a watcher and avid fan since 99 this is going to be an emotional watch... but did see it coming sits perfect with the 'grand tour' vibe of next series being a victory lap for him before a final hyper emotional goodbye then setting up nicely for galar region series with a new main character..
Ash will leave the anime? SIGN ME UP, BOIS!! I am not surprised if Ash will continue to Galar, Galar is a region where Pokemon battles are popular and did even broadcast it on TV. That would be unfair if a champ of a previous region would crush the Galar league. Fans will hate it, especially those salty Marnie fans. Well good thing I don't watch anime anymore.
Aye, the fear they'll reboot or gloss over it and "reset" yet again is strong. Here's hoping this victory does signify them finally letting Ash move on.
Look: Ash basically had the win TWICE. First time, in Sinnoh, ash made it to top 8, with an amazing team, only to be beat by this Tobias guy who has a freaking LATIOS AND DARKRAI. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. Then, in Kalos, he makes it TO THE FINALS, and somehow his greninja loses to a charizard. A FREAKING FIRE TYPE. Ash used múltiple water moves, to the point that if you played this out in a simulator ash would’ve won. Pokemon has cheated him out of two wins, he completely deserves this one.
I'm honestly conflicted here about this whole situation. While I think Ash deserved a bone thrown at him; he won with arguably one of his worst teams ever. And after the okey-doke that was Kalos; naturally everyone went into it with trepidation. The fandom's fear was that Alola was going to be Kalos 2.0, or like a redux with a slightly different budget. I don't watch the anime anymore (haven't for years), but it's nice to finally see him win something that's not the Orange Islands, or the Battle Frontier. But, you have to think; is this decision to make Ash win the league a pivot move for the upcoming anime? Or will it be yet another okey-doke and they have two anime running concurrently?
Bro, Hau is a pushover. Probably the worst rival. His personality is good, but he doesn’t understand how type adv. works.
This is a good point (I don't watch the anime any more so I didn't know). If Hau used a Charizard-Mega-X then it was a Fire/Dragon type, meaning Water-Type attacks hit it neutrally. Either way it doesn't matter: Pokémon doesn't care for type matchups. Since the power of friendship can make the impossible possible, and there's use of tactics that exist outside of the main series games anyway, type matchups take a back seat to everything else. Think "aim for the horn", where a Ground-Type Pokémon was damaged by an Electric-Type attack. That shouldn't be possible if type matchups exist in the anime as they do in wider Pokémon. It's cool that Ash won. There's a good chance I'll try the next series of the anime again if they retire Ash, since he was a significant contributing factor to how monotonous the show was becoming. Only so much narrative potential can be accomplished with travelling between checkpoints and having some sort of climactic battle, so I hope the formula is shaken up more than is expected. The idea that Ash is a Pokémon professor is also cool.
Since the next anime has been teased as featuring all the current regions, I wouldn't mind if it was a Pokemon Origins style anime with Ash going through all the previous regions and meeting his old friends and using and possibly evolving his old Pokemon and completing the Pokedex by catching each Pokemon in every region before finally retiring. Although, this is the Pokemon anime that we're talking about so maybe not, and instead they'll do something different entirely.
