Ash: The Master of Pokemon and Our Hearts

Written by Tanya Natar

Pokemon is a childhood anime that I grew up watching; I remember rushing home from school and turning on the TV to keep up with the latest episodes. Spoilers ahead! Pokemon had its memorable episodes and farewells. The first time Ash said farewell to his friends in the first season made me teary-eyed. Misty and Brock were the original travel companions, so it was sad to see them leave Ash to go back to their hometowns and their lives. It was exciting when Brock returned to join Ash, but Misty got replaced with the new female character, May, and her annoying, bratty little brother, Max. It was tough accepting a new character at first, but eventually I got used to it.

Seeing Pokemon from an adult point of view rather than as a kid, I noticed that May was cuter than Misty. Every set of seasons, a new female character stepped in, each one looking better than the former - they kept leveling up. Then one day, Brock left the gang and Ash was joined by two new characters instead of just a new female character. That was probably the worst season and I couldn’t wait for it to end. The season after that, I liked the new set of characters who joined: Serena, Clemont, and his whiny little sister, Bonnie. Every season had their farewell episodes where the travel companions bid their goodbyes to Ash. None of them made me emotional apart from the original departure of Misty and Brock. However, after all that time, the farewell episode with Serena, Clemont and Bonnie, made me cry even more than Misty and Brock’s goodbye.

It's amazing how you could get attached to the characters in the series and don't want them to part ways with Ash. For the next set of seasons, the animation style changed to make Ash look more cartoonish and I hated it.

It made Ash look like a clown in my opinion. When I shared my thoughts with fellow anime viewers, some of them liked the change in animation and Ash’s appearance, because they felt it was more authentic towards anime styling. That was the season where Ash won the championship league in that region, although the win was considered a pity win. The referee had declared the champion as the victor due to Ash’s Pokemon fainting, but the opponent mentioned that Ash’s Pokemon was just asleep and not knocked out. The champion could have just taken the win, but the episode had to have the sappy twist in order to favor Ash and let him take the victory. The farewell for this season was also sad, but in a sweet way where there were happy tears.

The latest season of Pokemon had the animation style almost back to the original’s. It was a blend of the animation style from the previous season and the original animation style. It wasn't perfect, but better than seeing a “clown” Ash. However, the latest season didn’t have much of a story and felt like a drag. I’m always looking forward to the next episode, even if Pokemon isn’t always a series to binge on, but I would never be able to watch more than one or two episodes at a time, and would need the break. The episodes felt like fillers just to drag the franchise longer. I feel Pokemon was way past overdue and needed to end. I got spoiled with the news that Ash is now the World Champion by defeating the World Champion Leon. It was such a major event in Japan, that they even played it on the famous Shibuya Crossing’s big screens, and celebrated this iconic win.

The next news that came after that was that Ash’s journey in Pokemon has come to an end. I was celebrating that news, more than the one where Ash was deemed the victor. I had been so tired of the new season of Pokemon, and wouldn’t have watched the next season if it were to have continued with Ash. It was time for Pokemon to end, and even the creators felt there was nothing more to add onto the Pokemon series after Ash won the title as the Pokemon World Champion.

With Ash’s novel finally coming to an end, there will be a final set of episodes to wrap up the story of Ash and Pikachu. I was thrilled to hear that these episodes will serve as a tribute to the original animation style of Pokemon as it will be so nice to see the original depiction of Ash. The current Pikachu is fine since the original Pikachu was chunky and not as cute. The arc of 11 episodes will be crammed with every main character and travel companion Ash encountered, and is expected to make the fans teary-eyed. The Pokemon fans will get to see what happens with Ash and Pikachu in their final moments after being crowned World Champion - exciting and bittersweet at the same time.

The next wave of news was the most disappointing. Pokemon was set to continue with two new main characters. Why couldn’t Pokemon be over? Why couldn’t it just end for good with Ash as the champion? Yes, it’s to have episodes that match the latest Pokemon video game that was released, but an anime isn’t exactly needed to advertise the game. With Pokemon not coming to an end, fans online were making comments at how they were going to miss Ash. I felt the same way. What could have ended as a legendary series, has now been revamped for future disappointment. I won’t be watching the next era of Pokemon, as my journey ends with Ash as well, but it’s amazing what a long run Pokemon had with 25 years, and made Ash a memorable part of our lives.