Contents
I. Introduction
II. I Wanna Be the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was
III. The Long and Winding Road
IV. His Name was Tobias
V. You're Such a Little Kid!
VI. You Really Are an Amazing Person
VII. "Kalos League Victory! Satoshi's Greatest Decisive Battle"
VIII. To Be Continued: The Cycle of Failure
IX. A Jobber in Alola
X. Closing Remarks
As this is a subforum where discussion of the Pokémon anime is allowed, I feel this is an appropriate place to make this thread, for discussion purposes. The following below is an incredibly long rant about the state of the Pokémon anime. I make no attempt to hide any salt and I have no intention of trolling anyone, only to narrate and tell from my heart my deepest feelings about the anime. Although it's quite long, the message of this work is very simple. The essay was originally posted in unedited form at Serebii Forums on December 31, 2016. So have some popcorn, sit back, and relax.
I. Introduction
My first foray into Pokémon was back in 1998, when I got the Game Boy Camera that summer (might've been my birthday, can't really remember). I had a ton of fun with that little thing—the games, the DJ, the photos, among other things. What was particularly cool was being able to place silly stamps on the photos. There were eyes, mouths, accessories, various Mario characters, and some creatures that my older brother referred to as generic "dinosaurs" or "monsters", can't exactly remember which word he said. But I used them on my photos anyway, cause why not. Little did I know that wasn't going to be the last time I saw those critters, oh no.
Come Autumn later that year, my brother tells me all the neat things about a new craze going on in school called Pokémon. He introduced me to the TV show, where we watched it together. I, being but a young boy at the time, was hooked and completely loved every minute of it, and just wanted to watch more and more of it. I made sure to watch every new episode premiere to the best of my ability and was happy to watch the reruns. Around the same time, I saw the commercial to the games, and wanted to play them badly. Soon enough, I got the game, and was completely hooked to it, and became a young Pokémon fan.
Every Pokémon fan has likely heard of and watched the anime at some point in their lives. When we saw the anime for the first time, plenty of us found it exciting to see Ash and others traveling, battling with their critters and getting stronger, strengthening the bonds and friendships with each other and their Pokémon, helping out others, earning badges, fighting evil, and so forth. Many today still have nostalgia for those days. But today, the Pokémon anime is scorned by both Pokémon and anime fans, something that gives both the franchise and the medium a bad name. What went wrong? Let us review Ash's journey throughout the years.
II. I Wanna Be the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was
According to Wikipedia, the premise or synopsis of the entire anime is this: "After he turns 10 years old, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) is allowed to start his journey in the world of Pokémon and dreams of becoming a Pokémon master." Remember this carefully.
So our boy Ash, despite getting up late, manages to begin a brand new journey in a new region, with Pikachu by his side, in hopes of becoming a Pokémon Master. The Pikachu, given to him by Professor Oak, at first does not get along very well with the newbie trainer; but not long after they get along very well and become a strong team. They later get joined by Brock and Misty, two people who are in charge of Pokémon Gyms, a place where trainers are tested by battling such leaders in hopes of defeating them to obtain a Gym Badge, of which eight are required to enter the Pokémon League. As Ash desires to win the league he tries hard to get these badges, all while going through some extra battling, capturing more Pokémon, visiting places, helping out strangers, and stopping Team Rocket, a trio consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth, who hope to capture his Pikachu due to their impression of how strong he is. In addition, he hopes to win his rivalry against the snobby Gary, the grandson of Professor Oak. Misty herself desires to become a Water Pokémon Master, and Brock desires to become a Pokémon Breeder.
Ash manages to get all of the Gym Badges at Kanto, though sometimes by unconventional means (he was simply going to get the Cascade Badge without a battle, he got another by making its Gym Leader laugh, and yet another by not fighting the actual Gym Leader). Nonetheless he was happy with his badges, and went off to enter the Pokémon League. Ash had a bit of struggles with his opponents, among them a long green-haired weirdo and a woman in traditional Japanese clothing with an overpowered Bellsprout. But despite those, Ash manages to win four 3v3 Pokémon matches. Ash is now in the Sweet Sixteen!
So he faces off against a trainer that isn't so different from him—he is similar in personality and fights with similar Pokémon. His name is Ritchie. Like our boy Ash, Ritchie resembled and was loosely based on Red, the protagonist of the first Pokémon games. He marked his Poké Balls with stars and gave nicknames to each of his Pokémon. He similarly had a Pikachu that was always with him by his side. He too wanted to become a good trainer. Unsurprisingly, Ash and Ritchie became good pals and always want to see each other succeed. However, the time came where the two trainers had to face each other in the tournament. The two felt conflicted, and yet were ready to engage in a battle. The two fought valiantly, but thanks to some poor refereeing and the stupidity of Ash's Charizard, Ash loses the match. He is eliminated from the tournament. Unlike his game, manga, and Pokémon Origins counterparts, Ash does not become the Pokémon Champion. Ash does not obtain his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master.
While many of us were disappointed with the outcome, plenty of us also thought, "Well, losses happen. It's okay to lose." 255 trainers had to lose the tournament, and Ash (and Ritchie) ended up becoming one of them. Losing is part of life. Time to move on.
Little did plenty of us know that this was just the beginning of would later be an awful predicament.
III. The Long and Winding Road
After the league ended, Ash decided to continue traveling. He and his companions enter a region called the Orange Islands. Brock was replaced by an artist named Tracey, while Misty continues traveling with our protagonist. We continue to see much of the same—battles, catching Pokémon, helping strangers, Team Rocket blasting off again, and so forth. Ash gains four more badges by doing non-battle challenges, which qualifies him to enter the Orange League.
The battle was Ash against Drake in a full 6v6 battle. It was quite exciting to watch, and the great highlight was seeing Ash's Pikachu take down a mighty Dragonite, giving Ash the victory. It was not a true league however, so Ash's journey is not quite over. But hey, it's something, right? Well, not really.
So off he goes to Johto. Brock returns and replaces Tracey, who didn't really get anywhere with his goal; we're back to the original team. Meanwhile, Team Rocket continues to attempt getting Pikachu but never succeeds. The Johto saga was notorious for its heavy amount of filler, yet despite that Ash manages to get eight more badges, qualifying him to enter into the Johto League. Misty also decided to do something with her goal as she and Ash enter the Whirl Cup, a tournament where trainers are only allowed to use water-type Pokémon. Despite Misty's apparent expertise at that kind of thing, she is defeated, and thus does not really fulfill her goal in becoming a Water Pokémon Master, whatever that is. Brock continues to tag along, flirting with women along with other activities.
Eventually Ash arrives to the Johto League. He defeats a good number of opponents, among those were a girl who was heavily infatuated with him and his biggest rival Gary. But despite this great accomplishment, he gets defeated by Harrison at the quarterfinals, in a match that unlike against Ritchie, turned out to be a good loss for our hero. He got further than he did before, and was finally able to overcome Gary, who reconciled with Ash and then quit becoming as a Pokémon Trainer, joining his grandfather in his research. But Ash's adventure is far from over.
So next he arrives to Hoenn. It wasn't without a bit of controversy—Misty fans were enraged as the tomboyish mermaid was getting written out and replaced by May, who was the female protagonist of the then new Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire games. With an emotional goodbye to Misty, Ash continues his adventure, catching all sorts of new Pokémon, meeting various people, engaging in many battles, fending off Team Rocket (who continues but fails to capture Ash's Pikachu), and winning another eight badges to enter the Hoenn League. Meanwhile, May finds her own goal—become a Master Coordinator. In her attempt to reach her dream, she entered so-called Pokémon Contests, which are more or less Pokémon pet shows plus some battling, in hopes of winning some ribbons. She manages to get the five ribbons required to enter the Grand Festival, where the winner will be donned Master Coordinator.
Despite her hard work however May is defeated in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Ash himself is yet again beaten, this time by eventual Champion Tyson and his Meowth at the Hoenn League quarterfinals, yet he was able to make it that far using only his Hoenn team. But that wasn't enough for our boy. He travels on, as the journey continues!
IV. His Name was Tobias
By this point, Ash had become an experienced player. He, Brock and May return to Kanto and do stuff; May tries again with her goal but fails a second time, this time being defeated at the semifinals of the Kanto Grand Festival. Ash himself enters and wins the Battle Frontier, which seems to be the Pokémon equivalent of an All-Star Game or the International Champions Cup, which although impressive, was not an important competition like the regional Pokémon League. So Ash heads off to Sinnoh.
May (and her forgettable brother) get written out without getting their goals accomplished and Dawn, the female protagonist of the Gen IV Pokémon games, now takes the spotlight. Brock tarries on longer, practically getting relegated to a shadow of what he used to be. Team Rocket still stalks Ash in hopes of getting that Pikachu of his, yet again they do not succeed. More of the usual happens—Ash captures Pokémon, Ash does more battling, Ash wins some badges, etc. Dawn, like May before her, desires to become a Master Coordinator. She too enters contests and despite some struggles gets the ribbons necessary to reach the Grand Festival. Unfortunately she only gets so far just to lose to rival Zoey at the finals, thus being unable to fulfill her goal. Too bad.
As for Ash, he enters a Pokémon League for the fourth time. This time he goes really far, and manages to defeat rival Paul in an epic battle that lasted three episodes, sending him to the semifinals for the first time in his history as a Pokémon Trainer. Having momentum by overcoming a fierce rival, Ash looked on his way to the long awaited victory after 13 years worth of episodes. But not so fast.
In comes a man in a cloak, named Tobias. He had swept all of his previous opponents, using a single Darkrai. Yes, Darkrai, the legendary Mythical Pokémon. This same Darkrai ended up taking about half of Ash's entire team. But Ash wasn't just going to roll over and die. With great effort, the Darkrai was finally taken down by Sceptile, yet those efforts came in vain, as Tobias sends out a second legendary Pokémon, Latios, who managed to wipe out the rest of Ash's team, though it was not without Latios himself fainting together with Pikachu.
Just when Ash looked to be on a possible road to victory, he gets crushed by this guy who has a team of multiple legendary Pokémon with him. For the fourth time in a fourth region, Ash again does not fulfill his dream. Tough luck.
Let us review the premise of the anime again: "After he turns 10 years old, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) is allowed to start his journey in the world of Pokémon and dreams of becoming a Pokémon master." For some reason, the writers felt that they didn't really want to have Ash make any further progress towards that goal, and as a way to do that, we get a God-mode trainer that stands in his way, one I would like to call a pastiche of players who enter Pokémon Leagues using legendary Pokémon in the games. So Tobias just comes into the anime as a plot device who only exists to do just that, halting the fulfillment of the premise of the anime by defeating Ash with overpowered legendary Pokémon. It is quite disastrous. But hey, to those who looked on the bright side, Ash proved himself to be the second strongest Pokémon Trainer by performing best against the eventual Champion Tobias. Surely, this could mean that Ash could make progress towards his dream and win the next league at Unova, right?
Nope, instead it would only get worse. Much, much worse.
V. You're Such a Little Kid!
Brock more or less outstayed his welcome, having been relegated to a mere background character and did almost nothing towards fulfilling his goal of becoming a Pokémon Breeder. So he changes his goal to become a Pokémon Doctor instead, and then is subsequently axed from the show without really seeing him become one. As for Dawn, she was going to go with Ash but suddenly gets written out thanks to some unforeseen circumstance. So despite her popularity Dawn too gets axed, and she becomes the third Poké Girl who doesn't reach her goal—Ash must be some kind of bad luck charm.
So Ash heads alone to Unova, where a new adventure awaits him. You figure that with all those strong Pokémon he's collected over the years he could finally create the team necessary to get the badges required to enter the Unova League and eventually give him the Championship win he deserves.
Oh wait, over the years is very misleading. Because at the very first episode of Best Wishes, we Ash's age retconned back to 10 by the narrator even though an anniversary scene existed in the original series. Worse, we witness a battle where his Pikachu, who just battled Latios a couple of episodes prior, faced a brand new Snivy... and lost.
Though Pikachu was partially handicapped this was still an embarrassment for our veteran trainer. It was just the beginning of the problems the Unova saga had; that one match symbolized the horrible things that were to come, resulting in many anime viewers panning it. Pikachu was made weak and Ash regressed as a trainer. Far from the guy that took on Tobias, we see Ash make some ridiculous noob mistakes like not knowing how to catch a Pokémon, not knowing about type weaknesses, scanning a Koffing as if he never knew the Pokémon. Those are not things a veteran trainer like Ash should've done; those kind of mistakes allowed Iris, a girl with insane hair with an affinity for dragon-type Pokémon, to belittle him with destructive criticism, constantly calling him a kid. She aspired to become a so-called Dragon Master but does not achieve it, making her a real hypocrite. They are accompanied by Cilan, a Pokémon Connoisseur, one that although skilled does not achieve the top rank. All while getting pursued yet again by Team Rocket, who actually changed up a bit for a short time before going back to the comedic trio that unsuccessfully attempts to get Pikachu.
The Unova League was the pinnacle of how bad the Pokémon anime had gotten. Despite the incompetence of Ash, he again manages to get eight more badges, along with other accomplishments, like being able to face Team Rocket boss Giovanni for the first time (though he got creamed hard), and witnessing the return of his powerful Charizard. So he comes into the league, takes down a few opponents, and proceeds to fight a trainer in the quarterfinals named Cameron. This should've been an automatic win for Ash, as Cameron didn't even get the required amount of badges to enter the league, and thought he could only enter five Pokémon in the match. Yet thanks to rubbish nonsense, Ash loses that match as Cameron's Riolu evolves to Lucario. Cameron proceeds to get smacked 3-6 in the semifinal match. This was followed by an arc made entirely of filler in the Decolore Islands.
It seems that all of that development Ash had prior to Best Wishes was deliberately thrown out by the writers, showing a gigantic middle finger at the premise of the anime. To those who wanted to see the anime's premise fulfilled, Best Wishes went the opposite route. In terms of fulfilling the premise of seeing Ash become a Pokémon Master, the writers have failed tremendously. It was mainly thanks to this series that the anime got the notoriety it is known for. Furthermore, the TV ratings had decreased from good to bad, where the effect had carried over to XY and now Sun and Moon.
Allow me to quote from a user in a Pokémon forum at how bad the anime had gotten:
Another user from the same thread said, "I'm sure it was the intention of both series that Satoshi would grow from where he started out, but whereas DP was able to show this competently, BW failed to show he went through any growth at all. And as far as I'm concerned, failing to show that growth in the main character of the show severely hurt the quality of Best Wishes and is one of the biggest reasons - though there are several outside of that - why I personally rate it the worst [series]."
At the end of the series, Iris and Cilan get written out by taking a train. But we're not finished with Ash. Oh no.
VI. You Really Are an Amazing Person
After the disaster in Unova, five-time loser Ash is back home in Pallet. Ash again has not fulfilled his dream. There goes a moment where he is pondering about his adventure, thinking about many folks in he's known in his journey—Gary, Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan. He also reunites with the Pokémon he's collected over plenty of time. As his dream remains as strong as ever, he heads off to Kalos in a brand new outfit along with his trusty pal Pikachu. Team Rocket continues to pursue the duo.
So when he arrives there, much to the pleasant surprise of people, and in contrast to how bad he had gotten in BW, Ash is made a strong trainer again, almost as if he picked up straight from the end of Sinnoh. By the second episode we see an epic story that involves Pikachu nearly losing his life and Ash jumping off Prism Tower to save him. He and Pikachu are accompanied by three others—Clemont, the Lumiose Gym Leader, whose goal is to gain more confidence (a noble albeit subjective goal), Bonnie, his younger sister, who desires to become a trainer in the future, and Serena, a girl whom Ash met in their childhood, who at first did not have a goal but eventually decided to become a Pokémon Performer by participating in Pokémon Showcases (which you can say are basically beauty pageants with Pokémon), in hopes of ultimately becoming Kalos Queen. In deep contrast to the treatment Ash received from Iris, everyone seemed to admire him and his qualities, both his traveling companions and his rivals (detractors call them a fan club), and for once, Ash was no longer reliant on an older guy for advice or something; he felt like he was a true leader in his group.
In the meanwhile we are introduced to a young man named Alain. He was the protagonist of the Mega Evolution specials, and desired to become the strongest trainer. He sure had power indeed; his Mega Charizard X was able to take down ten other Mega Evolved Pokémon in a row. He was accompanied by a young girl named Mairin, a beginner trainer who was in many ways the opposite of Alain, being both bubbly and clumsy at the same time.
Throughout the Kalos saga, Ash seemed like he was taking his goal very seriously; he is seen training his Pokémon often, and with great effort wins another eight badges, along with the usual affairs of fillers, catching more Pokémon, helping more strangers out, fending off Team Rocket yet again, and other activities. Serena on the other hand, gets the three Princess Keys needed to enter the Master Class, where the winner would receive the title of Kalos Queen. Yet despite her great efforts, she is defeated by reigning Kalos Queen Aria. Like all of Ash's female companions before her Serena fails to achieve her dream, this time of being Kalos Queen (all this despite a closing credits dedicated to it). She was so close yet so far. Poor girl.
Plenty of viewers saw that coming, however. But Ash on the other hand had become a really strong trainer. As a matter of fact, Ash was perhaps at the strongest he has ever been, surpassing the level he was at the end of Sinnoh. He had a solid team with him of fully evolved Pokémon (except for his trusty Pikachu of course), a team of Pokémon that had amazing accomplishments by taking on Mega Evolutions and/or Legendaries. In particular, his Greninja, whom Ash had found as a Froakie, created an enormous bond with him, to the point where he would transform into a more powerful form known as Ash-Greninja. The bond is considered so strong that Ash himself would share whatever pain Greninja received while on this form. This was prophesied by one of the Kalos Gym Leaders, Olympia, who stated that Ash and the then Frogadier that they would reach levels never seen before. The strength of Ash-Greninja gave Pokémon Champion Diantha and her Mega Gardevoir a run for their money before abruptly ending as Ash was unable to handle Ash-Greninja's power, causing him to faint and thus be unable to battle. However, after several losses and then some subsequent words from Serena, Ash and Greninja received important development that allowed them to master the transformation, which proved to be crucial for winning that last badge.
I. Introduction
II. I Wanna Be the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was
III. The Long and Winding Road
IV. His Name was Tobias
V. You're Such a Little Kid!
VI. You Really Are an Amazing Person
VII. "Kalos League Victory! Satoshi's Greatest Decisive Battle"
VIII. To Be Continued: The Cycle of Failure
IX. A Jobber in Alola
X. Closing Remarks
As this is a subforum where discussion of the Pokémon anime is allowed, I feel this is an appropriate place to make this thread, for discussion purposes. The following below is an incredibly long rant about the state of the Pokémon anime. I make no attempt to hide any salt and I have no intention of trolling anyone, only to narrate and tell from my heart my deepest feelings about the anime. Although it's quite long, the message of this work is very simple. The essay was originally posted in unedited form at Serebii Forums on December 31, 2016. So have some popcorn, sit back, and relax.
I. Introduction
My first foray into Pokémon was back in 1998, when I got the Game Boy Camera that summer (might've been my birthday, can't really remember). I had a ton of fun with that little thing—the games, the DJ, the photos, among other things. What was particularly cool was being able to place silly stamps on the photos. There were eyes, mouths, accessories, various Mario characters, and some creatures that my older brother referred to as generic "dinosaurs" or "monsters", can't exactly remember which word he said. But I used them on my photos anyway, cause why not. Little did I know that wasn't going to be the last time I saw those critters, oh no.
Come Autumn later that year, my brother tells me all the neat things about a new craze going on in school called Pokémon. He introduced me to the TV show, where we watched it together. I, being but a young boy at the time, was hooked and completely loved every minute of it, and just wanted to watch more and more of it. I made sure to watch every new episode premiere to the best of my ability and was happy to watch the reruns. Around the same time, I saw the commercial to the games, and wanted to play them badly. Soon enough, I got the game, and was completely hooked to it, and became a young Pokémon fan.
Every Pokémon fan has likely heard of and watched the anime at some point in their lives. When we saw the anime for the first time, plenty of us found it exciting to see Ash and others traveling, battling with their critters and getting stronger, strengthening the bonds and friendships with each other and their Pokémon, helping out others, earning badges, fighting evil, and so forth. Many today still have nostalgia for those days. But today, the Pokémon anime is scorned by both Pokémon and anime fans, something that gives both the franchise and the medium a bad name. What went wrong? Let us review Ash's journey throughout the years.
II. I Wanna Be the Very Best, Like No One Ever Was
According to Wikipedia, the premise or synopsis of the entire anime is this: "After he turns 10 years old, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) is allowed to start his journey in the world of Pokémon and dreams of becoming a Pokémon master." Remember this carefully.
So our boy Ash, despite getting up late, manages to begin a brand new journey in a new region, with Pikachu by his side, in hopes of becoming a Pokémon Master. The Pikachu, given to him by Professor Oak, at first does not get along very well with the newbie trainer; but not long after they get along very well and become a strong team. They later get joined by Brock and Misty, two people who are in charge of Pokémon Gyms, a place where trainers are tested by battling such leaders in hopes of defeating them to obtain a Gym Badge, of which eight are required to enter the Pokémon League. As Ash desires to win the league he tries hard to get these badges, all while going through some extra battling, capturing more Pokémon, visiting places, helping out strangers, and stopping Team Rocket, a trio consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth, who hope to capture his Pikachu due to their impression of how strong he is. In addition, he hopes to win his rivalry against the snobby Gary, the grandson of Professor Oak. Misty herself desires to become a Water Pokémon Master, and Brock desires to become a Pokémon Breeder.
Ash manages to get all of the Gym Badges at Kanto, though sometimes by unconventional means (he was simply going to get the Cascade Badge without a battle, he got another by making its Gym Leader laugh, and yet another by not fighting the actual Gym Leader). Nonetheless he was happy with his badges, and went off to enter the Pokémon League. Ash had a bit of struggles with his opponents, among them a long green-haired weirdo and a woman in traditional Japanese clothing with an overpowered Bellsprout. But despite those, Ash manages to win four 3v3 Pokémon matches. Ash is now in the Sweet Sixteen!
So he faces off against a trainer that isn't so different from him—he is similar in personality and fights with similar Pokémon. His name is Ritchie. Like our boy Ash, Ritchie resembled and was loosely based on Red, the protagonist of the first Pokémon games. He marked his Poké Balls with stars and gave nicknames to each of his Pokémon. He similarly had a Pikachu that was always with him by his side. He too wanted to become a good trainer. Unsurprisingly, Ash and Ritchie became good pals and always want to see each other succeed. However, the time came where the two trainers had to face each other in the tournament. The two felt conflicted, and yet were ready to engage in a battle. The two fought valiantly, but thanks to some poor refereeing and the stupidity of Ash's Charizard, Ash loses the match. He is eliminated from the tournament. Unlike his game, manga, and Pokémon Origins counterparts, Ash does not become the Pokémon Champion. Ash does not obtain his dream of becoming a Pokémon Master.
While many of us were disappointed with the outcome, plenty of us also thought, "Well, losses happen. It's okay to lose." 255 trainers had to lose the tournament, and Ash (and Ritchie) ended up becoming one of them. Losing is part of life. Time to move on.
Little did plenty of us know that this was just the beginning of would later be an awful predicament.
III. The Long and Winding Road
After the league ended, Ash decided to continue traveling. He and his companions enter a region called the Orange Islands. Brock was replaced by an artist named Tracey, while Misty continues traveling with our protagonist. We continue to see much of the same—battles, catching Pokémon, helping strangers, Team Rocket blasting off again, and so forth. Ash gains four more badges by doing non-battle challenges, which qualifies him to enter the Orange League.
The battle was Ash against Drake in a full 6v6 battle. It was quite exciting to watch, and the great highlight was seeing Ash's Pikachu take down a mighty Dragonite, giving Ash the victory. It was not a true league however, so Ash's journey is not quite over. But hey, it's something, right? Well, not really.
So off he goes to Johto. Brock returns and replaces Tracey, who didn't really get anywhere with his goal; we're back to the original team. Meanwhile, Team Rocket continues to attempt getting Pikachu but never succeeds. The Johto saga was notorious for its heavy amount of filler, yet despite that Ash manages to get eight more badges, qualifying him to enter into the Johto League. Misty also decided to do something with her goal as she and Ash enter the Whirl Cup, a tournament where trainers are only allowed to use water-type Pokémon. Despite Misty's apparent expertise at that kind of thing, she is defeated, and thus does not really fulfill her goal in becoming a Water Pokémon Master, whatever that is. Brock continues to tag along, flirting with women along with other activities.
Eventually Ash arrives to the Johto League. He defeats a good number of opponents, among those were a girl who was heavily infatuated with him and his biggest rival Gary. But despite this great accomplishment, he gets defeated by Harrison at the quarterfinals, in a match that unlike against Ritchie, turned out to be a good loss for our hero. He got further than he did before, and was finally able to overcome Gary, who reconciled with Ash and then quit becoming as a Pokémon Trainer, joining his grandfather in his research. But Ash's adventure is far from over.
So next he arrives to Hoenn. It wasn't without a bit of controversy—Misty fans were enraged as the tomboyish mermaid was getting written out and replaced by May, who was the female protagonist of the then new Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire games. With an emotional goodbye to Misty, Ash continues his adventure, catching all sorts of new Pokémon, meeting various people, engaging in many battles, fending off Team Rocket (who continues but fails to capture Ash's Pikachu), and winning another eight badges to enter the Hoenn League. Meanwhile, May finds her own goal—become a Master Coordinator. In her attempt to reach her dream, she entered so-called Pokémon Contests, which are more or less Pokémon pet shows plus some battling, in hopes of winning some ribbons. She manages to get the five ribbons required to enter the Grand Festival, where the winner will be donned Master Coordinator.
Despite her hard work however May is defeated in the quarterfinals of the tournament. Ash himself is yet again beaten, this time by eventual Champion Tyson and his Meowth at the Hoenn League quarterfinals, yet he was able to make it that far using only his Hoenn team. But that wasn't enough for our boy. He travels on, as the journey continues!
IV. His Name was Tobias
By this point, Ash had become an experienced player. He, Brock and May return to Kanto and do stuff; May tries again with her goal but fails a second time, this time being defeated at the semifinals of the Kanto Grand Festival. Ash himself enters and wins the Battle Frontier, which seems to be the Pokémon equivalent of an All-Star Game or the International Champions Cup, which although impressive, was not an important competition like the regional Pokémon League. So Ash heads off to Sinnoh.
May (and her forgettable brother) get written out without getting their goals accomplished and Dawn, the female protagonist of the Gen IV Pokémon games, now takes the spotlight. Brock tarries on longer, practically getting relegated to a shadow of what he used to be. Team Rocket still stalks Ash in hopes of getting that Pikachu of his, yet again they do not succeed. More of the usual happens—Ash captures Pokémon, Ash does more battling, Ash wins some badges, etc. Dawn, like May before her, desires to become a Master Coordinator. She too enters contests and despite some struggles gets the ribbons necessary to reach the Grand Festival. Unfortunately she only gets so far just to lose to rival Zoey at the finals, thus being unable to fulfill her goal. Too bad.
As for Ash, he enters a Pokémon League for the fourth time. This time he goes really far, and manages to defeat rival Paul in an epic battle that lasted three episodes, sending him to the semifinals for the first time in his history as a Pokémon Trainer. Having momentum by overcoming a fierce rival, Ash looked on his way to the long awaited victory after 13 years worth of episodes. But not so fast.
In comes a man in a cloak, named Tobias. He had swept all of his previous opponents, using a single Darkrai. Yes, Darkrai, the legendary Mythical Pokémon. This same Darkrai ended up taking about half of Ash's entire team. But Ash wasn't just going to roll over and die. With great effort, the Darkrai was finally taken down by Sceptile, yet those efforts came in vain, as Tobias sends out a second legendary Pokémon, Latios, who managed to wipe out the rest of Ash's team, though it was not without Latios himself fainting together with Pikachu.
Just when Ash looked to be on a possible road to victory, he gets crushed by this guy who has a team of multiple legendary Pokémon with him. For the fourth time in a fourth region, Ash again does not fulfill his dream. Tough luck.
Let us review the premise of the anime again: "After he turns 10 years old, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) is allowed to start his journey in the world of Pokémon and dreams of becoming a Pokémon master." For some reason, the writers felt that they didn't really want to have Ash make any further progress towards that goal, and as a way to do that, we get a God-mode trainer that stands in his way, one I would like to call a pastiche of players who enter Pokémon Leagues using legendary Pokémon in the games. So Tobias just comes into the anime as a plot device who only exists to do just that, halting the fulfillment of the premise of the anime by defeating Ash with overpowered legendary Pokémon. It is quite disastrous. But hey, to those who looked on the bright side, Ash proved himself to be the second strongest Pokémon Trainer by performing best against the eventual Champion Tobias. Surely, this could mean that Ash could make progress towards his dream and win the next league at Unova, right?
Nope, instead it would only get worse. Much, much worse.
V. You're Such a Little Kid!
Brock more or less outstayed his welcome, having been relegated to a mere background character and did almost nothing towards fulfilling his goal of becoming a Pokémon Breeder. So he changes his goal to become a Pokémon Doctor instead, and then is subsequently axed from the show without really seeing him become one. As for Dawn, she was going to go with Ash but suddenly gets written out thanks to some unforeseen circumstance. So despite her popularity Dawn too gets axed, and she becomes the third Poké Girl who doesn't reach her goal—Ash must be some kind of bad luck charm.
So Ash heads alone to Unova, where a new adventure awaits him. You figure that with all those strong Pokémon he's collected over the years he could finally create the team necessary to get the badges required to enter the Unova League and eventually give him the Championship win he deserves.
Oh wait, over the years is very misleading. Because at the very first episode of Best Wishes, we Ash's age retconned back to 10 by the narrator even though an anniversary scene existed in the original series. Worse, we witness a battle where his Pikachu, who just battled Latios a couple of episodes prior, faced a brand new Snivy... and lost.
Though Pikachu was partially handicapped this was still an embarrassment for our veteran trainer. It was just the beginning of the problems the Unova saga had; that one match symbolized the horrible things that were to come, resulting in many anime viewers panning it. Pikachu was made weak and Ash regressed as a trainer. Far from the guy that took on Tobias, we see Ash make some ridiculous noob mistakes like not knowing how to catch a Pokémon, not knowing about type weaknesses, scanning a Koffing as if he never knew the Pokémon. Those are not things a veteran trainer like Ash should've done; those kind of mistakes allowed Iris, a girl with insane hair with an affinity for dragon-type Pokémon, to belittle him with destructive criticism, constantly calling him a kid. She aspired to become a so-called Dragon Master but does not achieve it, making her a real hypocrite. They are accompanied by Cilan, a Pokémon Connoisseur, one that although skilled does not achieve the top rank. All while getting pursued yet again by Team Rocket, who actually changed up a bit for a short time before going back to the comedic trio that unsuccessfully attempts to get Pikachu.
The Unova League was the pinnacle of how bad the Pokémon anime had gotten. Despite the incompetence of Ash, he again manages to get eight more badges, along with other accomplishments, like being able to face Team Rocket boss Giovanni for the first time (though he got creamed hard), and witnessing the return of his powerful Charizard. So he comes into the league, takes down a few opponents, and proceeds to fight a trainer in the quarterfinals named Cameron. This should've been an automatic win for Ash, as Cameron didn't even get the required amount of badges to enter the league, and thought he could only enter five Pokémon in the match. Yet thanks to rubbish nonsense, Ash loses that match as Cameron's Riolu evolves to Lucario. Cameron proceeds to get smacked 3-6 in the semifinal match. This was followed by an arc made entirely of filler in the Decolore Islands.
It seems that all of that development Ash had prior to Best Wishes was deliberately thrown out by the writers, showing a gigantic middle finger at the premise of the anime. To those who wanted to see the anime's premise fulfilled, Best Wishes went the opposite route. In terms of fulfilling the premise of seeing Ash become a Pokémon Master, the writers have failed tremendously. It was mainly thanks to this series that the anime got the notoriety it is known for. Furthermore, the TV ratings had decreased from good to bad, where the effect had carried over to XY and now Sun and Moon.
Allow me to quote from a user in a Pokémon forum at how bad the anime had gotten:
Another user from the same thread said, "I'm sure it was the intention of both series that Satoshi would grow from where he started out, but whereas DP was able to show this competently, BW failed to show he went through any growth at all. And as far as I'm concerned, failing to show that growth in the main character of the show severely hurt the quality of Best Wishes and is one of the biggest reasons - though there are several outside of that - why I personally rate it the worst [series]."
At the end of the series, Iris and Cilan get written out by taking a train. But we're not finished with Ash. Oh no.
VI. You Really Are an Amazing Person
After the disaster in Unova, five-time loser Ash is back home in Pallet. Ash again has not fulfilled his dream. There goes a moment where he is pondering about his adventure, thinking about many folks in he's known in his journey—Gary, Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Dawn, Iris, and Cilan. He also reunites with the Pokémon he's collected over plenty of time. As his dream remains as strong as ever, he heads off to Kalos in a brand new outfit along with his trusty pal Pikachu. Team Rocket continues to pursue the duo.
So when he arrives there, much to the pleasant surprise of people, and in contrast to how bad he had gotten in BW, Ash is made a strong trainer again, almost as if he picked up straight from the end of Sinnoh. By the second episode we see an epic story that involves Pikachu nearly losing his life and Ash jumping off Prism Tower to save him. He and Pikachu are accompanied by three others—Clemont, the Lumiose Gym Leader, whose goal is to gain more confidence (a noble albeit subjective goal), Bonnie, his younger sister, who desires to become a trainer in the future, and Serena, a girl whom Ash met in their childhood, who at first did not have a goal but eventually decided to become a Pokémon Performer by participating in Pokémon Showcases (which you can say are basically beauty pageants with Pokémon), in hopes of ultimately becoming Kalos Queen. In deep contrast to the treatment Ash received from Iris, everyone seemed to admire him and his qualities, both his traveling companions and his rivals (detractors call them a fan club), and for once, Ash was no longer reliant on an older guy for advice or something; he felt like he was a true leader in his group.
In the meanwhile we are introduced to a young man named Alain. He was the protagonist of the Mega Evolution specials, and desired to become the strongest trainer. He sure had power indeed; his Mega Charizard X was able to take down ten other Mega Evolved Pokémon in a row. He was accompanied by a young girl named Mairin, a beginner trainer who was in many ways the opposite of Alain, being both bubbly and clumsy at the same time.
Throughout the Kalos saga, Ash seemed like he was taking his goal very seriously; he is seen training his Pokémon often, and with great effort wins another eight badges, along with the usual affairs of fillers, catching more Pokémon, helping more strangers out, fending off Team Rocket yet again, and other activities. Serena on the other hand, gets the three Princess Keys needed to enter the Master Class, where the winner would receive the title of Kalos Queen. Yet despite her great efforts, she is defeated by reigning Kalos Queen Aria. Like all of Ash's female companions before her Serena fails to achieve her dream, this time of being Kalos Queen (all this despite a closing credits dedicated to it). She was so close yet so far. Poor girl.
Plenty of viewers saw that coming, however. But Ash on the other hand had become a really strong trainer. As a matter of fact, Ash was perhaps at the strongest he has ever been, surpassing the level he was at the end of Sinnoh. He had a solid team with him of fully evolved Pokémon (except for his trusty Pikachu of course), a team of Pokémon that had amazing accomplishments by taking on Mega Evolutions and/or Legendaries. In particular, his Greninja, whom Ash had found as a Froakie, created an enormous bond with him, to the point where he would transform into a more powerful form known as Ash-Greninja. The bond is considered so strong that Ash himself would share whatever pain Greninja received while on this form. This was prophesied by one of the Kalos Gym Leaders, Olympia, who stated that Ash and the then Frogadier that they would reach levels never seen before. The strength of Ash-Greninja gave Pokémon Champion Diantha and her Mega Gardevoir a run for their money before abruptly ending as Ash was unable to handle Ash-Greninja's power, causing him to faint and thus be unable to battle. However, after several losses and then some subsequent words from Serena, Ash and Greninja received important development that allowed them to master the transformation, which proved to be crucial for winning that last badge.
R Although the Pokémon anime's premise is to see Ash become a Pokémon Master, the writers have repeatedly failed to fulfill or make any progress towards it when there was ample opportunity to do so, instead making huge, lasting decisions in the story to ensure that premise doesn't happen. Ash's repeated failures and subsequent move to a new region renders everything he does pointless. None of Ash's actions ever amount to anything in the end.
