Pokemon Anime: The Rise of Ash Ketchum

Today we go through the legendary journey of Ash Ketchum, the protagonist who has been entertaining us for over 2 decades. We will specifically go through his pokemon league regional performances and find out the rookie mistakes he did and how he made up for them. This will help us understand his rise even better.

Generation 1: Kanto — A decent start

The indigo league was Ash’s first league ever. Ash gave us a few solid matches in this edition but after making it to the top 16 he was ultimately eliminated by Ritchie.

It is understandable because most of his team was already worn out battling team rocket. After even Pikachu was taken down, his only hope was Charizard. Charizard was the ultimate power-house of Ash’s team but it would refuse to battle as it did not find its opponents worth battling. In the end, Charizard snoozes and Ash loses.

Looking back one may think that Ash would have won the league given Charizard listened to him but considering the in-experience of most of his pokemon and also that most of them had not evolved to learn stronger moves, that would have suggested otherwise.

Overall, we can appreciate Ash for making it to the top 16 and for a rookie he started off quite well.

Generation 2: Johto — Rookie Mistakes

After gathering a whole bunch of new pokemon in the Orange Islands and Johto, Ash was ready for his next major pokemon league — The Johto League.

In the preliminary stages of the tournament, he did quite well and eventually made it to the quarter-finals. But from there on Ash encountered a new trainer from Hoenn named Harrison. Although Ash got the early lead, Harrison’s Blaizakeen single-handedly polished half of Ash’s team, giving Harrison the win.

The very first mistake Ash did was to play Bayleef who clearly had a type disadvantage against blaizakeen, a fully evolved fire type. The additional dis-advantage was that Bayleaf never knew any powerful grass type moves either. He had already made the mistake of using a worn-out Snorlax against Houndoom and paid for it. Maybe if he had played Charizard first to wear out Blaizakeen, play Bayleef next with a clever strategy like he did with Houndoom and give Snorlax as much time as possible to use at last, he would have had a chance.

Instead, he decided to bet on spirit instead of basic type advantages and lost 2 valuable pokemon. Many of his other pokemon were not fully evolved and could not learn stronger moves. This further contributed to his woes.

In the finale of the battle, Charizard despite having the type advantage as a flying type would surprisingly lose to Blaizakeen who is part fighting type. However, we may appreciate Ash for making it to the top 8 for the first time.

Generation 3: Hoenn — Best but not enough

Ash battled valiantly in the Evergrand championship. Although most of his pokemon were not evolved to the full, he brought out the very best of every one of them. But that very best was just not enough!

Once again the additional fire-power to take out stronger pokemon was lacking. What made it even worse was Ash deciding not to use his previous pokemon. Ultimately, he paid the price.

In the end, it was down to Ash’s Pikachu and Tyson’s Meowth and for the second time in a row, Ash was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Although Ash had some classic victories with smart strategy and decision making to kick things off, it was more like a zap and if it does not work zap harder kind of experience in the lateral stages.

Generation 4: Sinnoh — Over Powered

The Sinnoh league was a memorable experience. This is probably one of Ash’s all-time best performances. In this region, Ash rectified his past mistakes. Although many of us may hate his counterpart, Ash needed someone like him desperately at that time!

Paul would beat Ash almost every time making Ash question his own strategy. Just like Regi aka Paul’s brother said Paul would overwhelm his opponent. This was a painful experience for Ash at the beginning but later on, it becomes an eye-opener for him.

He learns from his past mistakes, trains his pokemon better and assembles one of the most powerful teams of all time. Most of his pokemon fully evolved and to make things even better, he decides to use his previous pokemon as well.

As a result, Ash has a much better run in the Sinnoh league compared to the previous regions. With victory after victory, he moves on to the quarter-finals to battle none other than Paul.

As usual, Paul looks to overwhelm Ash using completely different pokemon from their previous battle near the lake acuity. But Ash decides to use the same pokemon as in that battle and we get an all-time classic. This is one of the greatest battles that Ash has ever had. Ultimately Ash beats Paul and they finally become friends. There is just a lot to talk about in this battle.

Eventually, Ash is in the semi-finals battling Tobias and this is where is it all came down. Tobias had taken down all of his previous opponents using only one pokemon and that was his Darkrai.

Ash’s Sceptile takes out Dakrai but that comes at the expense of losing half of his team. Ash loses his other half to Latios — the second pokemon Tobias used. Such an amazing start to such a painful end.

Ash’s team to face such a strong opponent was also questionable. For instance, he would not use Charizard, which had already had victories against legendary pokemon like Dragonite and Articuno. If his Gibble had evolved all the way to Garchomp in addition then he would have had a much better chance.

Generation 5: Unnova — a forgettable one

After making it to the semi-finals one would definitely expect Ash to make it to the finals or win. But that was not the case.

Unnova was one of Ash’s forgettable experiences. It almost looked like he started from level 1 along with his Pikachu. At one point he would even try to resemble Paul by winning in a more convincing fashion by using the least number of pokemon and fail miserably. Eventually, he realized that he is unique in his own way and would go back to normal strategy.

In the Unnova league, Ash makes it to the quarter-final for the fourth time. Surprisingly he would be beaten by Clumsy-Cameron and his newly-evolved Lucario. Ash would be beaten by a 2 pokemon margin considering that Cameron only used 5 pokemon and one of them survived.

Yet again Ash makes the same mistake as in the Hoenn league, which is to use many un-evolved pokemon and not using pokemon from previous regions.

Generation 6: Kalos — Deserved to win

After a forgettable experience at Unnova, Ash sets his sight on the Kalos region and the Kalos league — the one league Ash must have won.

Ash assembles probably the strongest team of all time. All of his Kalos pokemon were fully evolved and were so strong that he did not have use pokemon from previous regions. With powerful pokemon like Goodra and not to mention, the major highlight Ash-Greeninja, he had all tools to win his very first championship.

At one stage Ash would become obsessed with the power of Ash-Greeninja and would want to win every single battle. He would lose control of it multiple times and thankfully Serena snapped him out of it and made him remember who he truly was.

Ash finally mastered Ash-Greeninja and it was time for the Kalos League. Ash would win battle after battle would have an amazing semi-final battle with his disciple Sawyer. For the first time in history, Ash was in the finals. He would take out a bunch of Alain’s pokemon and Alain would do the same.

In the final face-off, it was Ash-Greeninja versus Mega Charizard. For a moment it looked like Ash would finally do it as Greeninja clearly had the type advantage being a water type. But the battle would end up as the most heartbreaking loss of all time. Charizard would be the one standing and Ash would lose his 6th pokemon league in a row.

Generation 7: Alola — Redemption at last

The one league that will forever be in the hearts of every pokemon fan! After a close shave in the Kalos League, Ash switches from travelling alongside 2–3 travelling companions hunting for gym badges to attending Summer school for a change.

This generation not only saw the return of the iconic trio of Ash, Misty and Brock but had a bunch of breath-taking and unforgettable moments. As Ash’s summer school goes on and his ultra adventures coming to a close, the iconic announcement is made. For the first time ever, the Alola League is scheduled to take place at Venolo stadium to crown the first Alolan champion.

Although the Alola league did not take place in the traditional way which is to first have 3v3 battles followed by 6v6 full battles, it was something different for a change. Ash beats Hau to move on to the semi-final to take on Team Skull’s leader Guzma. Guzma proves to be a formidable opponent in the beginning but Ash finds his way through.

After beating Guzma, Ash makes it to the final for the second time in a row. He is up against his long time rival in the Alola region — Gladion. After both sides lost 2 pokemon each, it was down to two Lycanrocs. Gladion’s Lycanroc dominates most of the battle and Ash’s Lycanroc keeps getting up. After dishing out a bunch of moves, Ash’s Lycanroc uses the ultimate winning move — Counter which gives him the win.

After nearly 20 years, Ash finally did it! He became the first Alolan champion and also beat the Royal Mask aka Professor Kukui to leave Alola on a winning note. Looking back at his previous losses we think Ash could have done better but at the same time, we can also appreciate the fact that Ash would not be Ash if he won every single pokemon league.

Generation 8: Galar— Picking up where he left off

The current generation of pokemon has been gathering a lot of hype. We have seen Iris, Dawn and the Alolan gang, a few gym leaders and also his previous pokemon making their comeback after such a long time. But most importantly we have seen Ash catch pokemon that we have been dreaming for ages that he would catch someday.

Ash shocked the world when he caught fan-favourites which are Dragonite, Gengar, Riolu and Farfetched. With Pikachu that makes an unbeatable team. Ash keeps getting stronger and stronger as he progresses in the Pokemon World Championship. This is the Ash that we all wanted to see and it is exactly what we have been getting.

With an epic battle with the Sinnoh champion — Cyntia, coming up sometime in the near future, we are in for an ultimate thrill ride.