Pokémon Loser Ash Ketchum's Lifelong Dream Has Finally Come True

What... What? Seriously?!

I wonder if this happened because of rumors that he won't be in the next season of the show. All just speculation still but it WOULD make sense.

He really should have won the Kalos league. I'm still salty about that.

@Aurumonado Don't get me started on that hacked charizard.

Gamefreak: "Here at Gamefreak, we don't support cheating and-" sees Ash about to win, gives enemy charizard plot armor.

Ash is a loser. Period.

If it took him 20 years, does that make him 30 years old now?

He was such a boss in Kalos and Sinnoh.
Alola is all about his Pokémon "dodging" everything by command, pretty lame. Although the non battle part of the season has been ok.

Kind of a big spoiler though huh.

He became the very best, like no one ever was.
Well, apart all the others that won before him.

I wonder if he will return on Pokemon Sword / Shield anime.
If so, i want the art style should be better than Alola style.

And after 20 years, Ash Ketchum probably will have a look like me as 35 years old grown up man. Say hello to my Pikachu plush doll. 😁

Is he or has he evolved the Pikachu so that we can have a Pokemon Yellow version that doesn't force us to follow that terrible lead?

This was really underwhelming, although Ash has a Dusk-Lycanroc and a Melmetal, neither of those two will ever be able to top the strength and coolness of Ash-Greninja or his Sinnoh team.

@Octarian damn lol so many Gary fans MF'ing Oak

@Kalmaro Heck he should have won the Sinnoh League when the writers pulled a literal deus ex machina Gary Stu to fight him with his legendaries team.

The dude with the Darkrai in the Sinnoh league was a cheater.

We need to have Ash Ketchum added in to Pokémon Masters (mobile game) as a secret character!
(has to be classic Ash and not Alolan Ash)

@Coffee_Drinker @abbyhitter
I agree, that was complete BS! He has a Darkrai and a Latios, like wth is that about?!
RIGGED!!

@Kalmaro Gamefreak does not make the Pokemon anime. They are a game development company, not an animation studio and they don't handle ALL things Pokemon. Sure, Gamefreak may have a little input on how things in the anime are presented, but they don't do any of the animating, writing and such and are not responsible for any of those instances of plot armor and things that the anime is known for. That's all on OLM, Inc., the animation studio that handles the Pokemon anime.

Not a fan of his recent design

@mikegamer That's just his new Alolan form.

"cartoon series"

Anime is the word you're looking for...

I haven't watched the Pokémon anime in ages. Ash is the ultimate filler character and I despise adaptions that aren't faithful to the source material (in this case, the games would be the source material, usually in most cases it's a manga or a light novel).

@ralphdibny Ayo, that’d make him my age. lol

@Aquamine-Amarine Um I think anime is basically Japanese for Cartoon more or less, just that we in the west adopted "Anime" to Describe these "Japanese Cartoons".

Makes me want to watch it, for old times sake, lol. Glad he won finally, but damn, Ash's modern facial design is terrible! He looked better in the older series'. 😳

Finally. There had better be a new protagonist going forward.

@Aquamine-Amarine
Then the protagonist would be mute.

With such horrible art style, the Alola set animé never won me over and every time I see a scene or screenshots of it, it makes me dislike Sun/Moon even more😒 Kalos was where he should've won but they decided to underwhelm the whole arc with the change in style and for me it dealt the whole anime franchise a massive blow. Especially when you had Pokémon: Generations that ran on YouTube!

This would have been funny in a more real-world situation. Ash, now in his mid 30's, tired of losing for 20 years decides to selectively breed and EV grind his Pokemon. Slowly, over thousands of hours he begins to treat his Pokemon more like objects and not friends. We, the viewers, feel our stomach turn in grotesque revulsion as Ash rejects a perfectly lovable Pokemon because it doesn't have the right stats.

As Ash finally wins, his opponent a 29-year old Youtube star who tries to pick up his young fans, we realize no one really won. No one won.

Later, when Ash realized all the Pokemon wouldn't be in Sword/Shield he was furious. Not because he couldn't pet his favorite Pokemon, no, because all his EV grinding to beat middle schoolers (and the youtube stars that love them...) would now go to waste. He may have won the Aloha league, but the the Twitter Pokemon Rage League had just begun...

Wow, that's some massive spoiler..

It's a shame they finally did this in a version of the anime that still makes my eyes hurt to look at...

I'm sorry but in 20 years of the anime, this is by far the ugliest it has ever been! And coming off of how good XY looked, it's all that much worse!

While the first 2 seasons will always win the nostalgia battle, I find that Gen 3-4 and Gen 6 to be the best the anime has been. Gen 7 seems to have done some interesting stuff, but I just can't stand the art style...

I never though this ever happen. I wonder if anyone made a bet on if Ash/Satoshi is going to lose in this season?

Side note, what mother lets a 10 year old travel the world and share tents with strangers

I told my kids about this like it was real news. They watch Pokemon on Netflix and Disney XD so they are familiar with Ash's struggle to be the very best! ; )

While it was sort of spoiled ahead of time, I actually had the opportunity to watch the episode, usually catching the latest episodes when they're posted to Disney Now or the Pokémon video app. I gotta admit, I got a little teary-eyed when the moment happened and seeing the look on Ash's face. It's like one of those moments you finally realize how much you invested in a story or character. I'm sure many not from the US won't get this reference. But it was akin to when daytime actress Susan Lucci finally won a Daytime Emmy after 19 nominations.

I also want to add that I've really enjoyed Sun and Moon. More so than I thought I would. The art style was a bit jarring at first. But ended winning me over with its quirky charm. Another part of it being the first series I watched with my oldest daughter together. There were some genuinely neat and heartfelt moments in the series that made it worth watching. Ultimately, I really enjoyed Ash's companions and supporting cast. I think they did a wonderful job bringing those characters to life from the games. If the next season is truly the reboot everyone suspect it is, I hope it's not a hard one in which this particular Pokémon universe is completely abandoned. I would love to see some of these characters make appearances in some fashion in the future

ash should be a old man by now its time for him to retire.

Just gonna say it, Ash should have lost his battle with Hau.

Yet he is still 10. However thanks for giving me a reason in my 30s to believe in him. Cuz I dumped that loser like a hot pocket as a child once I realized how pathetic of a Trainer he is.

@Ryu_Niiyama they need to focus on a new trainer now and just retire ash for once.

When the SuMo games had shown that you were the Champion all along and you had to defend it... I had a feeling that Ash would rise up and become champ in the anime. Being the first ever champ in a region was really a nice innovative nod in the story. As such, I wouldnt doubt if Ash and Pikachu returns for the Galar region. The upcoming anime spanning all regions tells me its not the next step in the main series. I very much like to see how the Galar region is brought out with its atmosphere and gym leaders.

Thanks a lot for spoiling this for me

@SwitchLife
Exactly how I feel... I mean, anything regarding the Pokemon TV show would already be kind of a stretch as "news" on a Nintendo video game news site. So I don't know, maybe something about it that's a massive spoiler could just be left off this site entirely, considering the fact that it won't even air in English for a few months. But at the very least, maybe find a way to not spoil it within the large-font topic name itself. >_< Unfortunate.

@Rocky2418 I thought the same thing, quite unprofessional.

I have a story: One night in November 2009, I was attending VFS. I was prospecting my way to Game Design. That night after I finally thrashed my classmate to give me the right skates back so I can get my shoes to go home I took the sky train home to my house. I was suppose to get off the Scott Road station but instead got off the 22nd Street station. I was really exhausted and soaking wet because of the rain. I took the bus from there to the Strawberry Hill bus stop. Now, from my perspective I was on the bus going down 72nd Avenue and I blacked out. I woke up at the hospital but I don’t remember anything of what happened. But from others’ perspective I tripped near the Strawberry Hill station and hit my head hard against the sidewalk. Now the thing is that since that day I slowly been getting attacked by from different directions. Now? I am still getting threats. Especially from the Internet! I don’t know if anyone cares because obviously we are all human. I make requests to certain customer service from Nintendo and its partner companies so I can play games I want to play. I don’t do this out of greed; I want to play Mega Man Battle Network on my Nintendo Switch with some of you guys. The point is I made a booking for my Nintendo Switch Lite which I am going to call my own personal GBA and I am going to play my games on that! Well done Ash! You made it to your goal!

That’s nice and all...

But did he Ketchum all?...

@davisvmon5 Interesting story...

Congratulations are in order, I guess. Good job, Ash. If they're truly planning to reboot the anime, it was about time you won a League.

Thanks for spoiling it NL.

I beat Pokemon Leagues! Pokemon Yellow Silver White Y Omega Ruby and Sun

Pictures or it didn’t happen. ::crosses arms in anger::

@ChromaticDracula https://www.serebii.net/anime/pictures/sunmoon/1082ps9.shtml https://www.serebii.net/anime/pictures/sunmoon/1082ps10.shtml https://www.serebii.net/anime/pictures/sunmoon/1082ps11.shtml
There you go.

So there's hope for Billy Mitchell yet.

Would've rather had him win Kalos.

@GinHunter We know, I was just making a joke.

@Kalmaro Sorry. Sometimes it can be hard to tell what is and isn't a joke through text.

@Kawaiipikachu That would be wrong.

Anime strictly refers to JAPANESE animation. It has absolutely nothing to do with the word "cartoon". Calling anime "cartoon" is objectively wrong.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a cartoon.
Pokémon is an anime.

They're not just different words for the same thing, they refer to a specific type of medium. Anime and manga are ONLY Japanese.

The same mediums are called Manhwa and Aeni when made by Korean creators.

The same mediums are called Manhua and Zhōngguó dònghuà/Donghua when made by Chinese creators.

And finally, we have comics and cartoons by Western creators (there's more terms, it's not just one big umbrella, but I'll spare you the deetz).

They all specifically refer to animation and/or picture books made by certain types of creators and audiences (Typically anime is made for the Japanese, aeni for the Koreans, Donghua for the Chinese and Cartoons for a Western audience.)

In this day and age alot of people tend to identify as some made up gender, so why not let Ash identify as a 10 year old.

@Blizzia Anime is actually just short for the Japanese term for animation. Anime is only referred as "Japanese Animation" by people from other countries than Japan.

A cartoon is not by definition animated. A cartoon is a type of illustration that's commonly non-realistic or semi-realistic. And can be animated.

So yeah, you could place anime in the category of a "Japanese cartoon". You could also place western / Hollywood animation in the category of "Western anime".

I don't know who or what that guy is, but he is not the Ash I grew up with.

@Blizzia It is not that simple. A Japanese person talking to another Japanese person would call every animated movie/show an anime, regardless of where it was made.

In my opinion there is nothing wrong with calling Pokémon a cartoon. In the west anime refers to cartoons made in Japan. So every anime is a cartoon but not every cartoon is an anime.

@ralphdibny Humans in Pokemon don’t age like we do. They evolve just like Pokemon. Ash will remain a child for many decades if he does not evolve into an adult.

@countzero Sure they would, and they'd be wrong.

(Though actually they don't. Source: My Japanese friends. Yes, that's as subjective as it gets. No, it doesn't make it less right. Calling something the wrong thing because you're uneducated on the subject matter doesn't make it right.)

@sanderev

If you won't be educated, there's nothing I can do. You're wrong. Sorry.

In a time where WWF's Undertaker's win streak had been broken, it's finally good to know that Pocket Monster's Satoshi's losing streak has also been broken. Guess the Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri got tired of his character being called a loser that he decided to change things a little. Remember you call Ash a loser also means you called Satoshi a loser. Ash's Japanese name is the creator's name.

That's because he's grown up - look, he has teeth now! I guess instead of mocking him for not winning major competitions this could be used as a bromide how you should enjoy the journey and never give up and all these things.

Silliness aside, congratulations, Ash! Good to hear that he finally managed to score a big win.

Well, this was rather fitting. I first played Pokémon Red/Blue Version on PC via emulator before the game came to Europe, but never finished it. I then bought it when it came out in Europe, but never finished it. I then played it via illegal means (again) on my Nintendo DS, but never finished it. When it finally was released on the 3DS eShop, I gave it another go, but once again put it down.

But, last month I picked up where I left off on the 3DS, and finally finished it last Thursday. I guess that means that mine and Ash’s fate are intertwined?

@Kalmaro what happened with the charizard?

Ugh, it didn't take him 20 years, it just took US 20 years before we could watch it this season. How is that difficult to understand?

10 year old wins tournament after failing for 20 years.

@RupeeClock wtf?

@Sac_instead Long story short, it took on pikachu s attacks, another Pokémon that I forgot and Ash Greninja's water shuriken that was so powerful that it was legit the size of a bus and... orange (so I guess radioactive?) and still beat them all without even a scratch.

I'm not exaggerating, it didn't even have burn marks.

Didn't know this was a thing. But I have stopped watching the anime in the 90s...

@RadNitro89 haha! The internet is an amazing thing .... thank you for this

I don't get some comments here. Alola has a much better than art style than previous seasons.

Congrats for Ash for finally winning.

Its about bloody time. But I coulda swore he won at least one before this.

I find it more funny that this news is going around everywhere and nobody cares if anyone who still follows this show and hasn't seen this episode yet gets spoiled on it.

Shame it had to happen in the worst series so far, his Alola team isn't even that good, compared to his Unova or Kalos teams, but then with the league being brand new i guess that makes it easier to win ?

If Ash doesn't get the boot next series, it would be cool to see him try and defend his title seeing as all regions will be featured next series, he'll probably lose though lol

if the orange islands are not a region, then alola's not a region.
hell, the orange islands are actually about the same size if not bigger then alola and share similarities with it such as 4 Gym Leaders/Kahunas that focus on mini-game challenges rather then gym battles and regional variants.

also, shamouti island clearly has some connection with the tapus


you can't really discard this movies as non-canon because 1: it shows the first time tracy met prof oak & delia 2: the part with delia asking ash to come home every once in awhile is the reason why ash always returns to pallet in-between regions 3: ash and misty both directly mentioned the events of this movie when they met silver the baby lugia in the whirl islands

Well then I guess the makers will make someone else nearly name as ash..

@RedderRugfish
No, he found another solution and just taught Pikachu Iron Tail, so he can smash those stones.

The title of this article is both infuriating and incorrect. Ash's dream is to be a Pokémon Master, and winning a league isn't the end all be all requirement of that dream. Whatever a Pokémon Master in his eyes is is honestly pretty vague. And calling him a loser is just there to be a catchy eye grab.

Am I overanalyzing an anime for children? Probably, but it wouldn't hurt to do it a bit more justice and research.

One significant win in an actual Region after 20 years with one of if not his worst Team? Please let the door hit you on the way out Ash.

Oh my God, what did you do to your FAAAAAACE?!?!?!

@Aurumonado @Kalmaro Clearly they ran into copyright infringement with Naruto: Shippuden almost stealing the RasenShuriken after all.

@Yosher
Exactly. I and another person here already commiserated about having it spoiled. And what makes it more egregious is that unless you want to watch it in Japanese (which I never have), this episode won't even AIR in English until January of next year, not to mention the 20 or so episodes leading up to it between now and then.

Given that and the fact that this doesn't even qualify as actual "Nintendo news" anyway, it was very uncool to post this article here at all (and use the large-font article title itself to spoil it, not even giving those of us who care a chance to avoid it). TBH, I'm now starting to look for other Nintendo news sites as possible alternatives.

I used to call him ash ketchup.

That's really cool that a kids show managed to go this long without having the main character win the big event. Usually they can only make 2 or 3 seasons for something like this.

The horrible new animated style makes it look like he got smashed in the face with a shovel