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Pokémon Sword and Shield anime speculation thread

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"Pokémon": Ash Ketchum, champion and all, is not yet a 'Pokémon Master' according to his Seiyū

Pokémon: Ash Ketchum, champion and all, not yet a teacher

Pokémon: Ash Ketchum, champion and all, is not yet a teacher (Photo: TV Tokyo)

Mag Writing19.09.2019 / 06:20 pm
Recently, the world stopped when they learned incredible news: Ash Ketchum , the protagonist of the Pokémon anime , had won his first Pokémon League in the Alola region after more than 20 years , 1082 episodes , 22 seasons and 6 leagues failed.
This event has been waiting since Satoshi , as he is known in Japan , lost his first league in the distant 1999. Although fans knew that eventually, because he was the protagonist of the series, he would win a Pokémon league , nobody expected what would happen so long until finally his victory was given.
Next to this, there is the fact that when Ash won the Alola League , his followers automatically celebrated the victory, but a fear also took hold of everyone since Satoshi had finally fulfilled his mission and it was likely that the anime lost its main character .
However, this fact is not the end for Ash Ketchum . Decades ago the anime began with this character with a premise: to be the best as nobody ever has been. Does Ash's victory place him as the main "Pokémon Master" in the world? No, and this is clear from the voice that plays the character on the small screen.
Rika Matsumoto , Ash's seiyū in Japan , gave an interview to Oricon where she commented a little about what this victory meant for the character, giving a break to the group of fans who were scared of the young coach's future:

Rika Matsumoto

Rika Matsumoto, seiyu of Satoshi (Ash), commenting on her victory (Photo: Twitter)
"Although Satoshi has won his first league, the road to being a Pokémon Master is not over yet." What did she mean by this? First of all, he literally still has his way to Ash to continue telling more stories of his journey to become a true Pokémon master .
Secondly, this also gives fans a new hope to see him as the protagonist of the next anime, one that will reveal more information very soon. If Ash had definitively retired from the competitions, Matsumoto would have had no reason to point out this fact.
Fans do not know what it takes to consider someone a "true Pokémon Master," but it may have to do with winning all the leagues in the previous regions in which Satoshi participated, something according to the new anime. which will be released in 2020 .

Pokemon

Ash and Gladion / Gladio, finalists of the Alola League. (Photo: YouTube)
" Pokémon " will be the official name of the new series for Japanese television, so many have theorized that it will be a restart of the franchise to add all the Pokémon of all generations or do so by continuing the current timeline with Ash as champion of the Alola League.
Some videos of the new anime have shown not only that Pokémon from different generations will appear, but also from several regions such as Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and many others. All of them have been mentioned in previous press conferences of The Pokemon Company .

Everything will be revealed on September 29 where the same company has scheduled an official broadcast on this new anime. What many believe is also that it will not be related to the new "Pokémon: Sword and Shield" , the next video game in the franchise.
 
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To those who might not have fate in ash returning even with the evidence I posted along with calendars meaning nothing read this "Pokémon": Ash Ketchum, campeón y todo, aún no es un 'Maestro Pokémon' según su Seiyū

We've talked about this for a week now since the original interview was released on the 15th. Why post it again in Spanish form when someone already translated it for us last Sunday, and why did someone translate it a second time above me via Google Translate? :oops:
 
We've talked about this for a week now since the original interview was released on the 15th. Why post it again in Spanish form when someone already translated it for us last Sunday, and why did someone translate it a second time above me via Google Translate? :oops:
DOES IT REALLY MATTER THIS MEANS ASH IS STAYING
 
DOES IT REALLY MATTER THIS MEANS ASH IS STAYING

We knew of that since last week.

Ash competing in the Pokemon Leagues in past Regions will not be a struggle for him since he has all 8 Gym Badges to each Region, with the exclusion of Galar which he now has to win to participate in Galar's League.

Between his breaks to each Pokemon League, he would venture through Galar, battling and winning it's Gym Badges before leading to the Galar League very last.
 
We knew of that since last week.

Ash competing in the Pokemon Leagues in past Regions will not be a struggle for him since he has all 8 Gym Badges to each Region, with the exclusion of Galar which he now has to win to participate in Galar's League.

Between his breaks to each Pokemon League, he would venture through Galar and winning it's Gym Badges before leading to the Galar League very last.
least we know this isn't the end of ash after all can I get an amen?
 
We knew of that since last week.

Ash competing in the Pokemon Leagues in past Regions will not be a struggle for him since he has all 8 Gym Badges to each Region, with the exclusion of Galar which he now has to win to participate in Galar's League.

Between his breaks to each Pokemon League, he would venture through Galar, battling and winning it's Gym Badges before leading to the Galar League very last.
I don't think that's happening unless this really is an AU Ash we're following here.
 
I don't think that's happening unless this really is an AU Ash we're following here.
I've had this little dream earlier today. In it, I imagined Ash being aged by 5-6 years and essentially serving as the mentor/responsible member of the travelling group which would consist of Gloria and Hop.

Ash would not participate in the Galar League, but instead in the Champions Cup (or whatever it'll be called), while Hop is the one to compete in the League with his goal being to beat his brother. Gloria would most likely have an anime-original goal.

That way, Ash's task in visiting the older region would not be redundant with the Galar League and it would actually keep him as a main character.
  1. As previously said, Ash and Pikachu are far too iconic to be left now. If they wanted to get ride of Ash, they could have tested it with the 20th movie, but instead they chose to keep Ash and just reboot his story. So I think we can be pretty confident about Ash still being the protagonist.
  2. Ash finally won a league. Rebooting the series now, additionnaly to being redundant with what has been done with the movies, would totally waste the significance of this event. More than ever we want to know what Ash will do now! Instead of knowing that after loosing a league he will just do the exact same thing from scratch in another region. So I think the new series being a reboot is unlikely.
  3. The new series has to promote the SwSh games, so it is obvious that the adventure will start in Galar. And they have to show the traditional badges collection, so Ash will obviously go for the gym leaders. Ash can't be just a mentor, his journey is not over, being a champion is just one step.
  4. What is different now, is we know that all the regions will be featured. And I think it is because they want more freedom to promote games and other merchandising. Now we have several Pokémon games: SwSh, Go, Masters, probably the Sinnoh remakes and maybe a Let's Go Johto. Again I think it pretty obvious that the adventure will start in Galar and will continue or take a break in Sinnoh once the remakes are out.
I really like this idea, and I have actually thought about the possibility of them doing something like this before. It would be a great way to continue to feature Ash a the main character, while also bringing in a w character to take Ash's place in participating in the League.

I could see them doing something like that, or them doing something similar where Ash has only aged up a couple of years (since I can see them wanting to keep their main character young and able to appeal to the younger crowd more, hence why he hasn't aged a bit in 20 years) and him participating in the Champion's Cup. He would be a bit more mature, but still, be a kid at heart (think XY Ash but maybe a bit more mature), but he would also serve as a great mentor figure for the new protagonist participating in the League.

I could see them doing Hop, but I could also see them choosing to put Gloria into this role. It would be refreshing to see the female protagonist have a more battle-oriented goal in mind, seeing as a lot of the previous female companions thought more about performance. So either way.

Then finally, I could see them putting in the usual responsible traveling companion. I think it could easily be one of the gym leaders, but they have a few decent choices for this role already so I'm not going to bother choosing the one I see as most likely because I'm still not so sure.
I think my personal preference would be for them to use Milo though, as I would love for them to do some kind of story for him where he never really got out much and traveled, having grown up in a town so dedicated to farming and tradition, so when he sees Ash and Gloria going by he knows he can't pass up the opportunity to finally travel his home region, and go other places too. But this is just a personal preference pick and idea. The likely hood of something like this happening is small, since this just a random idea that I had.

It would also be a great way to bring back some old favorite Pokemon of Ash's. I could see him choosing to bring back 3 of his older Pokemon who are already experienced battlers (not including Pikachu, since this one is an obvious choice), and then the last 2 party members could be some Galar Pokemon.

___

Just one more week until we finally have an idea of what kind of series we are getting (hopefully). It's been a wait for sure, but soon we should finally have some answers to all our questions.

As of right now, I think the most change we could possibly see is them using AU Ash (and even that I don't see as the most likely), but I definitely don't think they are doing a reboot or booting Ash off of the show. After keeping the kid for so long, they must have some ideas for him.
Would also like to add on to the point that rebooting or going AU would only render the recent League Conference win as null and void, effectively meaning that it was all for nothing. Not just that, but the past 22 years will feel like a waste due to an improper conclusion of the anime. They should build up on the League win and take him (and the battles) to a much higher and intense level. Let Gloria/Hop be the entry point for new viewers and fans while Ash is catered more to the hardcore/older fans.

I'd also like to quote some guy earlier who talked about the M20/M21 working out fine. Those movies worked out well because they were parallel "What if?" stories that pretty much mirror his journey's beginning and M02 in a way. They didn't continue down the AU path for long though, instead choosing a CGI remake of M01 with M22.

Likewise... it doesn't mean those what if scenarios need to turned into the mainstream series. They wouldn't have been well received if the anime abruptly came to a halt and the AU version took precedence, especially after XY's debacle. I doubt they can remove Ash entirely given how iconic the trio of Ash, Pikachu and Rica are.

Here are some discussions done about this very subject.... again.
 
DOES IT REALLY MATTER THIS MEANS ASH IS STAYING

Yes it matters, because you've been posting these kinds of things all week despite others already posting similar things and literally 90% of the people who frequently post here (me included) are already on board the whole 'Ash is staying' train. What's the point of continuing to try to convince the other 10% that Ash is staying when we've talked about it all week? And if you're going to constantly remind us, could you at least translate the evidence yourself next time instead of just linking us to a Spanish site that most of us can't read anyway?
 
We already knew that Ash is most likely staying. Why is this always one of the big three points of conversation here along with the new Pokegirl debates and character return theories?
 
We already knew that Ash is most likely staying. Why is this always one of the big three points of conversation here along with the new Pokegirl debates and character return theories?
atm, they're the main things that are important. Once Sunday passes, then we are in open water.
 
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Here's something to discuss...

In XY, Ash caught his own Bat Pokemon, Noibat that became Noivern

In SM, Ash caught his own Cat Pokemon, Litten that became Torracat, and a Dog Pokemon Rokruff, which evolved to become Dusk Form Lycanroc. Also, his Meltan and Naganadel had learn't an Electric Type Move, so anything is possible for the new anime. If Scorbunny's final evoltion became Fire/Electric, Ash caught Scorbunny and fully evolved it, then that would be the second Electric Type after Pikachu.
 
He already has all the badges, so he has no reason to go back and get them all again.
I don't think it's ever been stated that you need to collect all the badges again. I mean, in the games you're not forced to collect all the badges over to challenge the Elite 4 so I see the same criteria applying here as well.
 
He already has all the badges, so he has no reason to go back and get them all again.
No need to. The badges he's already got in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos are the very proof needed for him to compete in these Leagues. He doesn't need to collect them again. The only league he still has to collect badges for is the Galar League.
 
I don't think it's ever been stated that you need to collect all the badges again. I mean, in the games you're not forced to collect all the badges over to challenge the Elite 4 so I see the same criteria applying here as well.
This is also something that I don't see them doing unless they plan to phase out Ash as the protagonist.
 
I don't see them doing unless they plan to


You know, this is starting to get old with you now. Could you at least try and be constructive with your vocabulary?

Also, having 8 badges from each Region means he can easily compete again in the past League Conferences (except Galar), since becoming Champion in Alola is only the first step on becoming Pokemon Master, it's not over yet, and from what that spanish newspaper said is true, then we can see Ash not only competing in collecting badges to compete in the Galar League, but also returning to his past Regions to compete in the League Conferences.
 
You know, this is starting to get old with you now. Could you at least try and be constructive with your vocabulary?

Also, having 8 badges from each Region means he can easily compete again in the past League Conferences (except Galar), since becoming Champion in Alola is only the first step on becoming Pokemon Master, it's not over yet, and from what that spanish newspaper said is true, then we can see Ash not only competing in collecting badges to compete in the Galar League, but also returning to his past Regions to compete in the League Conferences.
I see this as being too climactic and final for some ordinary series. I think that if they do this then that would mean that Ash's journey is coming to an end and the Gen 9 anime will instead feature a brand new protagonist.
 
I see this as being too climactic and final for some ordinary series. I think that if they do this then that would mean that Ash's journey is coming to an end and the Gen 9 anime will instead feature a brand new protagonist.
Who said it has to feature a brand new protagonist? It could be someone existing like Bonnie or Max, or even someone built up alongside Ash in the next series, like Hop or Gloria. A smooth transition can happen, provided the writers put effort into it.

And it doesn't necessarily mean Ash's journey is over even if he wins it all. Not unless he ties himself down to one location only (which is why SM felt off in some ways, due to the lack of constant travelling).
 
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