Do you miss Ash and Team Rocket in the anime?

[skynerel]

Personally, I don’t, but I do rewatch old episodes from time to time if I want to enjoy certain plots or pokemon again.

 

[Dr. Gro 3001]

I do feel a little longing for the older days. However, I think that might be because the new cast hasn't quite clicked with me.

 

[ZekromMahDad]

not team rocket. But for damn sure ash

 

[Kurolegacy]

Ash yea, TRio, not so much. Their harmless villain shtick got old really fast. They were most interesting when they were just doing activities outside of TR that really showed off their talents and how competent they are when not trying to be villains. Heck, Jessie was skilled enough as both a Coordinator and Performer to have gotten into the Grand Festival and Master Class.

 

[Hidden Mew]

I do miss Ash. I think one aspect I miss is the familiarity with having him as the main lead. Every time a new generation was announced, people would always speculate what starter he'd get and eventually what other Pokemon he'd catch as more new Pokemon would be revealed. It's just not as fun to speculate about what Liko and Roy's teams could be for me. To be fair, at least part of that is due to how I really don't see either of them having full teams, while Ash almost always had a consistent full team of Pokemon for the writers to work with in most series. Aside from Friede and maybe Dot, none of the other main cast come off as memorable enough for me to speculate on their teams either. Maybe that's judging them too fast since I haven't seen much of Horizons yet and I still want to give the series a chance, but not having much interest in speculating about characters' teams is still kind of disappointing for me.

I also thought that Ash being the main lead for so long was more of a feature of the anime rather than a problem that needed to be fix. Despite issues with how he was written in some series, I thought that he worked fine for what the anime called for. He was still pretty likable, usually bounced off his traveling companions in each series pretty well and his bonds with his Pokemon usually felt genuine. Even with the complaints about Ash losing every League, it never bothered me because the point of the anime wasn't to see Ash win a League or become a World Champion. It was about Ash and his friends traveling around the world, making friends and battling/catching Pokemon along the way. It was all about the journey, not the destination. That doesn't mean it was okay to make some pretty infamous defeats for the League to keep to the status quo, but that Ash losing generally didn't feel like a big deal to me.

As for Team Rocket, I miss them as well, but probably not as much as Ash. It felt like ages since Team Rocket really had something to do in the anime, especially James. It really doesn't help that they had virtually nothing to do in Journeys. As much as I dislike the PWC, at least that gave Ash something to do. I still highly doubt that they planned on Ash winning since the beginning of the series, but it was still something to make his sendoff more emotional and memorable. Team Rocket really had nothing for what was their sendoff series. Jessie never made a capture during the series' run and Morpeko was so pointless that I keep forgetting that James caught it. I think that they felt more memorable during the first three series. I know that people were annoyed at them featuring in every episode and I think it was for the best that they started to appear less frequently in BW, but I think that helped them to stand out more and get some good focus for a full episode or for a side plot. SM was good for them too since Alola was practically their second home like it was for Ash.

 

[Emmy]

Not as much as I thought tbh.

If I need a fix, I just watch some episodes from the golden era of PokéAni and try to enjoy the new cast for what they bring.

 

[Galar Adventurer]

Team Rocket, no. Ash, yes. But to rectify that I just go back and watch some old episodes. I think I'm still bitter at how
TV Tokyo handled announcing the anime's future after Journeys. If they didn't make that press conference they held about Ash public,
then I feel like December 16th, 2022 woulda been less of a gut punch then slightly misleading everyone by saying "that his adventures were continuing/his journey wasn't over "yet" and not clarifying that he’d only stick around for 11 more episodes until 2-3 weeks later.

I have been enjoying Horizons, but it still feels like a normal Pokémon anime to me to the point that replacing Ash wasn't needed
and still feels like the only reason this happened was because the previous writing staff got burnout/writer's block on what to do with Ash battle wise and lazily wrote him off.

I still think we'll see him again though. Hopefully for the 30th anniversary at the latest.
There have been other instances of anime protagonists returning in future media every once in a while or full time as a main after "the final chapter" of their story had come and gone so who knows. Just very curious of where the anime will go from here after Horizons ends. As far as I know, there isn't any concrete record of reception of how the Japanese audience is handling the change so far.

 

[Emelie]

Ehhh... no. I dropped the Journeys anime because it bored me.

I kind of miss DP and XY Ash though. I want another badge quest and a more confident and goal-oriented character. Liko has decent emotional development just like May, Dawn, Iris, Serena and Lillie but is lacking in every other area. Sometimes one could even call her a damsel in distress which is the bane of my existence lol.

 

[Die-Hard Dragon Devotee]

Ash yes, Team Rocket.......NO. I say good riddance to those three, hope we never see them again. I was never really a fan of the TRio. Sure, they had their moments, but over the years they really started to grate on my nerves.

 

[Squad_Broke_Down]

Ash: Yes. Do I even need to explain why?

TRio: Nope, nope, and nope. I think I'm in the minority camp that doesn't like Team Rocket (except early BW and SM team rocket). Team Rocket as daily villains got very old VERY fast for me, and then they just became very annoying. They were better in BW since they posed an actual seriousness and threat, and SM because their best aspects were turned up to 11 (their attachment to their pokemon and their amusement value was notably increased).

 

[Dogasu]

I miss the Rocket trio dearly, but we do have 25+ years of the show with them in it so it's not like there's any shortage of older episodes to look back on.

Satoshi, I could take him or leave him.

 

[Hidden Mew]

Ash: Yes. Do I even need to explain why?

TRio: Nope, nope, and nope. I think I'm in the minority camp that doesn't like Team Rocket (except early BW and SM team rocket). Team Rocket as daily villains got very old VERY fast for me, and then they just became very annoying. They were better in BW since they posed an actual seriousness and threat, and SM because their best aspects were turned up to 11 (their attachment to their pokemon and their amusement value was notably increased).

BW Team Rocket was more serious, but I hesitate to say that they posed more of a threat. They kept on losing like usual, but just weren't blasting off or being the comedic relief of the show instead. I thought that XY handled the concept better. They were at least slightly more competent, but still actually had their personalities.

 

[Defiant]

Yes I miss him and the Trio, but can't deny after 25 years it was time to go.

 

[Itsjustmudkipz]

I LOVE THE TEAM ROCKET TRIO!! their ending was a bit lazy if you ask me, they deserve better, then again that's my whole opinion on the to be a pokemon master thing. It didn't feel like an ending, or maybe that was the point idk. anyways I'll miss team rocket trio and Ash quite a bit but I'm willing to give the new protags like and roy a chance

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

Paul will be greatly missed, still the most competitive trainer I ever seen in the entire series strictly based off what he did throughout DP, having a good balance of skill and power. It was cool seeing him return in JN and having his little match with Ash but I ultimately wanted to see him compete in the M8 Tournament, we didn't see him at full power and based off his training battle with Ash he scales to the likes of Iris and Alain.


Skill
Paul
GAP
GAP
Alain
Iris

Ace
Alain
GAP
Paul/Iris
Iris/Paul

Team
Paul
Alain
GAP
Iris


Paul's Methods
Type-Advantage
Status Moves
Abilities
Switching
Entry Hazards
Planning
Foresight
Scouting
Adapting (Counter-Shield)

Paul's Powerhouses
Torterra
Electivire
Drapion
Ursaring
Garchomp
Magmortar
Honchkrow
Nidoking
Gyarados
Metagross
Hariyama
Gliscor

 

[Waitress Tia]

yep, for the trio especially during their later eras since I started watching the anime close to when season 19's final episode aired. I preferred them the most during their SM and Journeys era - seriously comedic!

 

[-PokemonBattleFanatic-]

No because Ash and Team Rocket fell off either during or after the OS-AG series', this was a big reason why I moved on to someone like Paul because his character was fresh and completely different from everyone else.

 

[Sheep]

Honestly, yes and no. On one hand I do feel like I miss seeing my favorite childhood characters get more screentime and want to see that happen, but on the other end I feel like their stories were wrapped up well enough and I don't want that to be 'damaged' with potentially repetitive episodes if the team feels they've done what they could with them already. I'm happy with how things concluded for them and am glad we have new characters to focus on now, as bittersweet as it feels to say that. I'd like to see them in a future movie in some way, but not again as main characters of a long-running series.

But I will forever miss TR's silly antics since Sun and Moon <3 I just loved how much of a family they and their Pokémon became.

 

[RustyTrubbish]

Not really. I got tired of Ash a long time ago and I'm glad he left the series after 25 long years. As for Team Rocket, well they were better characters than Ash but I'd be lying if I said I missed them.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I'm more on two halves with Ash.

I do kinda miss him a little as I normally felt quite comfortable with him as the main lead but at the same time I do feel a genuine sense of satisfaction with him and Pikachu having won their battle with Leon that makes me happy that they eventually decided to move on to new characters.

This is probably the last time I think we'll be seeing both Ash and Pikachu as we know them as I don't think we'll be seeing them (or Team Rocket) at all in Horizons as the main focus is on the newer faces.

If they ever bring him back though it'll probabrly be via a film or a reboot that completely differentiates from the original era entirely. Otherwise I think the anime will go the Yu-Gi-Oh route where every new series is now it's own thing with no need for knowledge of the prior series.