Pokémon: Ash and Pikachu's final moments leave fans disappointed

It finally happened. Ash and Pikachu have stepped down from the Pokémon anime, and after months of build-up to the pair’s final moments, rather than being overwhelmed with emotion and nostalgia, many fans have simply been left totally disappointed. Yikes.

The decision to have the Pokémon series’ dynamic duo retire after 26 years of adventures was huge. Although many speculated after Ash became the Pokémon World Champion that it’d make sense for his adventures to end, given that he’d achieved his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master (although he’s a very long way off from actually catching ‘em all), it’s odd to think that after all this time, it’s going to be two rookies taking his place. The new anime protagonists’ names are Roy and Liko - they’ll debut in Pokémon Horizons: The Series later this year.

Take a look at the trailer for Pokémon Horizons: The Series below.

Back to Ash and Pikachu though, and as Dexerto writes, many Pokémon fans on Reddit have been left disappointed by the amount of plot points that have been left as loose ends.

“No Ho-Oh?” Slongo702 questioned, referencing the fact that many thought the legendary bird would feature in the final episode to tie into the series premiere all those years ago. “Or his dad. [Nor] a final battle between Ash's Gengar and a trainer with a Nidorino, would've been a solid bookend,” replied TheFalconKid.

Meanwhile, others are complaining that the finale didn’t really feel like the end: “It doesn’t really offer any sense of finality, it feels very much like the safe choice so that they can just go back to Ash if people don’t like the new series, and that’s a little boring to me. I think I would’ve liked to just see Ash fully retire honestly, like he has done everything at this point, what’s the point in continuing? Let the boy grow up,” LillePipp wrote. “Yeah this ending is extremely disappointing. I wanted to see a good send-off with them retiring. This just feels like an ending to a season, not the series,” agreed DarkTyranitar666.

Like it or not though, it’s over. Personally, I imagine that this won’t be the last we see of Ash - it’s probably only a matter of time before he makes an appearance in the upcoming new series, even if he's not the main character. It’ll be interesting to see how the series fares without him.