The Pokémon Anime Has Set Ash Up To Take On Former Champions

Long time Pokémon series protagonist, Ash Ketchum, is either unimagineably powerful, or wildly incompetent and there is no in between. 

Those who have followed his adventures from the start may know that he hasn’t always been the most skilled battler though he has the power of anime logic on his side. Our hero has previously achieved the impossible, such as taking down Blaine’s Rhydon with a Thunderbolt by “aiming for the horn”, or receiving multiple gym badges just by being an all round solid guy, rather than actually beating gym leaders in battle. No matter how strong the power of anime is, he has still struggled when it comes to the big boys down at the Pokémon League.

If you want to see Ash’s one and only win at the Pokémon League, then you can watch the victory in the video below.



Ash has lost a staggering six times at various Pokémon Leagues, and often he doesn’t even get to take part in the final bout. Despite the fact that our hapless protagonist doesn’t have a grasp on super effective attacks, or that unevolved Pokémon aren’t all that great, it never seems to hold him back in regular matches. Yet once he’s in the League it’s more often than not game over for our boy.

His early losses at the Pokémon Leagues were frankly embarrassing. However, Ash has grown over the years; from losing Pokémon to a Butterfree using Sleep Powder, or a Meowth using Thunderbolt, to squaring up against legendaries and megas. Ash finally managed to take his first Championship win in his seventh League attempt, this time in the Alola region.

Recently, the anime has upped the stakes again by readying our boy to face some of the series' greatest ever trainers. He’s now reached the ninth ranked position in the World Coronation Series meaning that his next step is to face off against the top eight trainers of the master class. The top eight are indeed formidable, featuring other league champions such as Cynthia, champion of Sinnoh, and Lance, Johto’s champion trainer.

Our brave lad has definitely come a long way since he took down Brock’s Onix with a sprinkler system.