Pokémon anime

It took 19 years for Ash to make it into the finals of a league. Just remember that. If you told someone back in 1998 we wouldn't see Ash make it to the finals in the league until 19 years later, people would have laughed in your face and wondered how the anime wasn't canceled by then or that Ash is still around.

I still can't believe the anime has been going on nearly two decades all this time and it never was canceled or rebooted. Its one of the longest lasting shows in existence now even compared to a lot of other anime.

Wouldn't the finals in a league be against the Elite Four and Champion?

Nah, the Elite 4 is a totally separate challenge after the league is done. The winner of the league then goes on to face them.

To Yakuzu on the last page; no, Alain actually beat Malva. He is so far the only character in the entire series to have beaten an Elite Four member.

re: Rivals: I always thought that Sanpei would've been the first rival on Ash's hit parade in Round 2, followed by Tierno in Round 4, then Sawyer in the Quarters. At least I got the Finals right.

Also, I'd like to welcome Tierno to the firing line. (Also not pictured on the line: Iris and/or Burgundy.)

And, wait, Serena had to hold Ash back from a Challenge? Was it just a happenstance challenge or an insult? Because if it was the latter, then Ash is no longer Oblivious since taunts would not work on the Oblivious in Kalos.

edited 1st Jul '16 9:03:08 PM by DonaldthePotholer

Ash was almost late to registering and entering his first battle in the Kalos league because that trainer distracted him, similar to when Ash was late to his match with Richie in the Indigo league and almost got disqualified before he showed up.

Apparently the trainer was a guy who failed to get all 8 badges before the league started, so he was jealous and angry that Ash made it in. And...that's it. Kind of weird, but at least its realistic and shows how many trainers in the world even fail to get all 8 badges given there were only 64 competitors in the league. Proves that most trainers are actually failures in the pokemon world, lol.

Actually, that just indicates that most trainers are not as hardcore as the 64 who made it in. Only the best of the best get in the League. Though it does tell me that the 8 badges were originally made as a qualification registration to officially challenge the Elite Four and the Champion, not a registration for a tournament match.

edited 1st Jul '16 11:48:17 PM by Shadao

Only 64? That's as many as Sinnoh had once you exclude Preliminaries. So much for Ash having "declined" in Unova.^note The guy he lost to notwithstanding. Effectively, Ash has been constantly good for 5 wins, at least when not going up against a God-Mode Sue.

And I wanted there to be a scene where Trevor chided Tierno for voting for Serena over Shauna.

And if the writers wanted to convey that all performers were competing in the same class, I would not have called that Class "Rookie". That implies that there was a "Professional" Class for those who had previously competed in a Masters Showcase.

And Why did they call the round between Serena, Shauna, and Jessie a Semi-Finals? Did Alder win the Junior Cup? Did Tyson, Tobias, and Virgil only win the thirty-second-finals of their Respective Leagues? (having up to 5 matches left to go before actually being the Champion.)

And before I head off on vacation for the weekend, here's some potential cues that the Abridgers could use for these past 2 (dub) episodes. And yes, they have a common theme Barker's Beauties and Carey's Charmers, you have some competitoon:

• The start of the Showcase, i.e. 27 Names, not even half of which we know, Come On Down!!!!!!!!
• After the 2nd round, i.e. "Contestants not making it out of the first round will receive... Contestants not making it out of the second round will receive... And now, Monsiuer Pierre with our Showcase Showdown!"
  Did someone say Showcase Hoedown?
  Eggman: NO!
• After the Challenger's Finals
• And there are oodles of showcase themes for the Champion and the Challenger.

I think its more realistic that only 64 trainers get to enter the league and get all 8 badges. Gym leaders are supposed to be tough, not every 10 year old can beat all 8 Gym leaders and always make it. If all the Gym leaders were pushovers then trainers wouldn't be able to prove themselves ready for the league, etc.

A lot of people like to think otherwise, but Ash is probably one of the strongest young trainers in the world. He's won over 50 badges, the Battle Frontier, competed in tons of side tournaments/activities, and he's beaten legendaries in battle. Also aside from Tobias, all the previous league rivals Ash lost to he'd easily beat now given how much stronger he is and how much more pokemon he has.

Well, he did initially get those pity badges. He's come a long way since then, and you could argue if he didn't get those, he'd have never grown strong enough to start legitimately earning them as well.

If Ash went back and fought the Kanto Gym leaders now he'd cream them though, so it doesn't matter they were initially pity badges. I do have to admit I always wanted to see Ash Vs. Sabrina have a real match, since after Pikachu lost to Kadabra Ash never battled her again.

Also he was on the verge of beating Erika too before the fire got out of control, so he would have beaten her. And there's no doubt Ash can beat both Brock and Misty too.

This is true.

It's kinda like how we know Goku could beat Vegeta now, but he essentially lost the first time, he was completely annihilated (it's to forget that while he lost the overall battle, Vegeta actually won the one on one fight with Goku back then).

They two have never had a conclusive rematch though, which prevents the matter from being settled.

Damn, Hawlucha confirmed defeating Mega Absol (and from his pristine appearence as a very battered Mega Absol collapses, it doesn't even look close). The score from the Diancie movie is settled.

Really.

Guess type advantage can still trump anything.

Come to think of it, Ash has fought quite a few Megas at this point. He must have some experience dealing with them.

Though I'm not sure of any strategy that would help you against one really.

Most of the next episode will be about Tierno Vs. Shota, so Ash's match will probably be very brief or mostly glossed over again.

I guess the writers just don't want to take the time to show Ash beat random trainers at the league anymore in the early rounds. Strange because most of the past leagues showed full battles of him beating random nobodies in matches.

The only random League trainer I remember is the Bellsprout lady.

edited 2nd Jul '16 8:16:48 PM by lalalei2001

Well, she was awesome. You should remember her.

Jeanette! Jeanette! That girl was a surefire bet!

....man, that was so long ago.

Johto had that dude from the legend of Thunder special and his Meganium, and the crazy fire pokemon training girl with a crush on Ash.

Hoenn had the girl who actually switched pokemon mid battle to avoid being at a type disadvantage.

Sinnoh had creepy glasses dude who kept freaking out Dawn.

Unova had the idiot. his actual name is Cameron IDIOT, but that's neither here nor there.

What I mean is that Ash usually has two major rivals in the league, but he also battles a lot of random trainers before hand.

Indigo had Gary/Richie as the main rivals, but Ash didn't even battle Gary and he beat 4 random people in the fields beforehand.

Johto had Gary and Harrisson, but Ash battled Macy, the Meganium guy from the Raikou special, and a trainer with a Linoone.

Hoenn had Tyson/Morrison as the main rivals, but Ash also battled Katie and 2-3 random trainers in 2 on 2 battles.

Sinnoh showed him battle Nando, Conway, Paul and Tobias. Paul battled Barry.

Unova had him battle Stephen, etc.

The Kalos league on the other hand is just mostly glossing over Ash's early matches and only showing us brief snippets of it, where is the only full battles we'll get to see is his against Shota and most likely Alan.

Trying to show Ash's early matches where he could easily destroy them with Ash Greninja would be just filler by now. It's the equivalent of dedicating an entire episode to Tobias's final match in the Sinnoh League. As in it's a Foregone Conclusion.

You know, I'm starting to realize the Fridge Brilliance of Alain's character and how his character arc is foreshadowed by Florges. He is not simply just an taller and darker protagonist for the older audience, his journey being a Foil to Ash's. He is basically a dark mirror for Ash had he focused on battles and power instead of friendship and love with the people and Pokémon around him. He has been lost in Team Flare's darkness and it's up to Ash to guide him back to the true meaning of strength.

Have we actually heard anything about the Sun and Moon anime?

It's not just that kid was pissed.

Basically he tried hard but couldn't get 8 badges in time, so he was pissed. Then he saw Ash on TV being interviewed by Malva. He was kinda ticked off that a guy could easily declare stuff like that. So the shipping part is Serena pulling Ash because they'd be late for registration (comparison between Miette - Ash tried to resist Miette but he came with Serena with no problems while being pulled lol). She was also the one who told Ash to get ready for his fight later.

Anyway in the hallway towards his position in the match, he was blocked by the guy. He told him he doesn't believe his crap and believes badges are pointless. Obviously Ash creamed him (and he says "he promised someone to fight, he will fulfill it"). Guy cried, realizing how strong Ash was, and made him promise to fight for those who didn't earn all the badges.

Advertisements for the next saga anime usually don't start till after summer. They still have the Volcanion movie to promote so they won't show anything for the next saga yet.

I am very wary of the Sun/Moon anime being another BW-type reset. Just like how the end of DP had Ash at his strongest and people believed he would win a league, beat his most powerful rival Paul, and at the time Dawn was a co-star and got the most amount of focus for a female lead yet.

Now here we are in XY, Ash is at his strongest, he's going to go up against a powerful rival Alan, and Serena is promoted by the writers as a love interest for Ash. Gee, sound familiar?

The only way to go from here is down again. Unless the writers truly change things up, we'll be looking at another DP to BW like regression for the XY to Sun/Moon anime.

edited 3rd Jul '16 11:39:31 AM by precita

It's almost a shame so many people only really remember the Kanto saga of the show, because Ash in XY is everything OS Ash wasn't. He's confident without being arrogant, competent instead of lucky, far less impulsive and hotheaded.

This is Ash at his absolute best, and it would be tragic if he didn't win the League by now, because it would mean he never will. He has everything going his way at this point, and Alan is really the only other trainer at the League who can stop him.

It's actually weird going back and watching the the build up to the first League. Ash used to find every reason he could to justify slacking off from training.