That’s right ladies and gentlemen. The Character Salute posts are back. At least they’re for the moment anyway. They probably won’t be weekly or biweekly as they once were. I sort of have a few other things that I have to put my energy into at the moment. So for now I’m just going to do these posts when I feel like it. And with this weekend coming to an end, I feel that it’s finally time for me to cover a character that I’ve long needed to do a post on. For today’s Character Salute, I will be covering the very hero of the Pokemon anime series, Ash Ketchum.
I’m sure many of us older fans of the Pokemon franchise remember the very first episode when Ash started his Pokemon journey with Pikachu. He had a lot of potential back then, as did the anime series itself. Sure Ash was a little bit dense, but then the same can be said for a lot of anime protagonists like Dragon Ball Z’s Goku and Yu-Gi-Oh! GX’s Jaden Yuki. There was a lot that could’ve been done with Ash’s character. For one thing there was his relationship with Misty. And of course his mysterious connection to the Legendary Pokemon, Ho-Oh. Yet sadly, none of that potential went anywhere. But I am getting a little ahead of myself.
In the Games: In truth, Ash is pretty much a character original to the anime. But he is based on a very important character from the Pokemon Games. I speak of course of the original hero character known commonly as Red. In the original Pokemon Red and Blue games (or rather Red and Green games), Red was the character that more or less acted as the player’s avatar. He did return in Gold, Silver, and Crystal as an NPC who was the most powerful trainer in the game. His team in those games seemed somewhat influenced by Ash’s team though, with his most powerful Pokemon being a Pikachu. Aside from the games, Red has also played major roles in the Pokemon Adventures manga and rather disappointing Pokemon: The Origin anime special.
Decline: As I said earlier, Ash had a lot of potential in the beginning. But that potential was pretty much wasted. His relationship with Misty sadly never went anywhere due to Misty being written out of the show. Not only that, Ash’s connection to Ho-Oh was never explored, and was pretty much forgotten about as the anime progressed. Ash did rebound a little bit when it was revealed he had the ability to use Aura, which is the Pokemon franchise’s equivalent of the Force from Star Wars. But that too was never explored and pretty forgotten about, just like Ash’s connection to Ho-Oh.
The bottom line is that Ash’s character development was pretty much stunted. And by the time the Black and White anime began, he was pretty much just a pathetic shadow of the character he once was, just an annoying kid with a Homer Simpson level IQ. The way I see it, the anime should’ve done one of two things. The first is they could’ve shown Ash visibly age. I mean hey, it worked with Dragon Ball Z with Goku. The second is they could’ve come up with some sort of series finale for Ash, maybe something involving Ho-Oh. Then they could’ve continued things with different protagonists. For instance the Hoenn Saga could’ve been done with May and another character, or the Sinnoh Saga could’ve been done with Dawn and another character. And in both sagas Ash could’ve been referenced as some sort of legendary figure.
In the end, Ash was a great character once, but now he’s pretty much nothing. Sadly, he’s become one of the reasons why the current anime is all but unwatchable. So let us remember Ash for the character he was and what he could’ve been, and not as the sad creature he has become, like the character in this comic I found and posted awhile back. That wraps it up for this post. Thanks for reading. And now to end this post, here's Motzart's Requiem.
