Pokémon is one of the most successful multimedia franchises in the world, consisting of video games, anime, anime movies, merchandise, and even live-action adaptations by Hollywood. The games and anime in particular are what many of us have grown up with, with the latter following the adventures of Ash Ketchum and his beloved Pikachu.
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Ash’s journey came to an end earlier this year with the anime deciding to retire the character and move on to new characters and stories. Except it seems that this might not actually be the case if the comments of the director of the series are anything to go by.
What did Pokémon’s director say about Ash returning?
During an interview with Japanese publication Otomedia, Pokémon anime director Kunihiko Yuyama said that “we might see Satoshi again somewhere in the future”. Satoshi is what Ash is called in the original Japanese anime. These comments were translated from Japanese into English by X (formerly Twitter) user DogasusBackpack, who also said that should Ash/Satoshi make a return, he will still be ten years old as the production team has decided not to age him.
This potential return is good news for those fans who were disappointed by Ash’s retirement from the series, but there were also fans who suspected that something like this would indeed happen. They often pointed to the fact that Pokémon who left Ash’s party of six, the maximum a trainer can carry at any point, made a return to the series, as did Ash’s traveling companions such as Brock, Misty, and Dawn, to name a few.
How did Ash’s journey end in the anime?
In the final episode of the miniseries, Pokémon: Aim to Be a Master, Ash returns to his home of Pallet Town in the aftermath of his triumphant victory in the Pokémon World Coronation Series. There are no flashbacks to Ash’s greatest, most grand moments, there are no drawn-out emotional farewells with either his Pokémon or his friends Brock and Misty or anything else of the sort. Instead, the episode is decidedly low-key, especially for a series finale for a long-running, highly popular anime.
There is a more contemplative side to the episode though, as after Ash’s first rival Gary congratulates him on his victory, he asks Ash if he has achieved his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master. This causes Ash to reflect on what being a it means to him, and he is caught up in a storm with Pikachu. As he takes cover under a tree, Ash decides that to him a Pokémon Master is someone who is a friend to all Pokémon in the world, and that’s a story that can never really end.
