EVERY Ash Ketchum Gym Battle Reviewed in 10 Words or Less 

I liked Kogas decision after Team Rocket were defeated. He was like I'm not making that mistake Misty's sisters and Erica did. Defeating Team Rocket doesn't earn you your badge. Defeating me does.

Honestly, Pikachu's face when Ash-sole was 'thinking' about his strategy was a perfect reflection of everyone watching that episode

Ash in Unova is the reason of everyone making fun of gen 5. If you play the games it’s a WHOLE other story

Ash might be an idiot in Unova, but he at least earned his badges, unlike 50% of his Kanto badges

I don't know if I can agree with putting Ash VS Brock on the worst list because, in my opinion, it was a perfect way to start the series with a protagonist like Ash. The thing I love about Ash, and the early episodes of Pokemon, is he is not your typical Shounen protagonist. He isn't some genius or prodigy who is immediately amazing at Pokemon; he is actually rather below average. The fact that battle was so quick is what makes it work so well for me. So many anime are desperate to show off the abilities of their protagonist they make the first few battles a complete cakewalk. The expectation for the viewer would have been to have Ash win the battle easily to show how amazing he is, and why we as the viewer should root for him. Not only did that not happen, but he lost so badly the match was over before it even began. Ash was extremely overconfident in the early episodes of Pokemon, and he needed this as a wake-up call. The Gym Leaders are some of the strongest trainers in the region, and he believed he would just walk in and win the battle with little effort. It would be like if I started playing Basketball for a week, and expected to go one-on-one with Seth Curry and win easily. It may not have been the most thrilling battle, but for what it was trying to get across, I think it did its job perfectly. Of course, that's just my opinion and I completely respect that you saw the match differently. Awesome video nonetheless, and I completely agree that Ash VS Elesa was the worst gym battle.

G-gym Battles? The ancient ceremonies from the before times!

Olympia was probably my favorite gym battle too, since it showed Ash’s strategic mind, using Olympia’s Future Sight against her.

“Yeah, Giovanni would’ve been too op for Ash.” I can agree with this. Because ironically Giovanni is the leader of TR and he may have been working on Mewtwo? I could be wrong

Don't forget that Ash vs. Maylene is the only time when a Gym battle has ended in a tie!

Ash didn't deserve half of his kanto badges He didnt fully beat brock and misty Rainbow badge was given to him for saving erika's gloom He didn't even battle sabrina And team rocket wasn't even the leader of viridian city gym His only true wins was against Lt. Surge Koga Blaine So it made sense that he lost the indigo league he didn't prove his skill as a trainer by beating the gym leaders

Holy Hell, I never knew Ash had to rematch so many Gym leaders... Welp, time to go back and watch the entire series from Kanto to Sinnoh.

DP: Pokemon trying to act like Dragon ball. XYZ: Pokemon trying to act like naruto.

So basically... Kanto: Sucked Johto: Decent Hoenn: Decent Sinnoh: Awesome Unova: I'm pretty sure we all know the deal with this one Kalos: F**KING AWESOME

The battle with Wulfric makes the one with Alian all the more aggravating.

My favorite is Wattson Literally how gym fights in the games go.

Kanto: Decent Johto: Good Hoenn: Great Sinnoh: Really Good Unova: .... Kalos: AWESOME! Alola: It’s alright Galar: Idk yet but ash looks great!

Sinnoh and Kalos had the best battles :v And Unova... Wanna a Cookie? 😅

It would've been easier if Team Rocket didn't interrupt the battle

Glad to see some love for Olympia. That was probably my favorite gym battle as well. It had everything. Great action, actual strategy and stunning visuals.

"He wins this battle in the end though, but at what cost? MY SANITY?" I laughed so hard

Lets pretend that unova was filler

Huh....who knew one of the most forgettable Gym Leaders in the actual games had one of the most stunning gym battles in the XY anime? I might need to catch up one of these days.

Completely agree with the #1 spots. Ash’s battle with Olympia is incredible thanks to all the visuals, awesome strategy, and choreography. Ash’s battle with Elesa just sucked. Should have been a fun Volt Switch chaos battle, but we got poor planning, weak action, and a Tynamo with Tackle...

Everytime I see the second Brock fight I just think "so that is where they got the idea for the move soak".

2:59-a realistic gym battle

Now we need EVERY Ash Ketchum League Battle Reviewed in 10 Words or Less

fun fact, ash vs roxie was the last time (as of now) that pikachu ever activated his static ability

My worst one is Skyla, AQUA RING FULLY BLOCKS ELECTRIC ATTACKS WTF?! and Elesa. And I think the first Viola battle is worse than Cress'. At least he had a (pretty unorthodox) anti Electric type strategy, Viola just defeats Pikachu with Surskit, a little Surskit...

Kanto and Unova had the worst league battles in my opinion, based on how dumb ash was (aim for the horn, i only bought Palpitoad, Emolga's a flying type!?) team rocket's interference in gym battles (why he got a badge in cerulean and celadon) Kalos was certainly his best thanks to animation and writing

A really well made video. I liked the voices you occasionally did, haha. I'm super glad the Skyla gym battle got a good score, because that is my favourite gym battle to date. xD

It interesting to see your thought on your these battles

Excellent list, Funny edits and all around Awesome Video!

It's literally crazy thinking about how much time it took for you to make this video. 10/10 - subbed.

Snivy imo was at least somewhat excusable. It can't use any of its electric-moves. Naturally, that would throw someone off. But yeah, the Gym battles in BW didn't really give me a lot of hope. (Really, BW killed the anime for me until XYZ. And people say SM is the worst....)

Awesome! Glad to see you're finally doing this one

I tend to give Erika’s Battle and the giving Ash a badge a pass because... I mean, he saved her star Pokémon’s life at risk of his own. That seems badge worthy

I loved the Clement battle so much because it was amazing seeing such an epic rematch of their first battle in the first episode

The battle between Ash and Maylene will always have a special place in my heart because that was my first experience with Pokemon. Seeing the battle between Buizel and Lucario is a big reason why Buizel is my favorite Pokemon and Lucario is my second favorite. This one battle introduced me to one of my favorite game series. P.S. The reason not enough people talk about Pikachu losing to Panpour is that it is so dumb that most people erase that moment from their memory or they refuse to acknowledge it.

Nice new intro Zac! Love it! Also great video! I agree with almost everything you just said!

I'm calling Ash vs Elesa as 1/10 EDIT: Called it, thought that probably wasn't hard.

The battle with Skyla is definitely an underated one. For one, it is Ash that shows some competence to the gym leader (not in the match itself, but because he is determined to face her head on when she doesn't want to) and we have payoff to her kicking Cilan's butt (which is not that big of an accomplishment to defeat him if you ask me). For a rare instance it is the gym leader who needs to learn how to enjoy Pokémon battles, because with the help of Flint, Volkner stops giving away the badges to anyone who knocks... Wait. Anyway, it almost makes up for the battles with Elesa and Lenora sucking. Also, why would Roxie heal Pignite's poisoning in the MIDDLE OF A FRIGGING BATTLE!!! Aren't you supposed to push every trainer to his limit? He even has the option to use a full party, which removes all the strategy that a 3-on-3 battle could have brought. Even if the action was good, I can't look past that.

"People say I'm too harsh on the Black/White anime, but it does it to itself, man." That is nothing but facts. I tried a fresh watch of BW to give it a second chance after bad first impressions. It was every bit of deserving of scorn as its reputation implies. Sure, it has some good aspects, but Ash's handling is absolutely abysmal. It's downright painful to watch. Otherwise, great video, man!

Actually we did have two gym battles in sun and moon with Kiawe vs Brock and Ash vs Misty

In the Japanese version, Ash didn't say anything about the horn. Pikachu came up with the idea by himself.

Bruh the Sinnoh battles are probably the most memorable in my opinion, but the Khalos battles look incredible

Ash vs Clemont is on my list of my top five XY gym battles in my top 5 Pokemon XY gym battles video on my list.

everybody talks about how ash lost to a snivy because thats where they dropped the series. I didn't even know he fought panpour with pikachu -_-

Zac: pokeshipping saves the day as it should Also Zac: Amourshipping saves the day as it should Me: *visible confusion at both*

This was uploaded on my birthday. Thank you for this birthday present.

2:34 That's totally what I thought when I watched that episode years back xD

You are so close to 100 thousand! You got this.

3:36 Alternate review: Yes Master. (Since it was Hypnosis that was used to beat Ash)

I really need to watch the full Sinnoh series, I keep seeing great moments from it (like the Roark battle) and the animation actually seems rather neat considering it's the old pre-Kalos style without the pretty backgrounds. Is there a source for the instrumental version of Mad-Paced Getter used in the explanation of Ash vs. Clemont? The link doesn't seem to be in the description.

I’m honestly surprised the Ash vs Wulfric rematch wasn’t in the top 5. Also, no surprise that the gym battles in the bottom 5 are from Gen 1 and 5

props for giving jello apocalypse credit in your video. you earned a fan for integrity.

Nice video idea! now you could do this with every ash's pokemon league battle :)

So, even Gen 1 of the Anime was janky and they didn't quite know what they were doing.

Another description for Ash vs. Elesa: *This scars my soul*

This video is littrely Awesome And I loved the Silly Ash can't break Trick Room

7:04 Charizard toggles rap music that I actually love.

My favorite recaps were “I like turtles,” “I LOVE DEFENSE!!!!!”, and “Ash is dumb.”

Yeah looking back at Ash's track record against all the gym battles, some were decent, some were bad, and a few were good. Plus some of the ways he won/loss was kinda ridiculous.

The video is just PERFECT!!!!👍

Understandable and awesome.

You should do Top 10 theme songs. I’d love to watch that!

Yeah Indigo Gym Battles wasn’t the best expect for the fire one So far it seems to you that XY has the better overall Gym Battle I don’t blame you 👍

You should review Ash's rival battles! Awesome video btw 😍

Well, now I have to go rewatch these battles!

I'm glad my first Pokemon anime was DP. It was so amazing! Sinnoh will be forever my favourite region. Pokemons, characters and battles were the best

3:14 Tate and Liza reaction kills me lmao

The gymbattle against Eliza was actually the first episode of Pokémon that i ever watched. Sad life.

Honestly one of my least favorites gym battles is ash VS viola in Kalos. The reason why i hate it is because Ash's Pikachu loses to a f*cking Surskit! A water type! Like siriously, BW is so hated because Ash's Pikachu lost to a water type panpour in the first gym. But in XY, literally the same thing happens, which is f**cking stupid

Watching Tynamo zip around like a bullet or jet was pretty fun to watch especially once you realize just how crap its speed is. I find it funny how the anime likes to take Pokemon that are pretty slow and make them super fast, ie Scizor.

I never knew Elesa had short hair. I missed that battle, and never saw her back in the game, honest.

Great video Zac, this was cool. I agree with a lot you said, Sinnoh and Kalos had epic gym battles, while Unova not so much. Stay awesome dude and hoping to see the Johto League review soon.

maybe Ash lost to the water guy since the water guy used Mud Sport, maybe idk just a little thought

2:18 this is everybody's reaction to Whitney's Miltank

Pokémon XY and XYZ were the best seasons. Change my mind.

*flame burns faster then hecc* Pikachu: waters flower Me: OH MY GOD THATS SO CUTE

Man I need to watch these fights

i started to laugh uncontrollably when you said *ash vs elesa* just because of the change in tone.

11:07 A CINEMATIC MASTER PIECE. Thats all i had to say ʕ•ε•ʔ

9:54 your body when you have a shot for the first time

nice work

And yes Ash vs the Lucario gym in Sinnoh was when it was Anime'd out

"Too hard on the Black & White anime." No such thing friendo, that series deserves every bit of criticism it receives.

This was pretty cool. Although, if you were going to bother including the Orange League battles, I wish you had also included the Battle Frontier battles. There was some great stuff in that season, especially the third and final battle against Brandon! (The Kahuna battles could've been included, too, for that matter.)

This is a great video. How about every contest by May and Dawn in 10 words or less.

2:52 Ever wonder where' ash's amazing philosphy that doing anything (the fun unimportant technically fillerish actives) counts as some kind of training. Which was showcased amazing during summer camp episodes when serena asks ash why. This guy right here is the answer. It one reasons why i believe in sun & moon ash is so care free and plays alot more which to most is "filler". He doesn't stop training after training he continues it in different ways to refrain skills and strageties no matter the mundane activity. At least this is depth I took for it.

How did I find unova good as a 7 year old...

Great Vid!

Welp. This gives me an excuse to gush over how I decided to test the anime Gym Battles in game terms via Pokémon Showdown. Kanto: vs Brock I: Turns out that Ash could’ve won this by game of attrition (assuming Red/Blue!Brock team) if he were anything like he is in XY/XYZ/Sun & Moon. Spam Sand Attack with Pidgeotto, spam Growl and Tail Whip with Pikachu, do chip damage with Quick Attack from both. And I pulled this off with Pidgey instead of Pidgeotto because Custom Game wasn’t a thing yet. vs Brock II/vs Brock III: both skipped because I actually won the first round vs Misty: So I gave Misty her moves from Yellow, and free switch-out privileges. Evidently, Starmie is the true menace mostly from its bulk. Play smart with Butterfree’s status spread and Pidgeotto’s Sand Attack, and you’ll handily take the fight with the latter’s Wing Attack. vs Surge I: Your review say it all. Pikachu stood no chance. vs Surge II: I had to play fast, loose, and cheap to actually get a legit win on this. As it happens, both of Ash’s fights with Surge had Pikachu trying and epically failing to nail Raichu with a flying tackle. I just connected those fail moments to Pikachu having Slam as an attack. Happened to be JUST the good-enough damage deal to make the fight winnable. vs Sabrina I: Mixed things up a bit and made this battle a pure Pikachu vs Kadabra 1v1. Thunder kept failing to paralyze while Kadabra kept casually two-shotting worst-case. vs Sabrina III: That’s right, third battle. Recall that Ash challenged Sabrina formally, and ran away when Haunted bailed after the challenge was officiated. Anyways, the fight was inverted so that it’s Ash and Pikachu vs Abra and Kadabra (who have their levels and moves from Yellow version). Let Pikachu wear down Abra, have Haunter Hynosis and Dream Eater Abra to oblivion, and pretend that Haunter’s bomb-based joke was Self-Destruct to OHKO Kadabra. vs Erika: Went in a bit underleveled probably but I sent in Pikachu (after Bulbasaur) to paralyze Tangela, switched to Charmander to dispose of both Tangela and Weepinbell, and then winged it against Gloom. vs Koga (composite): I ramped up the challenge on this one by counting Venonat and Venomoth as separate Pokémon and treating Golbat as the one Koga had in Adventures. Fighting this three mon gauntlet with just Pidgeotto and Charmander was overkill, but it was doable if the Venonat and Venomoth are both beaten before Ash loses either of his mons. vs Blaine (composite): I counted both halves of this fight as a single battle and handicapped Ash by only letting him use Charizard if both Squirtle and Pikachu were down and out (I also dabbled with letting Blaine have free switches, but that was too much power for him to have). As it turned out, Pikachu did decent at softening up Ninetales for Squirtle, Squirtle demolishes Rhydon, and Charizard can actually take on all three consecutively with really good luck. That said, all he really needs is three Seismic Tosses on Magmar. vs Team Rocket: Leveled a bit too low for this fight and gave Jessie free switches. Anyways, Bulbasaur with Sleep Powder was a godsend for this fight given how behind the curve Squirtle would have to be by level. Though, again, I had to do this pre-Custom Game, so the difficulty was ramped way back up by the Sleep Clause. All the same Bulbasaur did its job against Rhydon and Kingler (barely) while Pideotto was there for Machamp. Johto: vs Falkner: I handicapped Ash by cutting Chikorita from his team outright. That said, Falkner was pretty much boned. Set up one Agility on Pikachu, do big damage on Hoothoot and Dodrio with Thunder, have Charizard mop up what’s left. vs Bugsy: Gave Ash the handicap of not letting Cyndaquil use Fire moves until it last five full turns in the battle and scaled down the moves on both Cyndaquil and Pikachu to be more level-appropriate (so Ember and ThunderShock instead of Flamethrower and Thunderbolt/Thunder). Pikachu ended up being a much better player against Scyther than Cyndaquil would’ve been; a lucky paralyze goes a long way. vs Whitney I: Cleffa was a pushover, Nidorina proved pretty tanky but not very potent, and Miltank (blessed with her Gold/Silver/Crystal moves) was a chore to deal with. That said, Totodile’s Scary Face neutered Miltank’s Speed, Cyndaquil lucked out with Smokescreen and a lucky Flame Wheel (it’s a token upgrade, Flamethrower finally comes back after this Gym) burn cripples her offense in turn, and Pikachu mopped up after with Thunderbolts. vs Whitney II: I ramped up Miltank’s levels and decided to give the rematch a go despite overcoming the proper Gym match. The outcome was pretty much the same. vs Morty: Frankly, Noctowl was more than enough on its own. Moreso after Gastly’s defeat levels Noctowl up enough to score Confusion. Morty’s offense is all Ghost moves, Ghost moves do nothing to Normal types, Noctowl is Normal. The math doesn’t lie. Also, Pikachu and Cyndaquil can finally use their signature moves again. vs Chuck: This fight can honestly go either way, though getting a lucky Paralysis (easier done than said since Pikachu has Thunder and Bayleef has Body Slam) pretty much spells insta-win for Ash. vs Jasmine: Cyndaquil solos. I also replaced Pikachu’s Thunder with Double-Edge for this fight so that he could actually pretend to hurt Steelix. vs Pryce I: You forgot that Phanpy vs Dewgong was a thing. Don’t worry so did I. There want much point to bothering either. Dewgong OHKOs with Ice Beam. vs Pryce II: For the fight proper, I switched from Cyndaquil to Pikachu and cleaned house with the Dewgong. Then after Pikachu (still rocking the Double-Edge from before) fails hardcore against Piloswine, Cyndaquil avenges Pikachu’s fight for the win. vs Clair I: Winning this fight is plenty doable. It’s just also a remarkable pain in the butt. Land Hypnosis with Noctowl (you only get one shot, it can only take two hits), switch to Bayleef (I’m assuming she was Ash’s third) and go ham on the offense against Kingdra (use Razor Leaf until it wakes up, then stick with Body Slam spam), put up Pikachu against Gyarados and land two Thunderbolts (Thunder, yes it’s back, won’t OHKO), and then straight-up pray that the tired and beaten party has just enough to finally take out Dragonair. But that requires supernatural luck. vs Clair II: Snorlax owns. End of story. [will return with my findings for Hoenn onward]

The worst thing about black and white anime that the games where so amazing and I wish the anime was better

The best fights are when they pull out the "Naruto OP animation" and go hard with the visuals

Olympia really did have the best gym battle because that ending part when Frogadier was paralyzed and surviving the dark Pulse (or whatever move it's called) with the water pulse was just Epic

7:04 I don’t know why I found this so funny but it made me laugh a lot

All the gen 1 gym battles were awful and the nimbasa gym in gen 5 as well clemont vs ash and wulfric vs ash were awesome i really enjoyed the buizel vs lucario in gen 4 as well.

Ash's battle against elesa was stupid yes, but I actually enjoyed the last fight between Pikachu and that fish looking thing(forgot it's name😂). Also, the battle between Pikachu/swellow Vs solrock/ lunatone was rly epic imo. Now you could say that the strategy was had, but it was rly cool to see as a kid.

This is a good video and can you do a review on All Ash's Battle Frontier battles and do a Review for All Ash's Grand Trials when the Ponie Island Arc is over.

Issue with Unova was they had a plan. Then a plot important episode had to be pulled, forcing them to have to rewrite everything, because the episode had an earthquake in it and Japan was just hit with a nasty one. So everything after that point was a mad scramble to salvage *something*, and it shows