That part about not being a local champion reminded me of professional fighting game players talking about people who are the best players in their city talking big game only to get destroyed by world champions. Some people really can’t handle being humbled, and I don’t blame them since that shit hurts. Staying in the well may be boring but it’s definitely a lot easier.
Exactly why Ash was always my idol growing up he’s wasn’t the brightest or strongest , he was a kid who was realizing there’s he’s farther away from his dream than he thinks he is , and the show writers gives him a lot of humble moments that the fans call “nerfin’ “ but nah that’s not the point Ash isn’t a OP protag
The gripe I have with comparing Ash with Red is that, there’s not real cannon journey of Red since we as the players controlled him so ig that’s why a lot of people hype red up instead of Ash but there’s no character or progression since red was the link for us to get into the Pokémon world Red was us so and the games n the anime moves on different logic so expectin ash to battle like Red just couldn’t function Red can evolve a bulbasaur and it be stronger but ash can evolve his bulbasaur and it be slower and become easier to hit just like what happened when he evolved turtwig back in sinnoh
i wont even lie this video gave me a whole new perspective on the pokemon anime. i might just start watching again to look for themes like this further
i think its funny how Goku started as a character who always lost except when the world depended on it, and now he just never loses except to people he beats right after
late, goku still always loses a lot of fights, he does save the world but not him alone, in dragon ball super he lost against beerus and beerus decided to not blow up the planet, he lost to hit in that small tournament, he lost to goku black and zamasu, zeno had to come in and destroy the entire universe, he lost against jiren and needed freeza and android 17 to win
I think Pokemon is a great example of what I want in any fantasy media. Popular fantasy loves to focus on massive world-ending life or death battles for the fate of everything. I don't care I like seeing intricate worlds where people are just living interesting lives in a place wildly different than what I know. Pokemon has always felt like a full world, partially because there's a ton of Japanese influence which I was not familiar with as a child, but also because we aren't seeing Ash saving the universe, just going from town to town meeting people that are often more interesting than he is. I do wish the pokemon franchise would invest more in perspectives outside of Ash and Pikachu. I would love just seeing any random genre as long as it took place in the pokemon universe.
Ash is so much more mellow and open to criticism and advice now than he was at the start. He's become like a sponge just wandering around and taking in everything around him.
2:26 This is sooooooo true about XY (even the part about the girl character who only exists to check on the guy, or at least until they bothered to write her a storyline 40 episodes in smh). I really like your analysis because it helps me recontextualize my mixed feelings about that series. Even though it has those more classic shonen tropes (that are the reason I normally prefer pokemon over other shonen, because it doesn't have those), it's all a stepping stone in his journey. Sun and Moon is my favorite series, and all of the things Ash did differently in that show, like settling down and making connections to the place he was in, wouldn't have been as satisfying without the fast pace of XY before it. The grass gym leader in Kalos teaches him that lesson and by the time he gets to Alola and is able to actually apply it to his life, it directly leads him to becoming champion. He evens gives that monologue to Pikachu at the end about feeling the power of Alola while they're fighting Tapu Koko, it brings the message of that particular series full circle, along with connecting with the spirit of the show as a whole. I also really like how you pulled from the I Choose You movie. I have mixed feelings about that project too, but I like how it sort of re-centers the "point" of the anime's story, and that alternate reality scene is a big part of that. Glad I could enjoy this essay, hopefully it doesn't get sniped out of existence so more fans can watch it
XY has great battles. But, it's an Ash Ketchum power fantasy. He straight up dresses like Red in it too. Serena, Clemont, Bonnie, Sawyer and even Alain all just exist to make Ash look cooler.
@@TheStorytellerAJ it really is! And it's refreshing to see you explain why it feels so different from the rest of the show, because I find most fans hold XY in really high regard compared to the other seasons. Ash doesn't work as an overpowered, overly serious shonen protagonist. He's a dumb, goofy kid experiencing this cool world for the first time, and making friends who are more his equals/companions, not his adoring fans
@@TheStorytellerAJ but that was kinda necessary imo after what they did to him in unova. It wouldn't seem so stark if they stayed on course after Sinnoh
Ash is Goku from early Dragon Ball. A Headstrong, young adventurer with lots of potential who goes from town to town fixing problems while only learning his lessons after big losses and through the words of his friends. Main character slowly becomes less naive of the world and comes to value it after initially only staying in his small home his life and will do what he needs to protect those around him. It is the reason I feel OG Dragon Ball has more appeal than Z and is part of the appeal of Pokemon as a series. The journey and growth of these characters is the goal more than anything.
When people are praising Red and downplaying Ash, I feel like they're typically talking about Red from the Pokémon Adventures manga (who's pretty dope btw), and not really Red from Pokémon Origins. At least, I hope not, because Red from Pokémon Origins is boring as dirt.
I think usually when people are talking about him they're talking about him they're talking about how he was in Pokemon Red and Blue and his return in Pokemon Gold. I'm not as big of a Pokemon fan as I was when I was twelve but I think that few Pokemon fans have seen Pokemon Origins and even fewer have read Pokemon Adventures. The reason that most people latched onto reds character was because he was the closest thing to that "Lone wolf badass of few words." That Pokemon had and gamefreak decided to actually make him that in Pokemon Gold.
My favorite thing about Pokémon was always jessie James and meowth(that's right) what a silly group of barely threatening dorks, who can be really good people when it counts
Man I just moved out of my parents house and have been a wreck because this 1st week has been so stressful. This vid could not have come at a better time for me. Thank you🙏🏽
I was 10 when gen1 came out & no one took Ash seriously. It was a weird audience to character dynamic, with the viewers knowing exponentially more then the character about the world. The was incredibly frustrating to watch characters failing over very basic things. I don't think Pokémon ever had a good balance of Ash's character flaws, ether he's too dumb & wins by default or he has writer clairvoyance with plot armor. I check in with the modern shows every now & then, but it's kind of creepy to see Ash who's been batting Pokémon for years fighting with only noob trainers. Why does Ash never run into other trainers who feel like they've had the same journey as him, that & others things make the world feel small to me.
That's my biggest issue with it. Even if you could justify him being a complete fucking idiot for a couple seasons or regions, he should be better than he is after this many experiences of being shoved around and pushed down. But he just keeps getting "humbled" and doesnt take anything away from it. Dude's met so many people with so many perspectives and has been through so many hardships and he still walks out of it barely even reflecting on it. Dudes like a wet, rubber wall. Nothing sticks.
@@Dogan_TM Making a character who's constantly growing for an indefinite amount of time is extremely hard to write. I'd say they should make Ash's education on a 4 to 5 season loop, few people will abled to spot it happening.
Ash literally beat like regional champions in the past year or so, wya. He beat the Unova Champion recently in the World Championship and even went undefeated in the World Championship. He's improved dramatically.
@@TheStorytellerAJ I haven't watched any of the recent seasons, I stopped checking in after X&Y, after I got the feeling the franchise has no incentive to go anywhere. I'm Ok with Ash not Pwning all in his path & that victory isn't assured, although I remembered Pokémon Deus ex machina both Ash's wins & loses, neither felt satisfying. There is a narrative reason why Ash lost all the major battles for so long, it feels like the show has nowhere let to go & when Ash started winning lines ups when I stopped entirely. Maybe the best kind of victories for a show like this is 1976 Rocky style. Of course this talking like the writing isn't slapped together like it is, I would think shorter meaningful successes in the narrative is better in this style of show, & to me that means not forgetting fire is weak to water for the 100th time, if that's the person who's winning the world cup then it was never worth winning. The protagonist isn't really the problem is that the issue.
@@TheStorytellerAJ without even seeing those battles I can almost guarantee whatever way he went about winning them are contrived and have barely anything to do with his ability to battle competently. I genuinely doubt whatever way they decided to give him a win came off as justified when paired with his battle skill throughout whatever he was doing throughout whatever season he had this mystical win streak in.
This is hands down the best analysis of Pokemon I've seen yet, and it explained to me what I couldn't find the words for over why I love this anime, but struggle to keep up with others. Ash might not be the brightest, but he doesn't need to be. He's learning every day about the world around him, and that's all that matters. Well done!!
Really enjoyable, there's definitely some power fantasy in there as well as audience surrogate. I think it leans more into sports manga tropes if anything, where wins and losses go hand in hand.
This has to be one of my favourite videos about the Pokemon anime, first off the editing's super on point but I just really love the point made about the core point of the series that's so often missed in discussion about this show, especially how you managed to tie the interview with Gou into it, it's actually interesting how they call Satoshi the turtle to Gou's frog even though that's always been his role, I wonder if the end of Journeys will once again reinforce his desire to be a frog if he parts with Gou and heads to the gen 9 region alone or something. (of course Satoshi's still a bit of a frog himself in JN but the point is it's narratively less emphasized through him currently)
More of a Digimon guy even then I backed away after Frontier ended. I never really got into pokemon because the idea of capturing wild creatures, removing them from their natural habitat and forcing them to fight each never really clicked with me in my teenage years still doesn't now. To each his own though my brother is probably going to love this video.
While the idea of domestication being promoted in Pokemon might deter you, it's not like they're forced to fight all the time. They're mostly kept as pets and/or studied without harming them. Even when they do fight, no one gets any permanent wounds, and the worst that happens is fainting or exhaustion. If you're really concerned about wild creatures being subservient to humans, I'd recommend watching Digimon Savers/Data Squad. I know you backed out after Frontier, but Savers has the main protagonist fighting alongside his Digimon as a major part of the show.
Ash showed that there may be times when you might be deserving to come out on top, but still come up short. That's okay. Reflect on things, and keep moving forward on your life journey.
Frieza was actually the only main villian Goku beat by himself. Vegeta, Buu and Jiren was a team effort, while he lost to Cell, Beerus, Hit and Zamasu.
An amazing essay! I'm a huge fan of Red, but your feelings are entirely justified by the fact that he was never meant to be a complete character, anyway. Like much of Kanto's cast, in adapting the anime, vast changes were required for there to be truly memorable faces we could follow. Brock, Misty, and perhaps Nurse Joy exemplify this completely. If you're looking for deeper characterization, I'm sure the manga has what you're looking for. Now, while no definitive explanations have been given as to why Red's characterization is limited to silence, (beyond the cheeky connection to video game tropes) we can infer from Origins that it's tied to his affinity for battle. As he states there, his name represents the passion of a hot fire. In the few sequels where players may encounter Red, it's likely that passion befitting his name only blazes when it needs to: where the intensity of being a trainer is at its height. Otherwise, he is silent, awaiting the next moment to set his flame alight. Red can't be "someone," because who he always was, was the person players made him: a champion. He has nothing more to say, since that was our place in guiding his journey, but he does have plenty to show for in the way of a heated battle, following anyone else's!
So yea I'm gonna feel hella guilty asking this unrelated question since your video's content was well done and interesting, but I gotta ask what remix version of Panda is playing during 0:45-0:55? Keep up the great work man.
I was always a firm believer that Red was pretty overhyped and I never really found Ash all that engaging personally either as a protagonist, but the way you framed this definitely gives me another perspective on the anime now. Makes the whole "They should replace Ash with Red" arguments I usually see not all that appealing to me anymore, or how people say Ash's old companions were "ungrateful" 😂. Might just give it a rewatch one of these days. Also what's the song called at around 1:45? It's a remix of something I know, but I can't remember the name for the life of me lmao.
I remember when I decided to re-read the original run of Adventures and realized people were lying about how powerful Red had always been in the manga. He was just clever and trusted his Pokémon. He won battles specifically because he was never trying to be the best. He was trying to be the best him he could be with his team.
I'm saddened that DMCA BS has forced you to edit your production simply because you're having to work against the algorithm. I am happy to see your take on Pokemon though, it's a nice reminder that you're not a Brand.
I really hate that episode where he loses the indigo league match. Oak and misty arent wrong per se...ash did have weaknesses as a trainer and relied on some luck...but to say he lost that match because of his inexperience is just false. He was clearly sabatoged and didnt have access to healthy pokemon...that's not his fault. It would've been better to have him lose in the preliminary rounds and watch Gary succeed...that would've pushed the message better
I had stopped watching pokemon right after Jhoto and was kinda keeping up a little bit with the anime since I still played the games. I know he was getting progressively stronger, but then he goes over to Unova and his level 100 Pikachu loses to a level 5 Snivy? You can't defend that. But yeah man, makes me look at Ash a whole new way.
I'm sorry but I hate when people bring up the whole Lv 100 Pikachu lost to a Lv 5 Snivy thing because it ignores context of what ACTUAL happened. Zekrom drained Pikachu's electricity and unknowingly weakened him physically prior to the fight with Snivy. Pikachu's attempts at using his electric attacks in the fight quickly weakened him and he was extremely exhausted from the lack of electricity.
Wait, did you finish Tournament of Power? 'Cause *spoilers* Goku technically lost. He and Frieza had to team up to take Jiran out, leaving Android 17 as the winner. Overall, as much as I love this take on Pokemon, I don't agree with the generalization of other Shonen as merely power fantasies. It's a take that gives me heavy "not like other girls" vibes. Right off my mind, another "there's a bigger world out there, go check it out" feel comes from Hunter x Hunter. Gon doesn't always win at everything, and each adventure he goes on takes him further away from his tiny island and into bigger and wilder worlds. There are all kinds of Shonen, with all sorts of storytelling methods. I know it's me being nitpicky. Just rubs me the wrong way whenever folks're like: "this person/thing I like is awesome because it's not like all those *other* things." Both when it comes to art and people.
As a kid I did always feel like I was being forced to like Grey red or that other guy (if there was one.) Cool side stories and all but they have no depth lmao.
