Pokemon series says goodbye to Ash Ketchum

The Pokemon animated series will say goodbye to Ash Ketchum after 25 years, with the series focusing on a new protagonist in its next season

The Pokemon Company has announced that Ash Ketchum will no longer be a part of the Pokemon animated series starting from the show’s next season.

In recent episodes of the animated series that aired in Japan, Ash became the strongest Pokemon trainer in the world, leaving little elsewhere for the character to go in his journey to become a Pokemon master.

A new trailer released today confirms that, soon, one final miniseries will air, with eleven episodes bringing a close to Ash and Pikachu’s storyline. A press release provided by The Pokemon Company has said that the episodes will feature “fan-favourite Pokemon and characters, including Misty and Brock,” and that they’ll provide a glimpse at what will happen next for Ash and Pikachu.

One thing’s for sure, though, they won’t be the focus of the next major season of the animated series. Instead, the series will introduce two new protagonists, Liko and Roy, who’ll seemingly have a Sprigatito and a Fuecoco, respectively.

The next season of the Pokemon animated series will focus on two new protagonists, Liko and Roy. Picture: The Pokemon Company

Ash Ketchum and his trusty partner Pokemon Pikachu have been a mainstay of the animated series since it first premiered in Japan in 1997. The two of them have travelled to over eight different regions in the Pokemon world, defeated dozens of gym leaders, and competed in countless competitions and tournaments.

The new series will focus on Liko and Roy as they journey through the Paldea region, which was the region introduced in the recent Pokemon games, Scarlet and Violet. It’s unknown if these new protagonists will stick around beyond the next season, or if future seasons and regions in the show will feature new lead characters too.

The Pokemon franchise has had a bit of a rocky time lately, with the latest games being the lowest-rated ever. While the games still hold a fairly respectable score of 72/100 on score aggregator website Metacritic, that does make them the worst-reviewed games in the series’ history.

Part of that is because the new Pokemon games arrived “buggy and broken” when they were released last month. Players complained about a huge amount of bugs, performance issues, and broken features.

Nintendo has promised to fix the new Pokemon games, however, in a statement made in an update early this month. The company said that it is taking feedback from players seriously, and that it will continue to work on improving the games going forward.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.