Pokemon Anime Writer Wanted to Make Major Change to Ash’s Character
The original head writer of the Pokemon anime wanted to avoid an infamous, perpetual quality that’s currently plaguing Ash’s character.
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The Pokemon anime has forced Ash Ketchum to be ten years old for over 20 years now, stifling his growth as a character to keep him on par with younger audiences. Takeshi Shudo, the original head writer of the Pokemon anime, realized that Ash was heading down this path back during the show’s first five seasons, and it was something he actively wanted to avoid.
He detailed the reason why in one of the many blog posts he used to write that described his experiences working on the series. These blogs had gotten lost in time, but a Pokemon historian by the name of Dr. Lava recently found and translated them for international audiences.
Shudo describes how he witnessed the Pokemon anime falling into a formulaic pit trap around the time the Orange Islands arc came around. He noticed that Ash would find himself in the same situations that he had dealt with in episodes prior, and this formulaic, never-changing, episodic approach wasn’t what Shudo had in mind for the characters.
“[H]ow long can you go on with the same formula? A new Pokémon appears. Ash catches it. He fights other trainers at a gym or at the League Tournament. Team Rocket tries to stand in his way. He overcomes the obstacle and wins…I feel like it’s all just becoming a repetition of this same formula.”
Shudo wanted Ash and his friends to grow and learn from new experiences. All the characters — Ash, Brock, Misty, and even Jessie and James — were supposed to learn from one another, and mature and age as time passed, eventually making their way into adulthood. When Shudo saw the direction the anime was rolling in, he realized that it offered no room for the characters to do these things.
“…I want Ash to show some development as a character. I want him to one day look back on these past ‘days of Pokémon’ with nostalgia. That’s the entire reason I made Team Rocket, all the Pokémon, Ash, and all his friends interact with each other. I was even planning out the last episode, where they would finally arrive at some kind of a conclusion.”
Shudo even had endings for the Pokemon anime in mind but scheduling issues and various other things kept him from reaching that point. Admittedly, however, Shudo’s conclusions tend to be fairly dark for an anime primarily geared toward kids.
One thing is for sure though: the Pokemon anime’s constant rebooting of Ash Ketchum is one of its more frowned upon aspects. It did attempt to evolve Ash during his adventures in Hoenn and Sinnoh but ultimately embraced rebooting him — and not always for the better either. The reboots usually left Ash with a “Flanderized” personality, with Unova making him an airhead and Kalos making him a do-no-wrong hero. Alola admittedly found a better balance, but still decided to keep Ash ten-years-old.
On the other hand, Ash’s stagnation is always one of the reasons why his latest endeavors impact pop culture so much. In Pokemon Journeys, Ash catching a Pokemon is enough to get him trending. Whether that’s sad or not is up for debate, but its the truth nonetheless. Maybe one day we’ll see Ash grow up, though.
Source: Dr. Lava
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