Anime & Manga General Discussion (2024)

Enzo said:

And is particulary glaring when you look at his battling style in JN, actually. In every series (I guess maybe excluding Kanto since he was still finding his footing there), Ash has this very interesting trait during battles because he's nearly always in a dominant position. He has this thing where it feel like he's the one in charge of the battle and the opponent has to keep up if they wanna have a chance. He creates his strategies that pretty much forces his enemies to lose their stances and forces them against the wall. He calculates an strategy to nullifies his opponent's and makes them go against his own. It feel like ''This is my music and my dancefloor, get used to it" and the other person has to dance with the rythym Ash choses or else they can't keep up.

But in JN? It doesn't feels like that. I don't feel like Ash is actively doing something in battle. The battles against Bea are a great example: he just... sorta of stands there and doesn't does a lot. Bea comes and takes control of the battle and Ash is doing nearly nothing to counter that. He doesn't comes up with crazy ideas anymore. Look at the fight against Volkner: Volkner goes and makes combos with his Pokémon, such as Thunder Wave + Hex Rotom, Luxray setting up Electric Terrain, swapping Luxray for Electrivire to nullify Pikachu's attacks and boost it's speed. But Ash, on the other hand... just... tries to brute force his way out, I guess???

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Hmm? Ash was most certainly not in a dominant position in every battle he has had, from Johto to Alola (we won't mention Kanto, since even the writers hadn't 100% established the norms of a Pokémon Battle); I think this is an exaggeration in an effort to condemn Journeys.

Yes, you're correct in that he certainly has moments of being the stronger battler, with his early bouts with Sawyer as a good example (although, even then that can be arguable as Sawyer was a novice up against someone with regions of experience). But, the boy regularly gets tripped up by Gym Leaders and other similar opponents/the occasional CoTD every saga, with several of those fights ending in outright losses (and thus requiring a rematch) and most of those battles ending up with nearly his entire participating team KOed; sadly enough, I believe his Gym Battle with Wake was the only one from Johto onwards to not have any of Ash's Pokémon KOed - that's notable (bonus points for being the first Sinnoh Gym Leader Ash defeated outright in a match, given that Maylene's fight ended in a tie). I mean, you aren't exactly forcing anyone up against a wall if they're knocking out your team as much as you are theirs. And speaking of Sinnoh, prior to their battle at the Sinnoh League, was he "in charge" of his multiple battles with Paul? Or most of his battles with Trip? Ramos' Weepinbell wrecking his advantageous Flying-types? Even the girl with her Magikarp that only knew Tackle, who he used Pikachu against no less. Which...is all expected, given how he serves as an audience surrogate for the child demographic who fight those battles or similar opponents in-game; it goes against the point of his character, as well undermines the strengths of his plethora of opponents, to be as apt as you have described.

There's also the point of him being strategic, and your contention with him brute forcing his way in several Journeys fights... yet, this is the same guy who routinely favors the occasional bad match-up every certain amount of episodes, when he can choose something better (ex. remember Goodra versus Slurpuff? Pepperidge Farm remembers); the same guy who sent his Grass-type Snivy against an Emolga (while also using Attract on it having just seen that it was female) and his Grass-type Chikorita against both Falkner & Bugsy (with both of them warning and criticizing him of the choice). The same guy who tries to counter a Hydro Pump with a Water Gun or a Flamethrower with Ember. I could go on for a while about the questionable if not poor decisions he has made when it came to battling in every region, but I did want to touch on the strengths you are speaking to, when he does get it right. Nothing will ever hold a candle to his tactics & considerations in Sinnoh, but Journeys doesn't feel terribly different from how he's battled in the other regions. Just like now, as @VetProf has pointed out, Ash tends to use a mix of brute force & strategy; this has always been a staple in his writing. Most battles see him use attacks without too much explicit reasoning as to his choices, while others have him think of different ways to modify attacks or respond to his opponent if necessary; the latter usually happens depending on the writing though, and is usually reserved for notable challenges like Whitney's Miltank or Olympia's Future Sight spamming cats - these moments indeed occur as you have mentioned, but they certainly are not constants.

I think Ash can be an impressive Trainer in matches undoubtedly, and I love most of his battles as much as the next person (here, anyways), but I don't think he lives up to the, quite, generous description you've painted.