Since 1997, the beloved Pokemon anime has followed the adventures of Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town as he traveled with friends across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and various other regions on a quest to catch ’em all and be the very best – like no one ever was.
Unfortunately for Ash (and the hundreds of thousands of viewers that invested themselves in his journey for so long) the guy is a bit of a putz. While the kid has had his moments as a trainer, every few seasons we’ll see him make it back to the Pokemon League, only to get completely slapped down.
A couple of losses here and there made sense initially, but after over two decades, the fans are getting pretty tired of investing in Ash when it’s clear he’s going to lose again because it’s what the story demands, for some reason.
His most recent loss at the Pokemon League was perhaps the cruelest of all, as it genuinely looked like he was all set to take the crown for the very first time. We now know that didn’t happen, and Ash headed to the Alola region to start again.
As someone who stopped watching the anime round about the time Ash got to Hoenn, I’m really not that bothered… but I can see how die-hard fans could be upset after having the possibility of a Pokemon League win dangled in front of them for so long like a particularly juicy carrot.
Fortunately, it’s looking like we won’t have to worry about the adventures of Ash the perpetually 11 year old boy much longer, as current reports suggest the next Pokemon series after the current Sun/Moon run will be a full reboot.
As reported by Serebii.net, the new series, which is being officially unveiled on September 29, will simply be called Pocket Monsters. It’ll also apparently take place across all existing regions instead of simply focusing on one for the entirety of the run.
While there’s no direct confirmation that this is a full reboot, various fans have pointed out that the anime hasn’t been called Pocket Monsters since the original 1997 run, which heavily implies some kind of fresh start, at least.
Nintendo Soup also pointed out that the font used in the logo announcing the new series is the same logo used for the 20th and 21st Pokemon movies, which were also reboots. Whether this is an intentional move or a mere coincidence remains to be seen.
What exactly this means for Ash and Pikachu remains to be seen, but after over 20 years, it might be nice to end the current run by finally giving the kid from Pallet Town the win he’s been building towards for so long before starting fresh with a new group of characters.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.