Ash Ketchum, the protagonist of the long-running Pokémon anime series, has been perpetually travelling the world, catching ‘em all and being the very best. Whether it is his journey to beat every gym leader in the world, or his constant run-ins with Team Rocket, as long as there are new Pokémon, there will always be Ash Ketchum.
Invented as a sort of audience stand-in, Ash’s journeys in the anime is designed to mimic our own experiences with every new game, region, and generation of Pokémon. Whenever Ash learns something new about Pokémon, the audience will learn them, too.
It’s a great tool for kids who are getting into the series to really get a handle on the game’s mechanics and the sort of bond we should have with our digital pocket monsters.
That said, Pokémon is still mostly about creating the best team to tackle the gyms and Elite Four of every region, which Ash does with mixed results. Did he manage to do so through sheer will or did his Pokémon team help him through? Well, let’s see how Ash devised his teams through every generation.
Generation I
Ash’s first roster of Pokémon consisted of Pikachu, Butterfree, Pidgeotto, Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Squirtle. While it is a little overpowered that Ash has all three starters, the rest of the team was still largely made up of Pokémon that were easily found in one of the game’s starting areas, Viridian Forest.
Not only that, but most of his team weren’t even fully evolved, with Butterfree eventually being set free and Charizard, while strong, didn’t obey Ash’s commands at all. This was a cautionary tale for players to have the required gym badges for higher level Pokémon to obey you. This started the trend of Ash not having the strongest teams and began his losing streak against the Elite Four.
Generation II
The Johto region started out mainly the same, with Pikachu still leading the pack, the Kanto starters swapped out for Bayleef, Cyndaquil, and Totodile, Pidgeotto for Noctowl, and a Phanpy. Ash also had a Heracross; although he barely used it, it could have been a great powerhouse for the team.
Between the first two generations, it seems that the anime writing team was showing us how important it was to have type diversity in your teams, which is definitely important when crafting the perfect Pokémon team. Ash’s habit of not fully evolving them is on full display here, which could have really helped him net more wins otherwise.
Generation III
With Pikachu’s spot on the team undeterred, the Hoenn League saw Ash using a team comprising of Swellow, Grovyle, Corphish, Torkoal, and Glalie. It was a significant improvement over the previous two teams, but Corphish could really be a boon if it was allowed to evolve into Crawdaunt instead.
Ash’s team had improvements but he didn’t really make the best of what Hoenn had to offer, especially with better options like Aggron, Metagross, and Blaziken made available in the region. You can also see that Ash mainly stuck to having Pikachu, the regional bird Pokémon, a Grass, Water, and Fire type, and a wildcard, just to spice things up.
Generation IV
And the patented Ash Ketchum formula continues in the Sinnoh League with Ash using Pikachu as always, Staraptor, Torterra, Buizel, Infernape, and Gible. Surprisingly, Ash’s team consists of mostly evolved Pokémon, with Gible sadly not reaching its full potential as a Garchomp.
Nevertheless, this season also saw a number of Ash’s previous Pokémon coming back into the fray, like his Gligar turning into Gliscor, Cyndaquil coming back as a Quilava, and Heracross. Ash swapped his Pokémon for some of his older ones, which inspired players to diversify tactics whenever they can. Overall, a big improvement for Ash Ketchum.
Generation V
While the fifth generation of Pokémon was notable for introducing a whole new region that features only new Pokémon, Ash Ketchum was still adamant on bringing on some old Pokémon and habits to the region. He had a bigger roster that went in and out of the six Pokémon lineup including a returning Charizard and Pikachu, Unfezant, Oshawott, Pignite, Snivy, Scraggy, Leavanny, Boldore, Palpitoad, and Krokoodile.
We’re going to call this team two steps forward and three steps back. While it’s nice to see that Ash is diversifying his options a whole lot more, he’s gone back to having unevolved starters just like he did in Kanto and Johto. At least he has some strong options in the form of Krookodile and Charizard.
Generation VI
The Kalos region was where Ash truly became an experienced Pokémon trainer that we could all root for. No more fooling around with half-evolved monsters, Ash was not playing around when it came to fighting much stronger opponents with Mega Evolved Pokémon. His roster this time includes Pikachu, Greninja, Talonflame, Hawlucha, Noivern, and Goodra.
Fans know that this season was a truly gripping one, with everyone hoping for Ash to finally win the Pokémon League. Sadly, that wasn’t the case, even though Ash had two fully evolved Dragon types on his team and Ash’s Greninja having his very own exclusive, Super Saiyan-like power-up that should have been unbeatable.
Generation VII
Thankfully, the Alola season continued the Ash Ketchum hype train, with his well-rounded team finally giving him the chance of becoming the very first Alolan Pokémon League champion. The fandom rejoiced as it took Ash six generations to finally come out on top. Truly, he was the very best like no one ever was.
Pikachu returns with Rowlet, Incineroar, Dusk Form Lycanroc, the Ultra Beast Naganadel, and the mythical Melmetal. This was truly an overpowered team, especially with all of them having access to the region’s Limit Break-like Z-Moves. The only weak link was the unevolved Rowlet, which still somehow destroyed its evolved counterpart, Decidueye, in one fell swoop.
Generation VIII
With Alola ending on a high-note, the latest season of the Pokémon anime doesn’t adapt the games to a tee, but rather it is a series that celebrates what has come before. This is Ash’s first season as a champion, and he now travels around the world to previous regions, which includes the newly introduced Galar region, with his friend Goh.
At the time of writing, Ash’s new team includes the ever-faithful Pikachu, Dragonite, Gengar, Lucario, Galarian Farfetch'd, and Dracovish. It is certainly odd that his team consists of mostly older, fan-favourite Pokémon, and he doesn’t have all the Pokémon types covered just yet. At least Pikachu can Gigantamax now and hopefully we’ll see a more well-rounded team in the future.
Overall, Ash Ketchum has gone a long way in the past eight generations of Pokémon, going from an inexperienced trainer to a regional champion. Along the way, it seems that the anime’s writers wanted to portray a more viable team for Ash to use in battles, instead of the small fries that were more marketable than they were powerful.
Nonetheless, if you want to emulate Ash’s Pokémon teams in your own adventures, we definitely recommend you to use his Generation VI and VII teams as inspirations.
