Ash Ketchum Wins Pokémon World Coronation Series Masters 8 Tournament, Making Him Monarch, And The World's Strongest Trainer
Image Source: The Pokémon Company/ShoPro
He’s done it. He has the skills to be number one. After 25 years and over 1200 episodes, Ash Ketchum is the Pokémon World’s strongest trainer. He is world champion. He worked his way through the ranks of the World Coronation Series, qualified for the Masters Eight tournament, and defeated Galar champion Leon in the finals.
It happened on Friday evening in Japan, and early AM hours in the US. The episode is titled “The Finals IV: Partner”, the 1217th episode of the series as a whole, and the 132nd episode of Pokémon Journeys: The Series. It might be the 42nd episode of the “Pokemon Ultimate Journeys” season, depending on how the dub handles the clip shows that popped up during the tournament, so it could be the 39th. And this episode truly lived up to the title.
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With the match down to Leon’s Charizard and Ash’s Pikachu, everyone was watching. That included every main companion Ash had traveled with, not only Goh, who was off with Project Mew, or the attending Chloe and Dawn, but Misty, May, Max, and Cilan made their first appearances in all of Journeys. Even Todd Snap was spotted observing the match; he hadn’t been seen in a thousand episodes! When Pikachu was on the brink of fainting, it was all of Ash’s Pokémon, including Butterfree, Primeape, Lapras, Larvitar, Ambipom, and Nebby, that appeared to him and gave that second wind, where one last head-on collision downed Leon’s Charizard. A true culmination of 25 years of adventures right there. Ash and Pikachu got through it all together. Aim to Be A Pokémon Master indeed, with a triumphant return of that very song.
Ash was fresh off becoming the first champion of the Alola region at the end of the Sun and Moon series when he became a research fellow for Professor Cerise. While attending the previous season’s finals, that’s when he decided he wanted to have his battle with Leon and entered the World Coronation Series instead of going through Galar’s Gyms and collecting badges. And what a battle it was, four intense action-packed episodes with a perfect finish.
Image Source: CNET
What’s to come after this is unknown. After an off week next week, there are three episodes weekly after, with “Pokémon! I'm Glad I Got to Meet You!!” on December 9. There has been no news of a series to correspond to the ninth generation of games that begins with Scarlet and Violet, which will be released on November 18 on the Nintendo Switch. We don’t know whether Ash or anyone else will be writing a brand new chapter. Maybe they want us to find out by the show itself. In the U.S., Netflix only just released the first 12 episodes of “Ultimate Journeys” three weeks ago (up to episode 102) and are supposed to be quarterly, so it could be until August before it gets here and wherever else it premieres on the service but paces could pick up. He’s advanced so far, maybe there will be more to come. Ash Ketchum, congratulations, you’re truly unbeatable, and a hero.
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Source: Variety
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