Ash is the main character of the Pokémon anime. Raised in Pallet Town, he started his journey to become a Pokémon Master at the age of 10. On the day that he started his journey,
Ash Ketchum carelessly woke up late despite being told by his mother,
Delia Ketchum to get to bed. He rushed to
Professor Samuel Oak's laboratory only to find out that the beginner Pokémon - Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander - had already been given out to trainers who arrived on time. However,
Professor Samuel Oak mentioned that there was one more Pokémon available -
Ash's Pikachu. Despite constantly hitting Ash with Electric-type attacks and refusing to return to its PokéBall, Ash decided to take
Ash's Pikachu along with him on his journey to become a Pokémon Master.
Ash's Pikachu is cold towards Ash at first and laughs at his failures; however, when Ash saves
Ash's Pikachu from a flock of wild Spearow, he begins to warm up to his new trainer and the two finally become friends. After the battle with the flock of Spearow, a Ho-Oh is seen flying towards a rainbow in the sky. The PokéDex reveals that the Ho-Oh is an unidentified Pokémon. Thus, the journey of Ash and
Ash's Pikachu begins.
Captures in Viridian Forest
While making his way towards Pewter City and his first Kanto League Gym Battle,
Ash Ketchum came upon a wild Caterpie deep within Viridian Forest. Instead of using
Ash's Pikachu to battle against the wild Pokémon, Ash took his chances and threw a PokéBall without weakining the Caterpie first. Luckily, he was able to catch the Pokémon without any trouble. The capture of
Ash's Caterpie marked Ash's first capture as a Pokémon Trainer, making
Ash's Caterpie the second Pokémon to join his team.
The next day, while continuing the trek through the Viridian Forest, Ash came up on a wild Pidgeotto. He tried to just throw a PokéBall like he did with
Ash's Caterpie, but Pidgeotto swatted the PokéBall away.
Misty informed that he must weaken the Pokémon first before attempting to capture it. He called out
Ash's Caterpie to battle against, but
Misty quickly informed him that Bug-type Pokémon are weak against Flying-type Pokémon like Pidgeotto. After Pidgeotto dealt significant damage to
Ash's Caterpie, Ash recalled it and sent out
Ash's Pikachu. Pikachu was able to use its Thundershock to weaken Pidgeotto and allow Ash to capture it with a PokéBall. Thus, this capture marked Ash's second capture as a Pokémon Trainer, making
Ash's Pidgeotto the third Pokémon to join his team.
Later on, while still in the Viridian Forest, Ash was approached by Team Rocket, who attempted to steal his Pokémon. After defeating
Meowth,
James's Koffing, and
Jessie's Ekans,
Ash's Caterpie evolved into
Ash's Metapod.
Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup
Ash Ketchum participated in the Pokémon World Tournament Junior Cup at the Kagome Town stadium. In the first round he was in the fifth match and faced off against
Marris. The match was quickly showcased and
Ash Ketchum won the battle and advanced to the second round while
Marris was eliminated from the tournament.
The Isshu League
Ash Ketchum participated in the Isshu League in the preliminary match where he was matched up against
Trip.
Trip's Serperior was sent out to battle
Ash's Pikachu and
Cilan noted that
Trip's Serperior's speed and its attack power had leveled up quite a bit too since the last time they saw it. The match was pretty one sided for a long time as
Ash's Pikachu wasn't able to counter
Trip's Serperior speed and ended up getting wrapped up. After using
Iron Tail on the ground to get loose,
Ash's Pikachu used a combination attack of
Iron Tail and
Electro Ball to one hit KO
Trip's Serperior. As a result,
Trip was eliminated from the Isshu League and
Ash Ketchum advanced to the next round. The two met in the Pokémon Center after the battle, and
Trip vowed that the next time they met that he would win. The two shook hands and parted ways.
In the first main round,
Ash Ketchum's opponent was shown on the match up electronic board but not much else is known about the battle.
Ash's Scraggy participated in the second main round of the Isshu League tournament where it faced off against a Darumakka. It was able to defeat it so that Satoshi moved on to the next round.
In the third round,
Stephan was matched up against
Ash Ketchum.
Cilan noted that the two of them have a very direct taste and that it would be a good battle. It was only a 3 on 3 battle but the both of them gave it their all. The first two battles of the third round setup the final match up of
Stephan's Sawk vs
Ash's Krookodile, both of which were very injured from the previous battles. Both of them did their best to muster up their reserve strength but in the end a surprise move of
Aerial Ace by
Ash's Krookodile was super effective against
Stephan's Sawk and it knocked it out to give
Ash Ketchum the victory while eliminating
Stephan from the tournament.
Stephan realized after the battle that the reason that
Ash Ketchum withdrew Waruvial after the first battle was because
Ash Ketchum knew that
Stephan would definitely send out Dageki, so he didn't reveal that it knew
Aerial Ace and saved until the end.
Ash Ketchum Unova league adventure ended at the hands of Cameron and his Lucario. It was a close match and regardless of the fact that he only had 5 pokemon on hand.
Ash's Pikachu fell in the end and ended
Ash Ketchum's run in the Quarterfinals.
Battle Chateau
In his debut match in at the Battle Chateau,
Ash Ketchum was matched up against
Chester.
Ash's Pikachu had a super effective type advantage over
Chester's Fletchling and also had a lot more battle experience so it wasn't long until
Ash's Pikachu was able to defeat it.
Ash Ketchum was awarded the title of Baron for winning the match.
Throughout
Ash Ketchum's journey he has gained some impressive accolades as a trainer. Placed in the Top 16 in the Kanto Indigo Plateau league, He was the first person to conquer the Orange Islands, He Placed a respectable Top 8 in both the Johto Silver Conference and the Hoenn Ever Grande Conference, Became the first person to conquer the Battle Frontier. He later declined the invitation to become a Frontier Brain, Placed top 4 in the Lily of the Valley Conference his best finish, He also placed in the top 8 in the Unova league tournament as well.
Alola Pokémon League Champion
With
Ash Ketchum and
Gladion down to only one Pokémon each,
Ash's Lycanroc (Dusk Form) and
Gladion's Lycanroc (Midnight Form) battled each other in the last battle match-up to determine who would be the first Alola Pokémon League Champion. The day that
Ash's Lycanroc (Dusk Form) evolved, Gladion’s Lycanroc was right there and from that moment on, there were real rival. In their previous battles, there were many battling strategies that
Ash Ketchum used that
Gladion didn’t know were possible. Counter played a huge role in this finals battle but Ash and Lycanroc knew that from the start. Ash's Lycanroc had increased its reflex speed after all the battles it had and it was able to avoid a lot of Stone Edge attacks.
Gladion had trained with his Lycanroc to be able to break through Outrage's confusion by biting itself which surprised everyone. In the end though, it was a Counter against a Counter that allowed
Ash's Lycanroc (Dusk Form) to defeat
Gladion's Lycanroc (Midnight Form) and make
Ash Ketchum the Alola Pokémon League Champion.