After 25 years, 10-year-old Ash Ketchum is now the Pokémon world champion.
Ketchum becomes the world’s top trainer after winning the Masters Eight Tournament.
Fans of the franchise have expressed their delight at the character becoming the strongest Pokemon trainer in the world, more than 25 years after the first episode of the programme aired.
A tweet from the official Pokemon Twitter account congratulating Ash has received almost 200,000 likes.
The series, which originated as a video game, has run for over 1,200 episodes.
The anime has followed Ash Ketchum in his quest to become a Pokemon Master since 1997, when the character met electric mouse creature Pikachu on his 10th birthday.
Over the last 25 years, viewers have watched him train as he aimed to become the strongest Pokemon trainer. In the series, Pokemon trainers catch mythical creatures known as pocket monsters and battle them against each other.
But the latest series, Pokemon Ultimate Journeys, has worked differently as it has seen Ash travelling around the world, rather than being limited to one region.
Viewers have previously seen Ash win two tournaments – the Orange League from the Orange Islands season, as well as the Alola League in Pokemon: Sun and Moon.
But to win the World Championship, Ash had to overcome strong trainers from across his travels.
Ash’s final battle against former world champion, Leon, spanned four episodes. It also saw the return of former companions from previous seasons of the anime who have since been retired, such as fan favourites Brock, Misty and Dawn.
Sarah Natochenny, the voice actor for Ash in the American version of the anime, tweeted: “YESSSS!!! Our boy is the very best like no one ever was!!!!” while a number of adult fans of the show tweeted that the finale had made them “emotional”.
It is unclear whether Ash and Pikachu will return for the anime’s next season.
It has become tradition for a new season of the anime to coincide with the release of new Pokemon video games. The two newest Pokemon games, Scarlet and Violet, will be released on Friday 18 November.
Ash’s big moment took place in the latest episode of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, which premiered today in Japan. In it, Ash’s Pikachu defeats a Charizard belonging to Leon, who video game fans will remember as the champion of Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Galar region.
Their battle was the final bout in the Pokémon World Coronation Series Masters Eight Tournament, which pits champions from across multiple regions against one another, including Cynthia, Iris, Steven, and Lance. By defeating Leon, Ash effectively proved himself the strongest of all the Pokémon League Champions, thus completing the dream he first set out to accomplish when he left Pallet Town in episode one of the original 1997 series.
This is an especially big deal for Ash, who historically has had a tough run in tournaments like this. In fact, until 2019, he’d never managed to become a Pokémon League Champion in any of his attempts – a losing streak that ended when he defeated Gladion in the Manalo Conference and became Alola’s Champion.
Prior to that, though, Ash suffered championship loss after loss, all the way back to his initial run in the Indigo League arc where he only placed in the top 16.
What’s next for our hero, then? Well, with a new Pokémon game coming out next week, we’re sure to see Ash eventually make his way to the Paldea region and challenge that league. He’s also previously expressed desires to, you know, “catch ’em all,” but given how far behind he is now that the total number of Pokémon is pushing 1000, this seems an unlikely feat for him to achieve.
Congrats, Ash. You’re an inspiration to us all.
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