Is Ash Overrated?

On most of the part you are right. The whole anime is series is revolving around Ash. But i think anime started as a story of a boy (Ash), his journey to become world best Pokémon master and here we are. They cant just push away ash from anime and another character. To become world best Pokémon master he has to defeat all gym leaders of every region and it is what he is doing in anime so far. As in regard of maturity, he is not that 10 year old boy any longer from my point of view. Agreed he makes silly mistakes but with the passage of time he learned to care for his Pokémon and handle things more seriously. If we take it real life situation, what do you expect from a 10-15 year old boy. Do you think if we give him a small puppy and adk him to take care of it and travel through different regions, he will take things seriously and will avoid mistakes. Also, the creaters of Pokémon anime are keeping ash in character. They cant just change the personality of ash in an instant. Ash is learning and will learn even more as he will progress in his journey. And saying of manga their story , there are different parts of it. One series is this,and the other is this. And in anime they are taking journey of Ash, who will prove himself to be the best Pokémon master.

So in short i dont think Ash is overrated.

 

I'm not sure what popular opinion of Ash actually is, as to whether he's over or under rated, but as a hero he's deeply flawed. He overcomes every obstacle by getting determined, then swears he'll be better than ever... And learns nothing. He'll do the exact same thing all over again. He's blessed in a completely unbelievable way to always arrive in the heart of some sort of action - it's the annual this or the once in a lifetime that - so, although I'll admit it's a little hard to blame him as a character for that, it should make him the most interesting man alive. But he's incredibly one dimensional. I think the first post in the thread is spot on, that he's barely developed at all. It's disappointing.

Dislaimer: I'm not nearly up to date with the series and generally have a chip on my shoulder about him.

 

You are right about Ash being overrated. I loved his Kanto and Johto saga, but afterwards he just got... stupid. Seriously Ash, your level 100+ Pikachu just lost to a LEVEL 5 SNIVY. I don't care that Pikachu was without electricity, that thing could probably take out a Tauros with its Iron Tail! Yeah, unfortunately Ash has been ruined by his refusal to progress... as for the Black and White manga, I enjoyed it enough. I suppose it's just me, but I enjoyed the original manga with Red, Green and Blue, and Yellow as well (Yellow's my favorite character!) a lot more. But you're right, at least the characters in the manga progress.

 

I think it a little unfair to be angry about Ash's lack of progression. He is the face of the anime and frankly he isn't the first character to not change throughout a show. Plenty of cartoons centered around the age group that Pokémon is focused on choose not to, Spongebob and Timmy from Fairly Odd Parents never showed character growth and no one cared. I get that things are changing now in cartoons and that yeah maybe Pokémon needs to catch up but I don't see the problem. In fact i think that XY and XYZ episodes are some of the best since johto. The themes are nice and the story is actually intriguing because I can't guess what is going to happen next, which is exactly what I look for in shows. Ash himself is slightly more mature too, far better than he was in black/white and I like his personality, he is how I would expect a 10-15 year old boy to be and yeah he isn't going to win a league but who cares? He just has to keep trying, I mean come on he beat the frontier that's awesome! (on a side note, I'd like to remind people that in the anime battles are much more difficult and not you know turn based, so Ash losing to gym leaders is to be expected) Honestly I wouldn't mind Ash getting swapped but I get the show's "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" attitude. Ash is a character that any kid can relate to so he works.

As for comparing Ash to the Adventure's characters, that's also slightly unfair. If you read the manga you can see that it is meant for slightly older readers not the kids that watch the show as intended. The author of Adventures can take such risks with characters and do more dangerous things with them, kill a character? Sure! But the show can't get away with that. And they are going for different angles, the anime's plot rarely lines up with the games while the adventures lines up slightly better so it makes sense for these characters to switch with each story.

So no, I don't think Ash is overrated, he could go but I don't mind him staying​

But I would not be upset if they could make an Adventures Anime....I would probably love it.​

 

You all...underestimate Ash, tbh. If anything, he's underrated. Let's be honest. :x I mean, sure, it's time for him to be retired, but I wouldn't say he's "overrated."

 

I think they want to keep the anime going forever, which is why Ash isn't improving that much. Also, there is big difference between Pokémon in the anime and in the games. In the anime, there doesn't seem to be a concept of "levels". While Ash's Pikachu should be like level 9999 right now, it isn't like that in the anime. I think they want to give an impression that all Pokémon are equally powerful, which is why Ash has a hard time defeating gym leaders every time.

 

honestly, i think the contrary - ash, at this point in time, is really rather overhated.

whenever i see/hear people bring up ash in discussion it almost always seems to be in a negative light, usually being about how red is "so much better", how crappy the unova saga was, etc.

so, perhaps at one point in time this might've been true, but that's like saying everyone worships gen 1 on the internet because a few years ago "genwunners" were everywhere on the internet; nowadays those types of people are immediately jeered by most fans and gen 1 is widely viewed as being a glitchy mess, or at the least almost everyone accepts that calling it the factually best Pokémon generation is a load of hogwash. so i don't think it can be reasonably said that, at least among Pokémon fans and the internet, ash is overrated.

 

I think Ash as a whole is largly misunderstood.
As a person and a trainer.

Sure he was created with flaws, just like anyone else on the show.
But to me. He has a goofy greatness to him when he battles.

and I mean by that. He doesn't always choose the right strategy or make the wisest move.
He has a likeable fire to him. a burning passion to win
and I think most people can relate to that.

So I wouldn't say he is overrated...

more like misunderstood a lot.

 

So, I don't/can't watch the anime often, but when I do, I can barely enjoy it because personally, I can't stand Ash. He keeps saying he wants to be a Pokémon master and all that- he only caught about... around 50 Pokémon? I don't know. He has no character development, struggles in battles that should be easy for him at this point, etc. Maybe it's just where I'm looking, but I never see much Ash hate. Some may argue with me, and that's fine. Everyone has their own opinions. Thank you for proving I'm not alone, though!

 

All right, so I've been catching up with the anime more recently, and... tbh, I don't really think he can be called overrated. From what I've seen of the XY/XY and Z series, he's really been on fire lately. There's not much more here I could add that would help, though, since most of what I said has already been discussed by the others.

 

The current problem with ash is that he is way overused. He is the protagonist and all but ive watched him for my whole life and im getting bored of him and would like to see a change in the protagonist but it prob wont happen due to it beign so recognised

 

@[member="Alan"] Truth be told, you're absolutely right. I'd at least like to see him do something new, but he's done everything XD