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On June 14th, Netflix released the latest season of the Pokémon anime, marking a new chapter in the twenty-three-year long story of Ash Ketchum, a trainer from Pallet Town, and his partner Pikachu. After finally winning their first Pokemon League Championship in Alola, the two are not traveling to a new region as per the usual, but instead taking a research job with the Pokémon expert, Professor Cerise. Joining them will be a new friend named Goh who dreams of catching the Mythical Pokémon Mew.
The series will follow both budding trainers as they pursue powerful Pokémon, epic battles, and, of course, the same thing that’s motivated the anime from the start: friendship. Even in a world with three-headed dragons that can breathe fire and summon meteors from outer space, true friendship is still the greatest power of all. In celebration of all the people and Pokémon that our heroes will soon be meeting, let’s take a look back on how friendship has evolved throughout the 1,109 episodes of anime.
Friendship, I Choose You!
Twenty-three long years have passed since Ash Ketchum first overslept and formed a reluctant partnership with the only starter Pokémon left in Professor Oak’s lab, a perpetually irritated, shock-happy Pikachu. Since then, he’s traveled across seven continents, fought against Pokémon only spoken in legends, and most importantly, befriended nearly every person and Pokémon he met in the process. Including that reluctant Pikachu who eventually decides that traveling with a compassionate (if rather hyperactive) ten-year-old probably wasn’t the worst fate a ‘mon could have.
Friendship is a constant theme in the Pokémon universe, much like gravity or Nurse Joy’s haircut. The bonds Ash develops on his journey are at the heart of the Pokemon anime. While the young trainer may have trouble remembering type match ups, he never forgets to make friends along the way. However, Ash is not the only one who understands the meaning of friendship.
His companions, Brock, Pikachu, Misty, Dawn, Iris, and many others, show the same heart that Ash does in their relationships to their Pokémon and each other. Even recurring antagonists like Team Rocket demonstrate their willingness to be there for each other in times of need, which shows that friendship is not limited to the good guys.
Brock And Ash
Provider of puns, advice, and to his nine siblings, Brock has established himself as the fatherly figure of the group. His expertise can sometimes fade into the background of each episode, however throughout the series he has shown he can heal injured Pokémon, develop cunning battle strategies and find the right tools to survive in the wilderness. It makes you wonder exactly what Ash would’ve done without him.
That said, the ten-year-old seems to look up to Brock like an older brother and enthusiastically supports his dream to be a Pokémon Breeder. In “Pokémon Fashion Flash”, he helps Brock impress his idol, a famous Pokémon stylist named Suzie by exposing a phony salon. Throughout the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh seasons, he also allows Brock to practice nutrition, grooming, and medicine on his Pokémon — which is unusual, given Ash’s overprotectiveness. This sibling-like trust goes both ways, however. In “Grating Spaces,” Brock places his faith in Ash to help him defend Pewter Gym from an attack by Team Rocket. Later, in “Tag, We’re it…!”, both trainers choose each other as partners in the Hearthome City Tag Battle even if they’re ultimately separated later on.
At the end of the Sinnoh League Victors arc, Brock announces his desire to return to his home in Kanto and study as a Pokémon Doctor. This, though, means the loss of this longest traveling companion and surrogate older sibling. Ash sends him off with words of encouragement, assuring him that he will be able to reach his goals. Brock returns the sentiment and the two-part as the best of friends. It would take several seasons and almost seven years for Ash and Brock to meet again. The Alola season showed that friendship as strong as the one between those two doesn’t fade easily. In fact, as Brock himself might say, it’s rock solid.
Jessie, James, And Meowth (That’s Right!)
Ever since the second episode of the anime series, Team Rocket has always been a few steps behind Ash and his companions. Though they’ve always got a harebrained scheme up their sleeve and usually a giant mecha by their side too, Jessie, James, and Meowth have never managed to achieve their goal to capture Pikachu.
Despite this, the Team Rocket Trio remains as close as ever. After all, hardship is the one thing that all three minions have in common. James ran away from home after his overbearing family forced him into a loveless engagement. Jessie grew up all alone after her mother disappeared on a top-secret Team Rocket mission. Meowth spent a difficult childhood at a children’s summer camp before traveling to Hollywood in search of a better life. The trio may have vastly different beginnings, but each of them knows what it’s like to be mistreated and alone.
Because of this, Jessie, James, and Meowth never abandon each other. When Jessie and Meowth learned just how horrible James’ fiancée was to him in “Holy Matrimony!”, they helped him escape both her and his domineering parents. A few seasons later, in “Dressed for Jess Success!” when Jessie was too ill to compete in Lilypad Town’s Pokémon Contest, James disguised himself as her and took her place. When Meowth got himself into a fight with a gang of street Meowth to save his crush, Jessie and James were right there by his side to help. Even when they’re blasting off for the 700th time, Team Rocket proves that sometimes a family can be two failed evil minions and their talking cat.
Meowth And Pikachu
Despite being pitted against each other in a literal game of cat-and-mouse, Pikachu and Meowth do have their moments in the Pokémon anime. In “Bound for Trouble,” after another Team Rocket scheme gone wrong, the two Pokémon are tied together and find themselves in the woods alone. While neither is particularly thrilled by the prospect of working together. The two managed to defeat a rampaging Rhydon through a combination of an improvised Tickle and a powerful Thunderbolt. Both Pokémon are left in shock at their uncharacteristic displays of teamwork. Meowth even wonders whether, in another world, he and Pikachu could have been best friends.
About a year later, his idle question was answered.
In the 2000 movie Mewtwo Returns, we get a glimpse of this answer in the shape of Pikachutwo and Meowthtwo, the clones of the original Pikachu and Meowth. Instead of the typical back and forth that characterizes the relationship of their genetic templates, these two Pokémon seem to get along quite well.
As they both work together to help advise their creator and lead their community as they settle on the remote Mount Quena. In fact, Pikachutwo seems to bear more resentment toward Ash’s Pikachu for the freedom he has than he ever shows toward his friend Meowthtwo. So even if Pikachu and Meowth spend more time trading blows than they do with words, the two Pokémon might have more in common than they think.
Misty And Ash
Even if their friendship started in a case of bike theft, it traveled much further than a bike ever could—throughout all of Kanto, Johto, and the Orange Islands. Misty and Ash complemented each other’s abilities and pushed each other to places neither could go one their own.
Throughout the anime’s first five seasons, Misty became Ash’s best training partner, testing his skills with the strength of a gym leader. When the two of them parted ways, Misty has incorporated some of Ash’s resourceful tactics into her own style in future Pokémon battles. This was most apparent in Pokémon: Sun and Moon when she turned the tide on Ash by telling her Gyarados to create a twister to trap Pikachu, preventing it from attacking.
Though Misty and Ash parted in season five to pursue separate dreams, their friendship has remained an important part of their lives. Misty even remembered sending Ash a memento as he traveled through Hoenn, proving that their friendship remained just as strong as ever.
Ash And Pikachu
Whenever Ash introduces himself in the show, he always says: “I’m Ash from Pallet Town and this is my partner, Pikachu.” “Partner,” indeed. The bond between Ash and Pikachu is as indisputable as Newton’s first law in the world of Pokémon. Even if the two of them didn’t get along at first, after seven regions and twenty-three years’ worth of episodes, it’s impossible to imagine one without the other. Pikachu has always stood by Ash, even when he fought impossible odds, whether challenging the leader of a worldwide criminal organization or the very gods of the Pokémon world. Likewise, Ash has always stood by Pikachu, even when it lost its electrical abilities or when it was mind-controlled to attack its trainer.”
The strongest evidence of Ash and Pikachu’s bond is found in the 1998 movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back. Faced with the prospect of an unceasing war between Pokémon and their clones, Ash launched himself between the powerful attacks of Mew and Mewtwo. While the brash action stopped their fight, it left him frozen like a stone-like corpse. Pikachu then returned to his side and began to weep in one of the most poignant moments in the entire anime.
The rest of the Pokémon, clones, and originals alike joined in and, through the power of their tears, Ash was returned to life. Without his bond with Pikachu, Ash wouldn’t exist. Period. A friendship like that is more precious than a Max Revive and powerful than a Hyper Beam.
And The Journey Continues…
Friendship isn’t simple. To stand by a person (or Pokémon) through good times and bad takes courage. To dive in front of a flock of angry Spearow for them takes courage of heroic proportions. Ash, despite all of his flaws and past mistakes, would not hesitate. Neither would Brock, Jessie, James, Meowth or Pikachu. Their commitment, not just to some abstract, undefinable idea of becoming a Pokemon Master, but to the idea of friendship is and will always be what drives their journeys forward.