Is Ash a good main character?

So, is Ash a good main character?

  • Yes, of course!

    Votes: 28 39.4%

  • Eh, I’m neutral.

    Votes: 30 42.3%

  • No! Kick him out already!

    Votes: 13 18.3%
  • Total voters
    71
Cresselia92

Cresselia92

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As we all know, Ash is the protagonist of the Pokémon anime and one of its staple characters, alongside his buddy Pikachu and Team Rocket. Together, they have accompanied fans for 20 years, which by itself is an incredible feat.

During these years, a lot of opposing opinions have emerged about this boy from Pallet Town: some people genuinely like his character and his development, some others like him but wish he was handled better, some others simply tolerate him or don’t care (much) about him, some others don’t like him at all for different reasons and wish for him to be replaced with someone else.

This thread, however, isn’t to talk about whether Ash should leave the show or not, but to talk about whether he is good as the main character of the Pokémon anime.

So, what is your opinion? Yay or nay?
 
I feel like his worst crimes are being pretty generic/a blank slate. Which, for a show that's this long-running and cyclical, is a pretty good fit. They can have him be a goofy kid who makes a lot of newbie mistakes and then the very next series make him a bland shounen protagonist. His only real personality traits are that he's confident, optimistic, energetic, and just darn loves Pokemon. And if there's a movie or episode that needs a "chosen one", chances are it'll be him.

Basically at this point I really can't get invested in his story because he's basically just a blank slate for the writers to mold to fit the tone of each series. It's the supporting cast-- and the Rocket trio!-- who are more likely to catch my attention, too bad they don't always get the proper treatment (looking at you, SM classmates).
 
Yeah. He has the perfect balance between hot-blooded character and calm and reflexive character, which makes him quite relatable. He learns from his mistakes and he never tries to put others' satisfaction before his. However, he has many problems to overcome in order to be perfect:

-Sudden personality changes, as said above.
-Lack on focus on his relationship with Pikachu (until this year).
-Lack of tangible motivations. We got some hints in XY121 and M20 but I'm not entirely pleased.
-Lack of good role models and rivals. Of course, he changed his battle style after some things Sawyer and Paul did, but we don't see the impact of that in the long run or updates on what they are doing.
 
I would say for the most part, yes.

One of the most important things to remember when it comes to this show is its main audience is children, and I think Ash is a good main character for children to watch and learn from. He's kind and a good friend, has goals and ambitions, never gives up, and isn't perfect but always tries his best. Even watching as an adult, I find those to be quality or even admirable traits.
 
Ash was my favourite character (tied with Misty) when I was in the target audience and for me that is the golden seal that he is the right kid for the job.

That being said, Shudou's dream where the Rockets were the protagonists woulda made a damn good alternative...
 
I've always loved Ash. He's a goofy sweetheart who loves his Pokemon and his friends, and even though he's not a particularly groundbreaking or fascinating character I think for what this show is he makes a perfect main character. Even in the series' where I got kind of bored with him (DP and XY) I never disliked him.

"Good main character" is subjective, and obviously people who hate Ash are going to disagree. But I can't see anybody else filling the role.
 
There are two aspects to approach this question, actually. One is from the contiunity. Having a main character for 20 years who doesn't age, doesn't change his goal (until S&M), and follows the same motif, gets the story stuck in an absolute point. In Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos, everything repeated itself, although it is not only because of having the same main character, but also having the very same story with different Pokémon/Gym/Characters. Back in the day, when Ash moved to Johto from Kanto, or to Hoenn from Johto, he did not "reset" himself. Today it is interesting enough, Ash even mentioned Misty to May in the early AG saga (though not by the name). But the problem with Ash was that when the producers had him for too long and let Ash improve himself in 4 different regions, they had to make an Ash who is just new to his journey in Unova. Because, not in the practice, but technically, Ash was too good to be a Pokémon Trainer who is going to lose in Unova League, or still have something to learn in his journey. But changing the main character and the mascot Pokémon, what promotes Pokémon the best in all around the world, was not a good idea, therefore, Ash keeps changing his personality upon changing region, depending on the theme of the region. But technically, we can pretty much confirm that the Ash we have in Kanto, Hoenn, Unova, Kalos and Alola are completely different characters with the same name. Instead of forcing a character for over 20 years to run a show, I would definitely prefer a substitution of main character, instead of having an unstable character who becomes a completely different person in every series.

It is arguable if Ash carries the personalities he is given good enough - the comedy gags of Alola, serious badass battle maniac of Kalos/Hoenn, stubborn newbie of Kanto etc. But whether he carries them good or bad, it makes him bad to not have a personality, but only some core factors in my opinion.
 
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I decided to consider the ways in which I would consider a good main character for a show like Pokemon:
  • Interest in Pokemon and flexibility to try out new things: The anime's predominant incentive is to advertise the franchise, and by doing that, the nature and idea of a world filled with Pokemon must seem quite captivating to its audience. Having a protagonist who is interested in Pokemon would seem to be a prerequisite of that. Ash fits that bill perfectly, he is fascinated by these creatures, wishes to understand and befriend them, he is a benevolent and engaged figure when it comes to Pokemon. His flexibility to try out different kinds of things and the flexibility his incredibly vague goal lends to him allows him to show off features to the audience, such as participating as a Co-Ordinator, etc. Naturally other characters are invested in and fulfil those features, however it is Ash's friendly demeanour that allows him to befriend these characters so we see these perspectives.
  • Introduction to the franchise: This is really only applicable to the Original Series than to the later series, where it is assumed that there are some things the audience is more or less aware of, but like Harry Potter, Ash acts as our introduction to the concept of being a trainer. We find out what you have to do, what you can't do, the achievements and the set-backs through Ash as the beginner trainer.
  • Ability to drive the plot: Ash Ketchum mightn't be the most fascinating or complex character - however this does help in a weird regard to the anime to keep its scope quite general to children instead of restricting itself to one genre by how its protagonist is defined. His character can help bring out fascinating moments from other characters, or aspects about the Pokemon world as opposed to surrounding the narrative. Also, his incredibly broad goal allows the anime to extend for years on end with the same protagonist, which is fairly convenient, and allows the audience to explore the Pokemon World in a very general and broad way. His friendliness also can drive episodic plots, as he can be approachable to CoTDs.
  • Role model: Children's media usually has strong moral messages interwoven into them, and therefore their protagonists usually tend to be evaluated to see if they are a good role model. Ash Ketchum has definitely shown moments where he has incredibly admirable loyalty, benevolence towards Pokemon, interest in doing what is morally right, interest in co-operating well with others and a good sense of empathy as well as justice. Naturally, he has flaws, otherwise he wouldn't be as relatable a figure to children, and people do make mistakes, so it is good to show to children that this is a natural process, they just have to learn from these mistakes to grow as a person.

In some ways, I do like anime series aimed at children that break the trend and have more introverted protagonists (such as Takato in Digimon Tamers, or Tsubomi in Heartcatch Precure!), since these types of kids do exist and should be represented in kind as heroes of their own stories. Ash is naturally, the stereotypical shounen protagonist - but that's not inherently a bad thing either. I do like shounen anime series that have different protagonists each time, since it is nice to see children's anime experiment with various genres and types of people but as for the Pokemon anime, I think Ash Ketchum happens to be a good protagonist and even though I was starting to think he had overstayed his welcome in XY, I find that he can still be interesting now, even two decades in.
 
kantoskies said:
I feel like his worst crimes are being pretty generic/a blank slate. Which, for a show that's this long-running and cyclical, is a pretty good fit. They can have him be a goofy kid who makes a lot of newbie mistakes and then the very next series make him a bland shounen protagonist. His only real personality traits are that he's confident, optimistic, energetic, and just darn loves Pokemon. And if there's a movie or episode that needs a "chosen one", chances are it'll be him.

Basically at this point I really can't get invested in his story because he's basically just a blank slate for the writers to mold to fit the tone of each series. It's the supporting cast-- and the Rocket trio!-- who are more likely to catch my attention, too bad they don't always get the proper treatment (looking at you, SM classmates).
Click to expand...

I mostly agree with this. I generally have no opinion on him. I find the supporting cast a lot more interesting than him. It's like Marco Polo and Orange is the New Black.
 
Well I love Ash as a character and that won't change really even if his current behaviors is not the usual Ash I know. I also think he's as good as we'd get from the writers anyways based on what they're allowed to do, even if we changed from him, the other character would suffer the same fate as the only thing holding back Ash is the fact that they don't want him to win (DJ Khaled reference). If we take away BW Ash, we would have seen a linear growth that made sense in both his intelligence as a trainer and as a person so it's nearly all good. SM is still debatable but he is quite different here.
 
I used to like him during OS and AG...but I got bored with him. I've always stated Dawn should have replaced him. She absolutely was best-written character of this Anime. She and Brock (but for different reasons). Even Ash's character changes all the time. OS, AG- ,,original" personality, DP-maybe more mature, but stil it was ,,this" Ash. Unova-kid. Kalos- too serious, boring (where was this savage-boy from OS?). Alola-five-years old kid...and about Dawn-even her pokepartner is better, Piplup has much stronger personality than Pikachu. I'd love to see Her again as main character. Max would be pretty good too- poor kid will never be a trainer because Ash always will be 10 years old.
 
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I don't know, but for some reason, I feel I have already replied on a similar thread on the forums.

I do like Ash the way he is right now and he is interesting enough for me. :) But, of course, if it were not for his traveling companions and his Pokémon, he would have been pretty bland and uninteresting since the original series itself. His friends and his Pokémon play a great role in his character development. ;)
 
OS-DP Ash had a clear progrrssion, post-DP Ash became inconsistent. He was stupid and even lost to a total idiot in BW, became competent in XY, then SM comes and he's not even interested much in Trials (rrmereme how Ash used to be excited for the next Gym?).
So OS-DP Ash was good, but post DP, he became more generic. If this continues, he will end up as nothing but a pure marketing tool, having no personally on his own. I prefer to consider pre-BW and post-DP Ash as seperate characters.
 
I definitely like him more now that they've made him less of a blank slate, but he's always been an at least decent character, and well, he's basically one of the main faces of the franchise. But let's be honest here, the show gets carried mostly by the Pokémon themselves most of the time.
 
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