Should Pokemon Reboot The Anime Series?

The Pokemon anime series has been running for a LONG time. Beginning in 1997 and totaling over one thousand episodes, the anime franchise has followed Ash Ketchum throughout many different regions as he collected numerous pocket monsters to add to his roster. With Ash attempting to currently win the Alola League tournament in the current Pokemon: Sun and Moon anime, a new anime series will be releasing this fall in November 2019. What this newest entry into the Pokemon franchise will be is still up in the air, though we would like to give our argument that it should be a reboot of the series.

So why do we want to create a reboot of the wildly popular Pokemon franchise? It’s simple, Ash Ketchum is old. Now, he’s not necessarily “old” in terms of age as he seems to be locked in some sort of Lovecraftian deal that allows him to stay the age of 12 for the rest of his natural life, but we know everything there is to know about the young Pokemon trainer. Throughout the thousand plus episodes of the series, we’ve explored Ash through more scenarios than we can count but its a big world out there in the environment of pocket monsters. Isn’t it time that we explore it through the eyes of a new protagonist?

Now don’t get us wrong, Pokemon: Sun and Moon is something of a “soft reboot”, presenting old characters in a new region/environment while not necessarily referencing the events of the past series as much, but we wouldn’t mind seeing a brand new character to lead us through the world of Pokemon when all is said and done. Ketchum has had over 20 years (!) of adventures to his name, and should he finally win a tournament in the case of Alola, shouldn’t it be time to put him to rest.

Imagine this. We are given a new protagonist that is just starting out in the world of attempting to become the world’s greatest Pokemon trainer, and during his adventures, he is forced to attempt to beat Ash in a battle to achieve his goals. Imagine the drama of that. We’ve know Ketchum and company for so long at this point, isn’t it time to experience new characters and environments in the world?

For a series that sports over 800 pocket monsters to its name, its reliance on one main protagonist with a handful of supporting characters is certainly something we wouldn’t mind seeing shift in the future.

What do you think of the idea of rebooting the Pokemon anime? What would you want to see brought to the table? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all thngs comics, anime, and Pokemon!

Want to know more about Pokemon’s upcoming anime venture? You can read its tentative teaser here: “The new “Pocket Monsters” series that was announced today will of course be set in the Galar region from the video games “Pocket Monsters Sword/Shield“, which will be released November 15th, but also in all the other regions that have appeared in the video games so far, including the Kanto region from the original “Red/Green” games and the Jouto region from the sequels “Gold/Silver”.”