Pokemon’s Latest Evolution is Reminding Fans of Ash’s Charmeleon

Pokemon‘s newest anime has had a huge string of shake ups when compared to early entries in the franchise, but one of the biggest is undoubtedly all of the nostalgia this newest series has had for the older entries. Bringing Ash Ketchum back to the Kanto region and stacking his party with Pokemon from the original 151, the nostalgia doesn’t quite end there. Although it initially seemed like it would be a big deal seeing a second protagonist, Go, introduced and taking much of the screen time this series, Go has been experiencing many of the same roadblocks Ash once had to face as a young trainer.

This especially goes for the latest episode of the series that sees Go and Scorbunny’s partnership drastically change. After helping Scorbunny learn a new movie, this new anime shook things up once more by having Scorbunny (the central mascot representing the Galar region and presumably launching waves of merchandise in Japan) evolve into Raboot by the end.

Fans were taken aback seeing how Raboot brushed off Go towards the end of the episode, but this more solemn kind of partnership also gave them many flashbacks to the original series in which Ash’s Charmander evolved before he was ready for it and it refused to listen to him for several episodes after.

Famously in the original series, Ash’s fire-type starter Pokemon evolved in a battle but didn’t respect him. This continued throughout the anime even when Charmeleon evolved into Charizard, and it eventually grew to appreciate Ash after the two of them survived a tough night together. There’s a chance that it will be the same here as Scorbunny evolved before Go leveled up as a trainer who could handle it.

It’s only been a few episodes into this new series, and Go already had his first evolved partner 17 episodes in. We could be getting a whole arc in which they bond once more like Ash and Charizard, but what do you think? Did Scorbunny’s evolution into Raboot remind you of Ash’s Charmeleon too? Do you think the rest of Scorbunny’s evolutionary chain will play out like Ash’s partnership with Charizard? Or will Go and Raboot make up within a few episodes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or talk to me directly about all things anime and other cool things @Valdezology on Twitter!