Pokemon Finally Brings Fan Favorite Champion Back to the Anime

Pokemon Journeys has finally brought back a fan favorite champion back to the anime with the cliffhanger from its newest episode! Rather than tackling a traditional Gym League challenge through a single region, this newest iteration of the anime has seen Ash Ketchum and Goh exploring every past region of the franchise thus far as Ash works his way up through the ranks of a brand new challenge, the World Coronation Series. Taking on the toughest trainers in the world in the hopes of facing Leon in a rematch, Ash has faced some tough opponents from his past.

The anime has used the World Coronation Series as a way to bring back fan favorite trainers from the franchise’s past, and they’re only getting stronger the higher in the World Coronation Series Ash climbs. With the cliffhanger of the newest episode teasing the trainers in the Master Class, however, we finally got a return fans have been asking for quite a long time with a glimpse at Sinnoh’s current Champion, Cynthia. Check it out as spotted by @ilapaperx on Twitter:

Episode 77 of the series recently aired in Japan, and saw Ash take on the strongest Sinnoh Gym Leader, Volkner, for a major rematch as the first real challenge of his Ultra Class rank. After the battle is over, Volkner teased that there are even stronger trainers within the eight slots of the Master Class and one of them actually belongs to Cynthia. With this, we briefly see her return to the series as the major tease being we’ll get to see her in action in the future when or if Ash does break into the Master Class.

Cynthia’s return to the series is an exciting one because while she’s only one of the champions Ash will seemingly see in the Master Class, she’s also one Ash never faced off against in full despite seeing her in action and working with her a number of times in the past. It’s not a guarantee that we’ll actually get to see that battle in the anime’s future, either, but this cliffhanger demonstrates just how stacked the competition is for this world spanning tournament.

What do you think? Do you want to see a full battle between Ash and Cynthia in Pokemon’s anime future? Do you think Ash even has a chance of making it into the Master Class at all? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!