Pokemon Readies for Major Champion Returns With New Anime Poster

By Nick Valdez

Pokemon Journeys is setting the stage for some of the final returning top trainers with a new poster highlighting the anime's future! The newest iteration of the anime has seen Ash Ketchum battling his way up the ranks of the World Coronation Series, and one of the best aspects of this so far is seeing him come face to face with many of the opponents he has taken on in the past as he travels around the world. But now the series is getting ready for its final climactic tournament with some of the best trainers in the world overall.

With the newest episode of Pokemon Journeys officially crowing Ash as one of the members of the Masters Eight of the Master Class in the World Coronation Series, fans also got to find out what the final line up for the Masters Tournament actually will be. This included some previously teased champions such as Leon, Lance and Cynthia, but also revealed some major returns with the confirmation of Steven and Alain as part of the final rankings as well. Hyping up their return to the anime is a special new spread in the latest issue of Pash Magazine in Japan, and you can check it out below: 

Steven and Alain will be returning to the anime as the third and sixth ranked trainers of the Master Class respectively, and while Steven Stone's inclusion is less of a surprise considering he's a Hoenn Champion (joining the other regional champions in the tournament including Ash and Iris), Alain's inclusion is definitely a swerve. He's notably the only non-champion in this final lineup, and while he has won Kalos' tournament in the past, it's not something that has been reflected in the anime's canon as a whole as Diantha is representing Kalos as the champion for the upcoming Masters Tournament. 

The bracket for the final tournament has yet to be revealed as well, and with Alain being a notable inclusion there's a very good chance Ash will get the much anticipated rematch and we might get to see Mega Charizard X against Mega Lucario before it's all said and done. But what do you think? Are you excited to see Steven and Alain making their comeback to the Pokemon anime? 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!

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