Pokemon has had its highs and lows, but right now, we are not sure how to describe the franchise. All eyes are on Pokemon these days thanks to an unprecedented leak. Not long ago, a netizen took to social media with scores of never-before-seen Pokemon assets ranging from the games to the anime. The massive leak included reports about Ash Ketchum’s exit from the anime, and now that rumor is being pushed back against.
By who, you may ask? Well, the rebuff comes from Rica Matsumoto herself. The voice actress behind Ash Ketchum is not about to abide by the new leaks facing Pokemon. Taking to social media, she addressed a particularly cruel rumor about the Pokemon anime that suggested Ash’s exit was due to cast drama.
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RICA MATSUMOTO DENIES THE NEW POKEMON ANIME LEAKS
According to the leak, Ash saw his era end in the anime for several reasons with one being behind-the-scenes tension. Reports surfaced that “strained relations” between Matsumoto and Ikue Otani (the voice of Pikachu) were causing issues within the cast. It did not take long for Matsumoto to hear about this report, and she used X (Twitter) to deny it outright.
“Someone is making this up. Don’t worry, nothing like this happened. I’ve been friends with Ikue since we were rookies, and she even came as a guest on my [tour],” the actress shared.
“I don’t know you, so do you enjoy writing these things? No one is happy about it. I think it is in bad taste and childish.”
The post, which alerted Matsumoto to the leak, has since been deleted. However, that does not meant the leak in itself has gone away. If anything, more eyes are on the situation than ever before, and Pokemon is facing a historic crisis as such. It isn’t every day that decade’s worth of content surfaces on the Internet, and Game Freak did not see this leak coming.
WHAT DOES POKEMON’S MAJOR LEAK MEAN FOR THE FUTURE?
After all, the leak is being called the Pokemon Teraleak due to its size. From unusued game sprites to unheard music and character sprites, tons of Pokemon content has been leaked in the past week. The info, which has come from a single user on social media, is part of a terabyte-level leak spanning the entirety of Pokemon‘s lifespan. Game Freak, the company that mades the Pokemon titles, has not touched upon this massive leak specifically. However, it did confirm it was targeted by a hacker back in August 2024. At that time, Game Freak learned its servers were accessed illegally, and more than 2,000 files pertained employees’ personal information was hacked.
And as for this massive leak? Well, there is no telling how the info was gleaned, and it seems unlikely any official party will own up to the theft.
With so much leaked info covering the Internet, it has become difficult to sort out the real leaks from the fake fluff. Plenty of anime files were found within the terabyte leak, but as far as Matsumoto knows, nothing about this cruel anime rumor is true. So if you thought Ash left the anime for some nefarious reason, well – you can think again.
Ash may be out of the picture in the Pokemon anime, but the TV series is far from done. The franchise has moved on to some new leads who were introduced in Pokemon Horizons: The Series. Roy and Liko are now leading the charge, and their adventures are endearing a new generation of fans. You can find current episodes of Pokemon Horizons: The Series on Netflix now, and a new set of episodes are slated to launch stateside near Thanksgiving.
What do you make of this latest Pokemon leak? Do you think the situation will have ramifications on the IP? Give me a shout at @meganwpeters with your take! You can also let us know what you think over on X (Twitter) and Instagram.
