An Iconic Character Makes Their Return in ‘Pokemon’ Anime

The Pokemon anime brought back a surprising “character” in last week’s episode.

Ash’s female alter-ego “Ashley” made a brief and unexpected return in the latest episode of Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon.

The episode focused on Ash and his friends temporarily taking over a Pokemon Center to cover for Nurse Joy, who had fallen ill. When Ash couldn’t find a male version of a Pokemon Center uniform, one of his female classmates dragged him into the girl’s locker room and put a blonde wig on him, causing him to briefly look like a girl.

Luckily for Ash (who was quite embarrassed about dressing as a girl) some of Ash’s other friends found a male version of Ash’s outfit to wear.

While Ash’s friends didn’t know it, Ash has a long history of cross-dressing that dates back to the earliest days of the Pokemon anime. Ash first donned a blonde wig and dress to infiltrate the Celadon City Gym after he insulted the perfume that the gym manufactured. Ash used the fake name “Ashley” during his ruse and managed to initially trick both Brock and Misty…but not his partner Pikachu.

Ash later assumed his “Ashley” persona to break into the Flower Garden Troupe’s headquarters in the Unova region so that Ash’s ally Iris could get revenge on a girl that insulted her and her Pokemon.

Ash has cross-dressed at least once in every Pokemon anime series….except for Pokemon the Series: XY. That series decided to subvert the trope by having Serena (Ash’s traveling companion) dress like Ash and battle with Pikachu while he was ill. Serena also had a huge crush on Ash during the series, so it gave “shipping” fans plenty of great moments while showing off Serena’s battling skills.

While Ash continued his long tradition of cross-dressing, he also did an admirable job of covering for Nurse Joy. Ash showed plenty of compassion while caring for other people’s Pokemon, even going out of his way to help a Team Skull grunt who had antagonized him and his friends throughout Ash’s stay in the Alola region.

New episodes of Pokemon the Series: Sun and Moon air in Japan every Thursday. Dubbed versions of the episode air on Disney XD a few months later.