Ash Ketchum

Eye color
 Hair color
 Japanese voice actor

Ash Ketchum is the main protagonist of Pocket Monsters. He is a 10-year-old Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town in the Kanto region who has always dreamed of becoming the world's greatest Pokémon Master.

He is a Pokémon Trainer from Pallet Town whose goal is to become a Pokémon Master. His starter Pokémon was a Pikachu that he received from Professor Oak after arriving late at his laboratory. On his journeys around the Pokémon world, he's been accompanied by a multitude of close friends. In *Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon*, he becomes the first Template:Pkmn of the Alola region's Pokémon League.

Ash eventually managed to collect every badge from Kanto's Gym Leaders (although some of his badges were earned out of gratitude due to varying circumstances), allowing him to enter in the Indigo Plateau Conference. Since then, Ash has continued to travel, journeying through the various regions and making new friends, from Misty and Brock to Nemona and Arven. With each new region he traveled to, Ash continued to challenge all the Gym Leaders, entering Pokémon League Conferences and catching new Pokémon while still following his goal of becoming a Pokémon Master. Since this goal is so close to his heart, he sometimes acts a bit rash and rushes to the next battle he can as fast as possible without thinking.

He shares his Japanese name with the creator of the Pokémon franchise, Satoshi Tajiri. His English surname is a pun on the English motto, "Gotta catch 'em all!"

## Appearance

Ash is a skinny, slender preteen with a dark shade of cyan hair, slightly tan skin, and brown eyes with two distinctive lightning bolt-like markings (maybe cheeks) underneath each one. Ash's pupils were not visible during the Indigo League and through the Diamond & Pearl series until the Best Wishes series made them more profound and distinguishable.

While Ash wears a few different outfits, he always wears a baseball cap, which changes depending on the region he is in. Without a cap, Ash is shown to have a cowlick and a narrow, triangular, and edgy tuft of hair in the middle of his forehead that comes to a point on the right side.

### Pocket Monsters

Ash wore a blue short-sleeved jacket with gold trim, white collar and sleeves, a dark teal T-shirt, blue jeans with light blue cuffs, black and white sneakers with red dots, green fingerless gloves with light green borders, and a red and white hat with a green stylized "L".

Ash's eye pupils were not visibly shown, his lightning bolt-like markings are tilted and slightly longer and his spiky hair is sharper.

### Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation

Ash wore new clothing. He wore a black and red hat with a green Poké Ball on it, a blue sleeveless hoodie with gold trim and a white hood, a black short sleeve undershirt with a red stripe, black fingerless gloves with light green borders, light blue jeans, and blue sneakers.

Ash's spiky hair is slightly short and his lightning bolt like markings are slightly short.

### Pocket Monsters Diamond and Pearl

Ash wore a black vest with a white collar and yellow stripe, a white short-sleeved undershirt, blue cargo jeans, and black and red sneakers. He also wore a red hat with a blue Poké Ball print. Ash wore the same fingerless gloves he wore in the Advanced series.

Ash's spiky hair is slightly shorter and slightly dull, and his lightning bolt-like markings are short and slightly big.

### Pocket Monsters Best Wishes

Ash wore a red and white hat with a blue Poké Ball print, a blue and white hooded jacket with a golden zipper, black baggy jeans, black fingerless gloves with red borders, and red high-top sneakers.

Ash's eye pupils are visible shown and his lightning bolts-like markings are slightly smaller.

### Pocket Monsters XY and XYZ

In the XY and XYZ, Ash wore a blue collared shirt with short sleeves and white trim, a black undershirt, darker blue jeans, a red and white hat, and red high-top sneakers. Ash also wore the same fingerless gloves he wore throughout the entire Best Wishes series.

Ash's body looks the same only that he has tufts of hair on each side of his head that covers the top of his ears. Also, his Jolt - like marking underneath his eyes are smaller than usual.

### Pocket Monsters Sun and Moon

Ash wore a loose short-sleeved shirt with white and blue stripes, brown capris pants with red outlines, baggy pockets and red folded sleeves at the edge, and blue sneakers. His cap was red, dark blue, and gray, and the Poké Ball design was white. Ash also kept a silver Z-Ring on his left wrist, which was later upgraded into a black Z-Power Ring. Unlike in previous regions, Ash didn't wear fingerless gloves while he was in Alola.

As a member of the Ultra Guardians, Ash wears an indigo and white uniform with light periwinkle accents as the edge of the short sleeves, collar and inlines of his uniform are black. He wears matching indigo gloves.

Ash's body still remains the same. Like in XY.

### Pocket Monsters Sword and Shield

Ash wears an orange collared shirt with short sleeves and white trim, a black undershirt, Dark Blue shorts with light blue outlines, a orange and white hat, and black high-top sneakers with yellow stripes and light blue laces. He wears a Dynamax Band on his right wrist which he obtains from Professor Magnolia.

Much like XY and Sun and Moon, Ash looks the same.

### Pocket Monsters Scarlet and Violet

??

His body remains the same like last time.

## Personality

Ash is very determined to be a great Pokémon Trainer. Personality-wise, Ash is a very strong person, shows confidence when battling and shows a lot of sympathy towards Pokémon, usually helping and befriending them through his long journey. As a result, Ash doesn't like Trainers who mistreat Pokémon, such as Damian. Ash also serves as a role model for many people such as May, Dawn, N, Serena, Lillie, Hop, and Nemona. In fact, he often astounds people with his skills and abilities, and unpredictability. Ash's strategy and tactics in battle are usually problem-solving, including thinking on his feet during special matches or that relate to the special and unique abilities of Pokémon. Also, Ash even takes input from his friends and has always helped him whenever he was stuck in a jam.

Ash is generally kind, brave, enthusiastic, passionate and adventurous. However, he can be stubborn, high-tempered, cocky, and sometimes impulsive at times. During his journey, Ash realized that some of those traits were affecting him, as they had caused him to lose some of his gym battles. By recognizing this, Ash trained himself for his rematches and keeping those parts of himself in check so they wouldn't not only affect him in battle again, but also outside of it as well. Although those traits still remain, they have been shown to be less of a problem during his Pokémon battles. Thanks to his hard work, Ash has corrected the hot-headed, cocky, and impulsive parts of his personality, though he still shows them if Pokémon were being mistreated, some of his friends teasing him, and various other reasons. Since then, Ash has demonstrated much greater maturity and level-headedness both in and out of battles. In addition, he has shown to give everyone around him good advice in order to better themselves and their goals. Ash also has a fascination with science and technology, even though he cannot understand most of it.

## Skills

Ash has quite a few abilities and skills. First and foremost is his athleticism, despite his young age, as Ash is very athletic and physically able. In fact, Ash was once even called a "human Mankey" because of his skill at climbing. Aside from climbing, Ash can run, swing on vines, carry heavy loads, and swim. Ash can also survive Pokémon attacks for a long period of time without taking too much damage, although it depends on the situation. Additionally, while Ash is a very talented battler, he also has some performing skills due to competing in a couple of Pokémon Contests along with watching May and Dawn's performances. Likewise, Ash has good fishing skills. Also, Ash has some cooking skills and does have good knowledge about Pokémon, due to spending a lot of time around friends who can cook and have deep knowledge about them.

Much like an Aura Guardian, Ash has the ability to sense and control Aura. However, after obtaining a Key Stone, Ash's Aura powers were increased. Also, Ash has shown the ability to use Bond Phenomenon, as showcased in the XY series with his Greninja. Ash even demonstrated great skills in utilizing Z-Moves, as shown in the Sun & Moon series. In addition, Ash even created his own Z-Crystal, Pikashunium Z, and performed an exclusive Z-Move with Pikachu known as 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt. Also, Ash even demonstrated some skills in utilizing Dynamax and Gigantamax, as shown in the Sword and Shield Anime. Unlike some Trainers, Ash is able to Gigantamax his Pikachu without having him return to his Poké Ball.

Much like Dawn, Ash sometimes displays the ability to understand the feelings of Pokémon, due to spending a lot of time around them. His connection with Pokémon is so great that he even sometimes displays the ability to share a connection with Mythical or Legendary Pokémon. This is because of Ash's compassion and his strong will power to protect them; instances of it were shown when Azelf chose to connect with Ash in the Diamond & Pearl saga, and when Victini linked up with him in the movie Black/White Victini and Zekrom/Reshiram.

When Ash has a connection with Mythical or Legendary Pokémon, he can feel their pain, sense if they have been captured, and see their thoughts or memories. On the other side of the link, the Pokémon can appear to Ash in his dreams to ask him for help, show him impending danger, or as a way of asking him to do something for them, as shown with Azelf, Victini, Nebby, and Lunala. Ash has also shown the ability to hear what Legendary Pokémon are saying, shown with Solgaleo, & Lunala. At times, Ash has shown the ability to sense the presence of Pokémon or people whenever any of them were nearby or if they're in danger.

One of Ash's other abilities is that he can learn new things really fast as he picks it up right away, although there have been times that he needed to practice first before figuring it out. Also, during battle, Ash can come up with strategies easily as he would use the environment to his advantages or find a flaw in his opponent's strategies.

Ash's battling tactics skill is, as like other Pokémon Trainers, using type advantages against his opponents, but sometimes, he uses Pokémon that have a type of disadvantage. Ash's methods of battling can be overwhelming his opponents by a combination of moves using physical and special kinds of moves. One of Ash's signature traits is his adaptability and creativity, often using unorthodox methods to overcome difficult adversaries, like having his Charizard melt the battlefield during his battle against Gary's Blastoise to trap it and creating the Counter Shield to counter Fantina's Ghost Pokémon.

#### On Hand

This section shows the Pokémon that Ash as of the Sword and Shield Rewrite

#### With Professor Oak

This section shows the Pokémon that Ash keeps at Professor Oak's Laboratory.

#### With Kukui and Burnet

This section shows the Pokémon that Ash keeps at Template:An and Template:An's house.

#### Released

This section is for the Pokémon that Ash formally Template:Pkmn2 into the Template:Pkmn2.

#### Traded away

This section is for the Pokémon that Ash traded away.

#### Traveled with

This section is for the Pokémon that Ash traveled together or bonded with for some period of time but never officially caught.

## Voice actors

* **Japanese:**
	+ Rika Matsumoto
* **English:**
	+ Veronica Taylor (Pocket Monsters-AG145, M01-M08, Mewtwo Returns)
	+ Sarah Natochenny (AG146-present, M08-present, Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon)
* **Korean:**
	+ Choi Deok-hui (OS; "Mewtwo's Counterattack" - "Mirage Pokémon Lugia Explosive Birth")
	+ An Hyeon-seo ("Emperor of the Crystal Tower Entei" - "Guardians of Alto Mare Latias and Latios")
	+ Lee Seon-ho (AG - present; "Wishing of the Seven Nights: Jirachi")

## Origin

### Design

Ash's design is based on the player character from Generation I, Red.

## Trivia

* Ash's original Japanese name is "Satoshi" and he was named after and based on Satoshi Tajiri, the creator of Pokémon.
* Ash's last name, Ketchum, may be derived from "catch 'em".
	+ His fake name, Tom Ato, might be derived from his last name, Ketchum, and be related to Ketchup.
* Ash's name is based on one of the three options for one's name in Red/Blue/Yellow.

## External links

* Article on Wikipedia

Template:Ash's Pokémon