Ash Ketchum

## Voices

**Ash Ketchum** (サトシ, *Satoshi*) is the main protagonist of Pokémon the Series. 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. The first human character to be introduced in the series, he is the winner of the Orange League and Kanto Battle Frontier and also the Alola region's Pokémon Champion, receiving the title after winning its first Pokémon League Conference. He is also one of the 8 best trainers in the Pokémon World after defeating Raihan and reached Master Class in the World Coronation Series.

## Appearance

Ash is a skinny, slender preteen with dark black 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.

## 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 and Shamus. Ash also serves as a role model for many people such as May, Dawn, N, Serena, Lillie, and Goh. 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.

Ash has a hard time opening up to others, as he doesn't like to talk about his feelings and his past. At first, he had difficult times when it came to taking advice or criticism from his peers, especially from his friends, but that has changed as time went on. While Ash has grown to be more open towards talking about his feelings and taking advice or criticism, he still has trouble opening up about his past sometimes. However, Ash does open up about his past with his friends and Pokémon whenever the topic comes up, though it is only if he needs someone to talk to or if he felt like talking about it, since it either reflects a mistake of his or it makes him feels comfortable sharing to anyone who is closest to him. Despite being more open, Ash still shows his stubborn side at times, although it's mostly shown when he is depressed or upset.

Ash is also honest and a Trainer that keeps his word as he usually doesn't break promises to his friends, family, and Pokémon, although he does the same thing for ones that aren't his. Sometimes, Ash makes promises to himself as well, which was shown during his first Pokémon League competition where he decided to not repeat the same mistakes he made in future League competitions. This was shown again after the events of the Kalos crisis, as Ash blamed himself for what happened when he unknowingly revealed one of his abilities to a leader of a villainous organization, which ended up putting himself and his Pokémon, Pikachu and his Kalos Pokémon, in danger. After that event, Ash decided to keep his special abilities, Aura and Bond Phenomenon, hidden from others. However, Ash has only told a few of his friends and Pokémon about his abilities as he has faith in them. So far, Ash has not told his mother, Misty, Tracey, Iris, Cilan, Lana, Kiawe, Lillie, Sophocles, Mallow, Goh and the rest of his Pokémon family about his rare abilities. When questioned or comforted about the skills or powers he possesses and the mysteries he holds, Ash had shown to panic about that or somewhat denies what he can do, which was mainly shown with Gladion and Goh, as he not only sees himself as an ordinary Trainer just on his journey to reach his goals but is also trying to protect the ones he cares deeply for. Despite this, Ash has shown to train his Pokémon that are connected to his abilities.

In addition to keeping his abilities hidden, Ash decided to keep his "Alola Pokémon League Champion" reputation a secret from anyone outside the Region, excluding a couple individuals, as he wanted to resume his journey as a Trainer, not as a regional Pokémon League Champion. Although, Ash's other reason for wanting to keep his "Alola Pokémon League Champion" reputation a secret was because he was worried that he wasn't going to be taken seriously. However, after finding out that Iris became the Champion of Unova region and having a homecoming in Alola, Ash came to accept that he could't keep his reputation a secret anymore and realized that he was taken seriously as both a Champion and Trainer, as he didn't mind being called Champion in the Masters Tournament.

On the other side, Ash has a natural, inborn love for battling. He enjoys battling Gym Leaders and anyone who challenges him, especially Trainers with a similar zeal and passion as him. However, while Ash is passionate, a good battler, and has a lot of achievements under his belt, he loses most of the Pokémon Leagues he challenges. So far, Ash has only triumphed over the Orange League in the Orange Archipelago and the Manalo Conference in the Alola region.

Additionally, despite his confidence and zeal, Ash can be modest and humble as he sometimes gets embarrassed when complimented on his skills as a Trainer, but it doesn't happen very often. In addition, Ash doesn't usually admit that he hasn't changed one bit, although it shows that he stays true to who he is, even when everyone around him notices it when he doesn't. Also, Ash has shown an insecure side, as he does worry about what his friends that he travels or travel with and his Pokémon family would think of him as a person, shown when his mother would say embarrassing things about him in front of his friends or Pokémon and when he got defensive by Brock and Misty as they reminded him about how he got their badges for petty reasons over getting them in battle right in front of his classmates along with his teachers, but one of the reasons for that side was because he knows he would get teased or scolded about it, which makes him either upset or defends himself. Although, Ash's main reason for his insecurity side was because he wants everyone around him, especially his friends and Pokémon, to see him for the person they came too known instead of who he used to be. However, Ash has seen that anyone close to him doesn't care about who he used to be, which not only shows that they have great faith in him but also that their true friends towards him. Despite the insecurities he has, Ash at times doesn't care about what anybody thinks of him, which shows how confident he is about being himself. At the beginning of his journey, Ash used to brag about his achievements but overtime didn't say anything about his previous accomplishment that much, although he does mention them sometimes but not as much in a bragging tone.

Despite his wins and losses, Ash knows he has a long way to go to make his dream a reality and continues traveling along with growing stronger to pursue it. Besides the Gym battles and Pokémon Leagues, Ash also enjoy competing in other special challenges and competitions such as the Battle Frontier in his home region Kanto, the Trials and Grand Trials in the Alola region, and the World Coronation Series.

Ash's biggest fear is losing anyone he's really close to, especially his friends and family. However, Ash is afraid to lose his Pokémon family even more, due to Team Rocket's constant attempts to steal his Pokémon away from him. Similarly, Ash is afraid of putting everyone he cares about in danger. Ever since the time Pikachu temporarily had amnesia and sided with Team Rocket, Ash became afraid that his Pokémon might leave him the same way his partner and best friend almost did. Ash is also worried that he won't meet his Pokémon family's expectations or be strong enough for them. Because of his fears, Ash sometimes doubts his Pokémon potential, which also affects his faith and trust in them as well, especially when some of them display a unique kind of power in their strengths. In the XY series, Ash almost lost himself when he let his fears get to him but Serena reminded him of who he is and helped him get his act together. However, Ash does put his fears aside to help his Pokémon become stronger, which in turn helps him get over his fears altogether, albeit slowly. Because of that, Ash is often able to help Pokémon with a rare ability perfect their true power.

Ash has also been shown to have a strong sense of justice. He doesn't hesitate to assist Officer Jenny, the Pokémon Rangers, and the International Police in their missions. He has a hatred for evil organizations, such as Team Rocket, Team Aqua, Team Magma, Team Galactic, Team Plasma, Team Flare, and Team Skull. Also, Ash doesn't like Pokémon hunters, especially J. Ash regularly risks his own life to protect Pokémon and defeat criminals.