In the current season of thePokemonanime, Ash and Go have been traveling and exploring many different regions.Ash and Go have gone back to Johtoin a previous episode, as well as Hoenn in another. Now the duo has traveled to the Vermilion City Gym in the Kanto region, but upon arriving Ash finds that the gym leader there is not the familiar face that he expected.
When fans tuned into the most recent episode of the anime, they expected to see Lt. Surge as the leader of the Vermilion City Gym. However, both viewers and Ash were surprised to find a new gym leader named Pisces at the head of the gym. The current season of the anime hasn’t been afraid to change things up a little, like with the addition ofAsh’s Pikachu having a gigantamax form, but thankfully the new episode makes it clear that Lt. Surge wasn’t just scrapped for a new character.
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Currently in thePokemonanime, Ash is competing in the Pokemon World Championships. Since the Vermilion City Gym is the nearest competitor with a higher score than Ash’s, he went there in order to challenge the gym and increase his rank. However, Pisces is acting as the substitute gym leader in the absence of Lt. Surge, who has apparently gone off to train. This doesn’t mean that Ash gets an easy battle, though.
Both trainers are restricted to two Pokemon, and Pisces' Raichu manages to get Ash to withdraw Pikachu. Ash is then forced to take out hisnewly caught Gengar, who successfully deals with Raichu; however, Pisces sends out their Electrode who knocks out Gengar. This causes Ash to bring Pikachu out once again, who finally puts an end to the battle. After Ash’s victory, Pisces tells him that Lt. Surge would likely want to battle Ash again, and Ash returns the sentiment.
More and more,Pokemon’s anime seems concerned with showing thePokemonworld in its entirety, not just in region-sized bites. This episode shows yet another instance of thePokemonanime being more willing to explore previous generations and, ultimately, it seems like a good thing for the series as it allows for more varied settings and Pokemon. Like with Ash’s new Gengar—orthe Dragonite that Ash caught—this episode having Ash go back to Vermilion City shows just how the anime’s storytelling is evolving.
