Ash Ketchum (EToP)
| Ash Ketchum サトシ Satoshi | |
 Ash and Pikachu | |
| Age | 10 |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hometown | Pallet Town |
| Region | Kanto |
| Relatives | Delia Ketchum (mother) |
| Game counterpart | Red |
| Animated counterpart | Ash Ketchum |
| Counterpart debut | Pokémon - I Choose You! |
Ash Ketchum (Japanese: サトシ Satoshi) is the main character of The Electric Tale of Pikachu, a manga based on the Pokémon anime.
Character
While there are many similarities between Ash and his animated series counterpart, there are several differences as well. For example, while the anime version of Ash appears to be indifferent to love and romance, the manga version of Ash has a huge crush on Gary's sister, May Oak. He is also prone to quickly falling in love just like Brock, but to a much more subtle or less extreme degree.
Ash's appearance differs in the manga as well. He wears a red jacket, much like Red's, instead of the blue he wears in the anime. Also, for the duration of first volume, he wears a different hat, which is solid red with a "PM" on the front. Beginning in The Human Race and the Pokémon Race, his hat is changed to match the one he wears in the anime.
History
Indigo League
Ash makes his first appearance in this story when the power in his house suddenly goes out. He finds and captures the source of the electricity's failure, a wild Pikachu that was chewing on the wires, and goes to release it back into the wild. He encounters his rival, Gary Oak, and finds out that he has gotten his Pokémon Trainer's license and will begin his journey in one week and brags to Ash about it. Gary's goading and some encouragement from Gary's sister, May, causes Ash to decide that he will get his own license. Ash succeeds in getting his license and will begin his journey a week later. While attempting to capture a wild Pidgey, Pikachu goes missing and gets attacked by a herd of wild Spearow. Ash manages to rescue Pikachu and rushes it to the Pokémon Center so that it can be healed from its injuries; when Pikachu notices that Ash is risking his life to save it, Pikachu jumps up and defeats the leader of the Spearow herd, a Fearow, with a powerful Electric attack and Ash manages to capture it. Pikachu is later healed while Ash has to deal with an angry Misty, whose bike he had stolen and accidentally destroyed while fleeing from the Spearow herd.
Ash travels to Pewter City and battles the Gym Leader, Brock, and manages to defeat him and win his first Badge. He later travels to Cerulean City to challenge the Gym there and is shocked to find out that Misty is in fact the youngest of the Sensational Sisters and one of the Cerulean City Gym Leaders. Ash battles Misty for the Gym Badge with the requirement being that Ash has to retrieve his stolen hat (that Misty had stolen earlier). Ash manages to defeat her, get his hat back, and win the Gym Badge, much to Misty's frustration.
After a failed attempt at raising his Trainer level, a distressed Ash decides to go find something that can help him find higher ranked Pokémon. He goes searching for the A-rank Pokémon, Clefairy, after finding a store that sells maps that can help find rare Pokémon. He manages to find a Clefairy and chases it around Mt. Moon where he eventually ends up in Clefairy colony. Here, Ash meets Professor Oak and his friend Bill where they have lived with the Clefairy for a month to study the ways of their evolution patterns. Ash participates in the ceremony and evolves the Clefairy that saved his life while he was chasing it and says goodbye to his new friends, eventually parting ways with Oak and Bill.
Sometime later, Ash challenges the Saffron City's Gym Leader, Sabrina, but is defeated by her powerful Psychic abilities. He decides to stay at the Gym to do some training so he can battle Sabrina again when she suddenly goes missing. Sabrina resurfaces a week later but has had her soul sucked out of her body by an evil, giant Haunter known as the Black Fog. Ash, Brock, and a group of other people who have been fighting the Black Fog decide to avenge Sabrina by capturing the monster in giant Poké Ball specially designed to capture it called the "Enormo Poké Ball—X1". They find the Black Fog at the Pokémon Tower where Ash battles it; in the battle the Black Fog manages to destroy the giant Poké Ball but becomes too weak to resist even a normal size Poké Ball. Ash attempts to capture the monster with an Ultra Ball but it commits suicide with Selfdestruct before it can even reach it. While Sabrina felt sorry for the monster's death and cried for it, Ash cried simply for the fact that Ultra Ball he threw cost him the last of his allowance.
Ash later travels to Fuchsia City to participate in a Pokémon race and meets a young woman named Lara Laramie. When Ash finds out that a conniving young man named Dario is rumored to have broken Lara's arm, preventing her from participating in the race, he decides to race in Lara's place. Ash enters the race with Lara's Ponyta and manages to beat Dario when Ponyta evolves into a Rapidash.
Ash travels to Stone Town on Dream Island along with Misty and Brock so that Misty can buy an Evolution stone to evolve one of her Pokémon. They are approached by a young boy named Mikey who gives Misty a case holding a Fire Stone, a Water Stone, and a Thunderstone. After doing some investigating, they find out that he is an inductee to a group of people who love Pokémon that are evolved with stones known as the "Knights of the E Stone". When Mikey is yelled at the group for not evolving his Eevee, Ash steps in to defend him and they are given a challenge to see if Mikey gets to join the group. Ash and Mikey manage to beat their challenges and Mikey is inducted into the Knights of the E Stone while Ash denies his own offer to join the group.
Sometime later, at a local Pokémon Center, Ash, A.J., and Samurai discuss a legend about a Hidden Village filled with high level Pokémon that is protected by a goddess. They decide to go and search for the village but Pikachu accidentally gets separated from the group while talking to a wild Squirtle. After a week of searching, Ash is eventually reunited with Pikachu after it returns from the Hidden Village (where it went to search for him).
After accidentally working Pikachu to exhaustion, Ash and company decide to go to the country so that it can get some rest and relaxation. They encounter a herd of wild Pikachu and manage to befriend them. Ash becomes jealous when Pikachu starts spending all of its time with the other Pikachu and tries to find other ways to occupy his self. When Team Rocket decides to attack and capture the Pikachu herd, Ash and Pikachu battle and defeat them. The next day, Ash, convinced that Pikachu wants to stay with the other Pikachu, decides to leave with Brock and Misty but he gets a happy ending when Pikachu comes back to stay with him.
Ash, Brock, and Misty go to see a movie called "Clefairy in Space", that Ash greatly disliked, mainly due to him knowing that Clefairy aren't aliens like the movie portrays them as. Ash meets up with Professor Oak again and is invited to dinner after Oak finishes his television appearance. Later, the dinner is disrupted by a wild Clefairy that attempts to steal food in order to restock its food supply. After managing to stick a tracking device on it, Ash and Oak search for the thieving Clefairy and eventually end up at the house of Mimi, where they find Jessie, James, and Meowth attempting to steal Mimi's newly befriended Clefairy. Mimi's Jigglypuff manages to defeat them by using Sing to put everyone to sleep; the next day, the Clefairy have left and Ash cheers Mimi up by promising that they'll visit her again.
Ash manages to get all eight Gym Badges and is now qualified to enter the Pokémon League; he separates from Brock and Misty who have both decided to enter the League themselves. He meets Florinda Showers, a young rich woman whose city has sunk into the sea, and her butler, Potter. Ash finds out that Team Rocket has scammed Florinda of all her money by selling her fake Leaf Stones. They eventually find Team Rocket and Potter throws them into the flooded town after finding out they spent the money; Ash later finds a Poké Ball holding a baby Meowth and gives it to Florinda, who adopts it. They later encounter Team Rocket a second time; Florinda defeats them with her Gloom and Ash takes his leave to the Pokémon League as they admit their love for each other.
Later, at the league, Ash manages to win his first match with his newly evolved Kingler while Brock and Misty have already been defeated. As he taunts them for mocking his skills and not being anything special themselves, Pikachu goes running off. Ash finds Pikachu eating with the Pikachu of another Trainer, Ritchie, and befriends him. Ash and Ritchie easily win most of their matches and end up in the fourth round, Ash vs. Jeanette Fisher and Ritchie vs. Gary. Despite having some troubles with her Bellsprout, Ash is eventually able to beat it with his Muk.
In the fifth round Ash begins his battle with his new friend and rival, Ritchie, who has managed to beat Gary in the previous round. The battle begins with Ash sending out Squirtle and Ritchie sending out his Butterfree, Happy; the match ends in a tie when Squirtle is put to sleep and Happy is knocked out. The next battle is between Ash's Pikachu and Ritchie's Pikachu, Chuchino; both knock each other out with their powerful Thunder attacks. Their third and last battle is between Ash's Charizard and Ritchie's Charizard, Charley; as the battle goes on Ash's Charizard greatly damages Ritchie's Zippo; Ash throws the match in order to prevent Zippo from suffering any longer. Ritchie later manages to cheer Ash up by saying that his Zippo will be alright after being healed while Brock tells Ash that Charizard will one day see him as friend and listen to him; they then go to cheer on Ritchie as he goes through round six.
Orange Islands
Several months later, Ash travels to the Orange Islands to start a new journey. As he walks through Valencia Island, he encounters a baby Lapras being attacked by a group of Krabby and rescues it. After healing it, Ash decides to take it with him until he can find its family.
Ash later arrives on the Seven Grapefruit Islands to dry his wet clothes (that he got wet after falling off of Lapras and into the water). When he attempts to pick one of the Grapefruit off of a tree he is attacked by Ruby who mistook him for the local Grapefruit thief that has been taking and eating the fruit on the islands. They find out that the real thief is in fact, a wild Snorlax, and attempt to stop it from eating all of the fruit. All attempts to stop the Snorlax are unsuccessful until Ash finds Jigglypuff and uses its Sing to put the Snorlax to sleep and catches it.
After obtaining three Gym Badges, Ash meets up with Misty again and they travel to Trovita Island where they find a little girl and her Dewgong drowning. Ash rescues her with Fearow; she introduces herself as Mahri and takes Misty to go see her older brother and Trovita Gym Leader, Rudy. Ash challenges Rudy to a Gym battle and while Ash goes through the challenges required to win the Badge, Rudy flirts with Misty to try to make her his wife. Ash eventually manages to go through all of the challenges and battles Rudy himself and wins two out of three matches, thus beating Rudy and winning his final Gym Badge.
With all of his Gym Badges, Ash travels to Pummelo Island to begin his challenge against, Drake, the Orange League Champion. At first, Ash is nervous about the match but with some encouragement from Team Rocket, he manages to start the match with confidence. The next day, Ash and Drake greet each other and begin their match with Ash using Pikachu while Drake uses Ditto. At first, Ditto's Transform causes some trouble for Pikachu because it can copy its moves but Pikachu manages to win using its greater speed that Ditto can't copy to defeat it.
As the match continues, Ash finally manages to get Drake down to his last Pokémon, his Dragonite. After Ash's Squirtle is defeated, Ash sends out his next Pokémon, Charizard. Charizard and Dragonite have an intense battle in the air, but despite being larger and powerful, Charizard is eventually defeated. With Charizard defeated, Ash is now down to only one Pokémon, Pikachu. Pikachu, at first, is completely unable to even hurt the larger and more powerful Dragonite but manages to win when it crawls into Dragonite's mouth and shocks it from the inside. With Dragonite defeated, Ash becomes the winner.
Sometime before, in a story that takes place before Ash traveled to the Orange Islands, Ash meets up with Gary again sometime after the Indigo League. Ash and Gary decide to have a competition to see who can capture a recently found (and stolen) giant Slowpoke first. The Slowpoke's abilities make it nearly impossible to capture, but Ash uses his quick thinking and finally manages to capture it first. Ash soon trades his newly captured Slowpoke for a picture of May gorging herself on some food.
Ash's journey comes to an end when James is seen sending his mother a letter detailing his recent adventures; it is shown that Gary is now traveling with him.
Pokémon
Currently owned
| Debut | Pikachu, I See You! |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Pikachu (EToP)
Pikachu is the first Pokémon that Ash managed to capture. Pikachu is Ash's most trusted partner and has won many battles with him.
| Debut | Pikachu, I See You! |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Fearow
Fearow is the second Pokémon that Ash managed to capture. Ash first encountered Fearow attacking Pikachu with a group of wild Spearow. It was captured after Pikachu used its powerful electric attacks to knock it out and has become one of Ash's most used partners.
| Debut | Play Misty For Me |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Pidgeotto
Pidgeotto is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. Ash attempted to use Pidgeotto in his battle against Misty but only found a note stating "I'm beat! Off to get some R&R. Don't forget to write! –Pidgeotto." Pidgeotto has not been seen since and it is unknown whether or not Ash still has it.
| Debut | Play Misty For Me |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Butterfree
Butterfree is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. It was first seen as a Caterpie where it soon evolved into a Metapod. When Ash was out of Pokémon to use in his Gym battle against Misty, Metapod evolved into Butterfree, allowing Ash to defeat her. Butterfree has been used in many other battles since then.
| Debut | Clefairy Tale |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Beedrill
Ash caught this Beedrill in an attempt to raise his Trainer level but was not successful.
| Debut | You Gotta Have Friends |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Charizard
Charizard is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. Charizard was first seen as Charmander when Ash sent out his entire team when he felt lonely. It later appeared just before Ash's League match against Ritchie where he planned to use it against him as a secret weapon despite its rebellious and violent nature. Ash soon regretted this decision when Charizard viciously attacked Ritchie's Zippo, wounding it greatly; Ash returned Charizard and quit the match. Ash later used a now-obedient Charizard against Drake's Dragonite but it was eventually defeated.
| Debut | You Gotta Have Friends |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Bulbasaur
Bulbasaur is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. Bulbasaur was first seen when Ash sent out his entire team when he felt lonely. Ash used it in many battles, such as against Jeanette Fisher, Rudy, and Drake.
| Debut | You Gotta Have Friends |
|---|
Oddish is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. Oddish was first seen when Ash sent out his entire team when he felt lonely and has not been seen since.
Oddish's only known move is Stun Spore.
- Main article: Ash's Muk
Muk is a Pokémon that Ash managed to capture offscreen. Muk was used in the Indigo League where it fought and defeated Jeannette Fisher's Bellsprout.
- Main article: Ash's Snorlax
Ash found Snorlax eating all of the fruit on the Seven Grapefruit Islands. With the help of Ruby and Jigglypuff, Ash managed to defeat and capture the Snorlax.
| Debut | Pikachu's Plan |
|---|
- Main article: Ash's Tauros
Ash caught Tauros offscreen. He was used in the battle against Drake; the match was completely unseen.
Traded away
Temporary
Achievements
Badges obtained
Indigo League
- Boulder Badge (Play Misty For Me)
- Cascade Badge (Play Misty For Me)
- Soul Badge lookalike (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
- Marsh Badge lookalike (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
- Volcano Badge lookalike (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
- Unknown Badge (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
- Earth Badge (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
- Unknown Badge (prior to Days of Gloom and Glory)
Orange League
- Unknown Badge (prior to You Bet Your Wife)
- Unknown Badge (prior to You Bet Your Wife)
- Navel Gym Badge (You Bet Your Wife)
- Trovita Gym Badge (You Bet Your Wife)
Pokémon competitions
Pokémon League ranking
Ash has competed in the following Pokémon League Conferences:
Championship matches
Ash challenged the following Pokémon championships as well:
- Orange League - Winner (Pikachu's Plan)
Related articles
| Ash's Pokémon | ||||||
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| At Oak's/In rotation: | ||||||
| With Kukui/In rotation: |
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| Released: | ||||||
| Temporarily owned: | ||||||
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| The Power of Us only: | ||||||
| EToP only: | ||||||
| Newspaper Strip only: | ||||||
| For a list of Pokémon Ash has temporarily owned, used, or commanded, see here | ||||||
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This article is part of both Project Manga and Project CharacterDex, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on every character from each Pokémon manga. | 
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