However, even when I saw the Black and White anime when it first aired, I knew something wasn't right. Within the first episode, despite all Ash (Satoshi) had learnt, he loses to a lvl 5 Snivy, owned by a trainer who is clearly a knock-off Gary Oak. I remember being so confused why Ash always needed constant reminders about Pokémon type matchups, what specific moves did and how they worked, how many Pokémon he was allowed to carry - when at this point, Ash had already visited 5 separate regions, and learnt all the basics a million times. I understood that this was simply to guide new audience members into the world of Pokémon, and explain the basics; but for some reason the writers made Ash seem like a total moron. In the Sinnoh series, Ash had an amazingly strong team, and even had a really well written and fleshed-out rival, in the likes of, Paul. This was all thrown out of the window when this series rolled around.
I've been back to watch this series since, and even compared to the original Pokémon series, Ash appears to be a mindless trainer who hardly puts any strategy into the fights, and is even surprised when one of Pikachu's electric attacks has no effect against a ground type Pokémon. Although the series EVENTUALLY picked up its pace, this is definitely the worst iteration of Ash.
