5 uncharacteristic mistakes Ash made in the Pokemon anime

Though the original Pokemon anime concluded with Ash Ketchum finally achieving his goal of being a Pokemon Master, he had a few hiccups along the way. Even in the fictional world of Pocket Monsters, nobody is perfect. There have been several times throughout the series protagonist's journey where he lost his cool and made a few mistakes.

With the original run of the Pokemon anime now finished in favor of the new Horizons series, many older fans have some nostalgic memories of their experience following Ash and friends across various regions.

Here are five times Ash made some strange mistakes during his journey.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

5 times Ash made odd mistakes in the Pokemon anime

1) Using Charizard during the Kanto season

Ash has used Charizard in battle several times, knowing full well that he will not obey Ash's commands (Image via The Pokemon Company)

A colossal mistake Ash made several times during his journey in the Kanto region was his frequent use of Charizard in important battles. After evolving from Charmander into Charmeleon, the Pokemon would completely disobey Ash, even injuring the trainer with Flamethrower multiple times.

Using Charizard costed Ash his encounter against Blaine, his match against Ritchie in the Indigo League, and several other battles on the Orange Islands. Though Charizard would ultimately learn to respect and obey Ash, his frequent use of his most disobedient Pokemon leaves many to question the character's method of thinking.

2) Getting rid of his good battlers

Ash has a bad habit of letting go of his strongest Pokemon in favor of keeping weaker, unevolved creatures in his party (Image via The Pokemon Company)

From the earliest seasons of the anime, Ash had been known to release some of his Pocket Monsters from time to time. While most instances were understandable as some of Ash's companions went on to lead better lives, there were some moments where the protagonist promised to come back for his old party members but never did.

The two most notable instances were Pidgeot and Primeape. While Pidgeot would eventually return for an episode in the final Journeys season of the original anime, Primeape, one of the few creatures Ash actually evolved, was never heard from again. This is very unfortunate as Primeape would have been a much more valuable asset than other creatures on Ash's team at the time of the Kanto season.

3) Not building good teams for the Pokemon League

Ash has made a habit of not using stronger Pokemon from his previous adventures when making his team for the Pokemon League (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Outside of the Sinnoh League, Ash never made use of his massive reserve of Pokemon waiting at Oak's Lab back in Kanto. While this could have been done for writing purposes, with the goal of focusing on the friends Ash made in the region he is participating in, this easily costed him many of his league attempts.

Ash caught a very limited number of Pocket Monsters in every region, and he rarely evolved them. This left him with a greatly nerfed pool of critters to pick from when it was time for the Pokemon League.

If Ash brought some of his old hard-hitters back like Heracross, Muk, or Infernape, he would likely have won more of these tournaments.

4) Never catching many Pokemon

Ash never really catches that many Pokemon when traveling across a region (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Despite the Pokemon franchise's tagline, "Gotta Catch 'em All", Ash didn't catch many creatures in his adventures across multiple regions. Rarely did the number of Pocket Monsters he caught in an entire season reach the double digits. This was another way the character greatly harmed his chances of success, in contrast to his usual victory-focused mindset.

While this was most likely done for the sake of the plot, making sure Ash's Pokemon have time to develop as characters, the character's odds were greatly impacted for the sake of the narrative. This problem only got worse as the series went on, with him only catching five critters in the final Journeys season.

5) Neglecting Gible

Gible was Ash's first Pseudo-Legendary Pokemon to join his party, but it never evolved (Image via The Pokemon Company)

During his adventures in the Sinnoh region, Ash encountered a Gible trying to master the move, Draco Meteor. Gible would begin traveling with Ash, mastering the move not through training with the protagonist, but when pressured by Conway's Shuckle during the Sinnoh League.

Ash never did any serious training with Gible, and he would never bring it with him on any other adventures. If Ash took his training with Gible seriously, he could have easily evolved it into a Garchomp, one of the strongest creatures in the franchise.

For more information on the Pokemon anime, check out our other articles:

5 of Ash's best battles in the Pokemon anime, ranked
5 best Charizard episodes from Pokemon anime
5 Pokemon Anime moments that showed Team Rocket trio as the good guys
5 best Pikachu episodes from Pokemon anime
5 Pokemon Anime moments that showed Brock's brilliance