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After Ash's journey concluded at the end of the To Be a Pokemon Master miniseries, many fans have been reflecting on the Pokemon anime throughout the years. Fans believe that there were a lot of moments in the show where Ash really should have lost some of his matches, but he ended up emerging victorious through unconventional methods.
Although the anime is very different from the games in terms of the creativity one can express in battles, this makes situations like the ones Ash is notorious for even more intriguing for the audience. Here are some of the best moments throughout the anime where Ash used some oddball methods to clutch the win.
5 of Ash's oddest victories in the Pokemon anime
1) Showdown in Pewter City
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The first entry on this list is Ash's first-ever gym battle in the Pokemon anime against his soon-to-be traveling companion, Brock. For those who have played the original Red and Blue titles for the Nintendo Gameboy, you will know that winning against Brock with just a Pikachu, Caterpie, and Pidgeotto is not very likely. As such, the anime had to improvise.
To give our protagonist a fighting chance in a battle where he would clearly have no right to win, Ash ended up triggering the fire alarm at the Pewter City gym, resulting in the sprinkler system dosing Brock's Onix. This apparently cancels out the immunity to Electric attacks that Ground-types like Onix are known for, allowing Pikachu to triumph over the massive rock snake with his newly learned Thunderbolt.
2) Counter Shields
During Ash's battle with Fantina, the protagonist had to deal with the issue of the opposing Drifblim landing constant Hypnosis attacks to keep putting his Pokemon to sleep. As such, he developed a strategy only seen in the Pokemon anime, the Counter Shield. Utilizing a Pokemon's own moves, Ash found a way to deflect enemy projectiles and coined the technique the "Counter Shield."
Teaching this ability to his Pikachu, Buizel, and Monferno, Ash successfully countered all of the ailment-inflicting projectiles Fantina threw his way. This one moment left such an impression on the anime that Paul would use the strategy against Ash in a later battle in the series, with the technique also being used by Brock in the Alolan season of the anime.
3) Ash-Greninja
With so many Mega Evolutions to come in the later half of the Kalos anime, Ash needed a way to keep up with the competition. This led to the debut of the rare and powerful Ash-Greninja form that was only implemented for the sake of the plot.
The transformation resulted in Ash winning some close fights in the Kalos Pokemon League. Although this form was clearly only made to give Ash a work-around for Mega Evolution at the time, it did make its way to the video games.
4) Ash vs. Raymond
One of the most notorious fights conducted in the franchise is the one that takes place against Passerby Raymond at the beginning of the first Pokemon anime movie. Although the fight starts off fairly realistically, things take a bizarre turn after Raymond sends out three of his other companions at the same time to contest Ash's Pikachu.
This was done to shorten the length of the introduction sequence where the fight takes place, but it is one of the most unsatisfying fights in the franchise as a result. To contest Ash's Pikachu, Rayond sends out his Pinsir, Venomoth, and Golem into battle at the same time. The three are then one-shotted by Pikachu's Thunderbolt, despite Golem being a Ground-type.
5) Hawlucha "breaks" Trick Room
During Ash's gym battle against Valerie, the protagonist does the unthinkable and actually manages to shatter an entire arena created by Trick Room, an environment that reverses a Pokemon's speed. Sending out his Hawlucha, a creature weak to the type Valerie uses, Ash manages to command Hawlucha to use X-Scissor to shatter Valerie's Trick Room.
Even in other iterations of the anime where Trick Room was used, such as the fight against Conway in the Sinnoh arc, Trick Room was never something tangible but was instead a psychic barrier put around the arena. Having such an interaction take place so suddenly, despite it not really making sense, reeks of plot armor for Ash and his party in the Pokemon anime.
