Ash is sharing main character duties in the next Pokémon anime arc.

The Pokémon Sun and Moon TV anime is heading into its last few episodes, but even as Ash’s fun in the sun of the Hawaii-inspired Alola region comes to an end, that doesn’t mean his Pocket Monster-catching journey is coming to a close. After all, there’s a whole new Pokémon game just around the corner, which means a whole new batch of Pokémon species and lore to fold into the anime arm of the franchise.

As is also often the case, the upcoming anime arc scheduled to immediately follow the conclusion of Sun and Moon (which is going to be titled simply Pocket Monsters) will introduce a new traveling companion for traditional main character Ash (or Satoshi, as he’s called in Japan). However, it’s important to not call the new character Ash’s sidekick, since the narration for the video revealing him makes it quite clear that “This time, there are two protagonists.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcLScW_4RpU

The anime’s second protagonist is named Go. Dressed in the sporty attire heavily featured in the promotional videos for the next Pokémon video game, Sword and Shield, Go’s primary partner is Scorbunny, the Fire-type Pokémon native to the new Galar region.

▼ Go, who says, “My dream is to catch every Pokémon there is!”

Getting back to Ash, the most famous human character in the franchise has been going through a number of different looks lately, with an extra-cartoony appearance for Sun and Moon, a more polished handsome anime boy aesthetic for the The Power of Us theatrical feature, and even a full CG makeover for Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution. For Pocket Monster, he’s looking closest to how he did in Sun and Moon. He’s a little less spongey, but still has the squiggles under his eyes that sort of look like an adolescent peach fuzz mustache.

▼ “No matter what, I’m gonna become a Pokémon Master!” declares Ash, a goal that seems a little more realistic now that he’s finally won a Pokémon league championship after 22 years of coming up short.

▼ A number of online commenters have expressed their dissatisfaction with Ash’s design still not being as “cool” as it was directly before the start of Sun and Moon, but Pikachu is looking as adorable as ever.

Pocket Monster is scheduled to debut on November 17 in Japan on TV Tokyo.

Source: YouTube/ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル via Jin
Images: YouTube/ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he still remembers people being upset about the character redesigns for Dirty Pair Flash.