With Ash's big win at the World Coronation Series in Pokémon, many fans began to wonder if achieving his goal might finally mean the end for Ash's character. Now, fans finally have some official word to indicate that Ash won't be going anywhere anytime soon.
Since the beginning of Pokémon's anime over 25 years ago, Ash Ketchum has been on a quest to become a Pokémon Master, which meant challenging the Gym circuit in each region and competing in their big tournaments. By this point, Ash has obtained dozens of badges and placed highly in many tournaments, including a big win in Alola which allowed him to enter the World Coronation Series to begin with. When Ash became a champion in Alola, many fans thought that might be the end of Ash's arc as well, but it was revealed that the new season would be of a radically different format based around globetrotting rather than badge collecting.
While it's not yet known what the future of the Pokémon anime will look like, it is now known that it will contain Ash. In a press conference with TV Tokyo's head of anime Toshiyuki Hiraoka, as reported in English by comicbook.com, the executive stated that Ash's adventures "aren't over yet." This statement seems to confirm that Ash will continue to be featured in some way in animated form, although it doesn't explicitly state that he'll continue to be the protagonist for the main series. While Ash is featured in the movies, there's no reason that TV Tokyo would be very involved in that, so it's likely that Ash's continued adventures will be on TV, whether that's as a special or as the regular weekly Pokémon anime series.
What Lies Ahead for Ash Ketchum
"For people wondering what's in store for the future, Satoshi [Ash]'s adventures aren't over yet. As to how the adventures will go, we want to make an announcement during the next anime broadcast." - Toshiyuki Hiraoka, translated from a Yahoo Japan article by Twitter user @DogasusBackpack
It is interesting to note that in addition to the press conference, a new episode title was also released today, entitled "Ash and Goh Set Off Anew!" This would suggest that Ash (and Goh) will continue to be the protagonists of the main Pokémon anime. Fortunately for the writers of the series, "becoming a Pokémon Master" is a suitably vague goal, and perhaps becoming champion isn't all there is to that dream. After all, Ash did start out wanting to "catch 'em all," so maybe completing the Pokédex will return to being a primary objective--and one that will be a lot easier with Goh's help, since his new Pokémon captures have become far more common in the series.
Whatever announcement is planned to be made, fans can rest assured that Pokémon's iconic Ash Ketchum will stick around in some capacity.
Source(s): comicbook.com, Twitter, Serebii.net