>>51358664It was a callback anon. Ash could’ve honestly done anything else to stop Hypnosis like Pikachu using Electroweb in itself of Spiritomb. However he’s facing the Sinnoh Champion, and Counter Shield was originally developed as a strategy against Fantina’s Hypnosis, so it only made sense that Ash would use it.
One of the previous magazines actually pointed out that Pikachu would use a new technique during the battle but most people assumed it was learning a new move.
It was a very well done callback, so much so that the Japanese fanbase literally had it trending on Twitter
