>>53426238You know how power ups normally happen when the protagonist is under great amounts of stress? And it's usually accompanied by flashbacks to their friends and family, the things they're fighting for?
The ashime doesn't really have that because Pikachu is Ash's only consistent pokemon. So, one of the most integral parts of a shonen can no longer trigger. The easiest excuse writers can use to power up the protagonist isn't an option.
Which means JN had no excuse for making Ash as powerful as he was(or, depending on your perspective, making the other champions as weak as they were). Honestly, if they had used reserves it would have at least weakened the blow.
As for why I brought it up, I think it was because a few posters earlier said that Ash should have been made champion a long time ago, and I vaguely remember people mentioning shonen logic or something along those lines as a reason. I tried to summarize why that doesn't make sense. Ash isn't like Aang from avatar, Ash's powers are split between 6 other pokemon, and he only keeps one. He's more like an Aang that can only use Airbending,
