>>30094673What we're seeing in the Pokémon anime is a bunch of loosely connected clones of recurring characters in action. Ash has been killed off multiple times, only for his current clone to have some key memories of past experiences, which is why he keeps forgetting basic battling skills and the name of different Pokémon even though he supposedly has so much experience under his belt.
This only occurs with Ash, though, all other clones retain their memories and go on to become good trainers. It must be a bet by the creators of this situation. "Can Ash beat the League on his "first" try?"
So far he hasn't been able to do it. It seems they got sloppy with the cloning program this season too, as he's noticeably different from all his previous iterations.
