Haven't watched the Anime past mid-Johto on some random pirate-stream site, which is weird because I'm pretty sure that's still before I was born, but from what I've *heard*...
He doesn't fit the Ashnime. He fits *wonderfully* with the "main line" of the franchise, but all the grandfathered-in "Pokemon are characters" stuff in the Anime makes his catch-them-all mentality *absurd*.
They should have planned out one last "leg" for Ash's Journey in *short order*, a final season or two wrapping things up, and left Goh's wildly-clashing basis for a reboot leaving that grandfathered stuff behind.
This is the *one* part of the franchise with the nearly continuous presence of a Pokemon that speaks intelligibly. You can't call the TRio Meowth "Early Installment Weirdness" like the IRL animal references because he just never left.
