After I have heard the news about Ash being officially gone and no longer being the main character or the protagonist of the anime series, I decided to make this article because I wanted to share about my thoughts on both Ash's departure and for the new anime that is coming out soon on the next year. Before the new Gen 9 anime was announced, I have some strange feelings that Ash will no longer continue staying as the main character after I saw him winning the Pokémon World Championship against Leon and became the new world champion because that battle felt like that is going to be the end of his journey and finally achieving his goal by becoming the world's greatest trainer that ever was which is probably what Ash actually meant by becoming a "Pokémon Master" is that he wanted to become one of the strongest trainers to ever exist and that when I saw the final episode titles of the Gen 8 anime, I felt the same way as before is that I felt that he is officially leaving the anime, but still many of Ash fans pretends that he is not actually leaving and believes that he will continue his journey for the Gen 9 anime series, but it was too late when the teaser trailer for the Gen 9 anime was announced by revealing new protagonists being shown along with the Gen 9 starters and no one is shown to have a Pikachu and this already has caused a backlash to all Ash fans and other fans of the older anime series by saying that they have "ruined" the anime and that they will not continue watching it ever again after Ash "retires" for being the main character because they grew up watching the anime through his whole journey and that without him, Pokémon wouldn't be the same anymore, but the problem is that the series is called "Pokémon", not "Ash Ketchum's Journeys" or something like that, but another problem is that Ash's fanbase is full of shippers who ships him with one of their favorite female traveling companions like with Misty, Serena or Dawn for example, but for me, I prefer him to end up with no one as his future "wife" because I don't want the Pokémon anime to end up like Digimon Adventure 02 where the characters ends up to marry someone after they have grew up at the end and because the epilogue of 02 has already received enough backlash when many shippers were disappointed for what their favorite characters have ended up with like how Taiora fans (Tai+Sora shippers) were so upset that Tai didn't end up marrying Sora, but it was Matt who ended up marrying her instead and this is why I don't want the Pokémon anime to suffer the same as Digimon did and would prefer the Pokémon anime to end with Ash finally meeting his father after so many years and challenging him to a battle to show him who is the strongest which it will be much of a better ending than Ash ended up marrying with one of his female traveling companions because it will receive as much backlash as the epilogue of Digimon 02 did because I can't stand shipping wars at all. Now as for the new Gen 9 anime, I would say it looks good and very interesting overall, and I will give it a chance when the first episode finally coming out on the next year because it gives me some "Digimon Tamers" vibes to it because when I first saw a commercial of Digimon Tamers back as a child, I was very exited and didn't cared that it had completely new protagonists because it was still Digimon related and when I first watched the first episode of it, I "fell in love" with that series and it was my number 1 favorite Digimon anime series all the time and still currently like it which is why I'm not that disappointed with that decision that the writers of Pokémon anime decided to make probably because they have noticed how many anime franchises have replaced their "famous" protagonists with new ones like with Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Beyblade when referring to the monster themed anime franchises for example which is probably why they did that because they can't use the same protagonist over 100+ years or something like that, but unfortunately, most Pokémon anime fans only cared about Ash and some of his female traveling companions and nothing more because they are so "spoiled" in my opinion and view, so sorry for saying this, but that's how I view them. That's all I have to say about it and I hope for the new Gen 9 anime to turns out to be good overall and don't care what other "spoiled" Pokémon anime fans will say about it because I don't think it will be that bad just because Ash is not featured in, but then again, Pokémon is still Pokémon without Ash like how Digimon is still Digimon without Tai, Yu-Gi-Oh! is still Yu-Gi-Oh! without Yugi and Beyblade is still Beyblade without Tyson, so not, because all those monster themed anime franchises weren't overall created to be only about those protagonists and are still being continued without them, so it doesn't matter at all and that all fans needs to respect the franchises for what they are now instead of keep whining about their beloved protagonists being gone, but even Ash is officially gone, I will still continue to watch any new Pokémon anime that is coming out because I'm still a Pokémon fan and that I will continue supporting the franchise for what is it now.