As revealed by The Pokémon Company last week, the 20+ year journey of the perpetually 10-years-old Ash Ketchum will come to an end in early 2023, with the characters arc in the Pokémon TV anime to conclude. While this is already confirmed to be paving the way for new anime projects, including one based on the recently released Pokemon Scarlet / Violet, it is a bit bittersweet to be saying farewell to a character we have grown up alongside since 1998 through over 1,200 episodes (+ feature films).
The character of Ash Ketchum has been portrayed by two voice actors since debuting, Veronica Taylor (During the 4Kids era) and Sarah Natochenny (Ever since). While the dub cast change was controversial at the time, and saw many fan-favourites leave the franchise for good, both original and current voice actor have shared a celebration of their time with the leading lad.
In a message from Taylor:
Fun Fact: Veronica Taylor showed that 20+ years later she can maintain the Ash voice, doing this advice video around COVID-19 protection measures, really cool!
Having voiced the character for a whopping 17 years, Sarah Natochenny also had plenty of thoughts to share on their time as Ash:
