I’ll be honest, I read things as “have a falible character make him/her relatable” or “he/she have a personality now” and I don’t consider that as good argument. Heck, to exemplify, to me, Lana have the charisma of a rock, but she have a lot of fans (the anime staff included). When people points how interesting OS Ash was, I remember how of a prick he started, making more dumb decisions than not, having the short stick for minor (generally) offenses, facing big defeats or ridiculous defeats, but trying to be a better person after all of that, and everything that happened after that it’s to show how much he mellows and constantly humbles himself to become better than he was. Obviously it doesn’t happen as everyone wish every arc, but it still happen.
I read comments about how bland he was in DP and XYZ and just remember things like the rotom mansion episode, be a butt monkey on a crazy game show, sleep during the summer school camp, be a doofus on dancing (both DP and XY) and other instances where his goofy side is still there and people just ignore because “bland battle drone yadda yadda”.
Not everytime a “personality” will be a decisive fator, a person can just like the way the character is conducted. So, I don’t find fair classify the character only because of their portrait, more as how the setting act about them. All of his traits were in the previous series, if only the staff choosed focus some of them more than others. Because of that, I’m mostly satisfied about how Ash was portraited in DP and XY/Z and I still can find his SM incarnation fun, if exagerated.
SM did a singular job taking Ash from his comfort zone to a grounded place, it forced him to Interact more with people and actually blend well with the set and other characters in the core cast. Heck, I consider interactions between Ash and Gladion, of all people, quite fun, for example. Previous arcs managed to make the cast feel well integrated, but SM, for its faults, still make Ash part of the cast, which I commend. For example, BW had that uneasy feeling about Ash being a “strange element” that doesn’t feel of part of the setting. Now, about SM Ash...
It was said here that one of SM Strong points was give more focus on Ash as a person than as a trainer. I partly agree, but I still remember that be a trainer is part of what make Ash being Ash. I can’t blame the series for not be focused on battles, but I wouldn’t complain if we had more of them showing Ash’s out-of-box tactics, which I find too sparse this time. His team is probably my main problem, but this is less about how Ash was displayed in SM and more about executive meddling. If anything, he accumulated his own functions with some of the TRio’s comical role, instead give the classmates some more shades of being “falible”. It was mentioned the lack of agency for the girls, and when the things didn’t changed much to anyone non called Lillie in the development department, I stopped to care.
Final opinion: A little flanderizing, but SM Ash was a fine take of the character. Not my favorite, but I positively doesn’t dislike. I’m kinda used by now about Ash have a different interpretation every arc, so I won’t be surprised about whatever he’ll be in SS.
