Why does Ash sometimes switch between English and Japanese?

[Sham]

When Delia congratulated him on his place in the league he said “thank you mama” and continue speaking in Japanese. I’ve always noticed him saying things like “ok” and so on in the Sun and Moon anime. Is this a recent thing or have I just not been in the loop?

 

[mysticalglacia]

Ash has always mixed in English phrases in the Japanese version; I’d guess to show his youthfulness (English is seen as ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ in anime, particularly with younger/teen characters). In particular, he uses “thank you” and “okay” a lot. It’s just an aesthetic choice to show his personality off, really.

 

[ash&charizardfan]

Well him saying thank you is actually a sign of protagonist saying that word. if you look at other animes many main protagonist like naruto, yukihira souma, natsu draganeel, monkey d luffy and even son goku use thank you to show there appreciation, its probably to show there cheerfull and bubbly personality.

 

[Lord Starfish]

"sankyuu" is basically its own term in Japanese. Yeah, it's literally the English words "Thank you", but in the context of Japanese, it's essentially a super informal way of saying it. The above mention of other shounen anime protagonists... I mean yeah, but they don't do it because they're the main character. They do it because they're meant to be plucky, fun-loving characters who don't speak particularly formally.

 

[JLK2707]

It is just a dubbed version.

 

[TheWanderingMist]

It is just a dubbed version.

No, the thing is Ash sometimes speaks English in the Japanese version. That's what this is about.

 

[Leonhart]

I think it's just meant to sound "cool", and Satoshi's not alone in using occasional English words: I seem to recall Musashi saying something along the lines of "my sweet Pachirisu-chan" in English in the Japanese version of the Pachirisu capture episode from DP.

 

[loopoloopi]

Maybe it's an ESL tactic as well as being considered cool.

 

[AznKei]

It's not only the anime. Sometimes, Japanese people uses some words in English because they're influenced by American culture which was more prevalent after World War 2.

 

[_AISP]

I've noticed other characters do this as well.

 

[Sushi]

Japanese just has a crap ton of English loan words and loan phrases, and they've been completely normalized. Unless you're elderly or in a formal/academic setting, you're likely to use English loan words quite generously. It's definitely not just an "anime thing", though as mentioned above, it can be used as a tool in script writing to differentiate between hip, slang-y and "wilder" characters (more English words) and quieter, more polite and withdrawn characters (less or no English words). It's not "speaking English", it's using words and phrases that have been more-or-less welcomed and adopted into the Japanese language.

Even though it's an interesting topic in itself, going deeper into it will inevitably lead us away from the Pokémon anime, so I'm going to close this.