After 25 years, Ash Ketchum was hailed as a Pokemon World Champion in the latest anime episode aired Friday.

In "Pokemon Journeys" episode 132, Ketchum was left with Pikachu while Leon from the Galar region still has Cinderace and his Charizard in the battle.

Leon used his "dynamax" on Cinderace and Ketchum was left with no choice but to do the same with Pikachu. Cinderace's fire attacks weren't enough and fainted. Both were tied with one Pokemon left.

Pikachu faced Leon's signature Charizard and almost fainted with his fire blast. When he closed his eyes, all of Ketchum's former Pokemon appeared and motivated him to continue the battle, and the sequence shifted to the hospital.

Waking up from his recovery, Ketchum narrated that Pikachu defeated Charizard and made him a World Champion after 8 regions that they've been through together.

It was never a straight road for Ketchum to be a world champion. In 1999, he placed in the Top 16 during his first attempt at the Kanto region.

His training was not enough and he only made it to the Top 8 in 2002 in the Joltho region and maintained the same spot in the Hoenn region in 2005.

Ketchum was determined in the Sinnoh region in 2010 and made it to the Top 4, but he relapsed and only returned to the Top 8 during his stint in the Unova region in 2013.

He was so close to winning in the Kalos region when his Greninja lost in the finals in 2016, but won as the regional champion in the Alola region in 2019.

Pokemon will be releasing the Paldea region with the Scarlet and Violet game on Nintendo Switch next Friday.

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