The Pokemon franchise owes some of its success to the beloved anime series starring Ash Ketchum. Though the card game and video games went a long way in establishing the brand, kids fell in love with the world every Saturday morning as they ate their cereal or pancakes.
Ash is the main character of the show, and despite his many flaws as a trainer, he is quite endearing to audiences. He has an affinity for Fire-type Pokemon, so let’s look at some of these Pokemon from Kanto to the Alolan Islands that Ash never caught during his adventures.
10 Fennekin
Throughout the series, Ash has always had a strong connection to the Fire-type starters of every generation, so it is weird to see some missing from his roster. Fennekin is the Fire-type starter from the Kalos region, featured in Pokemon X & Y. The reason Ash never caught Fennekin is because his traveling partner in the Kalos region named Serena owned one herself. If one of Ash’s friends owns and is training a specific Pokemon, the likelihood of him catching one for himself is low.
9 Pansear
Pansear, otherwise known as the High Temp Pokemon, is one of three elemental monkeys from the Unova region. When it came to Fire-types in that region Ash was pretty much set as he had a Tepig by his side that eventually evolved into Pignite. It may seem like Ash acquires every starter in each region, but the reality is that his closest connections are with Fire and Grass-type starters. This means that out of the three monkeys of the Unova region, the one most likely to be caught by Ash would be Panpour, the Water-type.
8 Ponyta
One of the more iconic episodes from the anime’s first season is one in which Ash and company participate in a Pokemon race on a ranch. In that episode, Ash rides Lara Laramie’s Ponyta in the race after she gets injured and can’t participate herself.
During the race, Ash was able to witness the Fire-type steed evolve from Ponyta into Rapidash, which helped them win the race. Why would he ever need to capture and train Ponyta when he experienced the entire journey of doing that in less than a day?
7 Darumaka
Thematically Darumaka seems like the type of Pokemon Ash would run into and eventually develop a relationship with. It’s a hot-headed and stubborn Pokemon, which is par for the course when it comes to creatures that normally find themselves crossing paths with Ash. As stated earlier, Ash didn’t need to pursue Fire-types in the Unova region as he had Tepig by his side. Catching another Fire-type would have resulted in him abandoning one of them, and he already does that enough when he moves from one region to another.
6 Slugma
Slugma, on the surface, feels like a useless or uninteresting Pokemon that’s perfectly acceptable for Ash to ignore. That is until a glance at his roster of caught Pokemon reveals he owns a Torkoal. both Torkoal and Slugma aren’t necessarily the Fire-type Pokemon known for dominating battles, so why did he choose one over the other? Well, as this piece will get into, Ash never owned the 3rd generation’s Fire-type starter. So in place of that, he needed a Pokemon in the typing to confidently navigate the Hoenn region.
5 Litwick
Throughout the anime, Ash has had plenty of encounters with Ghost-type Pokemon and other spooky situations. He’s never really had a knack for training that type, up until recently where Gengar is in his active battle team. When taking a look at Litwick and trying to understand why Ash never caught one, there seems to be a glaringly obvious explanation. Haunter, another Ghost-type, temporarily made Ash a dead spirit, so Ash likely became reluctant to interact or train Ghost-types after crossing over into the plane of the dead.
4 Torchic
Torchic may not feel that special these days as there are numerous Fire-type starter Pokemon whose final form is a Fire and Fighting-type, but its connection to Ash is rather unique.
It happens to be one of only two Fire-type starters in the franchise that Ash didn’t capture and/or train. During his adventures in the Hoenn region, Ash was focused on training Treecko, the region’s Grass-type starter. It ended up being one of the few starters Ash fully evolved and was the first time he did it since obtaining Charizard.
3 Vulpix
Vulpix, the Fox Pokemon, is a Fire-type from the Kanto region that feels more like a Brock or Misty Pokemon than it does an Ash owned creature. It stands at around 2 feet tall and happens to evolve into one of the more majestic and ethereal creatures the Kanto region has on display. Vulpix evolves via a Fire Stone, and in the anime, Ash has a pretty hard time finding evolution-based items that he can use on his roster of captured Pokemon. In hindsight, it was for the best that he never pursued the tiny red fox.
2 Houndour
Readers who have made it this far should understand there’s a trend with Ash when it comes to Fire-types. He almost always ends up obtaining the Fire-type starter in a region and therefore he never has a need or desire to try and catch any other Fire-types in that region. Why would he try and catch Houndour when he’s currently trying to train a Cyndaquil? Houndour also has the Dark-type as its secondary typing, a type that Ash hasn’t used all too often through his adventures, so that added element to Houndour went unappreciated.
1 Growlithe
Arcanine is a fan favorite Fire-type from the Kanto region and is arguably one of the better designed Pokemon to exist. The giant lion and tiger hybrid isn’t always majestic and noble as it starts life as a small fluffy puppy named Growlithe. It’s a shame that viewers never had the chance to watch Ash develop a relationship with a Growlithe, a creature known for its loyalty to its trainer. Instead, the closest things got was an episode in which Ash had the opportunity to ride an Arcanine by the name of Arcky.
NEXT: 10 Pokemon That Resemble My Hero Academia Characters
