Summary
The Pokemon anime introduces Valerie, a gym leader who surprises Ash and his friends. Valerie points out that Ash has the ability to learn the language of Pokémon and communicate with Pikachu in a more direct way. The ability to talk to Pokemon may explain why Ash has always been able to form a strong bond with them.
In the Pokémon anime, Pokémon speak their own language made up of fragments of their names that humans cannot understand, although they can understand human language relatively easily. However, a gym leader in the Kalos region had the ability to speak to her Pokémon in their language, and Ashm believed he had the ability to do so, explaining the character’s ability to form strong bonds with Pokémon.
In the Pokémon XY episode “Fairy-Type Trickster!”, Ash challenges Valerie, the gym leader of Laver City, to a gym battle. Valerie summons her first Pokemon, Sylveon, and then speaks in the Pokemon language, surprising Ash and his friends. Valerie reveals that when she was young, she wished she could be a Pokémon and dedicated herself to learning the Pokémon language to be like them.
While she reveals that she can’t understand every Pokémon and is mainly skilled at communicating with her own Pokémon, her abilities are more than enough to impress the Ashes staff. However, when Valerie saw Ash and Pikachu working together in battle, she began to question whether Ash had the same ability.
Ash’s ability to understand Pokemon’s language explains the trainer’s abilities.
Ash and Pikachu have a special bond that helps them communicate with each other, especially in the midst of battle. Valerie’s intuition suggests that this is actually the first step to learning the Pokemon language, and Ash can do that if he wants to. Ash’s ability to form strong bonds with his allies has always been attributed to Ash’s innate love and compassion for his Pokémon, but his innate understanding of their language may be the secret behind his success as a trainer.
Ash understands the emotions of Pokemon very well, especially his own, which can be expressed in their instinctive language. Having the ability to communicate directly is a game changer. Ash, unfortunately, has little interest in learning because he expects it to be a slow process. This shows that Pokémon’s language is definitely understandable to humans, and this has only been affected in a few cases, usually when interacting with humans raised by Pokémon. It may even be possible to one day create a translation device that greatly improves the human/Pokémon relationship.
Valerie’s ability to talk to her Pokémon is unique to the anime, although she also wants to be a Pokémon in the X and Y video games. It definitely makes her a more interesting character than she is, and in this regard, seeing Ash as a kindred spirit highlights just how unique Ash’s unique ability to interact with Pokémon is. Ash’s close bond is the first step to truly understanding Pokémon, and his instinctive understanding of their language may explain the trainer’s abilities and success during his career.
Pokémon XY is available on Hulu.
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