It is great that Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield brought back the gyms and the gym leaders. In this case, Ash should be able to compete in the Galar Gym Challenge since gym battles are his cup of tea and I hope the anime does not miss out on this opportunity.

So far, Pokémon Journeys just has Ash and Goh travel around and gather research for Professor Cerise (which I find a little boring) as well as Ash competing in the World Coronation Series (which I think is the great highlight of the show and hasn’t shown much of in a while) so he can battle Leon again.

I really hope things progress for Ash to obtain this Gym Challenge opportunity. Perhaps this could happen once the World Coronation Series is over. In that case, Leon could be the person to inspire him as well as giving him the endorsement letter to participate in the Galar League because the Monarch takes over Rose Tower and inherits the position of League Chairman from Rose, using these new positions to create the Battle Tower and Galarian Star Tournament.

Once Ash receives this letter, he can travel around the Galar region catching new Pokémon and obtaining the gym badges. This would be like old times when he traveled in the other regions before Alola. This could give more opportunities for Pikachu to Gigantamax. Goh and Chloe could travel with Ash around the Galar region, which could provide more character development for them (or maybe new characters instead to change things up).

The animation style has indeed improved comparing to the Sun and Moon series, but I would like to see the anime department make more of an effort to have the style change back to that for the XY Series.

Overall, we need to let the Pokémon Company and anime department know that we want Ash to compete in the Galar League and have him travel around collecting gym badges like old times. If we all stick together it will be possible for this journey to start today.

Here’s a helpful hashtag to get this petition trending: #PokemonGalarJourneys