It's quite fitting that the newest Voice Actor almost forgot about the recording day, just like Ash did for the day of receiving his first pokémon. She was meant to be this character xD

I feel so bad for Sarah Natochenny. I can't imagine dealing with all that hatred at the age of 19. I'm glad that she's doing much better now and I love her voice of Ash as much as Veronica Taylor's.

honestly sarah showing up late to the audition and barely knowing what job she was in for is probably the most ash thing she couldve done, mad respect

You left out the fact that Veronica Taylor actually changed her Ash voice about halfway through the Indigo League episodes. For the first half, her Ash voice was really deep and smooth-sounding, while in the second half, she changed her Ash voice to sound higher pitched and way more raspy. She continued to use this changed voice all way the up to the end of her time as Ash, using it in the Orange Islands, Johto, and Hoenn seasons. And it wasn't a gradual change over time, either. One episode Ash's voice is still deep and clear, the next it's pitched higher and raspy. I don't remember in which episode the second voice debuted, but it'd be pretty easy to go through each middle-season Kanto episode and find out (I'd be willing to do so if anyone is curious).

EDIT: Alrighty, enough people asked, so I went and checked out Veronica Taylor's Ash voice in at least 30 of the midseason Kanto episodes and... it turns out that the change in her voice was a lot more gradual than I thought. While her Ash voice is definitely not the same at the start of the series from how it ended up sounding many episodes later, it seems that she did develop it over time after all, instead of instantly shifting it from sounding one way to another. Her early Ash voice remains mostly unchanged as late as "Primeape Goes Bananas", but has developed more of a rasp that wasn't there at the start of the series, and gradually gets more and more raspy as the series continues.

If pressed into absolutely having to pick a single episode in which her voice first shows signs of sounding more like her later Ash voice than her early Ash voice, I'd probably have to pick "The March of the Exeggutor Squad" as the episode where Ash's voice begins its shift away from deep to sounding higher pitched. But the change really is more subtle than I remembered it being. By the time of "Beach Blanket Blastoise", however, her Ash voice has pretty much reached its final stages of development, essentially sounding the way it would sound for the remainder of Veronica Taylor's tenure of voicing Ash in the rest of Kanto, the Orange Islands, Johto, Hoenn, and part of the Battle Frontier.

Even through all of those voice conflicts, Gary still has managed to keep the same English voice actor from the first ever Pokémon episode all the way to his recent appearance in the Journeys series!

It would be funny if the voice of Ash also voiced Meowth because  then each of the original trios’ voice actors would have also voiced a member of Team Rocket 😂

In Japanese , ash sounds more confident,  strong, and able to catch my ear

In English,  he sounded more childish (suitable for his age), but he can be savage, put many emotion in certain situations. I love both.

I think the blame falls on "The Pokemon Company". To can all the original voice actors for no good reason while hiring someone with very little voice acting (Sarah did nothing wrong, she just needed more experience) experience to play one of the most iconic characters in pop culture is just crazy!

It's amazing herring Veronica's voice still to this day. I've been with the series both games and anime since the start. I just met Veronica Taylor in November and I cried meeting her seeing I was waiting 20 years for that moment. I told her that she made my childhood in a world where it's OK to fail and to get up and keep trying. She told me life is like a Pokémon battle, making the right move and trying to achieve your own personal victory. She truly is my hero. It's gonna be a moment I will never forget and I will never forget how much she was hugging onto me when I told her that I waited 20 years for that moment.

Ash’s Japanese voice just hits different and the evolution of the voice over the past 20 years truly feels like an evolution of the character. He sounds deeper, more serious, and badass asf. Veronica Taylor went from a little more low pitch to higher pitch but the voice is way too iconic, plus the higher pitch sounds way better. There was something missing and it was the more badass feeling moments and that’s where Sarah Natochenny comes in. At first she was way too deep in the Battle Frontier but during Diamond & Pearl, Best Wishes, and XY he sounds great and definitely feels more badass. I think he’s after getting a little too high pitch but really it all comes down to preference. I like all the voices

I think the switching of the actresses was a really jarring. I remember watching the Hoenn anime and finding it fine when Veronica Taylor did it, but when they switched to Sarah Natochenney, it was jarring, not because it sounded bad, but it just didn't hit the same notes that i imagine TPCI wanted to hit by having her mimick Veronica Taylor's voice work. Im glad Sarah is much more comfortable in Ash's role because she, along with Veronica, sounds like she was meant for the role!

It’s Interesting how He still Remains 10 years old to this day somehow🙂

Ok that second clip of Sarah Natochenny is WAY better.  She sounds way more natural there and it just comes across as more genuine.  The quality is so good and her acting is fantastic.  She found her version of Ash and it shows much better.  Goes to show you don't need to always sound exactly alike someone else..  finding your own style can be better in long run.

A few things I want to point out, just for a bit of extra clarity - Eric Stuart was the original voice of Brock, but he wasn't actually the first voice of James. That was actually Ted Lewis (Giovanni from Team Rocket, Tracey, etc.), who Eric Stuart replaced about 8 episodes in.

The first 5 seasons were actually recorded at a studio called TAJ Productions before 4Kids dubbed it in-house for S6-8, then with the voice change, The Pokemon Company took the dub back to TAJ for S9-10, before going with DuArt from S11-22, and Iyuno Media S23-present.

In terms of the voice replacement, long story short, the majority of the cast was replaced, though there were a few actors who stayed on board, including some who hadn't been on the show in a number of years, but it's a very complicated matter. Kayzie Rogers was also various Pokemon like Cyndaquil, Totodile, Eevee, Mr. Mime and most famously Wobbuffet until her retirement after the XY series.

I honestly think that Sarah natochenny’s voice fits the animation style of the newer episodes

I remember when it went from 4Kids to TPC and there were banners on fansites and signature badges on forums for 'Save the Dub!' to try and show support to get the cast used in 4Kids to be the cast for TPC. It failed, obviously.

I met Both English voice actors and Japanese voice actor
They are all super nice!!
Especially Veronica Taylor if you haven’t seen her at a convention yet you definitely should!

I was 10 years old when they changed the voice actors and I'll never forget the community outrage on all the web forums (no social media back in 2006). It really alienated a lot of fans from the anime, myself included. Over the years I've began to get in to the series again, but the voice changes were a real kick in the childhood.

I have so much love and respect for Sarah Natochenny. She was subject to a lot of hate in the beginning but she didn't let it deter her and kept going and since she started as Ash she has hugely improved and has really come into her own with Ash. And her Ash is the Ash I grew up with, so she is MY Ash (as well as Ash to a WHOLE generation I imagine!) though I do have a lot of love and respect for Veronica Taylor who was also fantastic in her own right!

I love Veronica’s version of Ash the most but Sara has it pretty well! Once she got comfortable being the character, that’s when she really started to sit well in the role. At least, that’s how I feel about it. :)