Type Trainer
Type:TRAINER is a webcomic by lilmarisa set in the Pokémon universe.
Ash is offered a tour at a local university, at Professor Oak's insistence. The dean, a friend of Professor Oak, doesn't have time to give the tour, so he volunteers his son, Oliver, as the tour guide. Oliver seems nice enough, until Pikachu suddenly goes nuts and attacks him unprovoked. Apparently, Oliver's had this problem all his life — no matter what he does, Pokémon all hate him, and most of them will react with violence.
Ash is mortified at the idea of Oliver having to live a life without making any Pokémon buddies, so he vows to find a Pokémon out there, somewhere, who won't attack or run away from Oliver. But he finds that Pokémon much sooner than he expects when events lead to poor Ash trapped in the body of a pikachu - and captured soon after! To make matters worse, he's been presented to Oliver as a gift!
Alone, unable to speak, and bound to a "trainer" who hates Pokémon training, Ash must work with his new limitations to find a way to regain his humanity.
This webcomic contains examples of:
- Animorphism - Ash got killed in Chapter 1, and then reincarnated as a Pikachu. And this is apparently part of a Zany Scheme cooked up as part of a deal between Dean Trendwell and Team Rocket. Yeah... things are gonna get weird.
- Art Evolution - There is a staggering difference in quality between Page 1 and more recent pages.
- Badass Normal - Oliver has no Pokémon but can hold his own against another trainer's Pokémon.
- Big Man On Campus - According to Nurse Joy, Oliver is this.
- E Equals MC Hammer - College student or not, Ash would probably never need to understand a theorem and proof from Principia Mathematica.
- Freudian Excuse - A lifetime of bad experiences with Pokémon, combined with constant pressure to become a trainer, has left Oliver with a lot of misplaced anger toward trainers in general.
- Identical Stranger - Oliver's girlfriend, Ashleigh Gotter, bears a striking resemblance to Ash Ketchum.
- Pokémon Hate Him - More or less Oliver's defining trait.
- Mood Whiplash - Chapter 1's mood is all over the place.
- Scare the Pokémon - Every Pokémon, from Pikachu to even Meowth, freaks out in Oliver's presence.