Honestly I feel like a lot of the people complaining about Ash don’t even watch the anime.
Ash was bad in Kanto because he was a beginner and he was supposed to be the opposite of Gary (ash had strong bonds with his pokemon, but was a weak trainer, on the other hand gary had weak bonds with his pokemon, but was a…

the “pika” in pikachu has nothing to do with the animal called pika
it comes from “pikapika”, the onomatopoeia for sparkle

it’s confirmed male