Well I wanted to do this as it interests me how often the main characters of the games are often overlooked. I mean it took till Brawl for the actual first playable character in the series to actually even make an appearance as a trophy in the smash series, whereas Jigglypuff and Pikachu were there from the start. Anyway, basically I’m going to go over in this article all of the playable characters from the games and their appearances in the Anime. I’m not going to be doing any articles on pokemon as honestly, there are too many, and there are even lots of human characters now so it would be impossible for me to do both (as well as far too draining.)
Red/Ash Ketchum
Probably the most famous (or infamous) playable character, Red is the most recurring character in the games despite having no personality at all. He also is the only character to do a sort of ‘passing of the torch’ by being battle-able at the very end of the second game, meaning he appears in two separate games (not counting remakes) He does have a slight backstory of being friends with Blue/Gary when he was younger, and them growing apart to the degree that they became enemies (this is carried over into the anime too). His look changed with Fire Red and he retained his new look in Smash Bros Brawl which he was also playable in. Ash is the star of the show, as even though Pikachu’s the mascot, the story follows him. He’s kinda childish at times but actually progresses as the series went on, which to be honest, out of the other shows I’ve done on this site, is pretty impressive. He’s pretty much a typical main character who aspires to become the best trainer and also fights any injustice he comes across. One key point to his character is that he very rarely wins. The first series had him win most of the Gym Battles he had to get badges from through luck. Also in every series so far he’s got to the final tournament and lost (except for the Orange Island saga) Admittedly a character who loses all the time becomes very boring, but the difference is that with more recent sagas, Ash has been actually becoming much better, and the character is actually starting to come up with clever strategies, which whilst they wouldn’t work in the games, make him appear much better than the rash headstrong character from the first series. Also he seems to not get as upset at arrogant characters like Gary Oak, and only truly 
gets annoyed with people who he feels do the wrong things in more recent episodes. A key contrast to Ash is Ritchie (left). I have included him as some people actually feel that he might be based more on Red than Ash is. He isn’t an interesting character as such, but it is interesting to see him being essentially the guy who a main character should be (as in powerful and successful in battles) which makes Ash actually seem more interesting. Design wise I’d say that Ash is more like the original Red, which I feel is part of the reason that the design for Red changed so as not to confuse people between the two. Ash is probably the most different character to his game counterpart in this article, which seems to be true of most characters from the Kanto/Johto era.
Ok, so I said I wasn't going to talk about Pokemon themselves in these articles, so why on earth is Pikachu here? Well it's because he represents a key thing that differenctiates Pokemon from almost all the other series on here (except F-Zero) in that the TV show actually inspired something in the games. This was Pokemon Yellow, which apparently was considered in japan simply as a fanservice game (since there were 3 games in the series before Yellow in japan). As such I thought it was worth mentioning, as Red's journey with Pikachu in Yellow mirrors the anime in most ways. From the Pikachu initially disliking Ash/Red to the gym leaders and ability to get all starters from ways similar to the games (such as Charmander being an abandoned pokemon, although there are differences such as the Charmander being looked after by someone until they decide that he'd be better off travelling with Red) Also Blue/Gary Oak is similar in that he has pokemon from the anime, but more on him in the rivals article.
Gold/Jimmy
Gold is like all the other playable characters, he has absolutely no backstory however whereas all the others have at least a short one. Jimmy is similar, the only real backstory we get is from his talks to Marina and during the Japanese opening where he’s shown with his Cyndaquill running in the sunset as it evolves (similar to the scene from the Lion King where Simba grows up) Also we see a quick glimpse of him being beaten by… well it’s a tough one which I’ll address in more detail in the eventual Rivals article... he’s beaten by Silver. Anyway, Jimmy’s pretty similar to Ash, as a character, the only real difference being that he actually makes it clear he has romantic feelings for Marina, something which Ash very rarely does. That’s really about it, but compared to the other male characters (other than Ash) he’s actually fared much better. As you can see design wise he’s similar to the original.Kris/Marina
Kris was actually a special bonus in the games as Pokemon Crystal was the first game to allow you to play as a female. That said she was the exact same character as Gold. In the anime, a lot of people I believe feel that her character was absolutely ruined by the English dub (which is considered one of the worst dubs of the series.) Kris and Marina have really had it bad though. As well as being butchered in the English dub, Kris actually isn’t coming back for the remake of Gold and Silver, being replaced by a new character. Honestly I don’t care too much, but she was the first ever female character in the series, so it’s strange that she’s gone.Brendan
I really don’t like this guys design. I dunno what it is about it. Anyway, Brendan was in the first game in which the two playable characters were rivals. As such he was either Professor Birch’s son and the players rival, or Norman’s son. In the anime, as May is Norman’s daughter, he is most likely Professor Birch’s son. I would actually be able to compare his personality this means, if he had one. He’s had two cameos in the anime, and that’s it. His designs practically the same as you can see, and that’s really all I have to say.May
May is actually one of the few playable characters with an actual backstory, having moved to Hoenn at the start of the game. Also she’s a Gym Leaders kid, which means if she actually spoke she’d most likely be very into Pokemon, or hate them due to her father being so involved in them. In the show May caught a lot of flack. She is most often claimed to be the turning point for the series, where people got sick of it. Honestly, I stopped watching during the Johto arc as it got boring, but now I’ve looked back, May was exactly what the show needed. She was an all new travelling companion, and actually started off hating pokemon and only really going on an adventure to travel. Also she’s a food fanatic. I think, no, I know that the reason why a lot of people hate her is because she replaced Misty, who was on the show longer than even Brock and Team Rocket. May also introduced the concept of contests into the show, as she gained an interest in them and decided to not battle Gyms but win at contests (More on them in another article). May also admittedly doesn’t have the dominant personality of Misty, which actually meant we’d have a different group since she’s not quite the sort to row quite as often with others except her brother (at least not to the degree that Misty did.) I won’t mention her brother, Max as really I don’t want to, although he actually is believed to be based on a character who’s present in the game at her house. She’s also notable for being one of the few characters who has a revealed family with a father and a mother, which only Brock has. All the other characters either have no parents shown or only one. Design wise she is the absolute same, and even has her Emerald outfit in her most recent appearance.Lucas
Lucas is in the same position as Brendan, as he doesn’t actually appear in the anime for more than a cameo. Since Dawn is from Twinleaf town, it can be speculated that Lucas is most likely from Sandgem town. In the games he isn’t actually a rival, and instead simply helps the player out whilst researching for Professor Rowan. He’s involved in Spear Pillar, but that’s all notable I can really think of.
Dawn
Dawn
In the games, Dawn is simply the daughter of a woman who used to be a trainer who took part in contests. Also she’s friends with Pearl/Barry which she stays as even when they become rivals. In the anime she’s actually one of the few characters who seems to be similar to Ash. She starts off knowing what she wants to do and goes for it. She is similar to Ash in the way she is slightly headstrong and very confident, in some cases overconfident. She’s actually one of the few characters who travels with Ash and has caught more pokemon than any of his previous companions as well as actually fighting a Gym battle. The only real difference between her and her game character is that whilst she knows Pearl/Barry, he doesn’t remember her at all (then again, he’s portrayed as the sort of character who’d know someone for years and then forget who they are because something else gets his attention, so it’s possible they could have a similar background to the games.) Design wise she’s the same, and wears her platinum outfit for snow episodes.Lyra
Kris’s replacement in the remakes of Gold and Silver. Lyra joins the group for a short while as she’s travelled to Sinnoh to do some sort of show inviting people to Johto. She’s actually unique amongst the other female characters as she fights in gym battles and doesn’t have much interest in contests. Design wise she’s exactly the same. Personality wise she’s pretty different to the game version as she’s very determined and similar to Ash in her recklessness. She also is one of the only main characters to talk about love and whether other characters would make good couples, whereas in the game she gets embarrassed when it’s suggested she likes the player.Snap
Snap is the first playable character to appear in the anime and personally my favourite. He immediately pisses off Ash, and he doesn’t have any pokemon which is actually a real difference for this show. Game to anime wise he’s pretty much the same except with a different shirt.Kellyn
I haven’t played any of the ranger series, so all I can say is that he seems actually a bit older in the anime. Also it was cool having a character who was far more capable than Ash and his friends.Solana
Well she looks pretty much the same, and that’s all I can say having not played the game or even seen the episode she’s in.