here's how i see it. the world of the anime doesn't have "levels" or any sort of level based power. they base it more off of physics (even if the anime's physics dont make sense). So think of a mouse in real life. it doesnt matter how long that mouse is alive and runnin around, if someone decides to step on it... its onna die if it gets stepped on. So maybe its just that Pikachu is really strong! Especially for other Pikachu but it still is never going to be able to one shot something like a kanghaskan. also, ash doesnt use pikachu much anymore. other then fighting against team rocket, and maybe some gym battles, can u say he ever uses pikachu against normal trainers he meets on the street. and wen it comes to losin to say Paul's elekid (electabuzz now), remember that Paul is also an experienced trainer. same goes for Gary and, looking back on it now, a lot of the trainers he's met on his journey's through sinnoh.
Uhh, yeah... Look, Paul himself may be very experienced, but that does NOT mean that any Pokemon he has recently captured would have the exact same experience from the get-go. Think about it like a Coach being transferred from his old team to a new team. Even though he was a very experienced coach, and an even more experienced athlete, at that, the new team he has doesn't even come close to the experience he has, so they won't really be able to do things as if they were experienced right then and there (let alone could.).
BTW, Pikachu didn't lose to Elekid. He tied. that's different from Losing.
remember back in teh first season when they would have random eno****ers with random trainers and Ash would battle them and that would be the episode? think about it for a second, since... maybe the hoenn region. have there been many episodes like that? in fact the last time an episode happened where he met a random trainer and battled him would be when he met Lucian... the leader of the Sinnoh Elite Four. or maybe it was that Pika and Goliath episode which was simply meant to remind everyone that Ash's pikachu will never evolve.
Actually, Ash didn't battle Lucian at all. Instead, Dawn did the dirty work (and even then, it was only because her Buizel wanted to fight.). Also, Ash's plowing through gyms with a 5/6ths rookie team (I'm not counting Pikachu, for obvious reasons) was one of the reasons why I hated the Hoenn Region (I mean, the way they treated the Gym Leaders in that region was downright terrible. In fact, considering the fact that Misty became a Gym Leader just shortly before Ash left for Hoenn, how the Gym Leaders lost, in a way that was similar to Team Rocket's losses to a barely even starting out Piplup, as well as an inexperienced, barely even alive Caterpie, is insulting not only to the Hoenn Gym Leaders, but to Misty as well.). I don't really CARE if Gym Leaders are supposed to be bosses that need to be overcome, that still doesn't mean they should be taken down in such a way where the finish or being beaten isn't any different than watching Ash, his friends, or some CotD/TotD demolish JJM for the umpteenth time.
so before going and saying that pikachu should be at lvl 100, look at the new and powerful trainers he's had to face in this last season.
Paul is definitely powerful, I'll give you that. But then again, that doesn't mean that Ash's Pikachu should be brought down to the point where it seems like it is a starting out pokemon (Even WITHOUT Game Levels, it's still more reasonable for it to be, you know, able to blow gyms away, especially considering the fact that it had not only beaten Brandon, the strongest Frontier Brain, and purported to be stronger than even the Elite 4, but also defeated a Legendary Pokemon, Regice.).
