Discovering of new Pokemon in the anime

[PikaPi123]

There is one thing about the show that I think is kinda wierd. Ash turns 10 and starts the Indigo League. There was 150 pokemon then. Then there was newer and newer Pokemon being discovered. Ash then goes to find and catch the new Pokemon. But what I really don't get is when Ash was in the Hoenn league a man was telling a story about him seeing a bunch of a type of Pokemon when he was a kid. But those Pokemon were not suppose to be discovered then. Also in the D/P shows, a bunch of men at the lab were saying they caught a Starly when they were 10. But Starly wasn't suppose to be discovered then. Ash was probally a baby when those men caught a Starly. But he was ten when he started off and Porfesser Oak said there was only 150 types of Pokemon. What do you think of this?

 

[Habunake]

It's the writers not planning ahead.

 

[SolgaleoGX]

Like Korobake said,the writers didn't plan ahead. But then again,there are so many errors in season one if you look back at it considering how the franchise expanded over the years. All 490 something pokemon have ALWAYS existed in the various canons of the Pokemon Franchise,they have just not been mentioned/show. Heck,even now in the anime pokemon from gen 5 exist we just don't see them. >_>

 

[Cybersai]

I don't see how you can blame the writers for this since they don't know how many new Pokemon are added gen after gen.

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

There was 150 pokemon then.

I think there were 151, since Mewtwo was initially "known", as demonstrated by the picture on Bill's door of it. Unless there's something Bill isn't telling us about himself, which would make for an awesome fanfic.

And you have to remember that James, who grew up in Kanto, supposedly had access to all these other pokemon. He's told of how Camerupt would heat his room (or was it Numel? Can't remember, but it was one of 'em), how he always wanted a Chimecho, and how he played with Carnivine.

 

[Kriegsaffe No. 9]

I think they covered their asses well enough in the first episode by showing Ho-oh; it wasn't even named yet, but just by existing it hinted that there were more than 151 collectabeasts out there.

On a more morbid note, I wonder if a Pokemon will ever get featured in the show only to not make it past the game's beta testing. An orphaned Poke-beast without a home--how melancholy, in a certain sense.

 

[GreatLiver]

I think that probably the biggest instance of this is the entire fourth movie. It's obvious that Oak remembers what happened when he was younger, including the part about Celebi and Suicune and what not, yet even though he's a pokemon proffessor he doesn't mention that.

 

[Habunake]

And you think a society capable of transporting matter could just...hop on google and search "Zigzagoon".

 

[Luis92]

Professor Oak prbly meant only 150 types of Pokemon in Kanto! idk

 

[paperfairy]

Celebi's movie was awful as far as plot goes; if that was Prof. Oak, why doesn't he mention it in EP001?


Bad writers, bad.

But yeah, displaying Ho-oh pretty much covered their asses.

 

[Lil Brother]

Celebi's movie was awful as far as plot goes; if that was Prof. Oak, why doesn't he mention it in EP001?

Why would he? '_'

...speaking of which, that's the answer to all of our problems! A Celebi did it! Blame Sammy, Richie, May, and everyone else who screwed up the timeline!

Err, or we could just all pretend that the "there's X amount of Pokémon" comments didn't exist. That works.

 

[Yamato-san]

I don't see how you can blame the writers for this since they don't know how many new Pokemon are added gen after gen.

you can, however, blame them for outright saying a figure like "150", even though Houou, and supposedly information directly from Gamefreaks, should've already made it apparent to them that the number would change and bite them in the ass in the future. But maybe they used "150" for advertising purposes... god knows that back in the day, they'd constantly bring up the number of existing Pokemon practically everywhere, telling the kiddies how many to collect and such. Even the Special manga, in spite of its superior story-telling, used that number (though, to be fair, it made at least some attempts to portray regions as distant and, in the case of Mikan's Haganeil, make new evolutions, and even the steel-type, actually seem like new discoveries. I don't think it horribly retconned things as bad as the anime did by suddenly including new Pokemon in old regions). What's really screwed up about 150 is that, apparently, everybody knows about Mewtwo, even though the original Mew is unknown and, depending on what time in the storyline, Mewtwo shouldn't even exist yet (again, in the manga, Blue was using the 150 figure while she was bringing up the phantom Mew as the 151st, and this was while Rocket Dan was after Mew in order to complete Mewtwo in the first place).

 

[peno]

There's still that note from someone working on Anime (I forgot who unfortunately), that they planned Änime only for one and half year. So, who knows what they planned back in 1997. Maybe whole new Anime with whole new characters for Johto. Or maybe something else.

I think that probably the biggest instance of this is the entire fourth movie. It's obvious that Oak remembers what happened when he was younger, including the part about Celebi and Suicune and what not, yet even though he's a pokemon proffessor he doesn't mention that.

Once, the writers don't know anything about 4th movie plot back in 1997. Second, since movie two, movies plot have none (or less if mentioning about second movie in Whirl Lugia saga were in original too which I still don't believe) infuence to series and third, you only mentiond 4Kids terrible "we must made it clear Oak is Sammy" version. Yukinari in Japanese version think the whole timetravel adventure were just a dream.

 

[Kriegsaffe No. 9]

I think that probably the biggest instance of this is the entire fourth movie. It's obvious that Oak remembers what happened when he was younger, including the part about Celebi and Suicune and what not, yet even though he's a pokemon proffessor he doesn't mention that.

Hmm... perhaps legendary Pokemon are seen in the same light as legendary animals in the real world, i.e. with a huge grain of salt at best and with fanatical obvious-forgery-touting devotion at worst. It makes me wonder if the Professors catch flack for even acknowledging the existence of legendary Pokemon. It could be like a major researching espousing Bigfoot as a relative of the gorilla family because he hung out with one once--in Oak and co.'s case, their contributions to actual (in-setting) science would keep the from being dismissed out-of-hand, but not much else.

The number 150 could be excluding legendaries (and even especially rare non-legendaries). It could've been vague rounding-up or even counting out certain kinds of Pokemon in favor of common creatures from other regions. ("The Alakazam line is totally a mutant relative of humanity; you can catch them in Pokeballs because Pokeballs capture any supernatural creature. The same goes for every kind of ghost Pokemon.") Perhaps creatures that seem normal (e.g. lots and lots of normal Pokemon) go through rigorous study periods where their abilities are determined as either natural-but-extraordinary or fully Pokemon-style unnatural.

And, of course, the "current number of Pokemon" bit can be seen as a conceit to the current state of the games. You could retcon Oak and company saying, for instance, "there are at least 150 Pokemon found in Kanto, including the occasional migrants from Johto and the Sevii islands. Try to get out of the way when Starly flocks pass by Route 1 and upwards in their yearly migration."

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

and third, you only mentiond 4Kids terrible "we must made it clear Oak is Sammy" version. Yukinari in Japanese version think the whole timetravel adventure were just a dream.

Doubtful. He may have thought that when he told the woman "I had a wonderful dream", but once he finds his notebook full of sketches, it's going to dawn on him that it was real.

 

[Shadowfang]

Frankly, Since back in 1997 information was limited, even with the internet, I think communication tended to be a bit skewed. Also, the Pokemon seem to be Region specific. It's not that hard to image that seeing a Starly in Kanto, even with a traveling trainer, would be extreamly rare.

 

[Habunake]

What are you talking about?

You're aplying real world tech with Pokemon, which can transport living matter across regions. Not to mention it take only a day for Oak to travel to Johto.

 

[ImJessieTR]

I don't see what the problem is. Each professor could just be talking about their assigned region, with each roster being the official native species count. It seems likely that pokemon didn't just magically appear in other regions ... it sounds more like professor communication was sorely lacking in the early days. Note how Birch begs Oak for Kanto starters to look at. You would think at least all the region starters would be well-known. A lack of communication due to politics or some such thing would explain ignorance of the matter.

I don't recall, but was anyone really all that freaked out about Togepi? I think that when the series started, the regions were just beginning to connect more. Migration patterns and such (like outright import/export of pokemon) would alter knowledge as well.

Another question about "the count" ... what about fossil pokemon? Until the genetics labs were able to resurrect some (before they figured out some still lived), why should they be counted at all? That leaves some other-region pokemon to fill in the blanks.

And I always assumed (since Bill was mentioned earlier and I put it my Professor Oak and the Rainbow Wing fanfic) that Bill was a tech on New Island and knew about Mewtwo but was sick that day he blew it up.

 

[FabuVinny]

It's just another part of the Kanto saga to ignore when considering the actual status of canon. The Johto explantion was "new discoveries", the Hoenn explanation was "exclusive to that region" and now they act like the Sinnoh Pokémon have always been around.

Do the fossils show up on Bill's wall of the 150? He obviously knew about Kabuto but I don't see any on Serebii's pictures of the scene.

How long was Mewtwo in its pod? Since Mewtwo doesn't blow up Team Rocket's base until after Ash gets his eighth badge, there's a long gap to account for. Have we even seen Bill since then? Maybe he was there...

 

[Cybersai]

Mewtwo really shouldn't have been on Bill's door. I consider that one of Kanto's early mistakes before the writers knew what they were doing...just like all the real animals and mention of levels in Season 1.