Overlooked Continuity Error?

[MVS]

So I've recently been watching some of the older episodes of the anime and got to episode 377, Claydol Big and Tall. Something struck me as odd and to my surprise, nobody else seems to have noticed it.

At the start of the episode, Ash, May, Max, and Brock notice a giant stone Pokéball which looks much like one of the balls any trainer would carry with them. They learn that this Pokéball was crafted during ancient times in order to seal away a great evil.

The issue with this is before the Hoenn league had even started, the movie Pokémon 4Ever implied something, and it's a very strong implication at that.

For those of you who don't know, in Pokémon 4Ever, a young boy named Sammy (later revealed to be a younger Professor Oak) is taken 40 years into the future (which so happens to be Ash's era) by Celebi. A hunter who is trying to catch Celebi sends his two Pokémon Sneasel and Scizor to ambush Celebi along with Sammy, Ash and his friends. Sammy and Ash end up having a double battle against the hunter's Pokémon however when Sammy releases his Pokémon from it's Pokéball, the design of the ball is noticeably different:

(Depicted, Sammy releasing is Pokémon from his Pokéball)

We can therefore assume that the modern Pokéball design was developed sometime within the last 40 years.

The error here is, this stone Pokéball that looks like a modern Pokéball was supposedly built in ancient times, it's therefore older than Sammy's Pokéball. The only logical explanation would be that the modern Pokeball was based off of the design of the stone Pokéball which seems unlikely since it's implied that the stone Pokéball was based off of the design of a modern Pokéball.

What do you think, is this an overlooked error?

 

[Jaye]

Technically, it is an overlooked error in as much that it's an error that no one recognises. However, the reason why nobody brings it up is because nobody was aware of its existence and it's virtually a non-issue. For that reason, you should not be surprised by our overlooking of this.

Errors like this come up all the time. That Pokeball design in Pokemon 4Ever has only ever appeared once. By the time "Claydol, Big and Tall" was being created that one design had probably been forgotten by the artists, writers and fanbase.

The only logical explanation would be that the modern Pokeball was based off of the design of the stone Pokéball which seems unlikely since it's implied that the stone Pokéball was based off of the design of a modern Pokéball.

I don't quite follow your line of reasoning. No one knows where the design for the modern day Pokeball came from and it's entirely reasonable that its design was based off what ancient Pokeballs looked like. The only thing implied about that stone ball was that it came out of nowhere. The reason why Sammy's Pokeball looks different could be because of the technology involved. 40 years ago, they might have needed to add all sorts of extra bits to get it to work, but they streamlined the design as technology advanced.

 

[MarshiyanMisutaa]

Hikari's mother (20-30 years younger than Professor?) was using modern pokeballs. There is also a 300 year old League cup with similar pokeball design.

Spoiler

"Modern Pokeball was based off of the design of the stone Pokéball" is most likely answer.

 

[Shadow Victory]

Sammy's pokeball looks like a primitive version of an Aprikot ball.

 

[투 애니원]

Maybe Sammy couldn't afford a Pokeball for himself so instead he made one but it ended up looking like that.