Why does the anime keep the genders ambigious?

[Somari]

In the games, NPCs usually refer to their Pokemon by gender pronouns. The mangas, at least the two I've read, usually say the genders.

The anime keeps most of them ambigious, though lately they have been making them not so ambigious.

At times I've thought the gang didn't even know most of their Pokemon(s?) genders, Jessie clearly thought her Yanmega was male.

Is it for convenience issues? Did they just not want to think about genders? Or did they do it for the kiddies?

 

[PDL]

I mostly say it's a "relic" of sorts from the Gen I games, where Pokémon didn't have genders. Each creature could have been thought of as it's own unique character rather then as a whole race. Hence why Mr.Mime is called "Mr.Mime".

In the anime, the writers don't usually reveal genders of Pokémon, but ones that do have their genders revealed tend to have it so as a part of their character development. Usually they try to make it obvious either through behavoir, markings, characters outright stating it, or even who they choose to voice the creature (Check out Candice's Snover and possibly Abomasnow's japanese voice actors... Or even the Shiny Donphan from that filler episode on the Donphan mating season. They sound like they're voiced by women.)

So I'd chalk it up to a grandfather clause from the Indigo seasons.

 

[Piplup]

Officially, the correct way to refer to a Pokémon, even if you know its gender is "it"
How would they even know their Poké's gender? usually it's not even important... it mainly matters when love is involved (and this is mainly how we find out genders)
And I don't know what you're talking about, it's the same in the games...

 

[Somari]

I mostly say it's a "relic" of sorts from the Gen I games, where Pokémon didn't have genders.

They did have genders in the games technically. I recall at least one NPC calling their Pokemon by a gender pronoun, the mangas had them with genders from the beginning, and the anime had Pokemon with genders (Meowth, for example). We just couldn't figure out what gender our Pokemon was.

Officially, the correct way to refer to a Pokémon, even if you know its gender is "it"

Where do you get that from? That seems like an anime only rule to me.

 

[Kthleen]

Where do you get that from? That seems like an anime only rule to me.

He thinks that about all animals, not just Pokémon.

 

[CommanderPigg]

Well, maybe they want to be polite and not check? XD
Plus some pokemon would be hard to tell the gender anyways because of their lack of animal-like qualities. Or "distinguishing" features. Animals in real like usually act ambiguous to their gender anyways, so why is it any different for pokemon? I actually don't find it a big deal, unless it's a main character, like say, PIKACHU. They should've revealed his gender at the beginning to avoid such complications.

I don't think my goldfish would mind if I called it "he" "she" or "it." Not that I have a goldfish ;_;

 

[Ampharos King]

In most cases, a pokemon's gender isn't really relevant or important to the plot.

 

[QuietDragon]

He thinks that about all animals, not just Pokémon.

Excuse me, but that sounds a little harsh.

Just about any foreigner who learns the English language is usually taught that animals are all called "it." It's hardly his fault if he does too.

I knew I took offense to that as a kid, but I do it myself nowadays whenever the gender's unknown, though sometimes I'll slip up and call 'em he or she. ^^;;;

It's not that big a deal, I think.

In the Japanese language, people don't normally say "he" or "she" anyway. They have words for 'em, but nowadays, those are usually used to mean "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" respectively and rarely appear outside of, perhaps, translations. ^o^;

I like that the genders are kept ambigious, myself. They're hardly important and when and if they are, they're revealed. It certainly isn't worth complaining about.

 

[Piplup]

He thinks that about all animals, not just Pokémon.

I didn't say that only because of animlas... let's forget about what's the correct way to refer to animals...
The fact is, that (aside from maybe a few rare cases when they made a mistake) in both games and anime, they always use "it" no matter if the gender is known or not
Also, Pokémon.com confirmed in their mailbag at least once that "it" is the officially correct way to refer to Pokémon
If that wasn't enough, when the dubbing studio here dubbed season 11, for the first time ever they got a huge list of terms to fill in the Hebrew translation and send for a check of "the Japanese" (so they called them) I helped them fill these lists and I noticed these lists included a note about how a Poké should never be referred to as a "he" or "she" (of course, we couldn't listen to that rule, as the in Hebrew we don't really have "it" so we have to use either "he" or "she"... so they just continued to use "he" other then cases I explained them the Pokémon is clearly a female like Ambipom or Buneary or the female-only ones)

So no matter what you say, "it" is the officially correct way to refer to Pokémon
Like it or not

Excuse me, but that sounds a little harsh.

Just about any foreigner who learns the English language is usually taught that animals are all called "it." It's hardly his fault if he does too.

Thanks Arceus I'm not the only one who lived his whole life believing "it" is the correct way to refer to animals...
So wait, is it really not right? I blame the schools in Israel then, since I'm pretty sure early years of school were the reason I thought "it" is the correct way to refer to animals...
I still wonder if you people are right that it's not true... sure that people maybe use he/she for their pets since it sounds closer and more nice to them, but is it really the right thing to do by the English language's rules?
Anyway, it doesn't matter at all, as I just proved "it" is official for Pokémon... it's proved by all official sources

I'll never understand why people even care about the Poké's gender
Does it even matter? no, it doesn't matter at all
It only matters when love is involved, and in these cases they usually make it very obvious who's male and who's female... other than that, it really doesn't matter at all, seriously...

 

[Aestivate]

Don't forget too that pronouns like it and that in Japanese are usually gender neutral pronouns. eg. Aitsu, koitsu, yatsu, ano are all gender neutral.