Pokémon (anime)/YMMV


 * Accidental Aesop:
 * Alas Poor Scrappy: though this is possibly undone when
 * In fairness,  was monumentally stupid to begin with, so he kind of had that one coming.
 * Alas, Poor Villain:
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Whether or not Misty's accquisition of Togepi ruined her feistiness or matured her into someone more nurturing depends on the viewer.
 * By that same token, was she really as good as she claimed or just couldn't get any action because it was Ash's quest? (Or merely didn't want to get in his way? Note also that the only competitions she actually took part in while in the party were Girl Festivals and water-centric tournaments. Also, see Deus Ex Machina below.)
 * Ritchie, Expy and Gary Stu, or the physical representation of Ash's potential when not weighed down by his negative attributes?
 * Charizard, at first, sees Ash as unworthy to lend his strength...good enough. But was it because he's waiting for Ash to better himself as a trainer, or just being a plain old Jerkass Proud Warrior Race Mon?
 * Burgundy's interpretation of Cilan may not just be her imagination, as we see him in battle start toying with her needlessly and actually smiling in an sinister fashion.
 * Burgundy herself, who might have something other than a grudge towards Cilan.
 * Is there something about Reggie that makes Paul's Electabuzz afraid of him when the former debuted?
 * Americans Hate Tingle: Dawn's Piplup (but not the entire species). He's loved by the Japanese to the point it became a mascot, but it's hated in the West, due to many reasons.
 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: Upon learning that
 * Also for the Best Wishes dub, they brought back the Who's That Pokémon? eyecatch. After a hiatus of seven years, no less!
 * An initial tiny gripe was that the new Pokémon didn't say their names like the ones in the original series did. No need to worry, though, as the problem was rectified and the voices were subsequently added in, almost immediately after the episode that Who's That Pokémon? had debuted with in Best Wishes.
 * For those in the fandom that were sick of Team Rocket's silly antics, their portrayal in Best Wishes has made them very happy.
 * And now, we have Best Wishes Season 2.
 * Awesome Ego: The GARY MOTHERFUCKING OAK meme exists for a reason.
 * Badass Decay: Ash's Buizel ended up noticeably less powerful than he was in his debut.
 * Turtwig. You know, the tiny turtle that, in his first major battle, he was able to beat a dinosaur that's more than four times his size? Just what did the writers do to him?
 * Bianca is also a noticeably weaker and less competent trainer in the anime than she was in the games, though the games treat her as less competent than she usually proves to be.
 * Some consider Ash to be a weaker and less mature trainer in Best Wishes series, especially after he.
 * Granted, this is mostly only in the early episodes - as Best Wishes moves along, he reasserts himself (the Gym Battles with Elesa and Clay are excellent examples of this).
 * Base Breaker: Ash, the main character...is he The Hero or The Scrappy?
 * Paul also has a lot of haters, many of whom resent his Draco in Leather Pants status.
 * Also, Barry is either funny or annoying (he's a Base Breaker in the games too.)
 * Same goes for his Distaff Counterpart Bianca.
 * Ash's female companions too (Misty, May, Dawn, and Iris.)
 * Tobias is seen as either a God Mode Sue, an amusing Troll, or a Badass all for
 * Team Rocket. Better when they were goofy (pre-Best Wishes) or serious (Best Wishes)?
 * Cilan. Either he is a better character than Brock and his strong personality is refreshing or he's getting too much focus and has gotten as stale as Brock was as a result and is a Creator's Pet for those who find him and his antics "forced" or "overexposed."
 * Dawn's rivals, Zoey especially.
 * Broken Base: Very, and could apply to almost anything.
 * Nearly every series has something that's broken the base:
 * Kanto: How Ash won his badges.
 * Orange Islands: Brock gets Put On a Bus in favor of introducing Tracey.
 * Johto: Arc Fatigue and whether the new starters were better than the originals.
 * Hoenn: Ash doesn't have a rival, May taking Misty's spot and actually being treated as a Deuteragonist.
 * Sinnoh: Arc Fatigue, Dawn taking May's spot, and everything Infernape and Paul.
 * Unova: Everything regarding the retool, especially Team Rocket's newfound competence.
 * Canon Sue: Ritchie is a classic example.
 * Also Solidad from the Battle Frontier arc, who shows up out of nowhere at the Grand Festival, is an old friend of Brock's, is also friends with Drew and Harley (I repeat, HARLEY), ships May and Drew together, and goes on to win the whole Grand Festival (other Grand Festival winners, Robert and Zoey, at least had build-up.)
 * Complete Monster: It now has its own list (shared with Pokémon manga media), seen here.
 * Crazy Awesome: Harley. Law of Disproportionate Response. It only gets crazier.
 * Barry.
 * Pachirisu, full-throttle.
 * Creator's Pet: Dawn's Piplup, for its being a Spotlight-Stealing Squad. The fanbase doesn't hate all Piplups; they hate this one in particular.
 * It's English dub voice not helping matters - while Pochama sounds rather cute and might offset the annoyance, Piplup just makes it even more glaring.
 * Designated Villain: Ursula. Just look at how the girl performs as a coordinator and say that her cockiness isn't the least bit justified. But apparently she doesn't deserve to win or get far because she's a jerk to Dawn. Not to mention the fans who are baffled at how the anime seems to be trying to present her as worse than Paul, when Ursula is at least shown to care about her Pokémon.
 * Team Rocket has frequently been this trope. In some episodes they did absolutely nothing wrong at all and still got treated like "bad guys" by Ash and got blasted off in the end! With their more evil demeanor in Best Wishes, they finally avoid this.
 * Die for Our Ship: The number of death fics written about Misty's sisters is staggering. House fire is a popular method, conveniently taking the gym with it.
 * Every one of Ash's female traveling companions, past, present, and future, gets this.
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Among the rivals, the antagonistic ones from Gary on down have all been this, but Paul's probably the biggest and worst case since it actually happens in canon a number of times!
 * Ear Worm: Here.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Ash or rather evil Ash who is popular enough to allow the writers to fool the fans in a trailer for a Pokémon movie. Also, several of his Pokémon has developed rather large Fandoms over the course of the series due to their sheer Badassery or Quirky Personalities. The most notable being Charizard, Heracross, Swellow, Sceptile and Staraptor. Even Ash's unofficial Pokémon, Haunter and Larvitar, have a place in fans' hearts. Also, the anime made Pikachu one. It was just another Pokémon before that.
 * Psyduck and Wobbuffet, two very similar, dopey Pokémon who just won't stay in ther Poké-balls.
 * Conway, an intended one-shot who was added to two other story arcs (the Pokémon Summer Academy and the Sinnoh League) due to fan popularity.
 * Some of the Characters of the Day get this as well. Gligarman (an obvious Batman and superhero parody) was popular enough to frequently get requested to return to the show, especially when Ash had a Gligar/Gliscor of his own.
 * Harley, because he's such a Jerkass and yet so damn FUNNY at the same time.
 * Byron. Oh, dear god, Byron.
 * Ash's Gliscor
 * Croagunk. And Gible, for being a walking Crowning Moment of Funny.
 * Burgundy only appeared in one episode originally. Immediately after her design was shown, fanart exploded, and she became a Launcher of a Thousand Ships. Then during the Don Tournament arc, she was the only rival to have some actual Character Development (the others stayed by and large the same.)
 * Epileptic Trees: A very large number of people think Giovanni is Ash's father. This was never even hinted at in the show proper.
 * In relation to the games, a common theory is that Cilan and his brothers are the Shadow Triad of Team Plasma.
 * Everything Is Racist: You can put the pieces together yourself here. Iris looks dark skinned, the generation colors are Black and White, and most of the fan-base is made up of immature teens.
 * In particular, /vp/ is dropping the N-bomb left and right in regards to her announcement.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Jessie and James (back when they could actually be considered competent anyways), Cassidy, Butch, Harley, Paul, Hunter J, Team Galactic's Saturn, Mars and Jupiter and then some.
 * Jessie especially, being considered both more evil than James and a classic case of Ms. Fanservice.
 * Foe Yay: Any set of rivals is probably going to have this.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Charmeleon/Charizard's stubbornness, which can be answered with this simple question: when he was still a Charmander, WHO does he have as the closest thing to a role model again ?
 * One of these pictures certainly gives credence to the whole "takes after their trainer" thing...
 * Add to that how his former trainer, Damian, treated him. Charmeleon/Charizard probably felt that since he'd evolved he'd be exploited for his strength, and couple that with how spoiled he was under Ash comparatively he must have developed a skewed sense of priorities. There are careful hints that even during his Delinquent period, he wasn't totally heartless.
 * Gary's starter was Squirtle, which evolved all the way to Blastoise. Ash, who had possession of all three Kanto starters, only had one of them, Charmander, evolve, into Charizard. And it's all because the anime is actually following another tradition in the games. It was inevitable what happened when Ash and Gary finally face each other in the Johto League.
 * It's probable that this was how their battle would've gone in at the Indigo Plateau back when the show had a mere 80-episode run planned. Not to mention, Ash's first choice of starter was Squirtle - Gary having a Blastoise was planned from the very beginning!
 * On a similar note, in Best Wishes, Oshawott is the first of the Unova starters Ash catches, and the only one of his that came from Professor Juniper like in the games. Trip, who has similar overconfidence issues to Cheren, chooses Snivy, just like Cheren would if the player chooses Oshawott. Meanwhile, Bianca has a Pignite, the evolved form of Tepig, who she would choose if the player chooses Oshawott.
 * Just for completion's sake, come Sinnoh saga May's Bulbasaur has evolved all the way to a Venusaur, marking the very first time the main characters have a set of fully evolved regional starters.
 * Fridge Horror: Look at some of the articles on this very page, and what do you get? A very insane idea: Crazy, but other people have already thought the bit parts up.
 * In fairness, Tobias didn't seem like a bad sort - he outright thanks Ash for giving him a good battle after  Not that the fanbase care...
 * Fridge Logic: Has its own page.
 * Gateway Series: A fair few anime fans started with this in their youth.
 * Harsher in Hindsight: "Volcanic Panic" has Ash and co. try to stop the eruption of Cinnabar Island's volcano. One year in real life later...
 * Who knows whether Drowzee/Hypno's reputation started before or after this episode.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: goes hand in hand with the above: the gang's first impression of the eponymous Pokémon in the episode "Charmander the Stray Pokémon"? "I think that this Charmander has an attitude problem." Hilarious, because that very Charmander would later turn out to be the gentlest of Ash's starter Pokémon...and harsh, because, well, who else would it evolve into 32 episodes later?
 * In an early episode, Ash asks Brock what he knows about the local gym leaders, as he wants to be prepared. He specifically says to succeed, one must "know yourself, and know your adversary!". Brock is impressed, before Ash notes he "got that one from Dexter!". He's referring to his Pokédex, but still, it describes that character's er, "work" philosophy quite accurately.
 * Anime!Lorelei only appeared during the Orange Islands saga. Come FRLG, we later learn Game!Lorelei's home is in the Sevii Islands. Coincidence?
 * In "The Ties that Bind", the announcer proclaims that Heracross' victory over Magmar was contributed to his "Guts". When game abilities are introduced, what would be one of Heracross' in-game abilities again?
 * "Why? Wynaut?": the one time Ash had a justifiable means of jumping a hundred feet through the air, Team Rocket think it's impossible. What about their opinions on the other times it's happened?
 * Wobbuffet really is the strongest member of Team Rocket, but Jessie just can't use him properly. It may be idiocy on her part, but, until Generation IV, the physical/special mechanics weren't exactly precise...
 * The Team Shot at the end of the Best Wishes OP. Oshawott the Attention Whore is standing right behind Pikachu.
 * In "A Chansey Operation" back during Season 1, the doctor recommends Ash and his friends could become competent doctors (being impressed by their handling of the sick Pokémon while he was out), but they choose to keep following their respective dreams. Come the end of DP,
 * All that talk about Brock being a Casanova Wannabe...when HG/SS updated his look to make him a true Bishonen.
 * An earlier episode had Ash, Brock, and Character of the Day Suzy denouncing the idea of making Pokemon look flashy by dressing them up with make-up and accessories, saying that it diminished their inner beauty. Come Generation IV and we have Super Contests, which partly depend on picking out accessories in order to garner points, and Dress-Up Rooms, which let the player go wild with accessories and backgrounds that sometimes may move and be flashy. This is taken even further in Generation V, where the Pokemon Musicals rely solely on the types of accessories that Pokemon can wear in order to make them stand out from the rest of the performers, with Trainers only able to decide to toss away an accessory twice during the entire musical number.
 * Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: Pick any two characters who have ever appeared on screen together or have anything at all in common . There is a ___Shipping name for them. The more complete lists have thousands of entries.
 * Here's the list.
 * Internet Backdraft:
 * Mention any shipping with Ash outside the designated forum (thread/topic/etc.). Your computer will be nice and toasty in minutes.
 * On a more specific level, who was the better traveling partner, Misty, May, Dawn or Iris?
 * Which line up of Ash's is the strongest?
 * Jerk Stu: Paul. Your first clue was when he bounced down a 400-foot cliff like a damn ninja while Ash just plummets to his amusing injury. Your second clue is that in three or so seasons, his only defeats involved three legendaries and a Garchomp.
 * Lady Mondegreen: In the English dub, Episode 4 is infamous for one of Ash's lines being misheard as "Take back that novice crap!"
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Non-deadly example: Practically once every year during the Diamond and Pearl seasons, there was an episode wherein Team Rocket would either break up or actually quit following Ash & Pikachu to do something legit. It never sticks.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: Non-deadly example: Practically once every year during the Diamond and Pearl seasons, there was an episode wherein Team Rocket would either break up or actually quit following Ash & Pikachu to do something legit. It never sticks.


 * Memetic Molester: Muk and Heracross, and we love them for it.
 * Memetic Mutation: Chock full of em.
 * Memetic Sex Goddess: One-shot character from Episode 9, Giselle, is said to be radiantly beautiful not only by herself but by Ash, Brock, and James all in the same episode. The former's attraction to her is particularly famous, and she's now known among fans as the only girl Ash was ever straight for was ever smitten by, 'cause she's just that hot.
 * Misaimed Fandom: Paul, though arguably, the way he's written encourages this.
 * Similarly, Conway, who was intended to be a case of This Loser Is You. But again, it's rather botched in writing: if Conway's creepy attitude toward Dawn is meant to be bad and thus fans like him are bad too, then why does the anime staff go out of there way to show Dawn off?
 * Moral Event Horizon: Paul's treatment of Chimchar, especially in the Tag Tournament arc.
 * Pokémon Hunter J is always a Complete Monster in all of her appearances, but in the "Pokémon Ranger and the Kidnapped Riolu" two-parter she really shows her cruelty when - besides her pursuit of the titular Riolu - she tries to kill Ash several times. First she orders her Salamence to burn the surrounding forest and fire Hyper Beam point blank; then she has her Drapion attempt to crush him (leading to one of the few times Ash ever directly attacks a Pokémon); and finally, she ejects him from her ship at great height. She also says that she wanted to punish Ash personally and took pleasure in trying to kill him and everytime she attacks Ash she is shown with a Slasher Smile.
 * Team Galactic's (and Cyrus' in particular) comes when Cyrus ordering Mars to blow up Iron Island (full of people and Pokemon) after Team Galactic have finished scanning Mt. Coronet. And he sported a Slasher Smile when he gave that order. And the reason behind this order? Just to make a statement about Team Galactic and the "new world". The guy's an Omnicidal Maniac par excellence, after all. Cyrus' plan to destroy the entire universe and create a new world in his image qualifies too, of course.
 * Damian, Charmander's former trainer, was on the brink when he first abandoned Charmander, but he soared right over the line when he refused to come back for it once it started raining -not only would Charmander not move from its rock despite the threat of death if its flame went out, Damian knew this once Brock told him yet still didn't care...his alternate counterparts in Pokemon Yellow and The Electric Tale of Pikachu subvert this, since in both he's shown to be a poor trainer for some reason or other, but still cares for Charmander's well-being.
 * In the eyes of Pikachu,  crossed this when it is revealed that  . Pikachu was absolutely furious and didn't forgive   after this and now vows revenge against  . However, this is actually an extreme Kick the Dog moment , and he is portrayed as a funny or sympathetic character in other episodes and has a few Even Evil Has Standards moments; also, from episode 12 of season 1, we see that   is capable of killing (as demonstrated when he interprets a remark by the Squirtle Squad, who didn't join up with him to be hired killers, as a death threat to Misty) but didn't follow through with any of his threats because he's a Noble Demon.
 * Similarly to Damian, whom he's an Expy of,
 * Never Live It Down: There's a reason why Porygon, a.k.a. 'The Seizure Pokémon', is never seen in the anime anymore and its evolutions are never seen in the anime, period.
 * Even though it was Pikachu that actually caused the seizures in the Porygon episode.
 * Also, the Best Wishes series will always bear the stain of having the heavily hyped "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter that was meant to air in 2011 postponed for well over a year (having been intended to air almost a week after the Tohoku Earthquake). It's not an unjustified postponement, but the fact that they've kept it up for so long and haven't said anything about it in the meantime doesn't help matters.
 * In Universe example: Kenny never lets Dawn forget how she acquired her nickname.
 * Poison Oak Epileptic Trees: A more...unsavory theory or two pertaining to Ash's father crops up every once in a while.
 * The Ash in a Coma theory.
 * Possession Sue: If Misty's in a fanfic, she's probably one of these.
 * Either that, or the opposite, though mercifully some fans can find a middle ground between the two.
 * Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Misty's usually the Fan Dumb's weapon of choice in this one...as well as a target. Developing out of her over-aggressive attitude early in the series has led to cries, while her original is turned against the more feminine May and Dawn. To her credit, when it looks like she's softening up too much (as seen when she's briefly put in Distressed Damsel territory in episode 12), she actually volunteers to help her friends out (e.g. when she volunteered to pick up the Super Potion herself after Meowth threatened her).
 * Recycled Script: Some plots in the Diamond and Pearl saga mirror those during Kanto and Johto, though this was done purposely in order to inform newer viewers of older plots...it is a Long Runner after all.
 * The problem is that, in Japan, for some reason the first few seasons haven't had a home video distribution. The reuse of old plots is supposed to, at least in theory, remedy this to a certain extent.
 * Replacement Scrappy: Tracey. Also, all the female companions past Misty will be this for some: May for replacing Misty, Dawn for replacing May, or Iris for replacing Dawn.
 * Also, among Paul's fanbase, Trip is this. No matter what he does or how his character evolves, he'll never be a good rival or interesting character in these fans' eyes because he's not Paul.
 * The Scrappy: Quite a few. See the Scrappy anime page for details.
 * Seasonal Rot: Thank you for all that tremendous Arc Fatigue, Johto and Sinnoh. Sure, Ash beat his rivals in the end, but did we need to take 150+ episodes to get there? Even the people who liked these arcs will admit to tiring out by the end.
 * Ship to Ship Combat: The History of Pokemon Shipping. For those who don't feel like clicking on an outbound link, it reads like the Wikipedia article for World War II.
 * "Stop Having Fun!" Guys: Paul, who was created as a Take That toward those types of players, but (thanks in due part to the head writer's apparent favoritism toward him), he developed a Misaimed Fandom.
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: The anime has several moments of this. Specially in the scenes when the Pokémon start "talking" to each other. Also, alot of Dawn and Piplup's moments together.
 * Straw Man Has a Point: The doctor in "A Chansey Operation" protests that his hospital is for humans and he isn't interested in helping Pokemon. Admittedly his casual attitude is cruel but he's absolutely right. He is suddenly being asked to treat a large variety of species with probably little knowledge about their reactions to certain medicines or proper temperatures, if he has to do a major operation there is no guarantee that he would have the faintest idea which major organs do what and a large number of the Pokemon are very dangerous and not in control. At one point Ash has to battle a Dodrio which the doctor would have been incapable of doing if Ash weren't there. If anything he's being more responsible than the trio or Nurse Joy. She never seemed to consider just using the clearly established Pokemon teleportation technology to send them to another Pokemon center.
 * Blame this entire fiasco on Early Installment Weirdness and Idiot Plot - nothing of this nature has really happened since that episode, and as its a Filler episode it can be easily ignored.
 * Tear Jerker: Bye, Bye, Butterfree
 * Jessie and James having to set Arbok, Weezing and Dustox free, and the former's memories of a certain Blissey. Also, James is forced to leave to a sickly Chimecho behind with an old couple from his childhood, followed by giving his Cacnea to Gardenia because he knows she'll be able to help it grow much better than he ever could...
 * Go West, Young Meowth
 * Pikachu's Goodbye
 * Do I Hear a Ralts is a fan favorite, even among a lot of Max haters.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: At the end of one episode, Ash is transformed into a Pikachu. How long does this last, mind you? Five Minutes. About two and a half at the end of said episode, and then another two and a half at the beginning of the next episode. And of course, it's Never spoken of again.
 * Viewer Gender Confusion: According to the Kids' WB! Kooky Karolfest, the recurring Jigglypuff is a male.
 * Wangst: Can happen a lot when a character loses an important battle or competition. Ash and Dawn are frequent offenders.
 * What an Idiot!: Paul during the three-part Enemy Mine tourney plot: "Even though I just had all of my other Pokémon beat down on Chimchar and Nurse Joy herself told me he would be far too injured to participate in the big tournament match tomorrow, screw that! Chimchar, stand by for battle!"
 * Rage Quit/Moral Event Horizon: "You pathetic little...I command you to attack and you just sat there?! What the hell's wrong with you?! Pack your bags, you miserable monkey. I'm gone, and so are you. Enjoy your two-on-one, loser!"
 * Wild Mass Guessing: Many people thought or Entei and/or Lucario, both of whom appeared in The Greatest - Everyday! fighting Ash's Pokémon along with Darkrai.
 * There also existed theories about Tobias being
 * The Woobie: Sometimes Dawn, sometimes Ash, sometimes May and/or Max, and sometimes the Team Rocket trio, especially James. And on the Pokémon side of things, Chimchar.
 * After the revelation that they're simply punch clock villains in "Island of the Giant Pokémon", it's impossible not to feel sorry for poor Arbok and Weezing. After getting curb stomped by the heroes every single episode, you'd think that they would run away from Team Rocket just to escape the daily pain. But no- they keep on because they care about their trainers. And their final appearance is a testament to how Jessie and James feel the same way.
 * Woolseyism: Naturally quite a few, particularly the puns which can/can't be translated. One worthy of note, however, is that Brock's Sudowoodo's use of "Take Down" in the original Japanese - which Sudowoodo cannot legitimately learn in the games - was changed in the English dub to "Double Edge", a move with similar properties which Sudowoodo can use...similarly, in the episode where Ash challenged Roxanne's Gym, her Nosepass apparently used "Hyper Beam" twice in the Japanese version (during Ash's episode battling her) - but given the electric-based properties of the attack (which was actually plot-relevant), the dub changed these two instances to "Thunder Wave" and "Zap Cannon" respectively, which actually makes more sense (Zap Cannon is probably what the attack was meant to be, anyway).
 * Hikari/Dawn's Embarrassing Nickname, "Pikari"/"Dee-Dee", is a particularly clever one, which makes you wonder if PUSA had planned it ahead. To elaborate, Dawn's nickname is treated as a Noodle Incident until the last DP Season, where its origins are revealed to be from Dawn having been shocked by a Plusle and Minun when she was little - her friend Kenny partially traumatised her at the time by calling her "Pikari" (in reference to pikapika, the sound an electric sparkle makes). Since the dub changed her name, the nickname becomes Dee-Dee - which is short for "Diamond Dandruff", a rather suitable nickname for the scenario.
 * While being a "Pokemon Sommelier" fits for Cilan "tasting" the compatability between pokemon and trainers, "Pokemon Conoisseur" works much better when it comes to Cilan's various hobbies when he declares himself a "--- Conoisseur", seeing as a conoisseur is another term for an enthusiast.