As Excadrill and Beartic both featured heavily in the latest episode, I got thinking about something. Throughout the show, the gym leaders have (for the most part) had the same pokemon as their game counterparts, while the signature pokemon is almost always the same or at least in the same evolution family. This is usually the biggest showcase that those pokemon will receive in the anime, and also very often the first time the species is featured.
Brock's Onix, Misty's Starmie, Lt Surge's Raichu, Sabrina's Abra/Kadabra, Erika's Gloom, Whitney's Miltank, Jasmine's Steelix, Pryce's Piloswine, Roxanne's Nosepass, Brawley's Makuhita/Hariyama, Flannery's Torkoal, Norman's Slaking, Roark's Cranidos/Rampardos, Maylene's Lucario, Fantina's Drifblim, Byron's Bastiodon, Candice's Abomasnow, Cilan's Pansage (plus Cress's Panpour and Chili's Pansear), Lenora's Watchog, Burgh's Leavanney and Drayden's Haxorus... one thing that all of them have in common is that you'd not seen any of these pokemon in a starring role in the anime until they first popped out of their owner's pokeballs.
We can excuse Faulkner's Pidgeot, Bugsy's Scyther, Morty's Gengar and Wattson's Magneton because they were from previous generations and would inevitably have appeared before Ash even went to the home region of their gym leader trainers.
There are a few exceptional cases though, where the signature pokemon differs from in the games or when the pokemon made its first appearance before the gym leader it is associated with (and wasn't from a previous generation);
-Koga didn't have a Venonat/Venomoth or a Golbat in the Generation 1 games. In Red and Blue, his signature pokemon were Muk and Weezing. He was later given them Gold and Silver, possibly influenced by the anime.
-Blaine used a Magmar in the show, unlike in Red and Blue, and didn't have an Arcanine or Rapidash. Presumably it had already been decided that Gary would have an Arcanine and Rapidash had appeared in a previous episode whereas Magmar had not. Magmar was also a more suitable choice for the volcano in the gym, and in Gold and Silver (and the remakes) Blaine was given a Magmar.
-Giovanni's Rhydon did appear under Team Rocket's control but got no particular focus and one had already appeared under the control of Blaine. Giovanni's signature anime pokemon in that episode was Mewtwo, and at any other time it is Persian we associate with him. He has never shown a particular preference for ground-types in the anime and few of his pokemon have ever appeared outside of that one episode.
-Chuck's main pokemon in the games was his Poliwrath. Poliwrath was instead his first of two, with Machoke being the second and more showcased of the two even though he didn't have a Machoke in the game and the Machop family was more associated with Bruno. All of these were Kanto pokemon regardless, so none would have debuted in this episode.
-Clair's signature pokemon was changed from Kingdra to Dragonair. Both had already debuted, although Dragonair had only appeared briefly in an episode which was banned in the west. I assume that this was done because the Dratini line is associated more than any other with the dragon-type and also because it would make more sense for Charizard to be brought back to battle a Dragonair than a Kingdra.
-Although Winona's team wasn't changed, her Swellow was made shiny to distinguish it from Ash's and it became her main pokemon. Her main pokemon in the games was Altaria, who had a smaller role in the anime. Altaria had already appeared in the show, but not in a long or major role.
-Both Solrock and Lunatone debuted (seperately) some time before the appearance of Liza and Tate
-Milotic had appeared before Juan's (it should be noted that Juan used a Kingdra in Emerald but he had Wallace's team in the anime instead of his own) but only briefly under the control of Robert, whose true significance would not be known until later.
-Gardenia's Roserade was the second that we saw. A filler episode featured Roserade not long before Gardenia's appeared.
-Crasher Wake's Floatzel was the second that we saw. It made a brief debut in a Ranger episode, presumably in reference to its useage as a swimming aid in those games.
-Volkner's Luxray wasn't the first that we saw, although as this one was right at the end of the saga (and no pokemon from Gen IV minus Porygon-Z and a few legendaries were left unfeatured by then) so it's understandable.
So out of 35 cases, we have 21 where the pokemon debuted with its gym leader. That's more than half of the time. However, we know that Clay's Excadrill won't be the first, Skyla's Swanna won't be the first and Brycen's Beartic won't be the first. So after Elesa's Zebstrika debut we won't have any more continuation this saga of what I consider something of a tradition for the anime. The signature pokemon of gym leaders are obviously chosen carefully, so I have a feeling that they won't have that uniqueness of being the first we see animated and that we'll have less to get excited about with each upcoming gym.
Or maybe that's just me. We still haven't seen Meinshao, Chendelure, Volcarona or Bisharp so at least there might still be the elites to keep this tradition up.
Brock's Onix, Misty's Starmie, Lt Surge's Raichu, Sabrina's Abra/Kadabra, Erika's Gloom, Whitney's Miltank, Jasmine's Steelix, Pryce's Piloswine, Roxanne's Nosepass, Brawley's Makuhita/Hariyama, Flannery's Torkoal, Norman's Slaking, Roark's Cranidos/Rampardos, Maylene's Lucario, Fantina's Drifblim, Byron's Bastiodon, Candice's Abomasnow, Cilan's Pansage (plus Cress's Panpour and Chili's Pansear), Lenora's Watchog, Burgh's Leavanney and Drayden's Haxorus... one thing that all of them have in common is that you'd not seen any of these pokemon in a starring role in the anime until they first popped out of their owner's pokeballs.
We can excuse Faulkner's Pidgeot, Bugsy's Scyther, Morty's Gengar and Wattson's Magneton because they were from previous generations and would inevitably have appeared before Ash even went to the home region of their gym leader trainers.
There are a few exceptional cases though, where the signature pokemon differs from in the games or when the pokemon made its first appearance before the gym leader it is associated with (and wasn't from a previous generation);
-Koga didn't have a Venonat/Venomoth or a Golbat in the Generation 1 games. In Red and Blue, his signature pokemon were Muk and Weezing. He was later given them Gold and Silver, possibly influenced by the anime.
-Blaine used a Magmar in the show, unlike in Red and Blue, and didn't have an Arcanine or Rapidash. Presumably it had already been decided that Gary would have an Arcanine and Rapidash had appeared in a previous episode whereas Magmar had not. Magmar was also a more suitable choice for the volcano in the gym, and in Gold and Silver (and the remakes) Blaine was given a Magmar.
-Giovanni's Rhydon did appear under Team Rocket's control but got no particular focus and one had already appeared under the control of Blaine. Giovanni's signature anime pokemon in that episode was Mewtwo, and at any other time it is Persian we associate with him. He has never shown a particular preference for ground-types in the anime and few of his pokemon have ever appeared outside of that one episode.
-Chuck's main pokemon in the games was his Poliwrath. Poliwrath was instead his first of two, with Machoke being the second and more showcased of the two even though he didn't have a Machoke in the game and the Machop family was more associated with Bruno. All of these were Kanto pokemon regardless, so none would have debuted in this episode.
-Clair's signature pokemon was changed from Kingdra to Dragonair. Both had already debuted, although Dragonair had only appeared briefly in an episode which was banned in the west. I assume that this was done because the Dratini line is associated more than any other with the dragon-type and also because it would make more sense for Charizard to be brought back to battle a Dragonair than a Kingdra.
-Although Winona's team wasn't changed, her Swellow was made shiny to distinguish it from Ash's and it became her main pokemon. Her main pokemon in the games was Altaria, who had a smaller role in the anime. Altaria had already appeared in the show, but not in a long or major role.
-Both Solrock and Lunatone debuted (seperately) some time before the appearance of Liza and Tate
-Milotic had appeared before Juan's (it should be noted that Juan used a Kingdra in Emerald but he had Wallace's team in the anime instead of his own) but only briefly under the control of Robert, whose true significance would not be known until later.
-Gardenia's Roserade was the second that we saw. A filler episode featured Roserade not long before Gardenia's appeared.
-Crasher Wake's Floatzel was the second that we saw. It made a brief debut in a Ranger episode, presumably in reference to its useage as a swimming aid in those games.
-Volkner's Luxray wasn't the first that we saw, although as this one was right at the end of the saga (and no pokemon from Gen IV minus Porygon-Z and a few legendaries were left unfeatured by then) so it's understandable.
So out of 35 cases, we have 21 where the pokemon debuted with its gym leader. That's more than half of the time. However, we know that Clay's Excadrill won't be the first, Skyla's Swanna won't be the first and Brycen's Beartic won't be the first. So after Elesa's Zebstrika debut we won't have any more continuation this saga of what I consider something of a tradition for the anime. The signature pokemon of gym leaders are obviously chosen carefully, so I have a feeling that they won't have that uniqueness of being the first we see animated and that we'll have less to get excited about with each upcoming gym.
Or maybe that's just me. We still haven't seen Meinshao, Chendelure, Volcarona or Bisharp so at least there might still be the elites to keep this tradition up.
