Pokemon "Did You Know" facts thread.

[shoz999]

This is a thread to state and discuss interesting low-key obscure facts that even to an extant, some hardcore Pokemon fans have never heard of.

I'll go first. The Pokemon Adventures manga is not only one of the best faithful adaptations of the Pokemon games but it also does a pretty good job of explaining certain oddities that the game never explains at all. For one certain case is how Pikachu can simply surf and fly anywhere, any location, any time in the games. In the manga, Pikachu can learn the substitution ninjutsu, or what you Pokemon fans may recognize as the move substitute. Through the move substitute, Pikachu is able to create any decoy object molded from his body at the cost of his health. This decoy object can range from a mobile clone to the classic plushie substitute doll to even a surfboard and a bunch of balloons allowing Pikachu easy access to surf and fly anywhere and anytime.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Pokémon was originally called Capsule Monsters, and the name 'Mew' was trademarked as early as 1990. The very first Pokémon games had been in development since the late 1980s.

 

[RedJirachi]

Ditto is the only Pokemon who can breed with Pokemon other than Ditto, but can't breed with itself/Ditto

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Ditto is the only Pokemon who can breed with Pokemon other than Ditto, but can't breed with itself/Ditto

Imagine if it could though... Dittoception!

 

[Scammel]

Brock's Geodude has a higher base Attack than his Onix.

Krabby has a higher base Attack than Complete Zygarde.

Poliwag has a higher base Speed than Complete Zygarde.

Gen 1 basic Pokémon have absolutely no chill.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Brock's Geodude has a higher base Attack than his Onix.

Krabby has a higher base Attack than Complete Zygarde.

Poliwag has higher base Speed than Complete Zygarde.

Gen 1 basic Pokémon have absolutely no chill.

Onix didn't have an evolution in Gen 1 (Steelix came out in Gen 2), so that might be why it's weaker stats-wise compared to the three-evo-stages Geodude.

 

[Scammel]

Hilariously, Geodude's Attack is also a mere five points lower than Steelix's.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

If Rollout were to hit five times in a row without missing, its base power would be 960, the highest BP in the game, not counting Explosion and Self-Destruct.

 

[Mega Altaria]

Originally the mascot of the Pokémon franchise was going to be Clefairy instead of Pikachu.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

The Ice Type was a late addition to the original games.

A Magikarp that knew Dragon Rage was given out in a very limited event during Gen I.

 

[NovaBrunswick]

Originally the mascot of the Pokémon franchise was going to be Clefairy instead of Pikachu.

I read somewhere that the reason Pikachu was chosen as Pokémon's mascot instead of Clefairy was because they wanted the series to have unisex appeal, not just for girls. Ironically, a lot of people back then thought Pokémon was a boys' thing.

 

[Mega Altaria]

I read somewhere that the reason Pikachu was chosen as Pokémon's mascot instead of Clefairy was because they wanted the series to have unisex appeal, not just for girls. Ironically, a lot of people back then thought Pokémon was a boys' thing.

I think the anime was highly influential on this decision. Though early on, it was Clefairy who was actually the mascot of Pokémon but Pikachu was already getting popular in Japan. Yeah, I definitely think it was done so the franchise could appeal to both young boys and girls. I think the stigma from the Pokémon battles led it to be thought of being a boy's thing even though the male to female ratio for Game Boy users was more even compared to other consoles these days.

 

[Kisai]

I got Japanese versions of Ruby & Sapphire a little while ago, and since this was my very first exposure to the Japanese versions, so I was pretty surprised when I was reading out the katakana and found out that Pokéballs are called Monster Balls in the Japanese version.

 

[shoz999]

For the Eevee fans and those who remember Red's Espeon from the original Pokemon Gold and Silver games.

Red's Espeon, Vee!

Eevee owners are often associated with girls who participate in contests however did you know that one of the earliest Eevee owner characters, if not the original Eevee owner character, was Red from Pokemon Adventures? In the manga, Red befriends a Eevee that is hostile to humans after being captured and experimented by Team Rocket for it's evolutionary properties. Due to Rocket's experimentation, Eevee is one of Red's strongest team members able to switch in to Flareon, Jolteon and Vaporean and back to Eevee.

However this constant forced evolution turns out to be painful for Eevee until one day, through Red's friendship with Eevee, Eevee naturally and permanently evolves into Espeon, an absolute powerhouse on Red's team. Yes, that's right, that Espeon! Not only is Red is one of the earliest Eevee owners, to this date Pokemon Adventures is the ONLY offiicial adaptation to adapt Red's Espeon from the original Pokemon Gold and Silver video games before Espeon was replaced in the games by Lapras due to the anime's popularity.

Thinking about it, it's kind of sad how Espeon lives in Lapras's shadow, never having an appearance in any incarnation of Red except for two versions of a game and the Adventures manga.

 

[Apslup]

Bin Shimada, The guy who voices Dr Akihabara (the scientist in the "Cyber Soldier Porygon" episode) also voices Broly in DBZ.

Also after Cyber Soldier Porygon aired in Japan, the anime's timeslot changed from Tuesday nights to 18:55 on Thursdays, which is now changing for the first time since then to Sundays at 18:00

 

[Darthlord7]

The move Curse was a ???-type move till GenIV before it becomes a Ghost-type one from GenV onwards where it was completely removed.

 

[Nockturne]

The original plan was for Generation 2 to be the end of the series, but due to the overwhelming success of the games and other associated media, GameFreak decided to keep going with it. That's why Gen 2 is such an outlier and doesn't adhere to many of the conventions we expect from a new generation, it was more of a complementary generation that fleshed out and rounded off the stuff that was started in Gen 1.

 

[Mega Altaria]

The original 151 at one point were meant had another set of names even though some of them are the same as today. Some of them sounded cheesy like ‘Hocus’ for Abra and ‘Pocus’ for Kadabra. Even Gyarados and Gengar had entirely different names.

 

[shoz999]

Did you know the first Pokemon in the Pokemon series is Bulbasaur, Mew, Rhydon and Arceus? lol, confused yet? Bulbasaur is the first Pokemon in the Pokedex, DNA of every Pokemon is thought to be originated from Mew, Rhydon was the first Pokemon ever designed and Arceus is considered to be the god who created the Pokemon universe.

 

[Darthlord7]

Prior to GenVI, Azurill due to its different gender ratio (25% male -75% female) from its next evolution stages (50% male - 50% female), the female one had a 1/3 chance to change her gender upon evolution through her personality value.