History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / PokemonTheSeries

The early episodes of [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries the anime]] feature ''a lot'' of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness due to EarthDrift and varying directorial opinions on what the anime should be like.

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam of light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (it simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball should have rejected the capture, but in early episodes this restriction wasn't established. Another later-added method of officially releasing a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this method to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work).

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam of light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (it simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball should have rejected the capture, but in early episodes this restriction wasn't established (another method of officially release a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this method to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work).

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam of light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (it simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball should have rejected the capture, but in early episodes this restriction wasn't established (another way to officially release a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this month to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work).

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam of light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (it simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball would have rejected the capture. Another way to officially release a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this month to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work.

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam of light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (he simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball would have rejected the capture. Another way to officially release a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this month to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work.

** In early Pokémon episodes, when Pokémon are released, they are simply let out of their Poké Ball (or are able to leave when already out of it if the trainer no longer desires them, or wishes to set them free). However, later episodes show that when a Pokémon is released, they are ejected from their Poké Ball within a blue beam to light to indicate that they are no longer marked as owned and can be re-captured by another trainer. Since Damien didn't do this with his Charmander (he simply refused to go back to him) Ash shouldn't have been able to capture Charmander; his Poké Ball would have rejected the capture. Another way to officially release a Pokémon is to destroy its Poké Ball; Jessie used this month to release her Dustox, as simply telling it to leave her didn't work.

* Very early on, characters could keep as many Pokémon as they could carry. Charmander's owner Damien even had 30. It was revealed just two episodes later that trainers can only carry six at a time, the main rule in the games.

* In the first few regions, Ash didn't dump his Pokemon to start fresh with each region he visited. It wouldn't be until Hoenn before he would start to head out to new regions with only Pikachu by his side.

The early episodes of the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime feature ''a lot'' of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness due to EarthDrift and varying directorial opinions on what the anime should be like.

The early episodes of the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime feature a lot of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness due to EarthDrift and varying directorial opinions on what the anime should be like.

* In the episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon", Jessie's Ekans claims that all Pokémon are AlwaysLawfulGood; that is, they are ''never'' bad or evil of their own accord, [[MyMasterRightOrWrong but only when their trainer is]]. While this held true for a good long while (and to some degree still does -- independent Pokémon villains are rare next to human ones, and they're never as irredeemable as some of them), a Teddiursa who steals food and frames Ash's Pokémon for doing so, the appearance of Spiritomb, an unusually mean Togepi, a gang of Litwick (who showed too much glee draining Ash, his friends and Team Rocket's life energy) and a Lampent, a group of Malamar out to TakeOverTheWorld, and Jessie's Mimikyu (who joined Team Rocket purely out of hatred for Pikachu) disproves Ekans' point, though these are minorities to other individuals of the species.

* In the episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon", Jessie's Ekans claims that all Pokémon are AlwaysLawfulGood; that is, they are ''never'' bad or evil of their own accord, [[MyMasterRightOrWrong but only when their trainer is]]. While this held true for a good long while (and to some degree still does -- independent Pokémon villains are rare next to human ones, and they're never as irredeemable as some of them), the appearance of Spiritomb, an unusually mean Togepi, a gang of Litwick (who showed too much glee draining Ash, his friends and Team Rocket's life energy) and a Lampent, a group of Malamar out to TakeOverTheWorld, and Jessie's Mimikyu (who joined Team Rocket purely out of hatred for Pikachu) disproves Ekans' point, though these are minorities to other individuals of the species.

** It also showed Ash having a crush, making this episode the only one where Ash showed any capacity for romantic attraction. Some fans still assume that these elements are ''still'' true - despite the episode [[LongRunners being made over 22 years ago and counting]] and [[CharacterizationMarchesOn not being mentioned]] ''since''. This is also one of the rare moments where Brock has shown attraction to a girl around Ash's age. Typically he shows [[PrecociousCrush attraction to women]] or girls in their later teens, and he's officially 15. The other was the girl Ash had a crush on, of all characters, who in the Japanese version said [[TheJailbaitWait she'd be fun in eight years]]. Both were in original series episodes.

* In fact, many of the early episodes had characters who were completely and utterly arrogant and a {{Jerkass}} towards Ash. In later episodes, Ash is given a ton of immediate respect and admiration simply for existing, and anyone who dislikes him usually evolves into a recurring rival and/or villain later on (Paul, for example).
** The tone and humour of the early episodes was generally far more mean-spirited, presenting the Pokémon world as overrun with crooks, thugs and even terrorists. The main characters were generally put in grave, cartoonishly exaggerated danger far more often in early episodes.

* Snarky comments in general (both deserved and undeserved) were a staple of the anime's comedy back in its early days, but slowly faded out until the ''Diamond and Pearl'' arc, where they were almost completely gone with a few notable exceptions. This can be observed the closest with Ash, who was a petulant and sometimes arrogant kid when he first started out in Kanto, [[CharacterDevelopment but eventually grew out of it from Hoenn onwards.]]

* In the first few regions, Ash didn't dump his Pokemon to start fresh with each region he visited. It wouldn't be until Hoenn before he would start to only head out to new regions with only Pikachu by his side.

* In the early episodes Weedle and Caterpie's evolutions bore more resemblance to real world insect metamorphosis. Ash's Caterpie evolved into a Metapod by covering itself in silk. In the next episode both Metapod and Kakuna evolved into Butterfree and Beedrill, respectively, by exiting their pupa shells. Future episodes show the bug Pokemon evolving the more typical way, glowing and changing shape.

** A more minor example is that in the earlier days of the show, several Gym Leaders were one-shot characters. Ash would simply show up at the gym and meet the Gym Leader, get his badge, and then leave, all in the same episode. The last Gym Leader where this happened was Wattson at the Mauville Gym, the third gym in the Hoenn League, though this was ultimately subverted in the episode where Ash and co. returned to Mauville City and met up with him again. Aside from that, the last Gym Leader to get this treatment was Chuck, the Cianwood Gym Leader, the fifth one in Johto. Nowadays, Ash never gets a gym badge in the same episode where the Gym Leader debuts. He will either spend their debut episode with them on a non-gym-related plot and have his gym battle in the next episode, or he will have a gym battle with them but lose and re-challenge the gym. Another possibility is that he will challenge them to a gym battle in their debut episode, and the same battle will continue into the next episode where he will win it[[note]]Sootopolis, Striaton, and Virbank, with the Striaton one being notable for being 3 1-on-1s over the course of 2 episodes (Ash facing off against Chili's Pansear, Cress's Panpour, and Cilan's Pansage using Tepig, Pikachu, and Oshawott); the other 2 also had some non-standard conditions. Sootopolis started as a double battle, but once Ash had to use three Pokémon (Pikachu, Snorunt, and Corphish) to eliminate the first two Pokémon on Juan's side (Sealeo and Seaking), it switched to a single battle format to eliminate his remaining Pokémon (defeating Luvdisc, Whiscash, and Milotic using Grovyle, Corphish, Swellow, and Pikachu). Meanwhile, Virbank was a 3-on-''6'' battle, the only time Ash was allowed to use more Pokémon than his opponent (Roxie using Koffing, Scolipede, and Garbodor while Ash had Boldore, Unfezant, Leavanny, Pignite, Palpitoad, and Pikachu)[[/note]]. The only other single-episode Gym Leaders are more Ash doesn’t battle in an official capacity like Agatha[[note]]Actually an Elite Four member, but she was the acting Viridian gym leader in her only appearance.[[/note]]and Cheren, or at all, like Drayden and Marlon (because by then, Ash already had his eight badges).

[[caption-width-right:350:Yes, those are real-world fish in the tanks.]]

* The Kanto and Johto episodes of the anime were a lot more Japanese than you see in Hoenn or Sinnoh. This was a specific change on request from Nintendo and the sponsors, who noting that ''Pokémon'' now had worldwide fame, wanted it more "culturally neutral" to appeal to children all over the world, so most of the specific Japanese cultural themes stopped being used. This attitude extended to ''Best Wishes'', ''XY'', ''Sun and Moon'', and to a lesser extent ''Journeys'', which were set in regions based heavily on America, France, Hawaii, and occasional visits to the England-esque Galar, respectively.

* "Tentacool & Tentacruel" has the giant Tentacruel able to possess Meowth and speak through its voice. Possibly Hand Waved as a side effect of the chemicals that caused it to evolve from Tentacool and become a giant in the first place.

* The 9th episode, "The School of Hard Knocks" has two ideas that were dropped right afterwards:

* Gyarados's UltimateAttack Dragon Rage is used in "Pokémon Shipwreck" when a whole group of them send the protagonists through a violent whirlpool. Dragon Rage was later {{Retcon}}ned to being a BreathWeapon, while the whirlpool concept was reused for Twister.

* There were many instances of non-Pokémon animals, one of the most infamous examples being the mongoose Gastly turns into in "[[BizarroEpisode The Ghost of Maiden's Peak]]" and fish in an aquarium in the Cerulean Gym in the seventh episode. While small animals (such as butterflies and starfish) still occasionally appear in the anime, they're much, much rarer and have largely been replaced by Pokémon. The large majority of the later appearances of real world animals are often of fish ... as food.

** In the first series, the Pokémon League is treated as an enormous event akin to the Summer Olympics, being hyped up for multiple episodes as a once-in-a-lifetime challenge for trainers everywhere. In subsequent series, it's more akin to an FA Cup of NFL tournament; still obviously a big championship event (especially for the trainers who compete in it), but one that happens often enough that it isn't particularly special. Ash is always able to qualify for it, and it isn't hyped as much in later episodes, instead considered a routine part of his regional journey.

** The Kanto Saga had a rule that made Pokémon which fall asleep lose the battle. This is most notably shown during the League Battle against Ritchie, where Squirtle and Charizard were disqualified because they were either put asleep (Squirtle hit by Happy the Butterfree's Sleep Powder) or fell asleep on their own (Charizard sleeping off against Ritchie's Pikachu named Sparky).[[note]]Charizard also does this during the battle against Blaine, but it flies off to a nearby ledge to do this so it more obviously resembles disobedient forfeiting[[/note]]. This rule, originally one of the reasons for Ash losing the Kanto League, would never come up again, especially demonstrated in later League Battles where several of Ash's Pokémon fell asleep, but eventually woke up and won the battle for him (mostly anyway). The most notable examples of those contradicting moments were Snorlax during the Johto League Battle against Harrison, where it ''started out'' asleep, which gave Harrison's Hypno a free shot of attacking (though eventually being beaten); Heracross during the Sinnoh League Battles against Nando and Tobias where Ash's ordered Heracross to use Sleep Talk to counteract the expected sleep status tactics used by Kricketune's Sing and Darkrai's Dark Void (this allowed Ash to win against Nando, but Darkrai was an OlympusMons with access to Dream Eater, securing it a victory over Heracross); and Rowlet during the Alola League Battle against Hau where Rowlet was initially declared to be unable to battle, but that judgement was then immediately overruled because as it turned out, Rowlet didn't faint, it just fell asleep comically, thus the battle continued and ended with Ash winning the match against Hau's Decidueye.

* A similar example is Pikachu, who was a bit of a {{Jerkass}} in the first episode (largely due to the fact that he is shy, non-trusting of his brash new owner, and bitter about being unexpectedly evicted from the comfort of Professor Oak's laboratory) but mellows down considerably when Ash [[UndyingLoyalty earns his respect]]. Pikachu's early behaviour is seldom mentioned again. Pikachu was still feisty and occasionally irritable throughout Kanto (electrocuting Ash whenever he feels improperly treated, trying to kill Meowth at least once., etc), however future flashbacks and ''I Choose You'' use BackportedDevelopment to pretend that he became a complete NiceGuy after the first episode. Also, in the first few seasons, he was [[ArtEvolution a lot more chubby]], but slimmed down ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}''-style, which was brought back as Pikachu's Gigantamax form.

* The anime was quite bizarre in the beginning. Episodes were noticeably more violent, dark, and phantasmagorical, with darker colours and a greater emphasis on crazy action adventure capers and fairy tale myths than later episodes. One episode was even banned outside Japan for including assault rifles.
** Many earlier episodes involved Ash, Brock and Misty coming across some strange new location or settlement that had some kind of unusual and/or menacing twist to the usually more harmless Pokémon locations seen in the games. An example is "The Ghost of Maiden's Peak" which featured a talking Gastly with [[GreatGazoo absurd]] abilities. Another was the Sabrina arc, where Ash and Pikachu briefly become ghosts thanks to Haunter ("The Tower of Terror") and Brock and Misty are turned into dolls by Sabrina's psychic powers ("Haunter vs Kadabra"). In "The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis" the gang come across an ancient site which features a giant Gengar, Alakazam, and Jigglypuff with ancient markings, and in "Pikachu Re-Volts" Ash and his friends' Pokémon, and those belonging to the Team Rocket Trio (including Meowth) become mentally corrupted by dark psychic energy and turn against their own trainers[[note]]Though unlike most examples, this was more mundane: Butch and Cassidy, the KnightOfCerebus foils to Jessie, James, and Meowth, were revealed to be responsible for this with the help of their Drowzee[[/note]]. Episode plots as bizarre as these became significantly rarer later on, while magical, mythical and violent elements were usually reserved for the Pokémon movies, [[BigDamnMovie which are typically far more "epic" and fantasy-themed]]. They still happen occasionally though-- for example, the never-explained mischievous Togepi in "Where No Togepi Has Gone Before", May time-traveling in "Time-Warp Heals All Wounds", and the evil Malamar that appeared twice in Kalos.