History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / PokemonTheSeries

** Four out of Ash's first five Gym Leaders gave Ash their badges for helping them out in different ways, even though he didn't officially defeat them[[note]]Lt. Surge, whom Ash fought third, is the exception to this set[[/note]]: the Cerulean and Celadon Gym Battles were interrupted by Team Rocket and a fire (though Team Rocket caused that one too) respectively, the Pewter Gym battle had sprinklers that gave Ash's Pikachu an advantage over Brock's Onix (though while Brock allows this tactic, Ash forfeits when he feels guilty about it and Brock's many siblings interrupt the battle to save Onix), and the Haunter that Ash led back to the Saffron Gym snapped Sabrina out of her EmotionlessGirl[=/=]CreepyChild persona. Starting with Koga, whose battle was also interrupted by Team Rocket, no other leaders have made exceptions like these, except for Pryce (who forfeited because he didn't want the Piloswine he just reunited with to be hurt) and possibly Maylene in Sinnoh (which ended in a draw; Maylene decided Ash deserved the badge a day later), Whitney in Johto (Ash lost the first match, then defeated Miltank in a three-on-one unofficial rematch), and Wattson in Hoenn (unbeknownst to Ash, Pikachu was supercharged and defeated all of Wattson's Pokémon effortlessly; Ash went to confess but Wattson asked him to keep it anyway). This was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d at the Cinnabar Gym, when Ash expects to receive his badge, but Blaine only intended to let him re-challenge him for it. Ash was thrilled for a proper rematch anyway.

** Four out of Ash's first five Gym Leaders gave Ash their badges for helping them out in different ways, even though he didn't officially defeat them[[note]]Lt. Surge, whom Ash fought third, is the exception to this set[[/note]]: the Cerulean and Celadon Gym Battles were interrupted by Team Rocket and a fire (though Team Rocket caused that one too) respectively, the Pewter Gym battle had sprinklers that gave Ash's Pikachu an advantage over Brock's Onix (though while Brock allows this tactic, Ash forfeits when he feels guilty about it and Brock's many siblings interrupt the battle to save Onix), and the Haunter that Ash led back to the Saffron Gym snapped Sabrina out of her EmotionlessGirl[=/=]CreepyChild persona. Starting with Koga, whose battle was also interrupted by Team Rocket, no other leaders have made exceptions like these, except for Pryce (who forfeited because he didn't want the Piloswine he just reunited with to be hurt) and possibly Maylene in Sinnoh, but that match ended in a draw. This was {{lampshade|Hanging}}d at the Cinnabar Gym, when Ash expects to receive his badge, but Blaine only intended to let him re-challenge him for it. Ash was thrilled for a proper rematch anyway.

* 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 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 a Teddiursa who steals food and frames Ash's Pokémon for doing so ([[KarmaHoudini and gets away with it]]), 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.

** Several mythical or legendary Pokemon are introduced in the movies as otherworldly and often posess more sapient abilities like being able to talk human language, only to reappear in the show itself as standard if rare Pokemon. Compare the talking Shaymin of ''Giratina and the Sky Warrior'' to Mallow's in the ''Sun and Moon'' series, which acts no differently from the other baby-like Pokemon of the main group.

* In Episode #2, [[PokemonS1E2PokemonEmergency "Pokemon Emergency!"]], Pikachu's injuries from battling the Spearow flock are treated as life-threatening, and there is real worry on Ash's part (and even Nurse Joy's) that Pikachu might not make it. The franchise would soon phase out any suggestion that Pokemon are seriously hurt by fighting other Pokemon; the worst that happens to them later is dizziness and/or fatigue.

* 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. According to Takeshi Shudo the reason for this is simply because the animators were not aware of what they were drawing.

* 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 end of 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.]]

** Although it's very likely not cannon due to Woolseyism, it should be noted that the Latin American dub mentions real life cities and places all the way to the ''Unova'' seasons (mostly by James, who will replace the line "To extend our reach to the stars above" to a random place). Places mentioned include Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and several cities from various Latin American countries(and Spain).

* Early seasons featured Japanese and some English text. 4kids would remove the text and either replace it with English text, leave it blank, or use a random gibberish language. Eventually, even in Japan they began using the made up language in order to make the series more "international friendly" and fit the EarthDrift. The games also featured Japanese text until the fifth generation, where they embraced the anime's WingDinglish. English and Japanese still appear sometimes, but most text consists of made-up text.

* In his first regional transition - from Kanto to Johto - Ash didn't dump his entire team (sans [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]]) to start completely fresh, as became traditional from Hoenn on[[note]]This mostly took the form of having Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charizard, and Squirtle, however, as Ash released Pidgeot shortly before he began heading for the Orange Islands, and when he got back to Kanto a while after he released Lapras in the Orange Islands, he let Snorlax stay with Professor Oak and put Tauros back as well. As a result of holding onto more Pokemon in Johto, he had to phase Charizard and Squirtle out early in his journey, eventually also putting Bulbasaur with Professor Oak later into it.[[/note]]. For this reason, Kanto and Johto are often (especially on ThisVeryWiki, as well as Bulbapedia) grouped together as "The Original Series", while every region from Hoenn on gets its own [[NewSeasonNewName unique season/series name]].

* Throughout the sixth episode, Clefairy holds a Moon Stone yet doesn't evolve. Later episodes have it so that simply touching an evolutionary stone induces evolution.

** James and Meowth's voices were done by Creator/TedLewis and Matthew Sussman (aka Nathan Price) for the first 9 and 29 episodes [[TheOtherDarrin instead of]] Creator/EricStuart and Creator/MaddieBlaustein, respectively, and it ''shows''. It was done both in tandem with Ted Lewis taking a break to do theater and Matthew Sussman semi-retiring, but they decided not to bring the old [=VAs=] (apart from occasional guest and recurring parts as different characters, Ted Lewis most notably voicing [[BigBad Giovanni]] and [[GuestStarPartyMember Tracey Sketchit]]) back after it became evident that they were going to be more comical from then on and that they fit the comical roles better. Even Eric Stuart's James [[VocalEvolution sounds a bit different]] than it did early Season 1: it sounded more like an imitation of Ted Lewis' "serious" performance at first but gradually (d)evolved into what we hear by Season 8.

* In his first regional transition - from Kanto to Johto - Ash didn't dump his entire team (sans [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]]) to start completely fresh, as became traditional from Hoenn on. For this reason, Kanto and Johto are often (especially on ThisVeryWiki, as well as Bulbapedia) grouped together as "The Original Series", while every region from Hoenn on gets its own [[NewSeasonNewName unique season/series name]].

* A few early episodes like "Beauty and the Beach", "Electric Shock Showdown", and "Hypno's Naptime" make reference to ten-year-old characters being found cute by teens and adults. This is a remnant from ''LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'' having ten-year-olds as adults. Later episodes remove these jokes.

* Pokémon sometimes use moves that they are incapable of legally learning.

* 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 for a 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 a Teddiursa who steals food and frames Ash's Pokémon for doing so ([[KarmaHoudini and gets away with it]]), 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.

* According to ''LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'', ten year olds are considered legal adults. The anime doesn't go with this interpretation of the universe, however elements of this still snuck into Kanto episodes and made their mark.[[note]]One example involves Officer Jenny. One Jenny in Kanto arrested Ash, Misty, and Brock as part of a sting operation where she wore a Chansey hat in a zone where it was illegal to catch Pokémon to bait would-be poachers. A Jenny in ''Kalos'' detained Ash, Serena, and Bonnie [[FrameUp while they were being impersonated by Team Rocket]].[[/note]]

* A few early episodes like "Beauty and the Beach", "Electric Shock Showdown", and "Hypno's Naptime" make reference to ten-year old characters being found cute by teens and adults. This is a remnant from ''LightNovel/PocketMonstersTheAnimation'' having ten year olds as adults. Later episodes remove these jokes.

* 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.

* 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 ([[KarmaHoudini and gets away with it]]), 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.

** Atlough it's very likely not cannon due to Wooleyism, it should be noted that the Latin American dub mentions real life cities and places all the way to the ''Unova'' seasons (mostrly by James, who will replace the line "To extend our reach to the stars above" to a random place). Places mentioned include Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and several cities from various Latin American countries(and Spain).

** It was one of just two episodes to reference numbered {{Character Level}}s (as in the RPG game mechanics). As an example, one of the characters mentions that Pidgeotto should learn Whirlwind at level 21. Later episodes don't talk about numbered levels at all except as vague terms (such as "high level", "low level" and "level up") and moves can be learned either spontaneously or when given explicit instruction from others. The only exception where a specific level number is stated after Episode 9 is in Episode 245, "Will The Real Oak Please Stand Up?" where it's stated that Slowbro learns Amnesia at level 46. After that, level numbers are never stated again.

* There are a few references to Christianity: Brock mentions Noah's arc, the fake coffins of James' parents have crosses on them, and Misty tries to ward away a talking Gastly with a cross. Keep in mind, this was before [[OlympusMons Arceus]] existed (and even then, few know of Arceus). Since then, the anime has avoided religion outside of mythology involving Pokémon.

* Very early on, characters could presumably keep as many Pokémon as they could carry. In Episode 11 Charmander's original owner Damien is shown carrying around a large pile of Poké Balls that presumably all contain Pokémon (unless he was lying and most of them were empty). It was revealed just two episodes later that trainers can only carry six at a time, the main rule in the games.

** Atlough it's verylikely not cannon due to Wooleyism, it should be noted that the Latin American dub mentions real life cities and places all the way to the ''Unova'' seasons (mostrly by James, who will replace the line "To extend our reach to the stars above" to a random place). Places mentioned include Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and several cities from various Latin American countries(and Spain).

* The 9th episode, "The School of Hard Knocks", has two ideas that were dropped right afterwards:
** It was one of the few episodes to reference numbered {{Character Level}}s (as in the RPG game mechanics). As an example, one of the characters mentioned that Pidgeotto should learn Whirlwind at level 21. Later episodes don't talk about levels at all except as vague terms and moves can be learned either spontaneously or when given explicit instruction from others.

* In his first regional transition - from Kanto to Johto - Ash didn't dump his entire team (sans [[SeriesMascot Pikachu]]) to start completely fresh, as became traditional from Hoenn on. For this reason, Kanto and Johto are often (especially on ThisVeryWiki, as well as Bulbapedia) grouped together as "The Original Series", while every region from Hoenn on gets its own [[NewSeasonNewName unique season/series name]].

* The anime was quite bizarre in the beginning. Episodes were noticeably more violent, surreal and melodramatic, 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 the prominent appearance and occasional use of handguns.

* 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 the prominent appearance and occasional use of handguns.

* Charmander's debut revolves around Charmander dying if their fire dies. This was later retconned away as Charmander aren't harmed when their tails get wet. (This could be explained as the causal relationship actually being the opposite of what people originally thought: Putting the fire out doesn't kill Charmander, but rather Charmander's death would cause its fire to go out.)
* Very early on, characters could presumably keep as many Pokémon as they could carry. Charmander's original owner Damien claimed to have 30 (although he could have easily been lying). It was revealed just two episodes later that trainers can only carry six at a time, the main rule in the games.