The protagonist of the Pokemon anime series, Ash Ketchum, is a fellow with a big heart and an unending life. He’s adored worldwide by fans of the franchise, even though it doesn’t always feel like the people behind his show are putting much thought into him. Regardless, Ash and his trusty Pikachu companion adventure on, even to this day.
In a show as long-running as Pokemon, fans can expect to catch a mistake here or there — it’s just inevitable. It doesn’t help that the show is originally aired in Japanese and needs to be redubbed each time it enters another region; many people remember Brock calling his rice balls “donuts.” These are a few of the goofiest mistakes the Pokemon fans have caught about Ash Ketchum.
10 Moves His Pokemon Can’t Learn
Ash’s Pokemon companions have an uncanny habit of learning moves that they aren’t supposed to know. Or, at least, they aren’t able to learn those moves in the games, but continuity means continuity across an entire universe!
For example, Ash’s Charizard and Pikachu have been shown to use the “Tackle” move. This one is such a common attack that it might be understandable… if not for all the other transgressions. His Litten and Froslass are seen using Slash, his Bulbasaur uses Dig, and his Staravia uses Gust. The list goes on.
9 Color-Changing Cap
Continuity errors where Ash’s hat is one color in one shot and another color in the next shot are some of the most common mistakes spotted in the anime.
That ballcap is one of the iconic markers of Ash Ketchum, though, so it makes sense that viewers are hyper-aware whenever it’s altered. One example is in the episode “The Water Flowers of Cerulean City,” in which Ash is seen from afar and his hat has a white brim, but the closeup shot of his head clearly shows a red brim.
8 Ash’s Superhuman Strength
Another repeated error in the show is for the animators to disregard known details about a certain Pokemon. A clear example crops up in “You’re a Star, Larvitar!” (episode 262 of the anime).
In this episode, Ash works alongside a Larvitar that hatched out of an egg. The Pokedex specifies that a Larvitar weighs, on average, 72 kg (or almost 160 pounds). Yet, our dear Ash Ketchum, a ten-year-old boy, seems to have no trouble trotting the Pokemon around in a backpack.
7 The Devolving Charizard
One of the early episodes of the anime, “Electric Soldier Porygon” (episode 38), became infamous just after it was broadcast in Japan in 1997. A strobe-light effect on-screen caused more than seven hundred people to have epileptic seizures or other negative health effects.
It was never aired in any other country, so episodes around it had to be shifted. That resulted in a number of strange continuity errors, such as how, in the episode “It’s Mr. Mime Time” Ash has a Charizard, but in the next episode, “Snow Way Out!,” Ash’s Charizard is suddenly a Charmander again.
6 A Wild Tauros Appears
During the series, Ash Ketchum is shown to have captured 30 Tauros, but the viewers aren’t given an explanation about where they came from. It confused a lot of fans at first, until they realized the explanation came from a banned episode.
“The Legend of Miniryu,” episode 35, is when Ash catches 29 Tauros and Brock catches the 30th. It was seldom aired outside Japan and never dubbed into another language because it contains a bizarre amount of guns and gun references.
5 How Much Does Ash Weigh?
The worst continuity errors are when it’s obviously just written that way out of convenience — it’s hard not to feel like the writer could have just come up with another explanation. Pokemon has a few of these.
One example is this: in the episodes “Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon” and “Charizard Chills,” Ash rides on Charizard’s back. Then, suddenly, in the episode “Charizard’s Burning Ambitions,” Charizard suddenly can’t carry such a heavy ten-year-old boy anymore.
4 Cyndaquil vs. Chikorita
In the 144th episode, “Gettin’ The Bugs Out,” Ash fights a gym leader named Bugsy. During the fight, Ash’s Chikorita faints and he must pull out another Pokemon. When deciding which Pokemon to use next, Ash says that he’ll use Pikachu now and “save Chikorita for later.”
Does Ash have two Chikorita on his team? No, he just meant to say “Cyndaquil,” the Pokemon he actually still has on his team to battle with. The names do start with “C,” but it’s still a goofy mistake.
3 Two Pikachu?!
A rather notorious mistake appears in the episode “Regaining the Home Advantage,” the 624th episode of Pokemon and the 158th episode of the Diamond and Pearl series.
As Dawn prepares to fight a trainer with her Mamoswine, Ash, Brock, Officer Jenny, Pikachu, and Piplup appear in the background. A careful eye will notice that there are actually two Pikachus, though — one on Ash’s shoulder and another at his feet. One can only assume that someone couldn’t decide where to place it and both versions ended up in the show, somehow.
2 Disappearing Gloves
In “Challenge of the Samurai,” the fourth episode of the anime, Ash is abruptly questioned by a young boy dressed in Samarai garb. When Ash confirms his hometown (Pallet Town), the boy challenges him to a Pokemon battle. Since Ash was about to catch a Weedle just moments before this incident, the viewers were treated to a pretty detailed look at his outfit — and, more specifically, his hands.
This makes it pretty easy to notice that his green gloves are missing in the next shot. That’s definitely the weirdest thing in this scene, not the random Samurai kid approaching strangers and asking where they’re from.
1 Ash’s Missing Zs
In episode 11 of the anime, “Charmander — The Stray Pokemon,” Ash, Brock, and Misty find a Charmander sitting atop a large rock. In the close-up shot of the group’s faces, Ash is missing his signature under-eye Zs.
While these do disappear regularly, they are usually only absent when he’s being viewed from far away — they aren’t supposed to be missing on a close-up of his face. Since it was early in the show’s life, one could just assume that they didn’t take the Zs so seriously yet.
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