The Pokémon anime has been on the air for almost as long as the games have been out. With over a thousand episodes over twenty years, one would imagine it’s pretty hard to keep track of everything that happened. That’s true for the writers of the show along with the fans
So in case both parties forgot about these details, let’s run through some of the things that still haven’t been explained yet. Some of these could be categorized as plot holes while others fall more in line with how the show doesn’t make sense. However one wants to arrange them, they’re still problematic.
10 Ash Turning Into A Ghost
Ash loses his initial match with Sabrina in Saffron City. In order to win, he is told that he should catch a Ghost-type Pokémon, which leads him to a tower. This is in the episode called The Tower of Terror, naturally. Anyway, in said tower, the gang meets Ghastly, Haunter, and Gengar.
Eventually, Ash straight up dies. He turns into a ghost and flies away with the Pokémon until he finally returns his soul into his body at the end. Yeah…so that happened. What are the ramifications of that?
9 Time Passes, Ash Never Ages
One of the most frequently asked questions in the anime is why Ash doesn’t age. Time clearly passes from episode to episode. It’s been over twenty years of exploring. Even if every day was an episode in that timeframe, there should still be some aging. About three years, or so. But no, this anime follows cartoon logic just like The Simpsons. Why doesn’t Ash age? It’s a cartoon. Get over it. However, maybe Ash doesn’t age because he’s still dead from the Haunter episode and everything has been a dream sense.
8 Why Is Pikachu Not A God?
Speaking of time passing, Pikachu has been through a lot. He became Ash’s Pokémon since episode one. This means it has been in a lot of battles both random and official. Shouldn’t it be max level by now? That is to say, how can Pikachu lose? It should have god-like equivalency right now. On another note, Ash should be more experienced as a trainer too even without taking the age into account. He just never learns and Pikachu keeps holding back.
7 Where Is Ash's Father?
Ash’s dad has never really been addressed in the show. It’s sort of been talked about in that he had a father who left to train, but he has never reappeared. Not to the audience’s knowledge at least.
Maybe there is a character out there that is secretly his dad. Professor Oak and his mom are pretty much a couple now. Maybe they had Ash a long time ago, broke up, decided to keep that a secret, and now they are back together again. It’s not the worst theory out there.
6 Nurse Joy And Officer Jenny's Lineage
On a related subject of genealogy, how exactly do Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny have literally hundreds of relatives that look alike? The easy answer, like with Ash’s age, is that this is a cartoon and it shouldn’t matter. It’s funny, that’s all. However, since cloning technology exists as evidenced by the existence of Mewtwo, maybe the world government cloned Joy and Jenny to follow orders as the keepers of both health and the peace. They are basically just robots with flesh.
5 That Giant Dragonite
In one of the earliest episodes, Mystery at the Lighthouse, Ash and the gang visit Bill in his lighthouse. Here they learn he is researching giant Pokémon, which all eventually leads to everyone discovering what looks like a Dragonite. One that is pretty much the size of Godzilla. No giant Pokémon have ever come back since. Yes, there were the robots on the Team Rocket vacation island a few episodes later, but again, those turned out to be robots.
4 Team Rocket's Expenditure
Moving onto Team Rocket, it’s incredible that nearly every episode involves Jesse, James, and Meowth trying to capture Pikachu in some elaborate scheme. This usually involves a giant robot or at least some complicated contraption of some sort. How do they have the budget for that? Not just them, but the organization overall. Giovanni should be bankrupt by now and or at least have fired those three for their incompetence over one silly little Pikachu. Apparently, they are the only ones that know of its godlike stature.
3 Meowth's Ability To Talk
Let’s segue from that in order to focus solely on one of its members: Meowth. Right from episode one, it is revealed that Meowth can talk. How is not explained until episode 70 of the anime entitled Go West Young Meowth.
It is here that Meowth discusses how it fell in love with another Meowth and in order to impress it learned to talk. So Pokémon can just do that? They can read and learn how to speak? Shouldn’t there be a school for that? Forget Pikachu, Team Rocket should be happy with its super rare TALKING POKÉMON!
2 Where Is The GS Ball?
After the championships in Kanto, the next phase of the anime moves into Johto. The reason being that Professor Oak has entrusted Ash with uncovering the secrets of the GS Ball, which is a gold Pokéball he can’t open. In said region is a Pokéball expert, Kurt, but when they get to him not even he can unlock its secrets. Then the plotline pretty much evaporated from there. Apparently, there were plans for it to involve a new legendary in the anime, but this idea was scrapped.
1 Ho-Oh In The First Episode
Let’s end this article by going all the way back to the beginning aka episode 1: Pokémon I Choose You. In said episode Ash sees a mysterious bird fly over a rainbow. It would be years until the next generation of games started, Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver. With them, fans finally figured out it was Ho-Oh. This means that legendary Pokémon exist in the show’s canon. See most of the time legendary Pokémon are only in the movies, which don’t line up with the show. Maybe this inclusion meant at one time they were going to be more integral.