Kanto Pok'emon Questions
 

Seeing a few clips made me come up with a few questions about the anime during Pok'emania. I was wondering why Primeape was caught and released after less than handful of episodes never to be used in battle.

Also, Butterfree was only with Ash for a brief time as well leaving less than 20 episodes with him. Due to being with Ash so briefly I question why the Pok'emon was ever decided to join Ash.

I was wondering why it was decided for Charmander of the team to evolve and have his personality change from being mild mannered and sweet to arrogant and a show off who is disrespectful.


Also, were ages ever given for anyone aside form Ash who is the forever 10 year old. I thought back then that Misty was 12, and Brock, Gary, James, and Jesse were 17. Though I could be off.

Butterfree I'm guessing was supposed to be what they thought of as character development. Ash having to make the decision to either release the first Pokemon he actually caught or keep it and not let it go with the Butterfree it wanted to mate with.

Charizard's attitude I always assumed was inspired by the fact that in the games certain Pokemon won't obey if you don't have a certain number of badges. Ash clearly is not experienced enough so Charizard won't listen and does whatever it wants.

A lot of that has to do with the games themselves, which I'm not sure if you've played. But Ash's team in the anime will always be somewhat of a revolving door because A. in game, you need to switch out certain pokemon to make use of a specifically typed move set or HM, and B. gotta market many different Pokemon to push merch harder. Also, how much a Pokemon respects you depends on how many badges you have, & what level the Pokemon is at. Ash's Charizard was an asshole because Ash wasn't skilled enough. In the game, a Pokemon will refuse to fight if it's evolved beyond your badge grade. Hope that makes sense.

You do realize Pokemon is a videogame series, right? The anime is just loosely based on the games every gen. That's why Ash's pokemon, friends, and the places he visit, will always be based on whatever the current game generation is.

Misty says she's 10 in the Japanese version of episode 3, the one Ash captures Caterpie, but for some reason the 4kids dub left that line out.

Yes, I played the games through the fourth generation. Since Charmander evolved into Charmeleon at level 16 it seemed odd that he would disobey especially the change in personality just because of an evolution seemed odd. Did that happen with any other Pok'emon, getting a personality overhaul upon evolving? Perhaps the creative team was looking to evolve one of the three and Charizard was the favorite of the final forms? I was just wondering if the anime creators ever said the reason. Not complaining, just curiosity really.

Oh, I know why Squirtle, Bulbasuar, and Charmander/Charizard were given a sendoff but also a way for them to return if its called for and others left behind at Oak's lab or elsewhere. Make room for newer generation of course. Its just the capturing of Primeape seems pointless and Butterfree did not last long with the team.