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Throughout his Pokémon career, Ash has been in countless battles–either with wild Pokémon he hoped to catch or with other trainers/gym leaders–but his first one is arguably his most important as it disproves one big series criticism.

In the current state of Pokémon canon, Ash Ketchum has proven himself to literally be the best Pokémon trainer in the world, thereby completing a quest that seemingly stretched decades–though he didn’t start out as the pinnacle of Pokémon trainers. Truthfully, Ash’s journey to becoming the trainer he is today was long and arduous. In fact, when Ash first set out to start catching Pokémon after Professor Oak gave him his Pokédex, Poké Balls, and his first Pokémon, Pikachu, he didn’t know what he was doing in the slightest. Ash didn’t know he needed to weaken a wild Pokémon before trying to catch it, he...

Despite the fact that Pokémon is one of the most iconic anime in the history of the genre, the series didn’t start out that way, as Pokémon was originally a video game with almost none of the same narrative direction as the anime. However, that wasn’t to say that the anime wasn’t a brilliant adaptation–something that rings true to this day as well as being readily obvious upon the very first episode with an opening scene that is a perfect tribute to the series’ roots.

Unlike the anime, the original Pokémon Gameboy games–Pokémon Red and Blue–didn’t feature a little boy named Ash or his fellow Pokémon-trainer friends. None of the drama or conflicts existed back then, only the player’s one and only goal: to catch ‘em all. Not only that, but the iconic look of a Pokémon battle that first appeared...

While Ash and Pikachu are arguably the most iconic duo not just in Pokémon, but the entire anime genre, they didn’t start out that way as Ash didn’t use Pikachu for his first-ever Pokémon battle–in fact, Ash didn’t even use a Pokémon at all, and what he did use was absolutely absurd.

Ash and Pikachu first met when Ash went to Professor Oak to get all the gear and supplies he needed to become a Pokémon trainer–and that included a starter Pokémon itself. Ash’s Pokémon was Pikachu, and from that point forward, the two would begin a journey that wouldn’t just end with Ash being the greatest Pokémon trainer alive, but also an unbreakable bond between two lifelong friends–but not right away. Pikachu didn’t listen to a single thing Ash tried to tell him to do, including battling wild Pokémon or...

Aside from Ash and Pikachu themselves, there are few Pokémon characters more iconic than Nurse Joy as she is always there to take care of sick or injured Pokémon–but there is a secret darkness to her that was revealed upon her anime debut, and Pikachu proves it.

Nurse Joy is a both equally canonically important and hilariously meta within the Pokémon anime’s continuity. In the original video game, Nurse Joy was located within every Pokémon Center in every town and city the player travels to. While there is no in-world explanation for how one character can travel from city to city seemingly instantaneously, the anime has a perfect work-around for that phenomenon. Apparently, every Nurse Joy is just related to the other, despite the fact that they look like perfect clones of each other. While that mystery is certainly worth looking deeper into, that isn’t the hidden...