Things That You Never Noticed About Pokemon

In the Japanese version of pokemon and brawl, the Volt Tackle was simply named Volteccer.

If you play the Pokemon video game theme backwards it is unmistakeably the melody of the “All Along the Watchtower” cover from Battlestar Galactica.

1st. you need a life
2nd. i do as well
3rd. nice picks man i din’t notice any of those (i also haven’t played any of the newer ones. i played red.blue,yellow,gold,silver,crystal,fire,n leaf.)

so i guess i should have noticed some but not all.

I used to like messing with my little brother’s head about the bird Pokemon. I wonder if he’s still looking for the fourth legendary bird Pokemon named Squawktro?

Squawktro was in Nintendo Power back in the day, actually.

Cubone is NOT a Kangaskhan. >.>

The Cubone thing is wrong, those two sprites are custom made and do not belong to any of the games. Way to grab this crackpot theory from forums which grabbed it from a Youtube video. There has never been a sprite of Cubone with his skull piece off, search any sprite sheet you want and you will not find it. It’s wild speculation, and not fact.

CUBONE WILL ALWAYS BE A KANGASKHAN.

Also, what does this mean for Marawok? A Kangaskhan that can’t birth babies?

Great article!

I knew most of these, but the Venonat/Butterfree connection truly blew my mind. Although I think they only look the same because they were made by the same designer. Plusle and Minun look just like a Pichu and yet also unrelated.

Nice Pokefacts.
Much better than those “Whose that Pokemon” bumpers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9o5_W6hn9k

Very cool, especially that last one. It did blow my mind just a tiny little bit. How did I not see that all these years!

i also think that sharpedo and garchomp were separated at birth, they look exactly the same imo.

Radio tower in Goldenrod is a Missingno.

Prepare to get your mind blown….

EKANS IS SNAKE BACKWARDS!!

I just ruined your child hood

… that’s not MissingNO, that’s ‘M.

Did anyone notice that Ash’s hat has the Lakai skate logo on it?

@Caleb.
Not really. I mean, if you flipped it 180 degrees and made it a bit more narrow or something MAYBE. But I don’t really see it.

Pretty lame, all these are old as hell. I was expecting at least one to be fresh. Sounds like you just compiled a thread from /v/ into an article. Wouldn’t surprise me

@EH
Fuck off, you are just upset because you didn’t throw it all together, he did. And the venonat/metapod thing is pretty sweet.

@Jon

And Arbok is Kobra backwards =P

No need to get butthurt pimpachu, these ‘little known’ facts are as old as dancingbaby.gif. If you didn’t know these by now you must be like 12 or under. Judging from your post, you are.

“teccer” is just a sort of bad romanization of tekkeru テッケル – which, in katakana, is how the Japanese “Japanify” the word “tackle.” So it’s the same word every time. Also, are you sure that “Indigo Plateau” is Fujisan? Mt. Fuji and Nihondaira are close to one another in the area around Shikoku, and Nihondaira actually means “Japan Plateau.”

Thanks for the article. I’m not a Pokemon fan, but I live in Japan and lots of my students are fans.

Ever notice how Dog fighting, Rooster fighting, and all other forms of pitting animals against one another is frowned upon by society, yet here is a game that is based on, and encourages the idea?!

Mistake! Sorry. Fuji and Nihondaira are around Shizuoka, not Shikoku.

then what is muk backwards?

@Muk

You were saving that one for a while, weren’t you?

So, I guess a Cubone (a Kangaskhan that can’t make babies) would be the male? and the Kangaskhan would be the female and has babies? …

Bruce Lee – HitmonLEE
Jackie Chan – HitmonCHAN
how’d that not get included on the list?

There are tons of etymological roots in Pokemon names. In fact, I’d bet around 85% of Pokemon have some sort of self-descriptive wordplay in their names.

@JHGD: what do you mean by that?

Volt Tackle actually predates smash bros. It’s a bizarre, hard-to-get, [awesome] move for Pikachus to learn, only in Pokemon Emerald, and only through special breeding. (One of Pikachu’s better moves, too.)

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Volt_Tackle_%28move%29

Um, I choose you.

so either you forgot the name thing with Ekans and Arbok. or you didn’t know. but basically read them backwards

@JF4L

That is the sweetest thing! Pretty much made my week

Try the fact that every city in Pokemon Red and Blue are color names. Pewter, Saffron, Celadon…

Also, the main city is called Palette Town, a reference to the colors made by an artist.

Hey wait a minute, you put up a picture of M instead of missingno!

@ Peter and Jon

You guys do realize that Ekans and Arbok are english names for those two pokemons. They wouldn’t be named by Japanese designers.

Most people have noticed those things about Pokemon. But I liked these.

Most of those were good, but I would argue that the number-based “secrets” are largely coincidence. Any time you have enough numbers, especially in sequence, the human brain develops patterns that aren’t really there. Just like a true random sequence looks non-random to humans (because it has “unnatural” repetitions). This is especially prevalent if each number is classified to a unique entity. You would have to do something really significant, such as “Grass types occupy only prime numbers.” Something like that would be too unlikely to be coincidence. But even if that were so, remember that Nintendo changed the numbering system several times throughout the history of Pokemon games (presumably due to different regions having different Pokemon populations), though they always allowed you to adjust the Pokedex to use the original numbering.

Also, about the “strict scientific standards” of Cubone and Kangaskhan being different species, there are a few things to consider:
1. On Earth (real animals), species divisions are scientifically more complicated than “what can breed with what.” A species is a classification of animals and plants whose members have “the ability to interbreed and produce fertile offspring.” However, species can also be (and often are) classified by whether they “inhabit the same environment” and “share the same basic environmental behaviors and interactions.” This isn’t a very consistent or simple classification scheme. It leads to all kinds of logical inconsistencies. For example, certain animals are widely varied, but considered the same specie (such as domesticated dogs). While others can interbreed and create fertile offspring, yet still are considered separate species (lion + tiger = liger, which can still breed, even though hybrids between two different species aren’t supposed to be able to be fertile, lest the two original parents be considered the same species). Some animals, such as certain tropical birds are identical in terms of their DNA makeup, but because one is found in Asia and the other is found in South America, they are considered different species. It would be nice if specie just meant “what can breed with what,” but that’s apparently not the way scientists wanted to classify living things.

2. Nevertheless, Kangaskhan and Cubone are both in the same Egg Group, meaning the two can freely interbreed. Being part of the same Egg Group makes the two genetically the same species. However, unlike real hybrids, Pokemon bred from two different “species” do not contain anatomical features of both parents (due to Pokemons’ alien biology that all traits in a given species will be dominate?). It would appear that Kangaskhan and Cubone’s species distinction is not based on biology, but geography (where they live).

Don’t really get this one:

He’s the clone of the god-like Mew. Slightly less obvious are the legendary birds. Remember them? Articuuno, Zapdos, and Moltres.

Oh, and who could forget the glitch Pokemon – Missingno!

Uno, Dos, Tres, okay
But that last sentence i didn’t get.

A little bit more regarding the Kanto Region: where Vermillion City is approximately is Yokosuka Naval Station. Which would explain why Lt. Surge is even there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Fleet_Activities_Yokosuka

@HANK

Missingno as in Missing Number.

Lots of cool stuff I never realized.

@Sakura:

Look at the Goldenrod Radio Tower, then flip the Missingno/’M sprite backwards.

I know another numbering thing. Chansey’s number are 113. The same number you have to call to get medical help. And Chansey gives medical help!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the Cubone thing are interesting.

I know another numbering thing. Chansey’s number are 113. The same number you have to call to get medical help. And Chansey gives medical help!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the Cubone thing are interesting.

yea and Arbok is Kobra backwards like ekans is snake backwards

@ JF4L
So, what’s the deal with Hitmontop?

If any one has the book let`s find pokemon one of the towns r shaped like snorlax

If any one has the book let`s find pokemon one of the towns r shaped like snorlax

If any one has the book let`s find pokemon one of the towns r shaped like snorlax

If any one has the book let`s find pokemon one of the towns r shaped like snorlax

@CHILDO

Tyrogue, which evolves into the Hitmonsters, is derived from tyke and rogue. In Japanese he is named balkie, perhaps for being bulky for his young age. In french he is called Debugant which means beginner glove.

Hitmontop spins like a top, and sounds like “hit ‘em on top”. Kapoerer, his Japanese name, and all of his other international names come from the Brazilian martial art capoeira, which utilize spinning kicks.

Hitmonchan’s Japanese name, Ebiwalar, comes from world champion boxer Hiroyuki Ebihara. In French, Hitmonchan is named Tygnon after Mike Tyson instead. Hitmonchan wears a skirt despite being a male only species.

Hitmonlee in Japanese is Sawamular which comes from the world’s first kickboxer, Tadashi Sawamura. He is called Kicklee in French and German.

Not surprising that only America named them after Lee and Chan, especially given the Japanese’s racism towards Chinese.

lol… I never cared enough about the pokemon world to study this beond 5th grade… but I did so love the first 152 pokemon… I will also admit that pokemon the movie 2000 made me cry during the pikachu crying thing… but because I never got a gameboy, I could never play the games. I thank you for this article. It makes me feel a little better about never being able to get into the true fan meme’s and speculation. thank you. I love the kangaskan one… as I am cosplaying marowack soon. ^^ thanks. well put together.

HitmonNorris.
HitmonT.
HitmonRyu.

Maybe in PokemonCyan?

Wow, that was REALLY extensive. Then again, I suppose I’m easily impressed as I wasn’t even aware that there was more than one series based on Pokemon. How many versions are they up to now? (haven’t followed the Pokemon world since my nephew outgrew it).

Awesome article! I’ve been playing the Pokemon games since the original Blue and Red days on my oldschool gameboy. I guess it’s just one of those things that I like way too much to ever outgrow. i tried getting my girlfriend into it, but she gets annoyed at games with random battles. Luckily, her kids like Pokemon so at least I have someone to trade and battle with.

Anyone hear the myth that the developers intended to have marowak evolve into kangaskhan, but they scrapped the idea and missingno/’m is part of the coding that they forgot to take out? Also, that cubone’s mother (kangaskhan) died when it was young, so it wore the skull of it’s mother…

That Butterfree/Venomoth thing is so amazing. Wow.

Let the mind blowing begin

Lucario…riolu…lucariolucariolucariolucariolu

All the cities in the original game are color names. And the main city is called Palette Town. A coincidence? Nah.

The Cubone/Kangaskhan blew my mind a bit actually. The odd thing about it being that if it (Marowak) was the non-baby making version of Kangaskhan, then why does the Cubone/Marowak Pokedex entries focus so much on the fact that it’s the “mother’s skull”? And Kangaskhan focuses more on the fact that the “mother” carries the young in the pouch.

So where are all the males in this Pokeverse? And does it not get as much recognition by its young? It’s skull isn’t good enough to be carried around? wtf Cubone.

…..but Cubone is just a baby Kangaskhan.

So I didn’t know if anyone had mentioned it yet, but thought i might as well add to your discoveries. In the first season of Pokemon in English, in the city that never sleeps, where jigglypuff makes everyone sleep, I’m pretty sure ether in the begining part or a little ways in, Brock says that the city is much like Las Vegas. A real city in America. Hope i’ve helped.

Everyone knows about the Pallet Town + colours thing.

Johto had different plant names like Cherrygrove, Violet, Mahogany…
Hoenn had joint words like Slate+port, For+tree, Lava+ridge… (for the most part. Verdan+turf doesn’t make much sense)
Sinnoh also had joint words like Ore+burgh, Snow+point, Sunny+shore… (Celestic doesn’t make much sense either, though)

But yeah. The Venonat / Butterfree thing was interesting.

Verdan+turf
Verde=green (spanish)
Green turf Now it makes sense

The professors all had the names of trees
Professor. Oak, Elm, Birch, Rowan

@Nick
You forgot Professor Ivy from the Orange Islands from Season 2 of the anime…

ROTOM BACKWARDS IS MOTOR ! ! ! ! ! !
HOLY SHIT ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Meowth and Persian + MEOWth and PURRsian

gIBBLE (nibble)
gaBITE (bite)
garCHOMP (Chomp)

when you see it, you’ll shit bricks.

Also if you notice, in the first Pokemon movie, they say something about Vikings mostly live in Minnesota .

I think Cubones skull looks more like Charizards.

Also, In several of Arcanine’s pokedex entries, they say he is or is similar to a chinese fire-dog thing… so 3 real-world places!

Theperson:
“Anyone hear the myth that the developers intended to have marowak evolve into kangaskhan, but they scrapped the idea and missingno/’m is part of the coding that they forgot to take out?”

No, this is absolutely wrong. MissingNo was a glitch created by how the game stores certain values and how it knows if the player can encounter wild pokemon of not. It creates a numbering issue that results in MissingNo looking like Kangaskhan most of the time, because of its number in the pokedex. The full explanation involves a lot of typing that I don’t feel like doing, but I assure you it has nothing to do with code the developers forgot to remove.

Otherwise, cool article

Ah, was hoping for some new ones

In my opinion, Cubone’s skull helmet looks more like an Aerodactyl’s than Kangaskhan or Charizard.
Perhaps all Cubones are just confused as to who their mother is. Like Twilight Zone meets Dr. Seuss.
“Are you my mother?” – - “All of us are all your mothers…”
*Twilight Zone Theme and accompanying twist through space.*

htimonchan is based off of Jackie Chan
hitmonlee is based off of Bruce lee

@Helter-Skeletor
missingno/’m doesn’t just appear as kangaskhan, but rather evolves into kangaskhan when given a rare candy (at least in red version). I think this is what adds so much to the myth, because “missing number” is supposedly referencing the fact that a pokemon appeared with no sprite or number data. Still don’t know what to make of its movelist though, last i remember it knew water gun twice for whatever reason, something that marowak obviously wouldn’t know

Cubone = Charmander whose tail went out. Contrary to popular belief, they don’t die. They are forever shamed and exiled from their community of Charchars. This lonely charmander then vows to take revenge, and decapitated the leader of his village. He then wore the skull as both a symbol of his victory, and as a paper bag to hide his face in misery. Thus continues the everlasting agony of he who was once a charmander but now must roam the mountainsides as a Cubone, hoping one day he may evolve into a Marowak… Marrow whack.

Giraffe giraf girafarig farig effarig

Yeah that was easy to catch.

pallete town is a real place in tokyo, so is rainbow bridge. they seem so weird in english, but they are normal place names in japan

These might have already been said, but who has time to read every comment?

-The cubone hypothesis is furthered by the fact that Giovanni uses a Kangaskahn, though he is supposedly a ground-type trainer; My thought is that it goes cubone (the baby post-mother-dying and no longer being the mother’s substitute doll), then marowak, then Kangaskahn. There are two theories, if this is so, as to why it would be; The first is that Pokemon began as a small side-project, known as Pokemon Green, the first generation of Pokemon in Japan, which was even glitchier than RBY (being only a minour side-project, a sort of a cross-breed of FF and Azure Dreams), being replaced later by the much-polished Yellow in America, which was the second-gen or third installment of the first-gen there, but the third-gen or fourth installment in Japan; The second is simply that, towards development, they considered the possibility of a sequel in which pokemon could breed, a possibility that would mean having to follow the impracticality of making an entire storyline in which a kangaskahn dies and passes down its skull every time one breeds, only after imagining all the pokemon.

-The Venomoth-Butterfree thing is, according to 4chan at least (pokemon being one of the few things 4chan as a whole can be considered an expert on), completely legit, and is due to misnumbering in the original programming of the game; When Green was a surprise hit, they needed to release a more polished version, but it was popular enough that they couldn’t really fix the bugs that they had lovingly completely failed to catch, so they left them in future editions and ran with it. Interestingly, this is not the last time this happened, and it is part of the cause of MissingNo. in every generation. There are gaps wherein there are no pokemon, just unassigned slots with a sprite to prevent the game from crashing, between the second- and third-gen pokemon, and I think again between three and four, because working in hexadecimal meant using multiples of sixteen, leading if there weren’t a multiple of sixteen pokemon to missing numbers, literally. Later, these were just called “?”. But also, in all versions from RSE onward, the order is scrambled in the third-gen pokemon, with some parts that seem to have been arranged alphabetically instead of by number in the game and with chimecho as coming after all the other third-gen pokemon, almost as an afterthought, though it is a pretty weak and useless pokemon in all.

-Speaking of pokemon death, pokemon was not initially popular, as I said, and was expected to just be a pet project for Game Freak. So originally, it was not a kiddie game; The anime even initially featured adult content, even though the games that had made it possible were already gaining popularity with younger audiences. Originally, in fact, the themes were very mature and insensitive. We see this in no place more strongly than in G/RBY (and later painfully reenacted) when Team Rocket actually kills a marowak, and, more subtly but in the same chapter of the game, when your rival asks if your pokemon are “dead yet,” commenting that they don’t look dead but he can at least make them faint, before he challenges you to a battle. There are several factours here:
>there is no gym or reason to be in Lavender besides the detours your rival seems immune to and the pokemon cemetary
>your rival seems surprised to see you, so he didn’t come just to challenge you like he does later at Silph
>though his team is still not full, he mysteriously lacks his Raticate that he battled with in all the battles since the beginning when you snooped around the base of Indigo Plateau, and it was his second pokemon and only a rattata.
I’ll let you guys put two and two together on your own.

-Just a side-note, probably not intentional on the part of Game Freak, but until RSE there is no father-figure, and in the original Gary Oak has a grandfather and an older sister, but that’s it. Of course, on that note we could also say, “Guess what? All the main characters are between the ages of ten and thirteen!”

-With the exception of Pokemon Green, which seems to be the pokemon franchise’s “dirty little secret” (that and the fact that Alakazam looks like Baphomet and has a witchy name lol), all of the pokemon games are released in odd numbers, which the apt observer will realize has nothing at all to do with pokemon starter typing anymore, not since second-gen (GSC). This is because, the same as games in the US would probably be made in twos or fives, since those are considered nice “round” or auspicious numbers, in Japan even numbers are considered unlucky and odd numbers beautiful and harmonious.

I’ve got more, but it’s late and I’m getting back to Stumbling. Nice article, but needs some polish. Oh, and I actually did not know about the first thing, with the Pulseman references. Everything else I consider common knowledge.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Russia is also mentioned. One of the Silph Co. scientist traitors says that Silph has it coming because they sent him to the “Teksi Branch,” which once he is beaten he says, “The Teksi Branch? It’s in Russian no-man’s land.” I think that Pokemon is just supposed to be set in alternate-Japan, for the most part, with the majour exception being Colosseum and XD, both of which take place in Orre which seems to be modeled after the Colorado or Nevada area, and which is appropriately more cowboy-oriented than the previous very Japan-flavoured installments.

LT. Surge = Guile from Street Fighter. Think about it, all decked out in U.S. camo, the blond spiked hair, nicknamed the Lightning American….

@Jet

I don’t think camo is too special. All electric type gym leaders have had a military uniform so far.
Though i suppose you do have a point. Also, if you’ve seen Small soldiers, lt surge bears resemblance to Major Chip Hazard.
Perhaps that is just the type of image that comes to peoples minds when they think of military antagonists.

I think there are some errors here, but definitely a good article nonetheless. I think some editing and adding would be great. I would definitely enjoy that. Or perhaps a follow-up article? I know the comments suggest many great things, as well as lots of others I have read about or could think of. A fully comprised list would be really interesting. Great job though!

@Putin

For those who don’t want to read all of this, most of everything that guy said is bullshit.

1) The cubone/kangaskhan/missingno. thing is fan lore. its not real. the sprites shown aren’t real, or from any pokemon game. while missingno. may evolve into a kangaskhan, this is only because of kangaskhans position in the games programming. it can also evolve into rhydon, where’s that myth? the missingno. glitch is just an exploit that causes numbering error. see for yourself:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Missingno_%28Pokemon%29#Why_Missingno._appears

its not some hidden pokemon “the developers forgot to delete”. That’s just as true as “the mew hidden under the truck by the ss anne”

2) I would love to see a real source that isn’t 4chan. Especially with your seemingly endless background knowledge of the development of pokemon green. I hope you can understand why your stories aren’t credible, because it’s very easy to make up stories like that because the development took place in japan, a nation on a different continent. I could say that charmander had spikes on his back in the original red/green versions because japan was huge on godzilla at the time, but the spikes were later removed in the US versions because godzilla wasn’t as popular here. And some people would believe me. But I just made that up right there in about 2 minutes. Not very credible.

As for the Venonat-Butterfree thing, maybe venonat was supposed to evolve into butterfree at one point, but its highly unlikely that the designers wouldn’t stop and think “Hey… one of the first pokemon you encounter, you know, the one thats used to demonstrate the evolution of pokemon by evolving at very low levels, doesn’t evolve into the right pokemon…” There’s no way that they released it without noticing that flaw. The developers HAD to have accepted at one point that metapod would evolve into butterfree, and venonat wouldn’t before they released the game.

3) Raticate simply didn’t die. This is just a myth perpetuated by the internet, because nobody bothers to look and see that Gary’s spearow is also missing after the battle. In fact, Satoshi Tajiri made sure to have pokemon faint rather than die in battle before he even made the game. The game was made based off of Tajiri’s love of bug collecting and nature. It was marketed towards children because they spent more time indoors and Tajiri wanted them to be able to share the experience. Also, Gary never says “Are your pokemon dead yet?” in any of the games. The exact text is “Hey, ASH! What brings you here? Your Pokemon don’t look dead. I can at least make them faint!” This is because you meet him in the cemetary-tower thing in Lavender Town.

Pokemon wasn’t a “pet-project” of Game Freak. In fact, Satoshi Tajiri worked incredibly hard to make the game with little funding and a declining staff. The only reason he doubted that Pokemon would be approved is because he was told that the people from nintendo didn’t understand the concept of the game. No. It wasn’t supposed to be adult oriented or themed in any way.

The anime also did NOT “feature adult content”. It was made to appeal to children, and the choice to choose pikachu as the mascot was because pikachu could potentially appeal to both young boys and girls. Only the manga, Pokemon Adventures, has included some adult themes.

4) Pokemon Green is NOT Game Freak’s “dirty little secret”. Don’t make things up. Pokemon Green and Red versions were made with much difficulty by Tajiri and his company. They were the fruits of their labor, and were only required to be polished up for the international releases and the special Yellow edition.

Also, that number thing you said has no merit to why Pokemon games are released as they are. Pokemon Red and Green were released to support the multiplayer function of trading and sharing pokemon you couldn’t get in a your specific version, and was also a good marketing device to get players to buy both versions of the game. Pokemon Red and Blue in the US were just polished up versions of the original Red and Green. Then, after Pokemon’s popularity increased, Yellow version was made as a version with special features. This sold extremely well, and from then on set a tradition of two versions sold together with pokemon available/unavailable, and then a special edition with bonus features. Its not because Japanese people get hard when they see odd numbers.

@Putin

Also, here is my list of sources for reasons you are wrong. You might want to read up on them. Or at least learn to use sources.

Interview with Tajiri:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/99/1122/pokemon6.fullinterview1.html
Game Freak:
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Game_Freak
Gary Text:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zamkr_B1SxE&feature=PlayList&p=F938D415B86C325C&playnext_from=PL&index=19&playnext=1

Frank, you are just all kinds of awesome. Can I say that? ><'

The anime had one very slightly adult episode, which was removed anyway. The only other problem would be the infamous Porygon Seizure episode. Nothing else in the anime has EVER been gory. It's one of the few Japanese animes that hasn't travelled at least partially down that road.

I don't really have much else to mention, but I will say that Pokémon is still a myriad of hidden information.

@ Frank: ♥♥♥:) Much love.

I thank you for pointing out that everything I said is bullshit.

First of all…
1) The Cubone thing is all fan lore, of course. But it is rather likely fan lore; It makes sense. I may be unable to provide proof, but nor can you provide any evidence to the contrary other than saying that it is false and claiming that something is false because it originally appeared on 4chan in its heyday (which I believe I specifically expressed is probably not to be trusted anyway, as they are dubious at best and dangerous at worst). I go for this theory because (A) it is more fun, and, after all, Pokemon is a game, meant to be FUN, and (B) they look similar and the story is strong, and doesn’t even have an air of “The Wizard Did It.” And I know about the effing MissingNo. thing, as does anyone else who has played the games since RBY. There were EXTRA POKEMON SPRITES that were caused by one of two things (extra sprites for the ghosts and the skeletized fossil Pokemon from the Museum), and some UNOCCUPIED SPRITES that instead showed glitched characters but which could not be removed because the game was written in hexadecimal-based code, meaning that there would inevitably be leftover sprites if there were less than a multiple of sixteen. The only reason you could ever even SEE MissingNo. (or Mew for that matter) is because there is a strip of water just to the right of Cinnabar that was not coded to have any Pokemon, and which therefore assumed whatever the previous area’s Pokemon appearance rates were, meaning if you went and did something odd, such as saving and resetting or talking to the Old Man in Viridian when he catches a Weedle that is not really a Weedle, you would see very odd Pokemon and Pokemon over level 100, all the way up to level 255, in fact, again because of the hexadecimal. MissingNo. is not a result of failing to remember to take the Pokemon out, it is a result of a glitch combined with an inability to get something out. Oh, and there is a process by which you can get a wild Mew by flying as soon as you walk in range of a trainer that wants to battle but before their sprite is drawn to the screen, which works by a separate glitch that also turns up glitched Pokemon like MissingNo. if you do it wrong.

2) serebii.net. There you go. I will say no more, as no more need be said lest I repeat myself.

3) O RLY? I’ll admit that I have since replayed Blue Version, and indeed you are correct about Gary’s speech, but it is still suggestive of an expectation that your Pokemon would be dead; And the very existence of the Pokemon Cemeteries defies the postulation that Pokemon can’t die. Your Pokemon never die, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t *apparently* happen in the lore, and it doesn’t mean other trainers’ Pokemon can’t die. I believe the “he couldn’t get off the SS Anne” thing was BS and contrived, but he loses members of his team before he gets to six full Pokemon.

In the Anime, especially towards the beginning (the notable outlier being “Pokemon 4Ever” in which Celebi nearly dies (oops spoiler)), there are strong suggestions of Pokemon death and several times a person or Pokemon *nearly* dies. In the first movie, Ash dies, though he is resurrected (apparently Pokemon tears are like Chuck Norris tears), and if he hadn’t died and given Mewtwo perspective, Mewtwo’s goal was to keep fighting until either all the clones or all the originals died. There are several episodes besides the Porygon one that were banned outside of Japan. (Again, http://serebii.net/). I’m sorry if you have your little veil of innocence and purity about the games in your head, but pre-DPPt, the games still had a mature tinge regardless of however much was lost in translation.

In fact, there is still some censorship between the Japanese versions and the translated ones. Dream Eater, for example, is Blood-Suck in Japan, the idea being that like a vampire the Pokemon attacks and steals the life of the other in its sleep. Dark is Evil-type, too. But they had to make it nice for English-speaking kids (I’m not sure about other translations, besides German).

4) Perhaps not. But it was primitive in comparison to Blue, and was never released outside of Japan. If it wasn’t a “secret,” it was definitely an “embarrassment.” I don’t even know what to call you. You are like a PC Whiteknight intent only on defending the honour of Japanese game designers and animators.

And if that was the pattern, the fact still stands that the Japanese superstition leans to assymetry and particularly the number 3, just as in the Occident we release things in series of 4, 5 or 7 because those are considered lucky numbers. Even if it has not been mentioned anywhere, it seems likely that at least part of the cause of the three-game combo in every single generation.

Lastly, I do sincerely apologize or not using sources. I’m not big on Bulbapedia, but you can get a lot of information on the legit side of the games from here: http://serebii.net/ and quite a bit on glitches and cheats without devices here: http://www.trsrockin.com/ .

@ VeritasUnae: I didn’t mean gory. Sexual themes, I meant. Such as the one with hilariously transexual James with his giant breasts.

Pokemon is, indeed, still a haze of hidden information and numbers, and it doesn’t help that new games with new clouds of mechanics are released every year or two. Incidentally, I just wrote up a guide in English to the Pokeathlon including the mechanics and hidden numbers of the Aprijuice, since there is no English guide to the Aprijuice yet, even on Serebii, so Imma post that on IGN or Bulbapedia or somewhere under the name of “Okapi.” So look for it. >:D

Wow! This is extremely cool!

“Scotsman-with-a-fetish”?

Scots dont have sex with sheep, thats the WELSH. If you’re gonna try to make a cultural joke, at least get it right

I’m not going to humor you Putin but maybe you want to fact check yourself before you make posts, ok? Pokemon isn’t as mature as you want it to be so you need to stop saying it is (Japanese standards are different than whatever you are used to so if you think that stuff is mature then I ahve nothing more to say to you).

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Dream_Eater_%28move%29

Start there.

Just a comment: Remember the pain you felt when a close family pet died of old age? (I don’t have a pet, but I hate seeing animals in pain – I don’t really understand why, but I digress)

Think of Levels as ability, not years (as the Pokémon gains *experience*, it levels in skill and learns more difficult moves). A lv100 Pokémon isn’t necessarily the eldest or the youngest depending on it’s own speed of evolution. It’s common biology that all living matter decomposes – we grow old. Thus, a Pokémon could die of old age, as well as several other conditions not mentioned here, including hunger (think the ‘Belly’ stat of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon which raised this idea) and neglect.

Pokémon could die, and hence the Pokémon Tower raises and combats this issue. If children could relate the game to these small aspects of life (however small it may be) then it makes the game more realistic again, and gives that immersion into the game.

Yay for deconstruction!

I agree with Putin. There’s an episode, in which, for some reason, a gym floods with water, and James screams (FOR NO REASON) “It’s times like these I wish I was straight!”

Interestingly, due to Darwin’s theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest, they very low level pokemon would not be able to survive and the very high level pokemon would exist in huge quantities, this making you unable to train your pokemon in the beginning levels. Furthermore, as a direct result of the conservatives’ recent spending review, many pokecenters have had to close in favour of marts which actually improve the public monetary fund. Yes, even the recession hits the pokeworld.

wow, just wow. it warms my heart to see this many nerds talking about pokemon. i never really noticed most of these things except the ekans and arbok thing (which is stated in the old official pokemon handbooks from yellow. also i wonder why when gravler evolved he lost two of his arms? it’s the opposite of machoke and machamp, he gained 2 arms.

Any facts for the 5th gen pokemon? I’ll start. Four of the recent legendary pokemon represent the Four Musketeers. Three of them are bigger and older, while one is smaller and younger. They also have sword-based attacks.

Nice article, enjoyed reading it.

How could anyone forget the fact that in Raichu’s pokedex entry, it clearly mentions the Indian Elephant.

Real world place reference – check

Real world animals in the Pokemon World – check

@Gene

Nice try, but he was talking about going straight from crime. In several episodes aside from “The Water Flowers of Cerulean City”, he (as well as Jess and Meowth, mind you) mentioned going straight.

@Mike

Thanks! I was honestly really confused about this, and have been extremely curious to know the reason behind that seemingly random comment

It still seems an innuendo with the way he randomly shouts it…

PENISSS.

I’m super late, but keep in mind that the name “Arbok” is used in the Japanese AND U.S. version for Pokemon #024. I think that it might be safe to say that the whole “kobra” spelled backwards thing is just a coincidence and wasn’t intended on being any kind of joke or word-play or what-have-you, by the Japanese developers. Since the names would’ve always been spelled out in katakana (the phonetic spelling would be ‘Aabokku’) and rarely Romanized, such backwards word-play wouldn’t have made much sense for most Japanese players. Also the backwards “snake” thing with Ekans is strictly in the Western versions of Pokemon, as the original Japanese name for that Pokemon was “Arbo” (Arbok sans the “K”). I think the people who translated the names noticed the backwards spelling with Arbok and wanted to be consistent with the Pokemon’s predecessor.

i personally think that baby kangaskan turns brown over time and carrys on some sort of tradition where it stays with its mother until she dies, then procedes to take her skull and leg bone so they can have her protection in later life. and evolution goes cubone>marowak>kangaskan bun the marowak only evolves if it is female, explaining why kangaskan are always female.

however once one becomes a kangaskan, they outgrow the skull they carry and then beleave they have pleased their mothers spirit and they no longer need to have it, so they break it.

that’s my part of the theory

r3set i like your theory. plus pokemon scientist havent discovered everything about pokemon yet so ya never know:P

FOR ALL THE PEOLE WHO SAY “BLAHBLAHBLAH CUBONE IS NOT KANGASKAN” WELL LISTEN TO THIS YOU IGNORANT BUFFOONS.

Kangaskhan (No. 115) does not evolve and remains fixed in its only ‘adult’ stage. The baby which lives in its pouch is not a pre-evolved Kangaskhan and does not have it’s own species. It is simply a baby Kangaskhan.
So what would happen if the Mother died and the baby lived? It would not have its mother’s attention to grow up and would have to fend for itself. The little Kangaskhan would take a skull and a bone from its mother’s skeleton to use as protection and evolve into a Cubone. The cub, from adapting to a harsher lifestyle and malnutrition damaging its growth, then evolves all by itself into a Marowak. This also explains why Cubones are more common, since Kangaskhan’s are endangered.

FOR ALL THE PEOLE WHO SAY “BLAHBLAHBLAH CUBONE IS NOT KANGASKAN” WELL LISTEN TO THIS YOU IGNORANT BUFFOONS.

Kangaskhan (No. 115) does not evolve and remains fixed in its only ‘adult’ stage. The baby which lives in its pouch is not a pre-evolved Kangaskhan and does not have it’s own species. It is simply a baby Kangaskhan.
So what would happen if the Mother died and the baby lived? It would not have its mother’s attention to grow up and would have to fend for itself. The little Kangaskhan would take a skull and a bone from its mother’s skeleton to use as protection and evolve into a Cubone. The cub, from adapting to a harsher lifestyle and malnutrition damaging its growth, then evolves all by itself into a Marowak. This also explains why Cubones are more common, since Kangaskhan’s are rare.

@VeritasUnae + onetwofour

Verdanturf is a combination of the words “verdant” and “turf.” Verdant means green in tint or color. While, “verde” is an… interesting conclusion it is however false.

Yeah, that was the operative point that 124 was getting at, I believe.

‘verde’ could a prefix / some other language. A quick Google search provides “Green. (from French)” as a possible definition.
Although he did not know the word ‘verdant’ he knew that ‘verde’ as a root word would have given ‘green’.

@hamster_doom360 verde means GREEN in Spanish, I am a native speaker, so I can be totally sure of it .

@andermetalsh

verde and verdant share the same origins so you are both correct, it means green

I never said “verde” didn’t mean green. I said that it was not the proper word for the conclusion he was attempting to make. …simpletons…

But we reached the same conclusion.
The difference was that we had slightly different premises. If verde is a true clause, and verdant is a true clause, they are interchangeable. Logic, my good chum.
Also, people don’t usually enjoy it when you call them simpletons. You do not know me. Do not claim to understand the capacity of my brain.

At this time it sounds like Movable Type is the preferred blogging platform out there right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you’re using on your blog?

I feel kind of like a mega jerkface for pointing this out but, that missingno you have up there isn’t, um, Missingno. It’s its “sister” glitch pokemon ‘M.
But other than that, very nice! I never noticed the geography thing before.

Well now Gen 5 is out, it proved pokemon can die. In the plot of Black and White. The unova champion, Alder is travelling around the region. Later on, we learn the reason why he is, its because his pokemon died from sickness. So there. And you get seriously over looking the Cubone theroy. Does it really matter?

I think Dragonite is weird also. First of all, how does an orange llizard thing come from blue aquatic sea serpents?I would understand if it evolved into Dragonite through some kind of stone..but it doesn’t. Second of all, Dragonite always reminded me of a retarded version of Charizard. Maybe when you expose Charmellion to a dragon scale or something it will evolve into Dragonite instead Charizard.

Also, Oshawatt just looks like a retarded Piplup.

OMFG you nerds should all stop arguing about what green is in spanish or if a kangaskhan has a connection to cubone WTF!!! its a game !!! if you want a pokeman secret here is one …

Growlithe has GROWL in it and arcanine has NINE in it……….

…… the designer put GROWL in the name because he had a bad childhood experience with a dog that growled at him!

…..and he put NINE in arcanine because he went to a shop and bought nine socks!

that is all.

you guys realy need a life

of course the last one is custom made sprites but thats only to show how similar they re to each other

No one mentioned Jesse James and Butch Cassedy. The original Team Rocket duos were named for america outlaws, I have also heard that now there is Atilla and Hun.
I had heard of most of the things mentioned though the Cubone thing I just learned today. It would help explain the issue of infinite regression in the official story.
I do see how Venonant and Butterfree look alike but don’t see the similarity between Metapod and Venomoth.

Late, but someone said, “Meowth and Persian + MEOWth and PURRsian”
It’s called Persian because there’s a cat breed named Persian…

@w@ I’ve been playing the Pokemon games for a while but have never run across Missingno… Everything else I knew about but that was brand-new information. But everyone else seems to know about it, so maybe I’m behind the times. Severely.

I also heard a rumor that Gengar was Clefairy’s shadow, or something similar. Any truth to that, or…?

Also @pkmnfan2011

Pretty sure if you looked closer you’d notice Arcanine has “canine” in it, instead of simply “nine”. I could be wrong. What do I know?

Mareep, the electric sheep, is also likely a play on the the title of the book “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. The book also served as the primary source material for the movie Bladerunner. The fact is alluded to by your header for that section, but you also never comment further in the text below.

Compair an over head view of leafgreen/firered’s patterned brush with the microchip frm the original red/blue version games. The fact that patterned brush is full of bug pokemon is also a refrence to the fact that the original games were full of bugs and glitches.

Has anyone seen the pokemon episode Pokemon Paparazzi? When snap is talking about pancakes there is a picture in the background that looks to be a possible picture of a cubone without a mask.