"Common misconceptions about the anime"

So with some exciting news recently announced for the anime, I've noticed that there is a lot of false information about the anime that gets frequently spread around. It makes sense, the shows is coming up to its thousandth episode and many people haven't watched the show since they were kids. So I figured I'd go ahead and talk about the misconceptions I've seen. I'm sure I will miss a lot, so if you have any you would like to share, please feel free to comment about them.1. Ash isn't 10, he's [insert other age here]!I hear this one thrown out a lot, and the dub is probably responsible for why so many people seem to think this. One place people point to as proof of Ash being some other age than 10 is back in episode 63 where he comments that its been a year since he last visited Viridian City. This is something the dub added, he only says it has been a while in the Japanese version. The last time Ash's age has been mentioned in the show was the first episode of BW, where the narrator states that he is 10. There have been instances of time passing in the anime, such as there being a three month period between Ash's eighth Unova badge and the Unova league, but Ash is still, and likely will forever be, 10 years old. In an interview with Yuyama who has had a hand in every anime series including the newest movie, Ash is eternally 10 years old.2. Pokemon aren't limited to four moves like they are in the games!This one is interesting because Pokemon weren't actually limited to four moves early in the series. The best example would be Drake's Dragonite in the Orange League who was able to use 10 different moves in one battle. However, over time the anime has adopted the 4 move limitation and is actually pretty strict about it. Its never actually stated in universe, but Pokemon have been limited to four moves for quite a while. When Pikachu learned Electro Ball in BW, he is never seen using Volt Tackle after this point. I believe the last time a Pokemon was shown using more than four moves was Ash's Snorlax in his fight with the Greta in the Battle Frontier.3. Ash's goal is to catch every Pokemon!Ash's goal in the series has always been to be a Pokemon Master. However, the anime hasn't really given a definition as to what a Pokemon Master is. Early on, Ash had a desire to catch every Pokemon, but that was actually dropped rather quickly. In Mystery at the Lighthouse (the 13th episode), Ash realizes that catching every Pokemon is simply infeasible. This is further highlighted in Showdown at the Po-ke Corral (ep. 65) where Ash tells Gary that its more important to be friends with your Pokemon than simply having a lot of them. Ash is far more interested in bringing out the best in the Pokemon he does have than catching every Pokemon. I feel like this misconception mostly comes from the english slogan Gotta Catch Em All. This is simply the english slogan for the series. The Japanese slogan is Getto Daze which simply means 'get Pokemon'.4. Ash's Butterfree is dead since Butterfree die after mating!This comes from the idea 4Kids censored Butterfree's death when making the English dub. However, the Japanese version never mentions Butterfree dying after mating either. Both the English and Japanese versions only say that Butterfree will not be able to have children if it doesn't cross the sea with the Pink Butterfree.5. Ash's skills are reset every region!I think BW can be directly blamed for this misconception as this is the only time where Ash's skills have truly taken a step back. While Ash's progress is very slow, he is still making progress and becoming a better battler. This can be best seen in his various league placements over the years. In the indigo league, Ash placed in the top 16. Here we can see Ash at his worst. He uses Pokemon that he has literally no experience battling with and got lucky that both Kingler and Muk turned out be pretty powerful. He ends up losing when he brings out a Pokemon that won't obey him. While Team Rocket did prevent him from using his other Pokemon, his inexperience is still shown throughout the league. In Johto, he managed to reach the top 8. He defeated his longtime rival and put up an excellent fight against Harrison. While he did not improve his ranking in Hoenn, he was still able to achieve the same placing only using his Hoenn team. Additionally, the person he lost to also ended up winning the entire competition, which wasn't the case for either of the previous leagues. In Sinnoh, he managed to reach the top 4 using Pokemon he caught from every region. He was the only person in the entire league to defeat Tobias' Darkrai and defeated his Latios on top of that. Again, Unova is the black sheep and the only place where he actually regressed as a trainer. However, he redeemed himself in Kalos by placing second in the league only using his Kalos team. It is too early to tell how well he will do in SuMo, but he is off to a pretty good start. He has faced off against two Island Kahunas and neither one of them managed to take down a single one of Ash's Pokemon. You could definitely make the argument that Ash isn't progressing fast enough, but he still has been shown to be progressing.Sorry, this post turned out to be longer than I intended. Like I said, feel free to add any other misconceptions about the anime if you know of any! via /r/pokemon http://ift.tt/2xLxI1r