So you get dropped into the Pokemon anime verse...

[Blackhawk748]

And you figure "What the hell? Lets be a trainer!" what team do you go for? Personally i feel you can go for pretty much anything cuz the anime trainers are.... not overly bright. Seriously, season 1 someone was at the Indigo Plateau with a friggin Tentacool. A Tentacool. Just...wow. I mean, i get stats arent really a thing in the anime (i mean they sorta are but you know what i mean) but its really only Ash who is doing the unevolved pokemon thing and succeeding.

Anyway, my end game team would probably look like this:

Dodrio (if PTU has taught me anything, being able to cover ground that fast is amazing)
Nidoking (i love my Wall Breaker)
Aggron (hopefully with a Mega stone)
Snorlax (need my tank)
Tangela (gotta find that Eviolite)
Lunatone ( i will teach it Moonblast, Moonlight, and Ancient Power and everyone shall cower in fear!)

Honorable mentions
Tauros
Flygon
Haxorus
Beedrill (Mega clearly)
Heracross
Steelix
Arbbok
Muk
Torterra
Venasaur
Venomoth
Rhydon
Toxapex

Ya, i know it doesnt look like an OU team, but thats mostly cuz assembling a typical Smogon OU team would be a nightmare. Seriously, so many of those pokemon are stupid rare and im not even sure that sort of style would work well. What Smogon (and other tournament users) do that would swork well is constant switches. Seriously, trainers in the anime almost never switch out if they are in a bad match up, they just try to muscle through.

So ya, what would you go with?

[Green Elf]

6 glitched level 132 Mewtwos(Pokemon Red)
They have infinite recovers and super high defense. I might teach them hyper beam.

Unbeatable

[Blackhawk748]

6 glitched level 132 Mewtwos(Pokemon Red)
They have infinite recovers and super high defense. I might teach them hyper beam.

Unbeatable

Uuuh how are you getting those?

[Callos_DeTerran]

I'd probably end up capturing an Aegislash and join Team Skull while I hone my sword-fighting skills.

Why? Cause I will become king/queen after getting my Aegislash (and other Ghost pokemon) skills on lock and Team Skull is a pretty chill group. Plus not-Hawaii looks like a great place to live...so does Not-France but the temptation of that ultimate weapon is mighty strong.

[Kyberwulf]

Do the Pokemon have the same temperament and drawbacks of trying to train a real creature like they do in the series?

[Blackhawk748]

Do the Pokemon have the same temperament and drawbacks of trying to train a real creature like they do in the series?

You're in the Anime-verse so ya, all rules that apply there apply to you. So be careful with those Tyrannitars

[Talion]

I remember doing something like this for myself a couple years back. Of course, I had to set some ground rules for myself to make things interesting:

1. No legendaries. Pretty self explanatory.
2. No dragons. Too rare (in canon), too powerful, too overused in the meta.
3. No type repeats. Makes things a little more difficult, but also helpful in a competitive sense.
4. Able to catch/train/handle. For example, if I'm being honest with myself, I probably couldn't handle a Gyarados' general temperament. Plus raising it from Magikarp would be such a headache. By extension, the fossil Pokemon are probably too rare for me as a 'normal' trainer to get.
5. Have to be familiar with it. As I only played gens 1,2,3 and Sun/Moon, it wouldn't feel right to pick and chose off Bulbapedia's full list, even if there could be contenders in there. So in a lot of ways, I'm working with around 1/2 of the total list.

So, with the above in mind, for a primary team...I think something like this:

Arcanine
Blastoise
Bewear
Nidoqueen
Mimikyu
Ampharos

Honorable Mentions:

Aggron (As with the Gyarados example above, probably too aggressive for me to handle)
Lapras (Too Rare in most eras, Water Type covered by Blastoise, uncomfortable with using it in a water-less environment)
Lycanrock (Not as familiar with as I am the others)
Ninetails (Fire Type covered by Arcanine)
Riboombee (Fairy Type covered by Mimikyu)
Snorlax (Rare, training/handling difficult)
Sandslash (Ground Type covered by Nidoqueen)
Starmie (Water Type covered by Blastoise, wouldn't mind switching out for better type coverage)

There's probably more to the Honorable Mention list, but I've hit the high points at least.

[Lord Raziere]

I'd probably end up capturing an Aegislash and join Team Skull while I hone my sword-fighting skills.

Why? Cause I will become king/queen after getting my Aegislash (and other Ghost pokemon) skills on lock and Team Skull is a pretty chill group. Plus not-Hawaii looks like a great place to live...so does Not-France but the temptation of that ultimate weapon is mighty strong.

.....you do know that Aegislash and its pre-evolved forms does INCREDIBLY bad things to people who tried to wield them like swords right? like, Honedge and Doublade drain your life force, and Aegislash is like, some ghost in a sword trying to possess people.

if stats weren't a thing, I'd like just pick all the pokemon I like and battle people with them probably. I'd think I'd be happy just traveling around with my pokemon to be honest. Like, I'd probably have a tendency towards certain types of pokemon over others.....I think mostly Dragon/Fairy/Steel because I think they're cool? though getting a hard team down would probably be difficult for me since I like so many pokemon, so I'd have to constantly rotate them around to train them, and of course I'd have to do weird shenanigans involving two Eevees to get both Sylveon and Glaceon.

though I might go to Team Skull and like, use Sunny Day on their town at least. Maybe figure out how to help them get their place in order if they're going to stand by themselves. I mean yeah sure, living free is cool and all, but come on are you really happy living in this mess?

As for starter.....well its either choosing between Fennekin, Cyndaquil, Litten and Tepig. I mean I like fire types, but there are just so many good ones I like its so hard to choose which one. ok, Torchic to, its cute and its final evolution is awesome. but not the monkey or the lizard. problem is that fire types are FIRE TYPES and thus probably comes with its own unique set of fire safety guidelines to figure out. but then again......free camp fire lighter. and torch lighter. probably very useful given traveling.

I guess If I were to list pokemon I'd try to get it'd be:
Sylveon, Glaceon, Salamence, Mawile, Gardevoir, Lilligant, Incineroar, Delphox, Bisharp, Delcatty, Luxray, Purugly, Nidoqueen, Liepard, Braviary, Sableye, Milotic, Absol, Smeargle, Ditto, Tsareena, Salazzle, Mimikyu, Miltank, Belossom, Lucario, Krookodile, Golurk, Goodra, Maractus, Mienshao, Araquanid, Lurantis, Lycanroc (Midnight), aaaand Alolan Muk, just off the top of my head.

yeah, I'm fully aware that most of these are probably dangerous or rare/hard to get but I'd still try at least.

[Fri]

Anime verse? Six Pikachu. (Weakness and types? What are those?)

[Blackhawk748]

Aggron (As with the Gyarados example above, probably too aggressive for me to handle)

Aggron actually have fairly relaxed temperaments. They are extremely rare in nature, but each one claims a mountain as its domain and it basically becomes steward of that territory, replanting trees and in general cleaning up after natural disasters.

So ya, Aggron actually arent super aggressive or anything.

Anime verse? Six Pikachu. (Weakness and types? What are those?)

Ash's Pikachu clearly has a Light Orb inside of it

[Kitten Champion]

Thing about the anime-verse of Pokemon is there's no mechanical meta-game to slavishly adhere to, no algorithms or RNGs to consider, no walking back and forth through tall grass to prompt another random encounter and grind your Pokemon to a certain level, or breeding hundreds of eggs with that max-IV Ditto to get that one shiny Pokemon with an all-important inherited move.

On the other hand, you actually have to care for them in a real 24-7 sense, being living breathing creatures. They have emotions and wills of their own to consider and fret over. They can be strong in ways the Pokemon game cannot account for, and they can employ tactics which exists independently from their available moves.

Point being, I wouldn't assemble a team based on the presumptions of the video game. Rather, I would look at personal compatibility with the Pokemon, whether I've the capacity to manage their needs, and the risk involved in their capture. Personally, I wouldn't look for a Pokemon whose size would be too much of an encumbrance, whose diet is so large or particular that I'd be burdened with supplies, or who live in specialized environments -- like any Water-based Pokemon who'd suffer on land, a Poison/Grass Pokemon that's particularly toxic, or a Fire-type who'd logically set everything in its proximity alight like a Magcargo.

I would be rather wary about most Dragon and Ghost Pokemon. Dragons are known in-universe as the hardest to deal with and requires particularly knowledgeable and attentive trainers while Ghosts have attempted to consume people's souls.

I think I'd probably aim towards being a gym leader, it's an interesting role to inhabit and you can still do other things with your life which are not training and battles.

[Lord Raziere]

Anime verse? Six Pikachu. (Weakness and types? What are those?)

You mean six PikAshus. and then, I counter with six level 5 Snivy's just starting out and defeat you easily. Consistently powerful between seasons? What is that?

[Blackhawk748]

I think what needs to be pointed out is that the Pokedex is BS. Seriously, that thing is so wrong its not even funny. For instance Macargo cant be that hot otherwise it would melt the ground and Ghost pokemon dont eat souls, cuz the Anime isnt that dark. At worst, Ghosts seem to be tricksters.

[Talion]

Aggron actually have fairly relaxed temperaments. They are extremely rare in nature, but each one claims a mountain as its domain and it basically becomes steward of that territory, replanting trees and in general cleaning up after natural disasters.

So ya, Aggron actually arent super aggressive or anything.

Huh, guess I should have dug a little deeper on that part. Though to be honest, my memory of gen 3 is fairly hazy, and I suffered substantial series fatigue at that point. Hence the giant gap in my experience. That being said, I'm still pleased with my overall selections within my self-imposed theory-craft rules. In actual play, all this can go right out the window

[Fri]

In more seriousness, Poke-verse, whether game or anime, is honestly not a bad place to live, unlike a lot other fictional universes. I'd even say it's one of the best one. You got advanced enough tech for all the modern amenities, or even better than ours, health cares etc (most importantly, internet or internet equivalent.), but you can still be adventurers if you want, by that I mean be pokemon ranger, pokemon trainer, gym leaders, etc. And even if you get in trouble, it's rarely deadly, and with good rescue chance and such.

Of course that's discounting being protagonist, which involved on town ending threat monthly and world ending threat in a yearly basis

[Talion]

I think what needs to be pointed out is that the Pokedex is BS. Seriously, that thing is so wrong its not even funny. For instance Macargo cant be that hot otherwise it would melt the ground and Ghost pokemon dont eat souls, cuz the Anime isnt that dark. At worst, Ghosts seem to be tricksters.

Oh, I agree. To be honest, I think the best way to look at the Pokedex as a whole is basically "This is what happens when you send 10 year olds out to conduct research on super powered animals and don't bother to edit it at all."

[Anteros]

On the other hand, you actually have to care for them in a real 24-7 sense, being living breathing creatures. They have emotions and wills of their own to consider and fret over.

Alternatively, shove them into a pokeball and forget them until it's convenient.

I think what needs to be pointed out is that the Pokedex is BS. Seriously, that thing is so wrong its not even funny. For instance Macargo cant be that hot otherwise it would melt the ground and Ghost pokemon dont eat souls, cuz the Anime isnt that dark. At worst, Ghosts seem to be tricksters.

Well, you have to remember that this is a universe where most of the pokemon research is done by 10 year olds.

[Kitten Champion]

I think what needs to be pointed out is that the Pokedex is BS. Seriously, that thing is so wrong its not even funny. For instance Macargo cant be that hot otherwise it would melt the ground

They still visibly sprout flames in their design. You don't have to be literally hotter than the sun to be a fire hazard.

Ghost pokemon dont eat souls, cuz the Anime isnt that dark. At worst, Ghosts seem to be tricksters.

They have tried though, like, in several episodes. They don't succeed because the anime isn't that dark, but it's still Japanese not-that-dark. The anime is fairly shaky on what they think of Ghost Pokemon in general - well, especially Ghost Pokemon - because it largely depends on the needs of the story.

Alternatively, shove them into a pokeball and forget them until it's convenient.

That doesn't work in the anime-verse... at least in its most consistent portrayal. You can send them off to old man Oak if you want via their teleportation system, but they do have to be fed at some point.

[Blackhawk748]

They still visibly sprout flames in their design. You don't have to be literally hotter than the sun to be a fire hazard.

Valid

They have tried though, like, in several episodes. They don't succeed because the anime isn't that dark, but it's still Japanese not-that-dark. The anime is fairly shaky on what they think of Ghost Pokemon in general - well, especially Ghost Pokemon - because it largely depends on the needs of the story.

The only episode i can think of was the Lavender town one and there was no maliciousness there.

[Kitten Champion]

The only episode i can think of was the Lavender town one and there was no maliciousness there.

The last one I remember was in Black & White where Litwick attempted to drain the life-force of Team Rocket surreptitiously and then when exposed they got together and attempted to drag both them and the protagonists to the "Other Side". I'm fairly sure there are others to this effect, my knowledge isn't encyclopedic.

[Giggling Ghast]

Could I be dropped into the Yu Gi Oh universe instead? Playing children’s card games are more my speed. I don’t have any bulls**t main character powers, but I am willing to adopt a bizarre hairstyle if that’s what it takes.

[Anteros]

Could I be dropped into the Yu Gi Oh universe instead? Playing children’s card games are more my speed. I don’t have any bulls**t main character powers, but I am willing to adopt a bizarre hairstyle if that’s what it takes.

As long as you're willing to be dragged to the shadow realm for losing a children's card game.

If we get to pick, I'd go with Dragonball. Wear weighted clothing and do chores for a month and suddenly you're Superman.

[khadgar567]

well anime verse is not bad thanks to sun and moons ride system so with it my crew probably have flying Pokemon big enough and tough enough to fly me to city to city like kaki from anime then leave the rest of the slots to area specific Pokemon
so my crew probably

staraptor for travel and aerial battles
lucario with mega stone for heavy hitter other then up to ultra worm hole to grab every legendary i can grab so

[Lord Raziere]

If we get to pick, I'd go with Dragonball. Wear weighted clothing and do chores for a month and suddenly you're Superman.

Ahahahahahaha!

Sure, if you can deal with the kind of world it is. If Pokemon is one of the best fictional places to live, Dragon Ball is one of the worst. hope you can live with planet destroying jerks coming to kill you and everyone you love every few years, with no guarantees that righteousness will actually prevail, Goku remember isn't actually a good person, every technique has a downside, a saiyan will render all your human effort moot by getting beat up then recovering from that to come back stronger than ever even before super Saiyan is ever involved, assuming your in an era where Freeza isn't ruling you have to hope Beerus won't destroy your planet for not having tasty food when no one has the guts or the strength to stop him.

Best case scenario? Your Krillin. More likey? You'll be Yamcha. And the universe is just full of battle-crazy idiots seeking a good fight no matter the consequences. If your lucky. If your unlucky, your some timeline like Future Trunks timeline. Dragon Balls? Not a guarantee. you have to wonder how many alien planets died fighting in ki wars without knowing the Dragon Balls ever existed.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

If I got dropped into the Pokemon Universe I don't think I would actually be a very competitive battler. I'm not a champion full contact martial artist myself, and I'm not sure I'd be the best match with Pokemon that need to have the mindset of one to enjoy a life of basically only sitting in a ball and fighting. Plus I'm not really looking to care for six or more large exotic pets. The last two living things I was responsible for where a cactus and a succulant plant, they both died. Two or three seems like a good maximum at least to start out with.

I would however like to take advantage of some of the other features of the universe, like how making or needing money doesn't really seem to be a thing and how everyone is incredibly damage resistant. This makes it the perfect universe to go adventuring in. I'll have a string shot user, probably Spinarak, as my loyal climbing partner, rescue line thrower and ducttape dispenser. I'm a bit of a rope ninja, so we'll get along fine. I bet it can even patch clothes, less shopping to do for me! I'll probably add a Quagsire as well as a white water buddy. Quagsire is my favorite along with Rhydon, but given the choice between them in universe I guess Rhydon is more of a really cool wild animal to look at through binoculars from in a tree somewhere downwind of it, while Quagsire is just the bro-est of party animals. Can you imagine it sitting at a campfire, possibly after a few beers? Madness.

Flight would be an awesome thing to have, but in the anime flying with a trainer is mostly restricted to some real powerhouses that require being a good dedicated trainer to obtain and control, or being Ash and getting burned all the time, that works as well. Yeah, Ash flies on Pidgeot, which is only sort of a death eagle of doom, but he seems to have pretty much forgotten about that time when someone introduces him to the concept of riding a Charizard, so I'm not sure that really counts. And aside from flying ones I'm not sure any riding Pokemon is really better than a car/boat or even just a bicycle, as long as you don't own a certain Pikachu. So I don't think I'm going to add a creature for that.

If I was for some reason set on becoming a serious battler I'd try to get a bit of a theme. The more alike your Pokemon, the better you can become at training them all. I've done some Showdowning recently using bipedal ground, water, rock and ice types, and it seems to work anime style well enough. I'm not set on any specific team, but it needs at least one of each type, one water-ground dual type, one sweeper, one wall, three or four tanks, one rapid spinner or maybe a defog user (by this time you may realize these roles can be combined to keep the total number at six), preferably at least a mold breaker or an intimidator, if at all possible an unaware user or maybe a debuffer, one toxic, toxic spike or scald or some form of damage over time user and all in all preferably no more than 3 or at most 4 creatures sharing any one weakness. There's a few options. I will see what kind of powerful motivated creatures I can find.

I'm also considering breaking into a Ranger base to get one of those capture stylers and just partying around with wild Pokemon from there on in.

[khadgar567]

well i am not a fighter so flying pokemon is good for me other then i dont need much more pokemon though if i can add few fan seasons in anime then every thing quite changes there is few good concepts like fusemon ( two or three pokemon fused in one) and adding few more new types to master will make my story pretty good if i hit ash on journey then give him one of my extra pokemons and send him to collect his harem before fighting against me on campionship

[Forum Explorer]

For the Pokemon anime universe...

1. Eevee
2. Lapras
3. Gardivoir
4. Charizard
5. Dragonite (I don't care how hard they are to raise)
6. Kabutops


I'd likely be some sort of researcher/traveler. Exploring the wilds to see how wild pokemon live where there aren't many humans around. Eevee would be my go to pokemon, who would be out all of the time. Lapras would be to help travel across lakes and seas, and Kabutops would be what I'd use to fight off anything that tried to mess with me.

[Drascin]

I'd hope to get some of my favorites. So, like, Galvantula, Weavile, Gardevoir, Tyranitar, Flygon. Then probably take advantage of the fact that money seems a really secondary concern on the pokemon world to travel around on Tyranitar-back, walking around and meeting new pokemon and stuff.

Course, you'd have to start from the bottom here, catching them at low level and giving them plenty of love, care, and battle experience. Which means starting out with, like, a Joltik.

And let's be honest, I can work with that. I mean, have you seen Joltik? Little bugger is adorable. Screw pokéballs, he can stay on my head if he wants .

[Aotrs Commander]

The last one I remember was in Black & White where Litwick attempted to drain the life-force of Team Rocket surreptitiously and then when exposed they got together and attempted to drag both them and the protagonists to the "Other Side". I'm fairly sure there are others to this effect, my knowledge isn't encyclopedic.

There are a fair few Clearly Evil Pokémon out there, ghost or otherwise (Malamar being another crowd).

Heck, let's not forget, ghost humans are nearly as bad (and not that uncommon, I can think of at least three occasions Ash has run into human ghosts off the top of my head!) and in one of those, Ash nearly got sucked into the spirit world by said human ghost, only getting saved becase of Dusknoir.

So yeah, your soul is definitely at potential risk even in the anime-verse. Especially if Ash isn't around to save one's sorry arse...!



Let's not forget, the anime only glosses over the dark things, but they clearly exist. War using Pokémon, eating pokémon, Hunter J killing people, firearms (and all that implies)... All that stuff has been mentioned in the background at some point. Just because Ash tends to miss the really bad stuff - or Save The Day, because he's Ash Mother-Fracking Ketchum - doesn't mean it's not there.

Don't get me wrong, it's an advanced society that is arguably pretty close to a utopia, where it's socially the norm for ten year-old to travel unsupervised around the land in losts of places, which speaks to it being pretty darn safe most of the time (or that the laws are really, really irresponsible!) - heck, while we don't see it, they MUST have excellent sex education¹, else the number of single-parent families we see is not a co-incidence! - but it's not QUITE as idyllic as it looks.



¹I assume that one of Nurse Joy's less advertsied duties includes that, and the necessary dispensation of prophylactics.

[Blackhawk748]

Could I be dropped into the Yu Gi Oh universe instead? Playing children’s card games are more my speed. I don’t have any bulls**t main character powers, but I am willing to adopt a bizarre hairstyle if that’s what it takes.

Theres another setting where most of the inhabitants are bad at what they do. God, my Archfiend deck would ruin them, and it would only get worse if theres no ban list.

I'd hope to get some of my favorites. So, like, Galvantula, Weavile, Gardevoir, Tyranitar, Flygon. Then probably take advantage of the fact that money seems a really secondary concern on the pokemon world to travel around on Tyranitar-back, walking around and meeting new pokemon and stuff.

Course, you'd have to start from the bottom here, catching them at low level and giving them plenty of love, care, and battle experience. Which means starting out with, like, a Joltik.

And let's be honest, I can work with that. I mean, have you seen Joltik? Little bugger is adorable. Screw pokéballs, he can stay on my head if he wants .

Thats a big upside to Tyranitar, Larvitar is way easier to find than other Pseudo-Legendaries. I mean you still have a rather cranky behemoth, but we've seen that trained pokemon tend to have rather different dispositions to wilds.