Summary
The Pokémon anime may give a different impression of a Pokémon’s strength than the game due to its depiction of attacks and abilities. Pokémon such as Spearow and Beedrill are portrayed as powerful in the anime, but their numerical advantage and limited movement make them less of a threat in the game. Pokémon like Charizard and Pikachu are popular in anime, but their performance in games may not match their roles, which highlights the differences between the two mediums.
The Pokémon Anime sometimes portray the powers of certain Pokémon very differently than Pokémon video games. Because the anime is set in a semi-realistic world instead of a turn-based world, Pokémon attacks do not come in waves, and Pokémon actually have the opportunity to maneuver, dodge, and even combine attacks. attacks into combo moves that the game couldn’t even dream of pulling off.
This ultimately means that the anime gives a very different impression of which Pokémon are stronger than the games, simply because Pokémon in the anime generally have more abilities. There have certainly been many players over the years who picked up Pokémon because it did something interesting in the anime, only to be disappointed when its performance in the game was less than impressive. Here are 10 species of Pokémon that are considered extremely powerful or dangerous in the anime, but not all of them appear in the actual Pokémon video games.
10 spears
Spearow has been a menace in the anime since the first episode. The small bird Pokémon are known to have real tempers, as well as congregate in large groups, which makes insulting one of them cause them all to attack. Ash and Pikachu discovered this the hard way in the first episode, but there have been many other instances of Spearow appearing, only to immediately boldly start attacking humans directly. The power of Spearows in the anime lies in this group behavior, but since players in the game will only be fighting one or two Spearows at a time, they lose their numerical advantage and are no longer a threat.
9 drilling machines
It seems like you can’t throw a rock into the Pokémon world without accidentally upsetting Beedrill. In a large number of episodes, Beedrill (or Kakuna, which soon evolves into Beedrill) suddenly appears in a forest and immediately begins chasing the culprit. With their giant stingers, Beedrill certainly look a little scary to look at, and it’s no wonder Ash and friends are forced to run away from them so often. However, in games, Beedrill is quite weak, with low overall stats, poor type combinations, and a moveset that is often a bit too limited. While Beedrill isn’t completely trash in the Pokémon games, it certainly can’t live up to its creepy anime reputation.
8 lizards
Charizard is a perfectly good Pokémon, but watching the anime might make one think that it is one of the strongest Pokémon around, when that is no longer true today. Charizard is used by several highly skilled trainers in the anime, such as Alain, Leon, and even Ash, which gives the impression that it is very powerful. Even in the new Pokémon Horizons anime, Friede’s Charizard often steals the spotlight. However, in the game, Charizard has fairly mediocre overall stats and a major weakness is the Rock type, which is rarely exploited in the anime. Charizard is bolstered by various transformations, such as its Mega and Gigantamax forms, but without those transformations, it isn’t too much of a threat.
7 Goodra
Ash’s Goodra is the only Pokémon he has ever had with a 100% win rate, winning every battle it enters. Ash eventually released his Goodra back into the wild, so it had a fairly short run, but its combat performance may have given fans the impression that it was nearly invincible. Although Goodra has good stats and a wide range of moves in the game, it does not stand out compared to other Pokémon with comparable stats, especially among other Dragon-type Pokémon. It is not often used by competitive players because in reality, it is not very prominent.
6 cameras
Turtonator in the anime primarily appears as Kiawe’s Pokémon and is his main Pokémon, seeing quite a few battles throughout Sun & Moon. However, Kiawe almost always uses his Z-Move, Inferno Overdrive, to win, which gives a very misleading idea of Turtonator’s power. Turtonator is actually a fairly weak Pokémon, with slow speed and mediocre attack ability, despite its rather scary appearance. It’s never really used in competitive games and isn’t even very good for simple story gameplay.
5 Gyarados
Due to Magikarp’s extremely pathetic abilities in the anime, they often evolve into Gyarados and begin rampaging with their newfound power. Gyarados is also used by several trainers in the anime, including Misty, Lance, and Lysandre, often demonstrating incredible strength (and the ability to Mega Evolve). However, like Charizard, Gyarados has some major weaknesses, especially the Electric type. Gyarados’ destructive potential is on par with Pokédex entries in the game, but often exceeds Gyarados’ actual performance in battle, even though Gyarados is a fairly strong Pokémon.
4 Lucario
Lucario is a Pokémon that certainly holds a prominent place in the anime, having an entire movie based on it, as well as being a key member of the teams of characters like Korrina, Maylene, and Ash. While Lucario is said in-game to have a special Aura ability, this actually only results in the ability to use Special Attack-based Fighting-type moves. However, in the anime, Aura allows Lucario to do everything from non-verbal communication with his partner to sensing objects and even other Pokémon at great distances. While Lucario is a perfectly good Pokémon in the games, its performance cannot compare to what Lucario achieved in the anime.
3 Onix
Onix stands out for its incredibly massive size, making the Rock Snake Pokémon a real threat to significantly smaller challengers, often threatening to crush them with its massive size. Most notably, Onix is owned by Brock in the anime, who certainly isn’t afraid to use his size advantage against his opponents. He has a lot of success with moves like Bind and Wrap, which are actually quite weak in games, especially with Onix’s disappointingly low attack. This is a case where the game fails to showcase how impressive Onix is, rather than the anime overselling its performance.
2 psycho ducks
Psyduck seems like an odd choice to be high on the list. After all, Misty’s Psyduck is notoriously useless… until it gets a headache, at which point it unleashes terrifying Psychic attacks that can destroy unsuspecting opponents. Of course, no such headache-inducing mechanics exist in the game, meaning Psyduck is really just a pretty useless, un-evolved Pokémon. The gap between what Psyduck can do in the anime and how it’s presented in the game is so huge that it just warranted its inclusion.
1 Pikachu
Of course, the most overrated Pokémon in anime has to be Pikachu. Ash’s Pikachu stands out as one of his strongest Pokémon, with a pretty great win rate considering the sheer number of battles it’s been in over the years. Although steps have been taken to make Pikachu better in-game to better match its anime performance, with items such as the Orb of Light, exclusive Z-moves, and other special superpower variants, like Let’s Go’s Pikachu Partner, Pikachu remains the ultimate Electric-type early in the game that doesn’t really reach the same level of success as Ash’s.
Ultimately, the anime and games can paint very different pictures of the Pokémon world. Many Pokémon that are considered extremely threatening in the anime are actually not all that there is in the game, while some Pokémon that are really strong in the game can lose in the anime due to who owns them. However, both the anime and the games have a great lesson to teach: that it doesn’t necessarily matter which Pokémon is strongest, because a strong bond and adequate training can eventually overcome them. through all obstacles. That’s one of the most endearing qualities of the Pokémon franchise, and the anime shows proof of that with the diverse choices the trainers make.