• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Mr. Mime belongs to Ash according to the official twitter?

I'm apparently not being clear here. That isn't what I'm implying. I'm not quite sure how you got that impression when I said that One Piece and Pokemon are two different kind of series. I am saying that they are both seen as kid shows in Japan, but that does not mean that they both have the same exact age range for their target audience.
Oh, okay. I was bringing up Pokemon and One-Piece as a comparison because despite having different source materials, they are anime broadcasted on television (or other media) which can reach out to a large group of audiences. You mention that both are targeting kids as the main audience, but acknowledge the difference in the age range. That was my point. It's easy to notice that compared to other "children's" shows like One-Piece, Pokemon's target age group is noticably younger.

What age group are you thinking of when you hear "preschool" anyway? Is there like a set age group? Assuming elementary school first grade starts with generally seven-year-olds, one year of kindergarten would be six, so pre-K (or "preschool") would be around five. Idk other than that though.
 
Last edited:
If someone had told me a few years ago that Mr. Mime would be retconned into belonging to Ash I would've called them crazy. Now I'm just mad because this seems like a thinly veiled way for the writers to give Ash a new teammate without having him actually get a new Pokemon for that spot.
 
I hate getting into demographic/audience age range arguments since there isn't much data on that ( or at least not in English afaik), but I think it's pretty obvious that the anime is targeted towards younger kids from around elementary school age. I base my belief on the fact that most of the merchandise that gets sold seems to appeal to school age kids more than adults, and also based on how I perceive the anime's tone.

But anyway, I dunno who's idea it was to make Ash own Mr. Mime if we're meant to assume that Mr. Mime was always Ash's Pokemon even as far back as the original series. I kind of doubt that Mr. Shudo had anything to do with that decision back then since iirc he never mentioned it in any of his books or on his old blog. I just want to know why Ash owning Mr. Mime was never clarified before in the anime itself if it was supposedly meant to be an established fact for a few years now.
 
Oh, okay. I was bringing up Pokemon and One-Piece as a comparison because despite having different source materials, they are anime broadcasted on television (or other media) which can reach out to a large group of audiences. You mention that both are targeting kids as the main audience, but acknowledge the difference in the age range. That was my point. It's easy to notice that compared to other "children's" shows like One-Piece, Pokemon's target age group is noticably younger.

What age group are you thinking of when you hear "preschool" anyway? Is there like a set age group? Assuming elementary school first grade starts with generally seven-year-olds, one year of kindergarten would be six, so pre-K (or "preschool") would be around five. Idk other than that though.

I'm pretty sure that preschool age group would be between three to five years old. I'm not sure if that's different for Japan, but that's typically the age range for most preschool shows in the U.S. at least. While Pokemon is aimed at kids, I don't think that their target audience is that young either. Based on the tone and the general way the show is marketed, I'm still pretty sure that Pokemon is aimed towards more of an elementary school age target audience. One Piece is a shonen series, so it is going to have more elements like violence and action to appeal to the boy demographic compared to a more family friendly series like Pokemon, so that's another reason why comparing the two to determine the age group for Pokemon's target audience doesn't quite work.
 
But the show does target kids of kindergarten age foremost so it's useless to try and pretend that it doesn't. If the writers cared about older fans more than young kids, the anime would be way different with much more continuity and references to past events in almost every single episode.

Alright:
A) Citation needed. Badly. "kids of kindergarten age"? Really, now? You know, I can understand that the show is aimed at kids. But kindergarteners? What exactly is this statement even based on? Last I checked, this show isn't the usual highly educational that may or may not feature a bunch of lifeless, robotic characters type of show a la Dora the Explorer (though it might just be one of the many cultural differences that we here in the west have with Japan, but, so far, I don't see any evidence for it actually being the case).
B) It being aimed at kids isn't an excuse for poor writing (which is what this moronic retcon is) and, honestly, I'm really getting tired of hearing it be regurgitated over and over in regards to not only this series, but other formerly great franchises and their horrendous pieces of media as well. There are many examples of other show like Rescue Bots or My Little Pony that, despite being aimed at pre-schoolers, have some decent writing, interesting characters, an actual plot and progression towards it and proper continuity. Heck, the Advanced Generations, Diamond & Pearl and even the Best Wishes series, all of which had the exact same target demographic as far as I'm aware, had some references to the past and active continuity with the rest of the show, some of which would be tied to the episode's main plot (and the former even had some amazing writing and great stories without pulling mindboggling retcons or resorting to really terrible writing like this one (Except for them maybe retconning Team Rocket's past, I guess? Don't know too many details about it to be able to tell if it was that bad though.)). So why is it that they were able to do this a couple of years ago, but they're suddenly unable to do it anymore? To say that this is perfectly acceptable for kids would not only be an insult to their intelligence and the equivalent of saying that they don't deserve quality content, but it would also equate all those quality series and episodes and stories that came before (not to mention the all the fantastic shows that have a similar demographic as Pokémon) to this. And I'm sorry, but they (well, except for BW, maybe) are far better than this series currently is.
 
Which makes absolutely no sense considering that Mimey had bonded with Ash’s mother going all the way back to it’s debut. It barely interacted with Ash in that episode and has hardly since. What drugs are these people on that Mimey would even come close to being Ash’s Pokémon?
To be fair Muk likes Oak a lot more than Ash. Oak even used it to fight off Bush and Cassidy in one of the specials.
 
To be fair Muk likes Oak a lot more than Ash. Oak even used it to fight off Bush and Cassidy in one of the specials.
I wouldn’t say that Muk likes Oak better as it’s been shown to give Ash the same affection as Oak when it gets to be around Ash. And Oak is its caretaker so there’s definitely a trust there. It doesn’t seem so different to how Paul’s Electabuzz listened to Reggie when Team Galactic attacked.
 
Thanks, now I want Muk to be retconned as Oak's :cool:

I mean, it might as well happen since Oak seems to spend every day with Muk whereas Ash barely sees the thing. And no I don't count the fan made head canon theories about how Ash might visit his Oak'd Pokemon offscreen during weekends or whatever fan fiction people have come up with to try and make Ash's neglect of his Oak'd Pokemon seem not so bad.
 
I mean, it might as well happen since Oak seems to spend every day with Muk whereas Ash barely sees the thing. And no I don't count the fan made head canon theories about how Ash might visit his Oak'd Pokemon offscreen during weekends or whatever fan fiction people have come up with to try and make Ash's neglect of his Oak'd Pokemon seem not so bad.

I realize this is another topic here, but what about the fan theory that Satoshi's mom is Oak'd often? I actually completely buy that one tbh in a serious, non-joking way. The show goes out of its way to pair them as vacationing together all the time. Guy doesn't even go out of way to visit his grandson but will drop his research at the drop of a hat just to visit some kid from the same town? Don't buy it.
 
I don't think it's a retcon because it was still Delia/Hanako who asked it to stay with Satoshi. It would honestly be kind of sad if Hanako never got her only Pokémon back. It is sad enough already that Satoshi chose to stay in Vermilion instead of at home since Hanako has expressed sadness and lonliness every time Satoshi leaves for a new adventure and she has to make new clothes for him.

Maybe they just want show off the difference between Mr. Mime in Kanto and the Galarian ice form. Kind of like how SM has two Vulpix.
 
I don't think it's a retcon because it was still Delia/Hanako who asked it to stay with Satoshi. It would honestly be kind of sad if Hanako never got her only Pokémon back. It is sad enough already that Satoshi chose to stay in Vermilion instead of at home since Hanako has expressed sadness and lonliness every time Satoshi leaves for a new adventure and she has to make new clothes for him.

Maybe they just want show off the difference between Mr. Mime in Kanto and the Galarian ice form. Kind of like how SM has two Vulpix.

Has Galarian Mr. Mime shown up yet? I'm not sure if that is the intent with including Mr. Mime here. They didn't really do much with the two Vulpix in SM, but they were introduced together at least.
 
I don't think it's a retcon because it was still Delia/Hanako who asked it to stay with Satoshi. It would honestly be kind of sad if Hanako never got her only Pokémon back. It is sad enough already that Satoshi chose to stay in Vermilion instead of at home since Hanako has expressed sadness and lonliness every time Satoshi leaves for a new adventure and she has to make new clothes for him.

Maybe they just want show off the difference between Mr. Mime in Kanto and the Galarian ice form. Kind of like how SM has two Vulpix.

I think we're meant to believe that it's Ash's Mr. Mime but he lets Delia look after it (much like how Ash just dumps all his reserve Pokemon at Oak's lab and expects Oak to look after them free of charge because yolo). So Delia does have the strongest bond with Mr. Mime and perhaps that's why she asked Mr. Mime to stay with Ash as a favor.
 
I don't see why we should have to make excuses for a hopelessly lazy executive decision here.

Yes, technically it is possible that Bari-chan was Satoshi's all along. He might have stuck it with a ball when the cameras weren't rolling at any point since Barrierd's introduction episode and PM 7, but what earthly reason do the writers have for not showing that when Pokemon captures have otherwise been treated a sacrosanct? It's a cheap way of giving Satoshi a second Pokemon without him having to make a new capture or use a proper reserve, that's it.

This is 'Dumbledore is gay' all over again, but somehow stupider.
 
I don't see why we should have to make excuses for a hopelessly lazy executive decision here.

Yes, technically it is possible that Bari-chan was Satoshi's all along. He might have stuck it with a ball when the cameras weren't rolling at any point since Barrierd's introduction episode and PM 7, but what earthly reason do the writers have for not showing that when Pokemon captures have otherwise been treated a sacrosanct? It's a cheap way of giving Satoshi a second Pokemon without him having to make a new capture or use a proper reserve, that's it.

This is 'Dumbledore is gay' all over again, but somehow stupider.
I "blame" Detective Pikachu more than them trying to avoid a proper capture, which I suspect we'll still see. Reserves are another question, of course. It would make sense with that whole World Championship in episode 12 and "all regions" theme, but weirder things have happened in this show than them ignoring those reasons to showcase reserves.

Dumb retcons seem to be all the rage, though. I've read the new Dragon Ball Z game has at least two really, REALLY silly ones.
*Piccolo didn't blow up the moon, he created an illusion of the moon blowing up.
*The animal people are humans who took drugs to turn into animal people.
 
I don't think they consciously retconned it. Belief that Barrierd is Satoshi's pokémon is clearly predates PM2019, so it wasn't actually something they made up now but something they actually believe to be the case. There is several reasons for believing it to be the case:

Satoshi showed an interest in catching it in its first episode
As per Togepi's case, it's not unusual to not seeing a pokémon's capture in OS
It's not usual for wild pokémon to live in human homes
Satoshi's mother never shown to have any monster balls
Satoshi ordered it to attack in the next episode
 
Well, I don't think +20 years ago it was the meaning Ash caught Mimey, but I guess this is being retconned (maybe even since the Black and White days?). Of course, we had a lot of pokémon being caught offscreen in the old days: Squirtle, Lapras, Weepenbell, Zubat...

It could maybe be one of the following options:

- Ash caught Mr. Mime for Delia to look after because of their bond, in a simular way Clemont caught Dedene for Bonnie.

- Ash or Delia could have caught Mr. Mime in a Pokéball for it's protection. As a wild pokémon people would try to catch it in a Pokéball, like we saw with Larvitar in Jotho or Meowth in Unova. It would suck if he went to the store for Delia only to be caught instead. If Delia caught Mimey then maybe it's a simular case like with Brock, Suzy and Vulpix.

- (not really serieus) Ash caught it in a ball before going to the Battle Frontier Glass Flute Tournament because a) Mimey was to big to travel as a pet and a pokéball was cheaper than a ticket to travel to Hoenn and back. b) He could only have one Pokémon outside of it's Pokéball on the boat and Mimey agreed to go in a ball to spare Pikachu c) Ash needed to register the Pokéballs of his pokémon to enter the Tournament (why he wouldn't just call one of it's other pokémon, I don't know).
 
I don't think they consciously retconned it. Belief that Barrierd is Satoshi's pokémon is clearly predates PM2019, so it wasn't actually something they made up now but something they actually believe to be the case. There is several reasons for believing it to be the case:

Did people believe that Mr. Mime was Ash's Pokemon before PM? I don't think I've heard it come up before this Twitter post was made. I thought that most people assumed that Delia caught it or it just hung around her without being technically caught akin to Meowth with Jessie and James.

marshiyanmisuta said:
Satoshi showed an interest in catching it in its first episode
As per Togepi's case, it's not unusual to not seeing a pokémon's capture in OS
It's not usual for wild pokémon to live in human homes
Satoshi's mother never shown to have any monster balls
Satoshi ordered it to attack in the next episode

Those reasons seem kind of weak to me. It would be strange for Ash to capture a Pokemon off-screen. At least with the Tarous, that was mainly used as a gag and he was catching a heard of them anyway. Also, I don't think we ever saw Togepi go inside a Pokeball, so Misty might not have technically caught it. Ash ordering it to attack doesn't really mean much when he wanted to use it to take the smirk off Misty's face, or something like that. Plus, he never attempted to train Mr. Mime or get it to listen to him after that scene. Granted, this was OS Ash, so he wasn't known for handling disobedient Pokemon particularly well, but if he had a Psychic type Pokemon, I'd think he'd want to use it for the Indigo League instead of just having it stay at his house. They also never really have any noticeable reactions to each other after the original series. If Mr. Mime was Ash's Pokemon all along, then they really should have made it clear at least by the time the Johto saga started. It still comes off as a strange retcon because they seemingly didn't want Ash to capture another Pokemon before getting Dragonite.
 
Did people believe that Mr. Mime was Ash's Pokemon before PM? I don't think I've heard it come up before this Twitter post was made.
Back then in the end of 2018, Pokemon Heisei History counted it as one of his pokémon, and there was very little argument from fandom back then.
 
It still comes off as a strange retcon because they seemingly didn't want Ash to capture another Pokemon before getting Dragonite.
The whole thing is definitely a little weird. I've said before I suspect Mimey was put into the cast because of Detective Pikachu, but I'm not sure we'll see Mimey battling again; I'm not convinced it's really a determined battler in the way most of Ash's other Pokémon are, even if it was willing to take on an enemy it had a double type advantage over. Plus, well Ash just caught a Dragonite. I doubt his team will be fifty percent Kanto in a series about the whole world.
 
Last edited:
Please note: The thread is from 3 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom