Who do you consider to be underrated pokèmon in the main cast?

[SonansuMan]

Plenty of Pokėmon in the anime have had so much limelight and screentime, but this thread is made to tribute any of the Pokėmon that never really got enough attention by the main cast.

For my pick, I nominate Ash's Kingler as the most underrated Pokèmon in the main cast. The only noteworthy thing it ever did within the majority of the OG series was fight in the league and nothing else.

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

Satoshi's Ratta and Spear never got the focus they deserve...

 

[Unbeatable HoennMon]

I'd say Ash' Chikorita/Bayleef. The bond they have was totally unconvential and strong. What is more, Bayleef (future Meganium) is (and will be) much stranger than f.e. Pikachu I don't understand why it had to leave in Oak's laboratory. In The beginning of AG there is a scene when Ash is fighting with TRio and saying something like...,,Bayleef i choose...Oh, i forget i left Bayleef". It would be something special to see Bayleef traveling with Ash...at least in Hoenn.

 

[Harryghost]

Lemme see...

OS

1. Ash's Tauros
   
2. Misty's Starmie
3. Misty's Horsea
4. Misty's Politoed (the poor thing did not do anything important at all after its evolution)
5. Literally, all of Tracey's Pokémon

AG

1. May's Skitty

DP

1. Dawn's Quilava
   
2. Dawn's Togekiss
3. Brock's Chansey (kinda want to say the same thing I said for Misty's Politoed)

BW

1. Ash's Unfezant
2. Ash's Palpitoad
3. Iris's Excadrill
4. Iris's Gible!
5. Cilan's Crustle
6. Cilan's Stunfisk

XY

1. Serena's Braixen
2. Serena's Pancham
   
3. Clemont's Chespin
4. Clemont's Luxray

SM (till now, that is...)

1. MALLOW AND HER STEENEE!!

 

[Playerking]

Ash's Primeape. It appeared in one episode, then appeared in a flashback in the next and a couple of episodes later it appeared again, in an episode where it left for training.

 

[Sakuraa]

Palpitoad and Unfezant no question.

Palpitoad was only ever on Ash's team if he was using him in a battle. We never got to see the poor thing just chilling out with the other Pokemon, eating lunch or anything. It was like his sole purpose was to be a high powered battling machine with no personality.

Unfezant was so underutilized it's not even funny. She was the first Pokemon Ash caught in Unova, but was boxed as soon as Ash caught Sewaddle, barely ever switched into his party (and when she was she was just a balloon popper), never entered a gym battle until freaking Skyla, and then was re-boxed once Ash brought along Charizard (which in itself was unnecessary). I will forever be upset that after two great birds in Swellow and Staraptor, the staff went right back to the ignored bird role for Unfezant, and doing it much worse than they ever had before.

 

[noworry]

Squirtle and Bulbasaur. I love them , and yet we haven't seen them in forever. Charizard got some screentime in Black and White, why not those two as well?

 

[Team Gaara]

Half of Ash's party during BW. Seriously, I forgot some of them existed. Namely Boldore and Palpitoad, but Unfezant was also highly ignored. I don't even think of Krookodile honestly when I think of his BW team. It was literally the Pikachu and Unova Starters variety hour~

Squirtle and Bulbasaur. I love them , and yet we haven't seen them in forever. Charizard got some screentime in Black and White, why not those two as well?

Charizard being somewhat overrated does not make those two become underrated, in my opinion. They had far more focus during their time than a LOT of Ash's Pokemon have over the course of he series.

 

[QueenAria]

I think the Cyndaquils need some more focus.Both Ash and Dawns.

 

[Neo Blaze]

Most of Ash's Unova Pokémon, sadly. I was glad that they decided to try something new for once by trying to rotate his Pokémon in BW, but it didn't turn out so well. Most of Ash's Unova Pokémon got shafted because of the rotation and we didn't really get to know them very well.

I think Ash's Kingler has received too little screentime and I was so sad when it was supposed to be used by Ash in the Johto League but then got shafted for Squirtle

I have always liked Tauros and I loved how Ash seemed to bond with the Tauros he called upon (assuming it was the same Tauros each time) a few times.

Heracross is also a Pokémon I have always loved and it is a shame it got Oaked so early in Johto.

I would not consider Ash's Cyndaquil underrated as it got plenty of screentime, but we haven't seen much of it since it has evolved. I wish we saw more of Quilava.

Pidgeot and Primeape are ones too. Pidgeotto was always kind of a bland bird, but I was still sad that it was released and we will pretty much never see it again. My wishful thinking demands Ash gets Pidgeot back and we see how much it has grown in personality protecting these Pidgey and Pidgeotto, but this will never happen.

I am still baffled how fast Primeape got dumped. What was the point? Its capture episode made for an entertaining episode, but then Ash dumped it with some guy he barely knew and I just wish we had seen more of it and saw Ash bond with it.

It's a shame how little we've seen of Misty's Starmie and Horsea. It makes sense though, Starmie was pretty much a Staryu clone and Horsea wasn't of much use on land. When the writers realized this, they dumped them at Cerulean.

Tracey's Pokémon got way too little time to shine but this obviously has to do with Tracey's little time on the show.

Brock's Chansey and Dawn's Quilava have a similar situation going for them as Ash's Quilava. We've seen too little of them in their evolved forms.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

Not seen BW so I cannot judge that. These choices may be biased as these are some of my favourite Pokemon.

Ash's Cyndaquil>Quilava
It was full of unexplored potential! It's evolution was discussed in Silver Conferencd, but it ended up being nothing more than an off hand reference. It would've been nice to see it's development post evolution in Johto, since its evolution wasn't given much focus in Sinnoh. I would've liked to see it evolve all the way or something,

Each of the Johto starters should've reached atleast their mid-stage imo. Croconaw still has comedic potential, it isn't particularly difficult to make totodile evovle, and conserve its personality.

Ash's Turtwig>Grotle>Torterra
This is first of Ash's fully evolved Starters that hasn't displayed its full potential at ALL. I liked the development when it was in Grotle stage, but it appears as if its evolution was purely aesthetic. We don't see any increase in power, or any new strategies.
Torterra lost a LOT. It's not as if Torterra needs to win every battle, but make its contribution in battles heard. Let Ash play about with switching Torterra out or something.

Torterra could easily be highlighted as a passive Pokemon which has a contribution in winning, by crippling the opponents indirectly.
Giving an extremely quick reading of Torterra's moveset, the least they could've done is to give it sandstorm OR leech seed and make its defensive poweress heard. Torterra was a pile of unused potential imo.

I fully agree with those who explained:
Pidgeot
Kingler
Primeape (10x this)
Heracross

I'm exhausted so I cannot write much more about them.

 

[technickal]

Kingler
Primeape
Quilava
Torkoal
Torterra
Palpitoad
Noivern

All of Tracey's and Cilan's Pokémon.
Misty's Azurill had a lot of potential but sadly never went beyond a Togepi clone.

On the TRio side, I'd have to say Jessie's Lickitung, who was immediately overshadowed by Arbok before being traded for Wobbuffet.