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Why does nobody from the main cast nickname their Pokémon?

A

Appletree

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I've always wondered this.

In Pokéspe, Electric Tale of Pikachu (Pikachu is apparently Jean-Luc there), they give their Pokémon nicknames.

(Aside from Misty's Luvdisc) Why does nobody from the main cast their Pokémon nicknames?
 
Considering how moronic most of the nicknames in Pokéspe are, I'm glad they don't.

Nicknames are an incredibly subjective thing, it's hard to come up with one that most people will like. In my opinion, a good nickname should have personal significance to the character giving it. That's quite hard to do with big teams of Pokemon.
 
I think it might also have to do with identification. If Ash named all his Pokemon, it would be harder for kids to identify the species. Pokemon don't always say their full names. Plus, to the casual observer, they might think that the entire Pikachu species are called 'Alice,' or all Oshawott are called 'Ugly.'
 
To go where no pikachu has gone before.:lol:
What Winterdaze said,though. I mean, would it be as enjoyable to you, reading about Gigabyte the metagross, or Fahrenheit the charizard and Celcius the dragonite? Such names might appeal to me, but not to you, so I might lose your interest more easily. The same goes for the cast's personal preferences for names.
 
Karamazov said:
or all Oshawott are called 'Ugly.'
Click to expand...
You mean they aren't?

Aside from the identity issue, it's not like the writers would get creative with the names. The few nicknames we've had in the show have all been awful.
 
Indigo Plateu

Richie named his pokemon and put gold stars on his pokeballs

I think his charmander was called zippy or something.

D/P Galactic Battles a Officer Jenny calls her Chatot Buddy

Not really main characters, but all I can think of.
 
Because creativity is outlawed in the anime. Besides, some nicknames wouldn't appeal to some people.
 
I really think that Karamazov hit the nail on the head. It has to do with making it easier to identify the species for the viewer and it strengthens the brand of a Pokémon.
 
Adding to what Kara said also. Pokemon in the show are for the sake of making the game look good and selling them, so you have to be able to identify the Pokemon by their species name. I mean, it's obviously okay with COTD because they hold no significance, Puka the Surfing Pikachu advertisement, and Leon Hiroshi's Pikachu the rival Pikachu. But, it would be very confusing if every time Kurumayu or Gantle who barely appears were referred to by a nickname.
 
The nicknames Ritchie gave his pokemon tended to be so appallingly cheesy and/or gimmicky that I personally was always kind of relieved that the issue never arose amongst the main cast. I positively cringed every time he commanded "Sparky", "Zippo" or "Happy". :p
 
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The writers probably wanted to keep things simple when it came to the main cast's Pokemon. Giving all of the Pokemon names would probably be confusing for many of the younger fans. I think though, that naming only one or two of the Pokemon would be a great alternative to none of the Pokemon getting names.
 
When I read some of the character information on the 'pedia, it is a bit of a hassle to understand the Pokemon that belongs to the main cast of Pokemon Special. I mean, do you know who Zuzu refers to? To the uneducated reader, you won't know that it refers to Ruby's Mudkip line. How about Exbo? Does that sound like a Pokemon you know? Guess what? This is Gold's Cyndaquil line. The anime character bios, on the other hand, are easier to understand, because their Pokemon are referred by their species name. This saves on the hassle of understanding which Pokemon it is referring to. So yes, the principle still holds: it makes understanding which Pokemon it refers to easier.

I think the anime is yet to make a episode where a Pokemon's nickname a plot point (like naming them after a completely different Pokemon)...

Thanks for reading.
 
From what I've seen, the nicknames in Pokemon Adventures are terrifyingly horrible. It's like they intentionally made them sucj as much as possible. So its for the best that the anime doesn't do that.
 
Ranger Jack Walker said:
From what I've seen, the nicknames in Pokemon Adventures are terrifyingly horrible. It's like they intentionally made them sucj as much as possible. So its for the best that the anime doesn't do that.
Click to expand...

Yes, this. It sounds like Kusaka just took some sort of nickname-generating algorithm and stuck the species names of the Pokemon in it without caring if they sounded like crap, just so he could wring a nickname out of nearly every owned Pokemon that shows up. Really now, Kusaka.

I'm personally happy with just a few CotDs with nicknamed Pokemon popping up every now and then for variety. The names tend to sound a bit more like names someone would actually use as a result, since the pressure of coming up with a nickname for every single critter is gone. It probably also helps that the Pokemon have personalities to some degree or other to set them apart from other members of their species, so a unique name isn't necessary to distinguish them.
 
I'd only want nicknames to fix the horrible dialogue sequence of,
Every second episode said:
Ash: Hi I'm Ash and this is my partner Pikachu
Pikachu: Pika!
Iris: I'm Iris and this is my friend Axew
Axew: Ax, Axew!
Cilan: And I'm Cilan, an introductions connoisseur!
Click to expand...

If they had nicknames there would at least be a slight point to introducing Pokemon by name as if they had a name, because they would have a name, but instead introducing a Pokemon only named for its species is just pointless and wastes a huge chunk of time.
 
There was an episode where Misty called Psyduck, "Psyduck-y" or something like that.

Oh god the horror.
 
Probably to avoid confusion and make it easier for younger viewers to identify pokemon. But than again small kids arent morons or something to not be able to understand to what specie certain pokemon belongs, whether its called by real name or nickname. After all good portion of them get familiar with pokemon through games,before they even get into show.

So i believe how lack of nicknames to main cast pokemon happens for practical purposes. It would be rather hard to come up with various nicknames which would be both creative and appealing to pokemon viewers, being much easier and requiring less work to call them by their simple names. Not to mention while concept sounds somewhat cute on paper, in practice when taking in account how most of nicknames we heard in pokemon were plain and unoriginal im glad we dont get this on daily basis.

Like it was case with Ritchie and pokemon being called Sparky, Zippo or Cruise. Every time i heard this names, i remembered why i never particularly liked this idea in first place.

To Gliscor'd: Not sure about Psyduck, but im pretty sure that she called wild Golduck by Golducky in "Bye, Bye Psyduck".

Although i didnt mind when she referenced to her Luvdisc as Caserin in pokemon chronicles. It was one of few which sounded good and had some practical purpose being easier to differentiate her Luvdisc from Daisys.
 
She definitely called it Psyduck-y in one episode. Of course I can't remember which episode it was from.
 
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