h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah - the episode is up on YouTube (called "Gotta Catch Ya Later!"). They left the bike at Viridian City and when they finally made their way back, she presented Misty with her bike again.

It has been a while, but I probably remember from not watching too much of the newer generations! Diamond and Pearl have only started airing in recent months here.

As for Nurse Joys? I suppose that they can leave the centre in charge of the Chanseys, or another Nurse Joy (I think there has to be more than one Nurse Joy for each town - how could one stay at the job 24/7? Mind you, there was that one cranky Nurse Joy in the Indigo League, I believe, but I think there's got to be multiple Joys for each centre). The Pokémon Centre is their full-time job, and then they go off to do any extracurricular activities they may have.

They dragged a charred mess of metal to Viridian City?

Multiple Joys per town? Scary thought. That'd mean at least four per Center, three shifts per day plus one to swap out for weekends in rotation. Say ten Centers per region, five regions so far, 200 Joys! Then again, I think we have seen crowds of Jennys at least that size at League Tournaments, so maybe it's not so crazy. I'd hate to be one of those non-Brocks that can't tell them apart.

Not entirely.. If you remember, Ash borrowed the bike, it got electrocuted in the whole Spearow showdown. Episode two has him getting to the Pokémon Centre, courtesy of Officer Jenny driving him there ("We HAVE a driveway, you know!"), then Misty effortlessly hulks her bike on one shoulder to the centre from where Ash left it.

And it's a scary thought, but it seems ultimately feasible. After all, no one person could work 24/7. It'd be insane.

I wonder what Mr. Joy looks like. We never see any Joys with a guy at all!

I just found this on a forum. ArticUNO, ZapDOS, MolTRES. One, two, three. Cool, huh?

That is pretty cool, although something that I'd figured out before.

It's also fun to note that there's ARTICuno (ice), ZAPdos (lightning/electric) and MOLTres (as in molten - fire). They used to be pretty damn creative coming up with names!

Yeah, those I already knew about. Some of these Pokemon naming conventions are still odd, though. One that really sticks out is Mr. Mime.

Especially since Sabrina's Mr. Mime is FEMALE!

Yeah, but would you want a separate "Mrs. Mime" species of Pokemon?

Not in the slightest!

I forget the Japanese name, but it never referred to the Pokémon with any specific gender in mind.

Another thing: what's up with Nidoran Male and Nidoran Female? I suppose I've obsessed about this one for years because the Pokerap just says "Nidoran" twice, with only the pictures in the music video to help us. Oh, and that episode where the two Nidoran trainers needed our heroes to tell them that they were supposed to be a couple.

Because they both have different evolution lines (this was of course before EVERY Pokémon had a gender), they had two Pokémon. It's been made somewhat redundant with other Pokémon having different evolutionary lines, mind you (for example, Gardevoir and Gallade), but it was just in a simpler time, before there were such complexities as gender!

Yeah, but Eevee had three evolutionary tracks even in the first generation, so what's so odd?

This'll sound petty, but these "preevolutions" still irk me from time to time. If Pichu were unknown, where did they think Pikachu came from? Ditto with Igglybuff, Tyrogue, and all the rest.

Just the fact that Eevee, you could choose what exactly it evolved into, if anything. With the Nidoran, it was a case that whatever one you picked up, it already had a pre-set evolution trail based on it's gender.

I understand what you mean with the pre-evolutions.. The thing is, is a lot of these Pokémon were planned from the beginning as it was (for example, having Ho-oh in the first episode of the animated series).. So quite why they waited so long to introduce them, I don't know.

At least with the new evolutions, they can put together some sort of viable story.

Come to think of it, what is the "in-universe" explanation for evolution stones? How rare and/or valuable are these things? Sometimes you just see them on the ground, occuring naturally, and other times they're awarded as though they were precious jewels or something. You gotta admit that it's unusual.

I think that they're pretty rare and valuable things. If you look at in the games, they get a pretty penny when they're sold, and cost quite a bit to be bought. I'd say that they're formed by nature somehow which is why they're rare - if they were able to be manufactured, then it would be so much easier and cheaper to get ahold of them.

It seems in the anime that they're not even sold at all - thus making them that much more special. Mind you, it could just be that the group has never had an interest in them (the only times they've been confronted are the times Pikachu declined the Thunderstone), so we've not seen them being sold.

Well, I'm just saying that the other day I was watching Pikachu's Rescue Adventure again (one of the minimovies) and there was a Leaf Stone just lying on the ground, randomly. Given that we're in a Lost World-type hidden valley that humans (presumably) don't know about, I just wonder how it got there. Perhaps it takes very special (natural) conditions to create an Evolution Stone. Since we have seen evolved Pokemon of all types occurring in the "wild," (an overabundance of Sunflora come to mind), perhaps the Pokemon know of places where Stones can be found, even if humans don't, and are lucky to find a few rare ones here and there.

That is entirely possible.. I think it's got to be some sort of natural phenomenon that makes an evolution stone - like the Moon Stone actually came from space if you remember.. But the others have to be made on Earth somehow.

I do agree that the Pokémon probably have a better sense of finding them than humans, since they'd be more in touch with nature.

What would make me curious though, is how things like Ever Stones (from the games - the ones that stop Pokémon evolving) would come about.. They never were addressed in the anime, from my recollection. Although it makes me wonder whether we should class the anime and the game as two separate universes.

Well, I get confused about that part. If a Pokemon can consciously decide NOT to Evolve, that would imply some sort of component that can't be accounted for through the Pokeworld's admittedly high biological technology.

Conversely, we've seen that Pokemon have the capacity to be (but not all are) sentient. This would lead one to think that any technology used for Pokemon could be used for humans as well. Putting injured people into stasis comes to mind.

Perhaps they just never thought to test it on humans.

In all fairness, the technology of the Pokémon Centres, for example, is far different in the two universes.. I'd dread having to wait for my Pokémon to heal in "real time" in a game!

It is all very confusing, which is why the separation of universes makes it a lot easier to explain. Mind you, having not seen all the episodes, I don't know if such things as Everstones were addressed in the anime.

Yeah, I'm sure they're different. In the game it's "plunk, plunk, (however many Pokeballs), ding, ding, dingdingding!" and your Pokemon are healed! Amazing technology. If the Pokemon really do stay in their Pokeballs during this process (and we have seen Nurse Joys in the anime handing Ash a tray with six Pokeballs in it), then all I can conclude is that the machine doesn't so much "heal" a Pokemon as change the matter stream to remove injuries, status ailments, etc. but not the level or memories of said Pokemon.