Animation physics

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Animation physics is a fanon term used to describe all the unusual, impossible, and sometimes absurd moments in the anime where real-world physics do not seem to apply. At times, the term can also be used to describe when an attack works differently in the anime than it would in the games. Some common examples are unusual feats of strength and agility, surviving lethal attacks, and the magic satchel theory, sometimes called hammerspace (the ability to hold innumerable items in one bag).

Inconsistencies in animation, such as objects changing in size between scenes or frames, or characters being depicted with inconsistent heights (without specific reason), may be the result of unintentional mistakes on the animators' part.

Deviations from standard laws defined in the real world are common in some genres of animation, in this case, the Pokémon anime. Characters may sustain damage that normally would result in mortal injuries or immediate death, but instead are simply left soot-covered (in the case of explosions or incineration), disheveled, or fatigued. Characters may not age, whether or not time does actually pass within the fictional universe. In the Pokémon universe, main characters often mention weeks, months, or even a year to have passed, but themselves do not age. Ash Ketchum, who at his debut was confirmed to be 10 years old, remains at the age of 10 through to the end of the 25^th season, despite the fact that episodes occasionally state weeks to have passed since the previous one.

Examples

Loose physics

Some phenomena that appear in the anime (as well as the entire Pokémon canon) are impossible in real-world physics.

• Poké Balls change in size and convert Pokémon to and from a plasma-like substance (the Pokémon retains its consciousness in this state).
• Whenever a character throws a Poké Ball they usually throw it forward, but once the Pokémon is released the ball falls back down as if thrown up.
• Moves like Water Gun are depicted as spitting water, but usually the Pokémon spits much more water than its body could hold.
• In Mass Hip-Po-Sis!, Hippopotas initially doesn't weigh down Team Rocket's balloon, but he does so after using Sand Tomb. This means the move creates the sand out of nothing.
• In the anime, many things explode. Most attacks explode when they connect with an opposing attack, even if the attacks would not normally do so (even, and some would say especially, inert, non-volatile substances such as leaves or water).
  • In Pokémon Contests, almost every move will explode and send a shower of sparkles down into the crowd.
  • Some moves explode when they clearly cannot, such as a Bite attack.
• During some of the battles in the anime, the Pokémon stay in the air longer than usual despite their weight, either when using attacks or receiving attacks (not including Pokémon that fly naturally). This is evident in Dealing With Defensive Types! when Ash's Chimchar battles against Byron's Bronzor and actually can be seen floating.
  • On a similar note, many attacks do not move at the speed they normally would (or should), sometimes even leaving enough time for characters to have a three or four sentence conversation. An example is in Jumping Rocket Ship!. Barry has his Empoleon use Hydro Pump a few seconds before Ash's Chimchar uses Flamethrower, and they clash in the exact middle of the battlefield. This could just mean that that Flamethrower accelerates much quicker, but before the attacks even collide, Jessie gets in several lines of dialogue.
• In Like It or Lup It!, Dawn's Piplup uses Bubble Beam while spinning in the air. Defying the laws of physics, Piplup manages to "float" in the air while releasing the bubbles which spin around Piplup when Bubble Beam is supposed to travel in a straight direction, not floating around slowly.
• In almost every episode, Jessie, James, and Meowth manage to get launched hundreds of feet into the air, sometimes crashing through the roof of a building or a cave wall, by various means (usually a Pokémon attack). However, others standing near them will not be moved or even affected, and Team Rocket never get too hurt from the flight, which would surely kill a normal person. They also are in a stationary position during the first part of their flight, and then start suddenly spinning, normally after making a humorous comment.
  • In Training Daze, Team Rocket is already flying when the episode starts and they don't land during the episode.
  • Similarly, in Cerulean Blues, Misty is struck by numerous Poison Sting attacks, but suffers no lasting injuries. Also, the Invincible Pokémon Brothers are blasted through the Gym's roof by a Hyper Beam, yet can still be heard to make a comment as they fly off.
• Characters throughout the anime have repeatedly been shown to take attacks such as Thunderbolt (the Japanese name meaning 100,000 Volts), and Flamethrower with no long-lasting harmful effects, though there are obvious problems with this in the real world.
  • One example of this is in The Ninja Poké-Showdown, where Brock is shown to survive taking one of Charmander's Flamethrower to the face. Less than ten seconds after the attack he is shown looking perfectly fine with the attack not even damaging his clothes. These types of scenes often are like this one in that they are intended to be humorous.
  • However, this is not always the case. For example, in Lessons in Lilycove, when May was almost attacked by her Combusken's Fire Spin, people were very worried about her.
• In All Fired Up!, when Victreebel swallowed a burning Meowth to put out the flame, the fire continued to burn, even though its oxygen had been cut off.
• Pokémon often disobey Newton's Third Law: attacks, such as Hyper Beam, that blast the target backwards do nothing of the sort to the user. This is especially notable with flying or levitating Pokémon, which cannot even brace themselves against the ground.
• In An Elite Coverup!, Team Rocket's Mime Jr. can be seen running on top of Wobbuffet while staying in place. This would be impossible because then Mime Jr. would run in Wobbuffet's inertial reference frame and increase speed in respect to Wobbuffet.
• Whenever Team Rocket has prop decoys such as a fake building to hide away from pursuers, the building always decreases in height after it falls so that the pursuers are not crushed.
• In Shell Shock!, James is knocked off a cliff by a giant boulder. He is later seen to be perfectly fine with no hint of the fall.

Magic satchels

Contents of Cilan's backpack.

• Ash and his friends seem to have an unlimited amount of space in their bags or pockets, especially Brock, Cilan, and Clemont, from sleeping bags to cookware to machinery.
  • This was played for laughs as early as The School of Hard Knocks, when Ash and Misty watch in disbelief as Brock produces a full dining set out of his bag. This comes complete with a table, chairs, and fine china in perfect condition.
  • Cilan appears to keep a table, chairs, and a miniature kitchen complete with tableware in his backpack.
  • Clemont's backpack contains thousands upon thousands of his inventions, some of which are even too big to fit inside an ordinary backpack.
• In A Tent Situation, Tracey brings out around 40-50 sketchbooks to show to Professor Oak and then puts them back in the same bag that they should not have fit into in the first place.
• Dawn's Piplup is never seen holding the Everstone he was given in Stopped in the Name of Love!, yet its effects remain. Even then, it could be that the Everstone is now linked to Piplup, though as of A Midsummer Night's Light!, it's unknown whether this is permanent or not.

Move and type effectiveness errors

Poison Tail's impact on the Shiny Metagross

• Many times when Ash's Pikachu fights a Ground-type Pokémon prior to Generation IV, he uses an Electric-type move and still causes damage.
  • Since the beginning of Pokémon the Series: Diamond and Pearl, however, Electric-type attacks have been consistently shown to have no effect on Ground-type Pokémon.
• Flying-type Pokémon are depicted as vulnerable to Ground-type attacks if they are grounded rather than having an immunity to damage like Electric-type attacks on Ground-type Pokémon. This occurs even before the introduction of Roost, Gravity and Smack Down where Ash's Charizard was hurt by Gary's Golem's Magnitude in Can't Beat the Heat!.
  • Similarly, Dig is depicted as affecting Flying-type Pokémon if they are low enough on the ground such as A.J.’s Sandshrew in The Path to the Pokémon League, Harrison's Steelix against Ash's Noctowl in Playing with Fire! and Ash's Chimchar against Fantina's Drifblim in Shield with a Twist!
• Ghost type moves are shown to affect Normal-type Pokémon when they should be immune to those moves instead.
  • While Normal-type Pokémon are also immune to Ghost-type moves in the games, there has yet to be an occurrence of a Normal-type Pokémon being immune to Ghost attacks in the anime.
• Pokémon without Sturdy survive one-hit knockout moves, like Horn Drill, without fainting.
• Some non-damaging attacks cause damage to the Pokémon being attacked, such as Brandon's Dusclops using Will-O-Wisp.
  • Furthermore, it affected Ash's Charizard which, as a Fire-type Pokémon, should not be affected by Will-O-Wisp.
• Safeguard has been able to protect against attacks instead of status problems.
• Light Screen has been able to block physical attacks, even though it usually only affects special attacks. There have been inconsistencies with Light Screen affecting physical moves or just special moves as A Judgment Brawl clearly demonstrates physical attacks correctly bypassing Light Screen. On the other hand, Hyper Beam which was a physical attack at the time, was briefly blocked by Light Screen in Bye Bye Psyduck.
  • Reflect was used to block status moves such as String Shot in For Ho-Oh the Bells Toll!.
• Counter has been shown to block special attacks, even though in the games it only affects physical attacks. This was disputed in Imitation Confrontation, which was also the debut of the move Mirror Coat in the anime. Regardless, Counter and Mirror Coat were then used interchangeably.
  • Both Counter and Mirror Coat have the users being unharmed by the enemy attack.
  • Mirror Coat is demonstrated to block status moves such as Disable in For Ho-Oh the Bells Toll!.
• Before the physical and special attack split in Generation IV, Counter, Mirror Coat, Reflect and Light Screen were inconsistently demonstrated where they worked on moves that appeared to be physical or special rather than their actual attribute at the time:
  • Jessie's Wobbuffet used Counter to deflect Vine Whip as it looks like a physical move. Contrastingly, Counter also deflected Razor Leaf in the same episode Tricks of the Trade despite the fact that both moves at the time should not be affected by Counter.
  • Light Screen briefly blocked a Hyper Beam in Bye Bye Psyduck due to the attack appearing to be a special move. However, Counter was correctly (at the time) able to deflect Hyper Beam in Playing with Fire! by Harrison's Houndoom and Mewtwo in Mewtwo Strikes Back.
  • Reflect has been correctly depicted as blocking a Shadow Ball (which was considered physical at the time) in Fear Factor Phony. Contrastingly, Reflect was used to block Psywave in Zoroark: Master of Illusions.
• Psychic-type moves have persistently been shown to affect Dark-type Pokémon, even though Dark-type Pokémon are immune to the effects of damaging Psychic-type moves. This goes against what has occurred in the earlier anime episodes as Power Play! clearly demonstrates an Alakazam's Psychic not working against Gary's Umbreon.
  • In The Blue Badge of Courage, Psyduck uses Confusion on a Poochyena that belongs to the Gym Badge thieves.
  • In Zoroark: Master of Illusions, Karl's Bronzor levitated Zorua with Psychic.
  • In Seeking Shelter from the Storm, James's Inkay was affected by a wild Espurr's Psychic.
  • In Facing the Grand Design!, the bad Malamar's Psychic and the good Malamar's Psycho Cut affected James's Inkay and the bad Malamar respectively.
  • In An Explosive Operation!, James's Inkay's Psybeam affected Mable's Weavile.
• Moves that cannot miss in the games, such as Swift and Aerial Ace have been dodged by Pokémon several times.
• Grass type Pokémon have been shown to be affected by Leech Seed when they are supposed to be immune.
  • In The Bamboozling Forest!, Leech Seed has been shown to not drain Grass-type Pokémon's strength, but it still can be used on Grass-types by restraining them.
• Steel-type Pokémon have been affected by Poison type moves when they are supposed to be immune to those moves.

Other conflicts with the games

• The weight of some Pokémon is sometimes ignored in the anime:
  • Ash is able to pick up Larvitar despite it weighing 158.7 lb (72 kg).
  • Ash carries a Hippopotas on his back, amounting to 109.1 lb (49.5 kg) of weight bearing down on his head and neck.
  • In Showdown at the Shalour Gym!, Ash easily holds up his arm with his 35.3 lb (16 kg) Fletchinder perched on it.
  • Ash holds Nebby in his hands while it is a Cosmoem, despite its weight of 2204.4 lbs (999.9 kg).
  • In Going for a Spinda, Brock not only lifts Forretress one-handed despite it weighing 277.3 lb (125.8 kg), but also pitches it high enough for it to land in the mouth of a giant Spinda mech.
  • May's Beautifly often lands on people's heads with no adverse effects despite the species weighing 62.6 lb (28.4 kg).
  • In Get Your Rotom Running!, Dawn was able to hold her Piloswine on her back despite it weighing 123 lb (55.8 kg).
  • In Sweet Baby James, Jessie picks up May's Munchlax and puts it in a bag, despite it weighing over 231 lb (105 kg). In Off the Unbeaten Path, Max was able to carry Munchlax on his back.
  • Iris's Axew is 39.7 lbs (18.0 kg) and is able to ride in her hair.
• The anime often makes Pokémon bigger than the games say they are. This is especially common for species of which there is only one, like Groudon and Kyogre.
• In older series of the anime, certain Water-type Pokémon like Goldeen, Carvanha, and Sharpedo cannot be used by Trainers in battle without being in a body of water, unlike how they seem to float over the ground in the games. This has lessened in prominence over time, with Pokémon such as Elesa's Tynamo and the Sharpedo used by Levi and Cherie in Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel floating over the land as they do in the games.
• In Second Time's the Charm!, Ash recalled his Corphish and sent it right back out in the same turn to cure its confusion, which is impossible in the games.

Related articles

• Differences between the Pokémon games and animated series
• Size discrepancies (anime)

References

This article is part of both Project Anime and Project Games, Bulbapedia projects that, together, aim to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon Anime and Games, respectively.