Pokémon, the worldwide phenomenon of the anime industry, has been around American shores since 1998 and has shown no signs of slowing down since. Fans may think they know everything about the beloved series where children catch fantastical animals and use them for bombastic battles, but what if some details we thought we knew were dead wrong?
One dark theory suggests that the show's human characters are actually refugees from Earth -- on a whole new planet. Just how plausible could this be? Let's take a look.
One of the biggest questions asked about the world of Pokémon is: why are there so many children? Where are the adults? Why do Pokémon trainers start their journey at the young age of ten? Oddly, a world filled with hostile creatures that can kill a human's fragile body are wrangled and trained by kids. There are adults in the series, but for the most part, they are rarely the main focus and tend to pop up sporadically. The fan theory goes so far as to say that the humans in the Pokémon world are, in actuality, escapees from an uninhabitable Earth who ended up as refugees on a new planet.
As farfetched (not the Pokémon) as that sounds, it would make a lot of sense. Unlike Earth, where most animals have been discovered and documented, Pokémon's world is a different story. If humans were to be with Pokémon for millennia, there would not be an ever-expanding list of them added to the Pokédex as often as the series shows. For example, in the Kanto Region arc, only a measly 151 species of Pokémon were discovered. The idea that humans are on a new planet makes sense, because there would be many discoveries with so many different scientists and researchers in the series. Being a relatively new scientific study as far as humanity is concerned, Pokémon research hasn't had much time to grow.
But the question from earlier remains -- why children instead of adults? Another theory ties it all together, and that is of the Pokémon War. In both the series and the games, the gym leader Lt. Surge mentions the war but little information about what happened. The theory suggests that many adults — more than likely the men — died in battle against wild Pokémon. This would explain why young humans such as ten-year-old Ash are sent to catch and train Pokémon, as well as why Ash's father is not in the picture, but his mother is.
Yes, the suggestion is that Ash's father died in the war, and although this is never alluded to in the Pokémon anime, it would make sense. With so many adults gone and many children left behind, it is a harsh reality that kids in this brave new world would be the ones to ensure humanity's survival. The adults pop up from time to time to give advice, then the children are off again into the wild blue yonder. After all, somebody has to tame these monsters of an alien world.
