Saddest Pokemon anime scenes are still making fans tear up years later
The Pokemon CompanyThe Pokemon anime might have been a formulaic romp aimed at selling toys and video games, but it still had moments that made fans at home cry their eyes out.
Most Pokemon episodes (pre-Pokemon Horizons) followed a few different episode formats. Usually, Ash met a new Pokemon and battled Team Rocket, or fought a prominent trainer, like a Gym Leader. These formats would show off everything new in the mainline games that had been released at the time.
The series would still have emotional moments, including a few times when a character actually passed away. If it was a Pokemon who died, then everyone was heartbroken. If it was one of the villains who died, then we all laughed, because they probably deserved it.
There are moments from the Pokemon anime that fans still weep about to this day. This was discussed in a thread on the Pokemon Reddit, where the saddest moments were experienced once more.
“When Jessie, James & Meowth fought that poacher & his Tyranitar to let Arbok & Weezing escape with the pack of Ekans and Koffing,” one user noted, referring to the departure of Team Rocket’s original Pokemon.
“Bye bye Butterfree” was mentioned several times, as it’s the episode in which Ash and Pikachu weep as Butterfree leaves the group. They would all be reunited in the final series of the anime, with Ash recognizing his old ‘mon, thanks to the ribbon it still wore.
“Shoot this is gonna sound stupid but when Charmander was abandoned in the first season I was so sad for him. I always skip that episode now because it makes me so sad,” one user wrote, while another said, “The episode where Ash thought it would be better for Pikachu to live with the wild ones they’d met in the woods, so he tried to release his Pikachu.”
A user mentioned “Stoutland,” referring to the elderly Pokemon who passed away during the Sun & Moon series. This storyline is notable as it lasted over several episodes and explicitly talked about death, which is a rarity for the franchise.
Ash Ketchum’s tenure as the protagonist of the Pokemon anime is over, with Liko and Roy taking over for Pokemon Horizons. The new series hasn’t been on for that long, so it’s unclear if it will be able to elicit the same feelings of sadness as its predecessor.