>>716397884I guess the anime wanted to establish that itโs not just proving your worth as a battler, but also as someone who genuinely cares about Pokรฉmon. But really early seasons of Pokรฉmon just did its own thing without a care of consistency. Good times.
Still baffled they never adapted the Special manga, it had literally everything for a good animated seasonal series. And the best they could do was an 4 episode adaptation of Fire Red to promote X/Y (mega evolution) with Red voiced by Naruto.
The shorts they had on YouTube were cool, but it was only based on the games.