Ash Ketchum Pokemon Encounter many rare Pokémon during your travels, from Pokémon Gods to alien Pokémon from another universe. Sure, he’s caught far fewer Pokémon, but one of the rarest Pokémon Ash has is also one of his oldest.
Although the motto of the “Pokémon” anime is “Catch them all!”, Ash has great respect for legendary Pokémon and mythical Pokémon, which are often shown to be able to talk in the animation. And very few attempts are made to capture them. The only exception is Meltan, which, though a myth, is only one of many. Many would say that Melmetan’s evolved version, Melmetta, is definitely the rarest Pokémon he’s ever captured and fought since it’s still a Mythic Pokémon, and that’s a fair point. Even the Poipole he’s owned for a relatively short time is fairly rare since it’s from another world, but Poipoles are said to be the starter Pokémon of their world in the game, suggesting they’re relatively easy to obtain in their home world. Instead, the rarest Pokémon Ash caught was a Pokémon that could be traced back to Johto: the Night Owl.
Shiny Pokémon in anime are even rarer than legendary ones
In the episode “Chicken Play!” Ash meets a very rare type of Pokémon – the Shiny Night Owl. Shiny Pokémon are Pokémon with rare mutations that make them look different from other species; this difference can be very dramatic (many sequins are bright pink) or barely noticeable (some sequins just change the eyes s color). The night owl is on the more conspicuous side, and when Ash sees it, he sees that another person is already trying to capture it. It turns out that the night owl is very smart and has always outsmarted the person trying to catch it, so he decided to let Ash try. Ash uses Pikachu, who is hypnotized by Night Owl’s hypnotism and randomly fires lightning before finally waking up. Pikachu evades hypnosis by closing his eyes and listening to the sound of Nightcat’s wings, attacks the source of the sound and defeats Nightcat, allowing Ash to capture it.
Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare, with odds of around 1:8,000 at the time, so they don’t appear often in the anime. Shinies are Johto’s new mechanics gold and silver games, so including this new feature in the animation would also make sense, and highlighting that by making Ash’s Pokémon is sure to get the kids excited. Ash’s night owl is also unique for its size, as it is quite a bit smaller than other night owls in the area. latest games, scarlet and Purple, includes the size-changing feature, and it’s also quite difficult to get very small Pokémon, so shiny tiny Pokémon like Ash’s Night Owl are actually rarer than regular shiny Pokémon. Ash still has his Nightcat and keeps it in Professor Oak’s lab along with most of his other Pokémon. The fact that it’s shiny isn’t often brought to people’s attention these days, so many new fans might not even know that Ash has always had a shiny Pokémon!
Ash’s rarest Pokémon
In addition to this shiny night owl, Ash has caught a variety of rare Pokémon over the years. Ash has encountered many rare Pokémon in the Alola region, such as the aforementioned Meltan, a mythical Pokémon considered the rarest classification a species can possess. Meltan eventually evolves into Melmetal, which makes it extremely unique; no other Meltan has ever appeared in the series. As a Pokémon native to a world other than his own, Poipole is of course very rare, and it also evolves into Naganadel, which is even rarer. However, Naganadel eventually returned to its home dimension, while Melmeta remained in Ash’s hands. Ash also had his Rockruff evolve into Lycanroc’s unique form, Dusk Form, which seems to be very rare.exist journey, Ash uses Dragonite, a fossil Pokémon that is composed of two fossils and is also unique. Ash’s Armored Ninja is capable of unique transformations, which also makes it quite rare. It’s also worth noting that only one of Ash’s traveling companions has ever captured a Shiny Pokémon, and that’s Wu, who captured a Shiny Lightning Pokémon.
In Ash’s final episodes, he encounters an injured Latias. By gaining the creature’s trust, Ash was eventually able to command it in battle, although he never officially captured it. This is the closest Ash will ever get to a legendary figure, and many fans are hoping this is his first, especially since Ash has a special connection with Latias dating back to the fifth film. As a result, in over 1,200 episodes of the series, Ash has never captured a Legendary. The same cannot be said for his traveling companion, however. Wu captures Suicune, who chooses to keep his Pokémon as long as he allows it to continue roaming the world and purifying polluted lakes. Goh also captured several other Legends, albeit temporarily, such as Eternity and Reggie Leckie, although these Legends were handed over to other parties after being captured.
With Ash’s journey now over, Ash may never have a Legendary Pokémon, but he does have rarer Pokémon, including the rarest of all – his Shiny Night Owl.