Are there any reasons why Ash seems to forget certain Pokémon he's seen before?

Question

Just wondering, since it partially bugs me. Like with Scolipede, he sees it once and the few episodes later he's surprised to see one. Is it because of the Pokedex Entry?

Comments

Can you give us an example?

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An example I can think of is Mewtwo in the Genesect movie. But then again Mewtwo went from a male voice to female...

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Yeah, in that movie it was if he had forgotten he was petrified by a Mewtwo.

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In the first movie Mew was there with Mewtwo, but in a movie with the Regies (Sorry not good with titles I haven't seen in years) someone re-explains the legend of Mew

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if i remember correctly mew and mewtwo erase everyone's memories of the first movie.  which explains why ash's charizard still didn't listen to him after that.

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But in the movie with Genesect, Mewtwo doesnt remember Ash.
Did he erase his own memory? i doubt that.

Answer 1

It means more people get to see the Pokemon identified. Although it seems dumb, they make Ash do this so more viewers can see the PokeDex data for that Pokemon.

For example, if Ash saw a Pokemon 50 episodes ago, and the same one reappeared later, the audience would have changed. The writers make Ash act as if he'd never seen it before so more viewers can experience it. The writers generally care more about what's going to appeal to the audience then anything.

A similar thing applies if he saw the Pokemon a season or two ago, for example if he saw a Pokemon in D/P and saw it again in Best Wishes, the audience would have changed and so would the PokeDex description.

Comments

Ok, it makes sense now +1 to you both. Thanks for the help.

Answer 2

Here's a couple possible reasons

• Short Term Memory
• Got hit on the head as a baby
• Lacks a brain

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Just joking, but in all seriousness;

This is probably because Nintendo wants it this way.
I would personally say they do this to 'refresh' your memory, as well as to cater to newer viewers who may or may not have seen that episode before. So basically they spam the Pokedex Data so new viewers know about it too.
The point of the anime is to generate income, and to generate income it's best to cater for the audience, especially the new ones. The actual logic of the anime matters little.