Evolution/Anime



In the anime, Evolution happens in much the same way as it does in the games; though level-based evolutions and trade-based evolutions do not occur using those methods, there are similarities in the way they come about. For example, 's evolved into  because it found 's King's Rock and was holding it when Misty sent it out, while in the games it is required that Poliwhirl be traded while holding the King's Rock for the evolution to take place (it should be noted that Poliwhirl had been through a machine in connection with it being healed at the Pokémon Center, while holding the item). When a attacked Ash's, it caused a crack to appear on its shell, which  came out of (although later examples of Metapod evolving into Butterfree were treated as the more familiar form of evolution used in the anime).

Additionally, a difference can be seen in the fact that Pokémon evolve during a battle, as opposed to after it. Pokémon may also evolve when they are needed to, for an extra boost of power or gaining new abilities, instead of after a set amount of training, such as when Ash's evolved into  to battle an Aerodactyl just three episodes after it evolved from Charmander, where the game requires Charmeleon to grow twenty levels to reach that stage. In addition, Pokémon can sometimes choose not to evolve, even if they evolve by a 'natural' method such as leveling up. This was shown when Ash's Bulbasaur refused to evolve during an evolution festival for all Bulbasaur to evolve in Bulbasaur's Mysterious Garden. It appears that Evolution has emotional implications for Pokémon - some Pokémon, such as Team Rocket's, dislike their evolved forms, while others such as Ash's Pikachu simply want to prove they can be powerful without evolving. Conversely, when Pokémon do evolve, this can often be linked with an experience that causes them to mature emotionally or deal with an emotional issue, such as when the in A Bite to Remember evolved, or the  in The Problem With Paras. Poochyena, for some reason, had an aversion to using the move, while Paras was extremely timid and weak in battle. Both of them evolved shortly after overcoming these issues.

When a Pokémon begins to evolve, it will be enveloped by a brightly-colored light while slowly changing form; in the, , and , the light is simply white in color while in the and , the light is blue in color. In the, different evolution effects were introduced depending on which Pokémon is evolving; for instance, when 's evolved into , it shined pink and the physical changes that came with the evolution could be seen happening. Although some Pokémon returned to the old-style evolution effect (for instance, into  and  into ), others have been seen with completely new effects (notably  and ).

For a list of all evolutions that Pokémon belonging to the main cast have undergone, see List of anime Pokémon by evolution.