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Does Red exist in the anime?

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During the first episode of pokemon Professor Oak stated two earlier trainers got pokemon before Ash resulting in Ash getting Pikachu. Now, obviously Gark Oak is Blue seeing that Blue grandfather in the manga is professor Oak. Now,in the game and in the manga, blue takes the pokemon that has the type advantage over the pokemon that Red has. Since Gary has Squirtle, that means that Red should be the trainer that had Charmander, which would mean at some point in the anime hopefully Ash should encounter Red who has pokemon similar to Ash in Kanto, and I believe he also caught Mewtwo.
 

Kenshin5

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Ash is the counterpart of Red for the Anime. If read where to appear then it would be in some weird crossover special. And Ash does have essentially the starter weak against Gary since Charizard fought Blastoise in the Silver Conference.
 
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Ash is the counterpart of Red for the Anime. If read where to appear then it would be in some weird crossover special. And Ash does have essentially the starter weak against Gary since Charizard fought Blastoise in the Silver Conference.

But that's the thing he isn't. Ash is inspired by Red in character design the same way Ritchie is inspired by Ash. Let's look at a few differences between the season 1 Kanto Ash and Red.


Red knows that you have to weaken a Pokemon first before catching it. Ash tried to catch a pidgey with a pokeball but fails, and his pokedex then tells him that he has to weaken the Pokemon first.

1. Red is stated to have an arrogant personality similar to Gary in Kanto stating to be the best Pokemon trainer in Palet town. Ash is shown to be a little arrogant, but is very much naive and easy to discourage. Also Red is not a complete idiot while Ash seems to come across like that during Kanto.

2. Red has a poliwhirl and starting pokemon at the start of the series. Ash has no pokemon.

3. Professor Oak stated Gark Oak to be his grandson. He never said Gary Oak was his only Grandson did he ?

4. Professor Oak in the anime is stated that two other trainers took Charmander and Bulbasuar. Gary was shown to have gotten squirtle in the anime, and Ash got Pikachu. Blue starting pokemon in the manga from professor Oak is Charmander, while Red is bulbasuar. Coincidence ? I don't think so.

5. Red's pikachu stays in a pokeball. Ash pikachu does not like being in a pokeball.

6. Both Red and Blue got to the Pewter City gym before Ash and both of them defeated Brock before him. Brock left with Ash not Red.

7. Misty left with Ash on his journey. Red helped Misty, but departed ways soon after.

I can go on but their evidence to suggest Blue and Red exist in the anime.
 
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Kenshin5

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1. Ash is pretty arrogant in Kanto like when he showed off that he had Boulder & Cascade Badges to AJ then when he was in Johto he was quite arrogant against Casey by using Charizard. The anime and the manga though have different ways of doing things, Red character progresses and developed as does Ash to an extent. But unlike Red, Ash character seems to digress as he pulled the same stunt with Pidgey as he did with a Deerling.

2. And Red in the game had no Pokemon to begin with either, and they are both counterparts of each other.

4. I believe the last mention of them was when they faced Samurai, so who knows what happened to them.

I could say that Ash and Red have nearly the same attire as did Gary and Blue did so that is just as much as a coincide.
 

PhantomTwilight

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^ agree.

But a wikia data is subjective and its data can be altered by anyone.

Who dares edit a pokemon wiki to wrong information? I don't even think people would bother to even try because:

1. you need an account to edit.

2. Your edit has to be reviewed, so it cant be anything stupid like "pikachu is a legendary pokemon."

Catch my drift?
 
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^ agree.



Who dares edit a pokemon wiki to wrong information? I don't even think people would bother to even try because:

1. you need an account to edit.

2. Your edit has to be reviewed, so it cant be anything stupid like "pikachu is a legendary pokemon."

Catch my drift?

Not wrong but the views on a wikia do not make said wikia information 100% cannon since the view held by said wiki or person editing it is held by a groups subjective opinion. It is analogous to the many vs wikia on the internet which all have differing views on a character, strength, speed and durability. On many wikia also the even state that not all the information listed may be accurate.


Just as Ash and Gary are loosely based on red and blue from the game. The two other trainers from Palet seem to be Red and Blue from the manga, who are much closer to their game counterparts.
 
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The other two "Trainers" were created as a reason to force Ash to have Pikachu instead of a normal Starter. Red and Blue don't exist in the Anime as independent characters as both are Ash and Gary. Gary is Blue as Gary is Professor Oak's Grandson.

Bulbapedia only posts direct info from the anime, games, and manga.

Ash's Japanese name is Satoshi as homage to Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokemon who based the main character of his game on himself from his childhood.

Manga wise, Red's official "first" Pokemon was Poliwhirl which coincidentally is Satoshi's favorite Pokemon.
 
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But that's the thing he isn't. Ash is inspired by Red in character design the same way Ritchie is inspired by Ash. Let's look at a few differences between the season 1 Kanto Ash and Red.


-snip-
That's manga Red. None of that is necessarily true in the games, or the anime.
 
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Ash is the counterpart of Red for the Anime. If read where to appear then it would be in some weird crossover special. And Ash does have essentially the starter weak against Gary since Charizard fought Blastoise in the Silver Conference.

I agree with Kenshin, Ash is clearly a counterpart for Red.

Not to mention that like stated in Kenshin's post there, Ash has the starter weak against Gary's just like what happens in the games.

They do have similar appearances as well however Ritchie (one of Ash's rivals) can also be considered a counterpart to Red and Ash due to having a similar design.
 
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I agree with Kenshin, Ash is clearly a counterpart for Red.

Not to mention that like stated in Kenshin's post there, Ash has the starter weak against Gary's just like what happens in the games.

They do have similar appearances as well however Ritchie (one of Ash's rivals) can also be considered a counterpart to Red and Ash due to having a similar design.

Ash and Ritchie are both loose counterparts of Red. They have similar character design and pokemon, but different personalities, adventure and the personalities of their pokemon also differ.

I believe the other 2 trainers in palete are in fact Blue and Red counterpart from the manga, who are closer to the game storyline.
 
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Prof. Oak confirmed before the Indigo League that the other two Pallet Town trainers had given up trainering Pokemon because they couldn't handle themselves in battle the way Ash and Gary could. Who they were no longer matters.

Gary is obviously Blue. Gary has always shared Blue's design, even when the designs changed from Gen 3 and 4, which proves the characters are counterparts.

Gary
245px-Gary_Oak.png

Blue (Games: Gen 3)
100px-FireRed_LeafGreen_Blue.png

Blue (Pokemon Adventures manga)
200px-Blue_Adventures.png

Ash and Gary just take the place of Red and Blue in the anime. And with Ash being more of his own character than just a Red clone, he can have his own personality and be different from his other counterparts. It's a better way to handle a lead character for a show that has been on television for 15 years and still going.

We won't be seeing Red as a stand-alone character in the anime.
 

PlatinumDude

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Agreed with everyone else here. Red doesn't exist in the anime, but he does have an anime counterpart in Ash. The same applies for Blue and Gary.

And the bottom line: the games, anime and manga follow different storylines for the reasons the rest pointed out above.
 

Mentalii

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Keep in mind that the video game/manga and the animé are two different universe. The Misty you see in the VG and the manga isn't the same Misty you have in the animé. They're counterpart. There are characters that exist in the VG but don't in the animé. This is the case of Red. He doesn't exist in this universe, like Ash doesn't exist in the manga or in the game at all. Gary is highly inspired by Green for the design and being Oak's grandson, but their personnalities are pretty different. Ash's appearance is inspired by Red's, but then they've nothing to do with each other, their personnalities are opposite.
 
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The reason Red wasn't put in the anime, I believe, is because they thought kids would relate to Ash far better than Red's character. Ash was created to make money, essentially. And then the Pokémon Adventures manga was created as a sort of "nod" to how they wanted the anime to be. I can't remember where I read this, but I know I have somewhere!

Unless they make a whole separate Pokémon anime series (which I highly doubt would ever happen), then Red won't get a look in :( even though, imo, it would be way more awesome than the current anime if he were in it. Or if the anime was more like the Pokémon Adventures manga in general.
 
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If I am not mistaken he makes an appearence in the beginning of one of the movies. I think it was the one with Rayquaza and Deoxys (I might be wrong).

Adding to this, I have read the manga for the first time and I must say Red is a strategical genius!! Way better than Ash. That kid is a real master!!

tumblr_m87574TVK61r85215o1_500.jpg
 
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Kenshin5

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Firstly refrain from reviving topics several months old. Brendan had a appearance at the beginning of that movie not Red.

One thing you may want to consider is the Manga and Anime are oriented to different groups. In the manga it seems to depict more mature themes, as well as there is not really fillers it sticks to the points and is more driver whereas the Anime is all over the place.

That being said the question of the topic is Red in the Anime and the resounding answer is that he is depicted through a counterpart in Ash. So there would have it, if someone wants to make a new topic on this then fine, but we will leave this one as it is.
 
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