Pokeballs...

[Lieutenant Unstable]

I've always wondered...

When one of the characters throws their pokeballs to release a pokemon, where does the pokeball go?

Yeah yeah, I know that it's a cartoon, but if it wasn't and everything was logical...

Does it magically come back to their hand when the pokemon come out? After whatever reason they needed to release their pokemon is over, do they realise what a mistake they made as they're crawling around on hands and knees in lava/an underwater boat/a crashed blimp/a grassy forest/etc trying to find said thrown pokeball?

Ahhh the mystery...

 

[Houndoom19]

I'm pretty sure I've seen it flying back to their hands every once in a while, but most of the time the show doesn't bother. I've always imagined it kinda like those training footballs you get that are attached to your belt via an elastic rope, so you can practice ball control without accidentally kicking it in to your neighbours garden. Makes more sense that they'd just tap the button while holding the ball and let the pokemon do the running, but hey, that's anime logic for you.

 

[jasonresno]

Yeah, I recall seeing them come back to the trainer. Forget logic :P.

For something that is really mind blowing...what is it actually like inside of a Pokeball?

 

[Semidos]

I'm pretty sure I've seen it flying back to their hands every once in a while

I've seen this too. At the begining Pokemon 3 movie, while Ash was fighting with a trainer. But personally I was always thinking that Pokeballs are falling down on the grass. And after battle trainers are taking them back.

 

[Gary the Magic Fairy]

I figured the pokemon being shot out of the ball was enough to fling the ball back in the opposite direction towards the trainer, who can then catch it or pick it up.

 

[CliveKoopa]

Also, how does the pokeball know the difference between releasing a pokemon or simply calling out a pokemon?

 

[randomspot555]

I thought it was interesting that, when Paul released his Starly early in Sinnoh, he tossed the Pokeball straight up. I think the Pokeball even let it out in a blue laser or light or whatever rather than red.

But the anime has largely avoided these topics by trainers just literally releasing their Pokemon and their Pokemon complying. There was one exception where a trainer, maybe Jessie, had to destroy a Pokeball so it wouldn't come back to her. ...but I can't remember for certain.

 

[jasonresno]

I thought it was interesting that, when Paul released his Starly early in Sinnoh, he tossed the Pokeball straight up. I think the Pokeball even let it out in a blue laser or light or whatever rather than red.

But the anime has largely avoided these topics by trainers just literally releasing their Pokemon and their Pokemon complying. There was one exception where a trainer, maybe Jessie, had to destroy a Pokeball so it wouldn't come back to her. ...but I can't remember for certain.

Yeah, for contests or even just the more animated trainers...they sometimes have the odd deliveries that for whatever reason still release the Pokemon. As it IS Pokemon I'm not going to look too deep into it... but it really is puzzling, eh?

 

[Thunderwolf1989]

lol, just as well as giving them commands before they're out of their pokéballs... pokémon can apparently listen to the commands while in the ball..

 

[myrrhman]

But it wouldn't make sense if they just fell to the ground, because in a lot of battles, they are recalled before the battle is over, whether it be because of fainting or bad type matchup or whatever. Wouldn't the trainer have to have the pokeball in order for him to recall the pokemon?

 

[Okami Chi]

Maybe it blows up.Ash uses AR and just keeps hacking in Pokeballs. ;) I never noticed though that they just go away like magic though.

-Okami

 

[DGexe]

I figured the pokemon being shot out of the ball was enough to fling the ball back in the opposite direction towards the trainer, who can then catch it or pick it up.

I actually kind of agree with this. After all, the Pokemon come out in a burst of energy, and every action has an equal reaction according to physics...

So maybe the burst of energy that sends the Pokemon out and materializes them can shoot the ball back at the trainer in the reaction part of it all. :U Of course, then the trainer might pull a "whoops!" and miss catching the ball as it comes flying back....