In the show ash uses it to tell him about Pokémon
Isn’t the whole point in the game that Oak just invented it and needs you to fill it up?
As an excuse to get you out of the house so he can spend time with your mom.
Like, he has a charmander, squirtle, and bulbasaur sitting right fucking there on the table. If it was actually about filling it up, it should have at bare minimum 3 entries in it
Too bad for Oak, she’s already taken by Mr. Mime. Unless…
I mean you said it he’s more about filling her up.
Which makes absolutely zero sense, and goes against the anime. Most of the Pokemon in the in-game world have already been caught by one of the various trainers, gym leaders, or elite four members you fight along the way. And in the anime, the Pokedex is used to identify some wild Pokemon before Ash or his friends capture it, not after.
More like the anime goes against the game, which was first.
The anime and manga are a little more accurate, in that some pokemon had no data, but all the common ones were easily looked up.
Basically Wikipedia
Crowd-sourcing the collection of data in a controlled, natural fashion through a non-scientist user is likely a lot more valuable and realistic than observing or collecting data about non-wild Pokemon in a laboratory, by themselves in the wild, or through other known resources.
If you didn’t organically and intimately interact with a Pokemon without bias/filtering the situation through the lens of science, how can you truly claim any understanding?
From the user’s pespective, the lack of available data by default ensures that the user collects the best data, even if it does briefly explain the Pokemon upon observation - likely to serve as a warning of potential danger or to provide a brief explanation to avoid user bias to appearances.
Aren’t most pokemon already caught?
And studied too, but the dataset and scientific understanding of most Pokemon is still mostly incomplete. There is a lot of data that can still be garnered from handing out the Pokedex and encouraging users to catch and interact with Pokemon.
It’s assumed that the Pokedex gathers some level of information autonomously on the interactions between trainers and the Pokemon they encounter and catch. The 6 Pokemon limit and sending excess Pokemon to the lab is likely another way to enable further research, with a steady supply of new subjects caught and interacted with in a specific, organic, and non-biased manner.
Instead of being taught about specific Pokemon prior to going out on their journey, trainers are taught about how to battle and catch Pokemon - the full breadth of literature could be sought out by them, but they are encouraged and incentivized to just go out into the world and explore.
I think the six pokemon limit was just because the most popular belt style could hold 6 pokeballs on it.
-total fan theory
It’s a regulation thing for Trainers and the League, normal people don’t have to worry about it.
Just as stylistic choices for the anime could be considered, it’d also be fair to point out that a lot of the universe was designed in line with the RPG elements of the games - and 6 was the maximum amount that made sense on the small Game Boy screens.
I’m definitely going further to rationalize everything in-universe here than I ever have in my head and everything just came out naturally with no prior thought or exposure to other fan theory.
Really everything I posted is wild speculation, but it’s a fun exercise to try to make sense of how the world in Pokemon works according to the anime and games. Not many fantasy universes are arguably akin to a utopia like Pokemon, but still have darker elements at play - with real world parallels if you look closely enough.
Professor Jimmy Wales.






