How do Pokémon Reproduce?
The one endearing thing about life is that it always finds a way to move forward. Over the countless Millennia, Life has managed to find a way to protect and safeguard its legacy by paving the way for their next of kin and progeny to take over when the previous generations’ time has come. Reproduction is vital to the survival of Life, a fact that has been more or less ignored in the popular anime series Pokémon. Fans were led to believe that Pokémon do not mate and thus many were puzzled as to how the Pokémon, who are so many in numbers, reproduce since the anime never gave us even a slight hint on that aspect. The actual reason how we got to know the answer will surely petrify you.
To get to the bottom of this thing, the first thing we did was dig deep into the Pokémon Lore. It was never going to be easy. The task would involve sifting through scores of information that may or may not be relevant to the topic at hand. Since there are so many different storylines in Pokémon and the Japanese overlords at that time were not concerned about continuity errors like they are today, a lot of the information gathered might end up contradicting each other. The result was that there was some concrete proof that made our belief rock solid that Pokémon do mate. But since there are so many Pokémon in the world of anime, there are bound to be different methods of mating that happens in the Pokémon Kingdom.
We will try to list out some established ways through which Pokémon have debuted in the anime and manga. Some of them are known while some may be new to a lot of Pokémon fan folks who might be hearing it for the first time. So let us get started.
The First Method: Spontaneous Evolution
The Pokedex entries are the first and foremost authority when it comes to a reliable repository of information on all the knowledge humanity has on the Pokémon. The Pokedex data state that there are ways in which Pokémon can come into the world without ever two Pokémon ever having sex. This method is called Spontaneous Generation or Spontaneous evolution and it requires an existing living organism or non-living object either mutating or being imbued with an energy that is beyond human comprehension. Take for example how the Pokedex states the emergence of the powerful psychic type Pokémon called Kadabra. The Pokedex entry form the Pokémon Fire Red states a very peculiar way of Kadabra’s birth. It states:
“It happened one morning – a boy with extrasensory powers awoke in bed transformed into Kadabra.”
This proves that humans can become Pokémon if the circumstances allow it. And it is not just a psychic type Pokémon who could be succeeding progenies of humans and other sentient living creatures. There is also the Ghost Type Pokémon. The Pokedex entries claim that certain Ghost Type Pokémon are the dead spirits of humans who have never managed to pass on to the after-life. Some other Ghost Type Pokémon are non-living objects that have been imbued with spectral and ectoplasmic energies and have gained sentience. But does that mean all such Psychic and Ghost Type Pokémon only come out like this? The answer is no.
There have been proven records within the Pokedex entries that state that even Psychic and Ghost Type Pokémon mate with their kind and reproduce. One such example is Abra. If Kadabra is an example Spontaneous Generation, then how did Abra – Kadabra’s previous evolved form, come into being? There is a contradiction right there.
The Second Method: Pokémon Breeding
Pokémon Breeders have always existed within the Pokémon world. Brock from the original Pokémon series was a Gym Leader who then joined Ash and Mystique in trying to become the world’s best Pokémon Breeder. In Pokémon Silver and Gold, the players are given an option to leave two Pokémon who are compatible with each other behind. It’s either that or leaving pretty much any Pokémon with Ditto. When the player returns from their journey and revisit their Pokémon, they see that the Old Woman is taking care of a Pokémon Egg.
The Woman never claims she has any idea how the egg got there. But the egg will hatch to give the Player another Pokémon. This might point to one of two things – either the Old Woman does not want to teach a ten-year-old the intricacies of sex or that there are ways Pokémon can reproduce that not even humans are aware of.
The Pokémon anime also gives us several meaningful insights into the art of Pokémon Breeding. If you guys remember, Ash once had a Butterfree. Ash gave up that Butterfree so that it could mate with a Pink Female Butterfree and start a family together in a huge Pokémon Breeding farm. So this implies Buttefrees can sexually reproduce like a normal mating process.
The Pokémon do need to be compatible with the process of reproduction to happen though. Unlike Humans having sex, the Pokémon can only mate with other Pokémon of certain, narrowed down egg groups. Not every Pokémon can mate with every other Pokémon. For example, you cannot expect a Dodo to mate with a Nidoking. The Sexual Process will be incompatible and thus no offsprings will be produced. Mister Mime can mate with Magmortar and the breeding process will provide results in the form of new progeny. But the same Mister Mime cannot mate with Pidgey. Because of the simple fact that Mister Mime and Pidgey are not from the same sexually compatible egg group, the process will not bear fruits.
The mating process when Pokémon breeding is happening is complex yet extremely fascinating.
The Third Method: Asexual, Genderless Reproduction
Yeah, it is exactly what it sounds like. This method involves Pokémon getting too up close and personal with their bodies. If you have a glance at all the Pokémon, you will realize that there are some Pokémon who can easily adhere to the rules of Genderless sex. The Plant Type Pokémon, for example, have all the means necessary to breed on their own. Many plants in the real world have asexual reproduction capabilities. Some Plants can fertilize their eggs or have a mechanism to give birth to their kind via their roots or stray twigs. The Plant Type Pokémon also have this ability to be able to warm up their eggs with nothing but the biological systems nature has gifted to them that makes them super self-sufficient.
And we are not just talking about Plant Type Pokémon here. Other unique examples can undergo asexual reproduction. Pokémon that are not known to possess reproductive organs for sex and are genderless like Magnemite, which has no sexual parts fall into this category! They must possess some form of furthering their kind since they are so huge in numbers.
The Only Pokémon that can mate with literally any other Pokémon is Ditto. This little pink blob can biologically transform itself into any Pokémon it starts emulating, down to all the organs. This means that Ditto is the perfect mate for any Pokémon to reproduce asexually. It is almost like Ditto was created for the very purpose of helping the Pokémon by acting as a universal breeding ground. Not every Pokémon has the ability to reproduce asexually via genderless sex. That is where Ditto comes in. Voltorb and Magnemite might require the services of Ditto to protect their legacies and their kind.
So in the end, after so many reasons we have stated for you, there are ample reasons to firmly believe that Pokémon do have sex and they might have methods even humans are unaware of. The anime never showed us this concept in all its glory probably because we were children then and would never understand the concept of sex. Well, now you know. Thank us later for destroying your childhood memories!
