Biggest ‘Pokémon’ Mystery Remains Unanswered

pokemon ash brock misty
Nick Davis

The Pokemon franchise has one of the longest-running anime of all time. At this point, the show is twice as old as most of its core audience with 25 seasons and over 1,200 episodes. Through all of that, there is one thing that remains a mystery. A question that Pokemon fans have had since the very first season of the show. To this day, the mystery remains with no concrete answer. That’s 25 years without an explanation. Let’s talk about this mystery, and whether or not we may ever understand the mystery of Brock’s Cerulean City disappearance.

A Massive Pokemon Mystery

In Episode 7 of the Pokemon anime’s first season, Ash, Misty, and Brock head to Cerulean City. Ash has the intention of fighting the Cerulean City gym and getting his second badge. Along the way, both of his human friends disappear. For Misty, it makes sense, considering she’s the Cerulean City gym leader. She didn’t want to reveal the big news to Ash until it was time, and she had to prepare for the battle (one that didn’t wind up taking place). For Brock, however, his disappearance remains unclear.

Ash and Misty's cerulean battle

Before Ash heads to the gym, Brock talks to him briefly about the upcoming battle. Brock states he doesn’t know the gym leader but does know the leader’s signature move. He’s overall fairly unhelpful to Ash, as he won’t actually share with him what the move is. Brock is the leader of the Pewter City gym and feels an obligation to not give any trainers challenging other gym leaders an edge. Then Brock heads off to do “stuff” after this meager interaction. Yet that “stuff” remains a veil of shadows to this day.

Any Answers And The World’s Biggest Franchise

The ensuing conflict between Ash, Misty, and Team Rocket at the Cerulean City gym plays out with Brock entirely absent. He rejoins the gang afterward and the show never circles back to the reason for his disappearance. It’s possible that the show writers forgot to ever return to this point, or that they never had any intention of stating why. Still, it’s a strange detail. One that seems pointless, yet significant at the same time. Why couldn’t Brock just be present at the Cerulean Gym?

Pokemon/YouTube

He and Misty aren’t in the anime much nowadays, although they have both made fairly recent appearances. It’s unlikely the show will ever call back to something most of its fans probably don’t even remember. So the reason may just be speculation for all time. Pokemon: Ultimate Journeys is still ongoing and can be found on Netflix. As of right now, rights limbo is keeping most of the remaining seasons and films off of any streaming service.

The newest video games in the Pokemon franchise, Pokemon: Scarlet & Violet, are releasing on November 18th.

One Comment

  1. I always assumed he was going to the Pokémon Daycare near Cerulean Coty in the games to learn about breeding.

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