Ranking Every Trainer from the Original Pokémon Anime

[@SkibidiGonzalesSeries]

What do you mean the best trainer isn't the metapod samurai?

[@TheWanderingTaco]

metapod samurai, my beloved, noooooooo

[@kylehearnden4562]

Guy is just a Kakuna Stan.

[@calebjohnson9740]

Dude is an absolute beast in Yellow Legacy

[@vicwood2731]

He’s the best in our heart.

[@arrowblade_1238]

He’s beat Cynthia any day… he’d PP stall

[@marceloasensiofilho3833]

Using gen 1 mechanics is a very interesting idea. If you continue doing this please use gen 2 for Johto and onwards, it would be a lot of fun Please do continue this series btw

[@DreamChaser2464]

Agreed! Very keen to see more of these series!

[@K-Rock_0]

I would love to see a continuation of this series!!!

[@SupermewX300]

With an ending like that you probably should have held this video back til december.

[@DigiRangerScott]

It is currently the last week of Fegtengo

[@SanderEvers]

Santa defeating Giovanni + Mewtwo, now that is a battle I would love to see.

[@ryuuronin9852]

Fun fact: based on the silhouette from the first episode battling on TV: anime Bruno does also have a Nidorino and a second Onix. It's not much, but it's something.

[@SpunkMcKullins]

Santa placing so high by nothing more than simply having a bunch of mediocre psychic types of honestly so gen 1.

[@AhmedHussain-ju6xd]

It's just so fitting seeing Giovanni being the top trainer. Even better was seeing SANTA CLAUSE HAVING THE HIGHEST CHANCE TO BEAT HIM 😂

[@TheKodaHack]

Thanks for the spoiler.

[@AhmedHussain-ju6xd]

Screw becoming a data scientist, I wanna learn programming just to do stuff like this

[@brandondiaz-lopez3945]

As a data Scientist, this stuff is way cooler. But in a way, i could argue this is Just a data analyst that loves pokemon 😭. DS would get into predicting 😂

[@RomanTorchic]

Putting in my vote early! It’s gonna be that girl from the Indigo League with the bellsprout. Edit: after watching the video I’m disappointed there were so many missed characters never covered.

[@TheCrispyChip]

Anthony also has Ashs Primeape though, so i would count that.

[@hotwax9376]

20:45 You've heard of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, now there's Santa Claus Conquers Giovanni. :P

[@awqweird]

Why did James not have his victreebel? Did he really not have it until later?

[@MazterP28]

It think it was in orange island

[@JPJ1608]

From what I remember, Victreebel wasn't actually shown battling until the Orange Islands.

[@tyrant-den884]

​@@MazterP28episode 57, Breeding Center Secret; right after the "Jigglypuff seen from above" and before Ash goes to Cinnabar Island.

[@Magma-Idiot-2001]

If I am correct, James caught Victreebel when Ash caught his Tauros: the banned Safari Zone Episode

[@JPJ1608]

@Magma-Idiot-2001 We never learnt how James caught it. He just had it in the Breeding Center episode.

[@Adrian-ze9ud]

PLEASE, do this with every major character in the whole anime, it would be amazing. I would really like to see Ash with Solgaleo, or Leon with Eternatus.

[@danielfleming5585]

In episode 40ish there was a guy who caught tons of Exeggutor and technically owned them for brief bit. Though they may only have used hypnosis, I'm not sure.

[@ironmuro]

18:06 I probably would have replaced Primeape with Muk here, just because Ash never had Kingler and Primeape at the same time. Yeah it overlaps poison with Bulbasaur, but think it makes more sense.

[@F14thunderhawk]

tbf though Ash's best team is 6x tauros in the anime when ignoring Species clause, and if youre not, Pikachu, Charizard, Lapras, Mr Mime, Snorlax, Tauros. Also weirdly his gen1 teams actually has Mr.Mime as his ace since Mimey knows Psychic, Focus Punch, Lightscreen, and Reflect. So he straight up just has a Gen 8 pokemon just hanging out in the back never doing anything able to basically completely ruin the rest of the indigo league.

[@RaynmanPlays]

7:35 You're missing Kaiser's other Pokemon: G U N

[@charizardoreo]

Gun and its one hit ko move, shot

[@PrincipalSkinner3190]

Thank goodness this is for Gen 1, how people watch the anime beyond Gen 2 is beyond me.

[@cristobalpinochet]

Wait where is James Victrebell and Jessie Lickitung?

[@DigiRangerScott]

Good question. Victor proves he used the entire Indigo League and not just the portion that Kids WB broadcast as “season 1”

[@mlmf2012]

14:42 gary has a 6th pokemon. In the diglett episode he was going to send out a ditto who refused to come out of the pokeball. Gary shouted ditto, so even if the ditto was a no show we know what the pokemon was gonna be

[@JaredittonGaming]

*Ash barely being defeated hy Giovanni* Ash: The world won't fall to you! Giovanni: The world is mine to control who's gonna stop me? Santa Clause? Santa: Ho ho ho, you fucking guessed it!!

[@TheCrispyChip]

Unused tauros? he used him in multiple League battles as well as a race.

[@Magma-Idiot-2001]

That was after the Indigo League.

[@CedricHarms-tb5hf]

Lovely message in the end combined with Christmas being around the corner with Santa Smith having Emerald Legacy in his bag for us ❤

[@fakedeath13]

"Nothing is more powerful than the spirit of Christmas" Except for Giovanni 80% of the time...

[@clothieredward]

I find it hilarious how the Pokemon teams in the Gen 1 anime were so bad that anything that did more than the bare minimum made the top 10. It's actually insane. Like literally the only trainer who had a full team of fully evolved Pokemon was the trainer in the #1 spot. It's that ridiculous.

[@luangabriel5577]

James has a Victreebel

[@gatorboymike]

When the gen 2 games hit, I always thought it was ironic that it was Koga who was promoted to the Elite Four, while in the anime, Koga was the only gym leader Ash defeated legitimately on his first try. Now sure, the anime has no bearing on the games necessarily, but HEY LOOK BEHIND YOU A SHINY EEVEE

[@F14thunderhawk]

didnt ash burn down the ninja enclave? like its not until Johto that Ash actually wins gymbattles

[@LathanFitzpatrick-vx5zp]

WHERE!?

[@flysart]

Yes sir, nothing is more powerful than the spirit of Christmas

[@shinyknighttt]

Ash beating Giovanni 3 times is literally us resetting the game until we luck out a victory.

[@Lucas-zk4dc]

If you keep doing these it would have been really interesting to see mewtwos team of clones in the movies

[@emkalina]

7:18 flareon has great stats in gen 1

[@anothergenericyoutubename]

speed still sucks, but the lack of special split did let it still have decent stab moves at least. shame it's best physical move was i think Double-edge? not sure, but it was something less than ideal.

[@RATMOM]

I kinda wish there was a visual component when describing the battles, footage from a gen 1 match that mockup the fights. iunno, if you revisit this idea- something to consider

[@jvever4904]

I completely forgot Santa Claus was a character in the anime, what a twist!

[@anjansharma8631]

Dropping in here to request you to make latios and latias trackable in emerald legacy (Ohmigosh catching them in the originals is a nightmare) Or if you're planning to make them a static encounter then EVEN BETTER

[@DreamChaser2464]

This is awesome content Smith! Feels a lot more legit with the Gen 1 trainer ranking program you wrote! Soooo down to see videos like this all the way up to Gen 5!

[@CartoonKarma]

That end conclusion and parting line from Smith would have been even funnier if this video had come out a month later than it did. Also, yeah, Victreebel and Licking are totally missing from James and Jessie's teams. They may have been barely used before the Orange Islands, but both were very much owned. Neither used any moves in the Indigo League, so I wonder if Smith excluded them under that principle, as unlike the Hippie's Snorlax, they do use moves post-Indigo League, which can't be inputted here but also invalidates defaulting to their Lv. 1 learnsets. Food for thought, not that I agree with such reasoning.

[@hhjan594]

That's really not an excuse, could have included Lick for Lickitung as it's clearly shown licking a bunch of stuff in the anime. Wait, what do you mean Lickitung doesn't learn Lick in Gen1?????

[@Flaming_Rok]

@@hhjan594 That clearly didn't matter since they gave Raticate Jump Kick in this video, which it also doesn't learn.

[@michaelasmitty]

I can’t wait for you to do this the whole series, one generation at a time.

[@LukeA471]

Chansey definitely knew more than double slap

[@verybigman2270]

One of these with characters from the spin-off games could be cool

[@gloros8948]

Thats a pretty nice video! Maybe it would be interesting if every champ and every gym leader in all of the pokemon games would compete, but on the same level.

[@F14thunderhawk]

thats super unfair because you would have to put in their most recent Worlds lists for the Coronation Champions from Pokemon World Tournament in B2W2. Calyrx Shadowrider and Urshifu Rapidstrike crush anyone and everyone, and thats if youre merciful and not throwing in Fluttermane, Iron Hands, and Koraidon/Miraidon to completely dumpster lesser teams. Like, Turo and Sada barely beat Mustard, imagine DIce Koraidon, Band Urshifu-R, Specs Fluttermane, Goggles Incineroar, Leftovers Amoongus, Vest Rillaboom. or just throw a SV RegH team at the field and see the AI die to one of the most positioning intensive metas the game has ever seen

[@SinisterPixel]

It would have been cool to include trainers from the movies, since I think the Mewtwo Strikes Back trainers would have performed REALLY well. Especially since most of them have fully evolved teams of 6

[@WhiteRaven696]

I would love to see how Ash’s first full team fully evolved (Raichu, Butterfree, Pidgeot, Venusaur, Charizard, Blastoise) could be made insanely good.

[@redwelch7547]

I think you should have added the movie trainers, mewtwos clown army, and Jessy and James combined team. Very good video by the way. ^w^

[@sdgdhpmbp]

Besides the few who didn't make the list for some reason (where's Parasect?) I agree with all points. Including movies that aired within the timeframe of indigo league makes sense, and having Mewtwo be a trainer is anime AF all things considered. Combining Jessie and James should've happened on principal especially when Yellow has you battling them anyway.

[@TheMayorMunchkin]

More like this! This video was so fun!

[@JcFerggy]

I enjoyed this episode, but I wish more extrapolation was done like how you treated those Snorlax for the rest of the cast. Only having one move sucks for too many mons. I also wish there was more options for Ash's team if given the opportunity to run several. Lastly, I wish you included other Gen 1 trainers that were features post Gen 1 anime. Like we seen Lance throughout the anime, but is clearly focused on in the Pokemon World Tournament. I wonder how the rankings would fare in that state.

[@tyrant-den884]

OBJECTION! What about the magician guy who'd definitely have six Eggxecutor.

[@calebjohnson9740]

Always a good day when Smith posts

[@hhjan594]

I just did a quick search, Jessie got her Lickitung in episode 52 and kept it up to episode 146, and James's Victreebel was obtained in episdoe 57 and stayed until epsiode 261. This means if we take their battle data in episode 82, Jessie and James should have these two Pokemon. I do not understand whey they are missing from the video, it's not like Jessie or James already have a team of 6, and I'm sure if anyone watched through the first 82 episodes of Pokemon anime, they won't miss out these two Pokemon because they show up almost every episode after their debut with Team Rocket.

[@sdgdhpmbp]

The video specifically stipulates that pokemon have to be used in battle once. I think a few exceptions were made, e.g. Hippie's team of Snorlax, but those were special circumstances. I don't know when Lickitung was first used but Victreebel definitely saw action after Indigo League.

[@hhjan594]

@@sdgdhpmbp Yeah I just looked up, the first time these two pokemon actually used a move (apparently Lickitung licking people isn't a move) from their trainer's command was episode 86 which was right after the Indigo League. I guess they were only trying to consume their trainers before this episode. Still, it would be nice to mention this exclusion in the video when Jessie and James popped up. He remembered to mention why Ash didn't just run 6 Tauros because all of his Tauros were never used in battle before..... It really wouldn't harm to mention this for our beloved antagonists.

[@verymelonman12]

The power of getting to stack your team with 4 Jynx under Gen 1 rules

[@pokepress]

You could try doing this with the teams from Pokémon Puzzle League. No moves listed (and Tracey has Marril), but everyone has a team of 3.

[@emkalina]

18:30 ash should have a Tauros. Same usage as kingler

[@poryzonegames942]

But probably not in season 1

[@zacharymcvicker5820]

“Singles (just like you lol)” That was too funny xD

[@rjd-kh8et]

5:37 But Keith is shown with Farfetch'd first. Is the order of Pokémon randomized? I don't think NPCs ever switch Pokémon in Gen 1.

[@flazuki5288]

this was suuuper interesting, love this kind of content!!!

[@JPJ1608]

I kinda wish you'd uploaded this video in December now lol. It would've been really fitting.

[@Sliski]

Man, I don't know what it is, but seeing that Pokeball at 10:02 fills me with such an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. It's just... So right.

[@joshmcb6042]

Loved this so much. Maybe we get the next gen of anime battle simulator?

[@ironmuro]

10:09 No Victreebel? 10:36 No Lickitung? Dang, Team Rocket got nerfed.

[@TheBig-MT]

That's just good quality content right there.

[@zero3762]

So will you be crazy enough to make more of these?

[@rorororroror12]

This is fun. More of this, pls

[@riots3765]

The video i needed in my life!!! tysm

[@ShakerSilver]

I feel like even without the Mewtwo, Giovanni could top the list

[@sagacious03]

Super excited for this analysis video! Thanks for uploading! Might comment more later!

[@JVR10893]

As soon as you mentioned you were accounting for every Pokémon each trainer has had, I knew who number one was gonna be. Being able to control a demigod will do that for you.

[@AnthonyJohnson-nf4ue]

I'm definitely here for more of this

[@Sanshahashattan]

You should do this experiment again and allow Ash to use his 87 Tauros.

[@OnePieceObsessed]

Speaking of Sabrina, she might be the only gym leader whom we haven't seen using her ace. So what's the consensus, anyway? Is her Abra really her best Pokémon? Or does she actually have something like an Alakazam which she would have used if Ash were able to be a better challenge at that point of his journey? I mean that Kadabra was such a beast. Randomly evolving for shit and giggles and than being completely untouchable, except for that one attack. And let's be honest the sole reason why Pikachu got that hit in was so that Kadabra could totally show off with Recover. Not to imagine if she actually has an Alakazam at her disposal. Really a pity that we never got to see her again. I mean we revisited Erika so why not her too?

[@sdgdhpmbp]

She was a special case though, no? How many gym leaders got multiple episodes dedicated to them before they're finally beaten?

[@Winzworth]

Nice idea you are now the simulation master

[@nightsgaming4285]

Hunter was ashes not Sabrina’s

[@LeonardoFirminoD.Marins]

Not even Ash's. He just was 😂😅

[@miwer1000]

Ash uses 1 tauros a lot so you could have given him 1 and uses muk and snorlax more often than the primape

[@robertpiez9105]

Number 5 Santa Claus ? Best video ever !

[@ratdude747]

I thought the Anime was canonically Gen II to start? Due to the appearance of Ho-Oh at the end of the first episode ever? Just a thought...

[@cin2110]

Nah that was just an exclusive tease anime released in 1997 gen 2 games weren't out until 1999 anime staff probably based stuff on gen 1 games.

[@lythd]

the ending with the spirit of christmas omg lmao

[@vivienjoly7617]

Great video ! I think you should take away Meowth from Jesse and James teams and make his own team of... just him, it seems kind of dumb but a lot of trainers have only one pokemon and he doesn't belong to Jesse nor James

[@angelmacias436]

I really loved this video please make this a series!! And go through all the tv seasons of Pokémon don’t think anyone has done that

[@ElladanKenet]

I call BS. Charizard only obeyed Ash for ONE fight in Season 1, episode 58 itself. He didn't properly start obeying until after Charizard Chills in the Orange Islands season.

[@jonsmith5058]

How come Mandi had 3 pidgey’s? Also I think having less moves but good moves is an advantage here so the random move use favours the good ones.

[@mimiquoi7380]

I hope you will do that for Gen 2 ! It's really interesting 😊

[@tomparker8282]

OK I need this done through Johto to see how Ash and Gary with their real final teams fair, plus all the other Polemon league trainers

[@IronSquirtleOG]

We need this to become a series!!!

[@masterfrostzero1148]

If a good team goes so far in this list, I expect to see the other competitors in Mewtwo Strikes Back in S tier.

[@jake-oo8sv]

if we´re talking purely season 1, Ash´s Primeape should have been replaced with Muk. obviously, Ash wouldn´t be able to use Lapras, Snorlax, but also the Primeape since he gave him to the hitmonchan guy etc. a few trainers that have been skipped or just haven´t won enough battles? could be the trainers from the biker´s gang? (one had a Cloyster and another one a Golem), and from the movie Mewtwo strikes back, a few of the trainers that have been invited to the island also if it would have included the orange islands, thare were a plenty of decent squads, most notably Drake

[@SagashiIndustries]

I feel like giving Ash Tauros is fair. Although imagine if we included Orange Islands. Then he gets Snorlax and maybe Lapras

[@Evil_Florida]

Tbf Ash did use one of the Tauros and Lapras during the Orange Island arc, which still does kinda fall into gen 1. It probably is fair to use those two into Ash’s optimal team

[@hhjan594]

I clicked in expecting a stimulator for all 25 years of anime and you tell me 221735 Pokemon battles stimulation was only for the first 82 episodes? Geez when will we ever get to the end, I want to see Goh secretly use his gigantic pool of Pokemon collection to accidentally climb to S rank.

[@rjd-kh8et]

Nurse Joy's Chansey probably would have gotten more wins if all it knew was Softboiled, by healing until the opponent Struggled itself to KO. The Nurse Joy with a Latias in a DP bonus episode would rank much higher.

[@denverparsons7330]

here for pokemon anime legacy lets goooo

[@Axecon1]

I really wonder how different these rankings would be if the First Pokemon movie and Orange Islands Arc were included. Then you could include trainers like Mewtwo and Ash's team would actually be pretty stacked.

[@aubeary190]

AJ would be number 1 if you made it so water moves aren’t super effective against his sandshrew to be lore accurate 😤

[@GuiItyUniverse]

Ash gave away Primeape, Charizard didn't listen to Ash by the end of S1. And Ash didn't have Pidgeot until the start of S2. There are other glaring issues with these and a lot of creative liberties seem to have been taken, which is fine. I'm just poking holes because I want to. Not because I'm upset. 😅

[@Gamebuilder2000]

Since Ash's Primeape Is in training, Ash still technically has full ownership of Primeape he'd just have to call to get it He's done this before with Squirtle and Charizard

[@ProfessorRugops]

6:00 To be fair Growth plus Vinewhip isn’t a terrible strategy by Gen 1 standards either!

[@IamMeHere2See]

I wonder how much freeze hax played in Santa’s 1:4 win rate against Giovanni.

[@KeyExp]

I completely forgot about Jessie catching a Shelder

[@Auriorium]

Am I the only one who thinks that, if they make a Live Action Gen 1 series Dr. Proctor needs to be played by George Clooney?

[@DigiRangerScott]

@@Auriorium He was based on Clooney to begin with. I think by the time the episode aired in the States, he had just left ER

[@DarkFrozenDepths]

Crazy to think Ash's mom is the gateway to being a good trainer in the anime. Cause C rank would be considered "average" anywhere else and she basically gatekeeps you from B tier.

[@Snivy1234]

If doctor Akihabara had the move flash on his Porygons he would’ve won

[@c.m.9369]

I don‘t know, I have a big problem with the methodology here. I don‘t think you should have just assumed that the pokemon only know the moves we saw them using in the show. I would give them AT LEAST allow the basic moves they have at level one. So, Chansey should never only have Doubleslap, it always also should at least have Pound and Defence curl, even if we never see them using it. I‘d actually argue you should allow all moves up to the highest level move we see them having. I guess that means Mikey‘s Eevee should have access to all moves it can learn since TakeDown is the last move it can learn. I understand why that might be a bit of a stretch, but I do think at least the starting moves should be allowed in all cases. Still great video. Just a methodological issue, in my opinion.

[@Gamebuilder2000]

Nah I think it makes sense to only use moves we know they have, it's more accurate in this way

[@peteypiranalover]

We know Gark Oak had more in the indigo league to be fair we just don't know which ones with what movesets

[@jacobvanearden5440]

What about Muk?! Ash's Muk needed some love too.

[@joshdykstra8854]

You pronounce the words “out” and “about” in a more Canadian way than any Canadian I have ever heard… I’m Canadian.