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The is a spherical device in the Pokémon video games and anime television series that is used by Pokémon Trainers to capture new Pokémon and store them when not in use. The Poké Ball is also a central symbol of the franchise, and is often found on Pokémon-themed products.
A Poké Ball is a small pocketable sphere, with a red top and white bottom. It can change from the travel-friendly bouncyball size that attaches to its owner's belt or fits in their bag, to a baseball size more appropriate for the necessary throwing, by pressing a small white button located between the two halves. Despite the Poké Ball's small size, it can contain Pokémon longer than and weighing more than (the largest sizes for Pokémon to date).
Inside, the Poké Ball features many of what appear to be mirror panels. The inside of a Poké Ball is supposedly designed to make the Pokémon feel as comfortable as possible while inside it. While never fully explained in the anime, manga or core video games, Super Smash Bros. Melee states that this is done by creating a holographic environment that suits the Pokémon. However, the anime has shown examples of Pokémon that do not like being in their Poké Balls; a notable example is Ash's Pikachu. In the first episode of the series when Ash tries to get his Pikachu to go into the ball, it refuses. Ash says that Pikachu should go in because that's what all Pokémon are expected to do, having his Pokédex state this for confirmation. However, Pikachu presses another button on the Pokédex to give more information on the subject and it is revealed that some Pokémon do not like feeling confined.
In the Pokémon world, scientists have been using various, highly developed techniques of converting mass into energy and back for years. The Poké Ball is a quintessential example of this technique. When a Poké Ball is thrown at a Pokémon and comes into contact with it, the ball flips open. In the anime, the button on the Poké Ball must touch the pokémon in order for it to be captured. The ball converts the Pokémon into energy (represented in the anime as a dim red light, but usually portrayed as a flash of stars, bubbles, etc. in the various games), and sucks it inside, closing automatically in the process. The Pokémon will likely struggle, trying to break free. If the Pokémon has been sufficiently weakened in battle and/or the Poké Ball model is sufficiently strong, the Pokémon is captured and henceforth can only be stored in that Poké Ball. In the games, if the Pokémon frees itself, the Poké Ball is irreparably broken; in the anime, it rebounds to the trainer.
Humans can not be caught with Poké Balls, but small inanimate objects such as rice balls, rocks, etc. have been caught in Poké Balls for comedic effect early in the anime's history.
In one episode of Pokemon Battle Frontier: All That Glitters Is Not Golden, Ash and co. encounters a gold Sudowoodo who turns out to be owned by a trainer and is not naturally golden. In a scene Team Rocket is there trying to catch the golden pokemon. When the trainer tried to withdraw the pokemon it suddenly escaped ending up that the red beam hit Jessie making it look like she was getting withdrawn into the Pokeball.
The conversion of a Pokémon into energy when inside a Poké Ball explains how some Pokémon can be many times the Trainer's height and weight, yet still fit in a Poké Ball and not make the Poké Ball any heavier. Nevertheless, it seems that a Pokémon inside a Poké Ball still maintains some kind of awareness, another state of consciousness, as many trainers been shown giving orders to their Pokémon before they have emerged from the Ball. Some Pokémon, most famously Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, dislike staying in Poké Balls, because they would feel trapped in it. In the anime, some Pokémon can escape from their Poké Balls, usually for comic relief. Notable examples include Misty's Psyduck and Jessie's Wobbuffet.
Storing the Poké Balls themselves, with or without Pokémon in them, involves a specialized computer, or "PC". In the game and the anime, whenever an official Trainer has six Poké Balls containing Pokémon with him or her, additional captured Pokémon and their Poké Balls are immediately teleported automatically to their registered Pokémon Computer Storage System. In the anime, Brock explains that the Pokédex is the mechanism keeping track of a trainer's Pokémon and is responsible for the instantaneous storage of new Pokémon caught past the six. How this transport system technically works is not specifically explained, but it is assumed that it uses the same matter-energy technology present in the Poké Balls themselves. In the movie Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys, it is revealed that all Poké Balls are registered to a managing system. When LaRousse City was isolated from the rest of the world by Deoxys's force field, the blackout caused the trainers' Poké Balls to fail, making them unable to release or return their Pokémon.
Not only Pokémon can be "energized", practically any item, no matter how heavy, can be converted into energy and back. This makes Poké Balls practical in the storage of some of a trainer's bulkier items. In the anime, a Poké Ball was wasted when it captured a rice ball (or doughnut due to cultural localization during translation). In the games, many items are found in Poké Balls. When picked up, these balls are not added to one's current stock of usable Poké Balls, since they have been used already to capture those items. Like the Pokémon Computer Storage System, one's items can be transported to and from a properly equipped PC, and it is an important part of the gameplay.
In the anime depiction, Pokemon already belonging to a specific ball can be returned to it with a laser emitted from the expansion button on the Poke Ball. This is more convienient in recalling Pokemon from battle rather than having the respective Pokemon contact the ball itself. As with any laser however, obstructions can prevent the laser from recalling the Pokemon. Lifeforms that are hit with the laser but do not belong to that certain Poke Ball will feel a slight paralyzing effect. Jessie of Team Rocket was the first to experience getting hit by the Poke Ball laser. Nevertheless Jessie had to be carried away by her friends. All Jessie could respond was: "So that's what it feels like..."
In power plants, the Poké Ball may turn out to be a Voltorb or Electrode in disguise, attacking Trainers when picked up. In the games Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, items are found in box-like containers designed to look like Poké Balls. These differ not only in shape but also in the fact that they are able to contain multiple items.
Rarely shown in the anime, the episode entitled When Pokémon Worlds Collide that takes place in the Sinnoh region featured a scene where one of the antagonists, Paul, releases Pokémon that he caught back into the wild. In this scene, the Pokémon come out of their Poké Balls in a blue light as opposed white. In the video games, if the player chooses to release a Pokémon, both the Poké Ball and any attached items are also lost.
Kurt, a non-player character from Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal who is referred to as an expert or "Poké Ball master" in the game and anime, explains that Poké Balls were originally made by fitting a special device in a hollowed-out Apricorn, but later began being made of synthetic materials and mass-produced by large companies such as Silph Co. in Kanto.
Various anime episodes and movie titles either contradict this history, or expand upon it. In Pokémon 4 Ever, which is partially set in the past, one of the characters uses a non-synthetic Poké Ball which neither looks like, nor functions like, any of Kurt's Apricorn Balls. It is opened by unscrewing the disproportionate top. The anime episodes (which included a paralleled history of Poké Balls in an episode with Kurt titled "Goin' Apricorn") rather than discredit the origins revealed in the video games, tend to focus on ancient civilizations and the ways that they dealt with Pokémon capture. However, even these episodes can contradict each other, some devices closely resembling the modern synthetic balls, while others do not. In the anime episode "The Ancient Puzzle of Pokémopolis" giant ancient Pokémon appear to have been stored in simple stone talismans. Specifically a giant Alakazam comes out of an ancient spoon and returns back to it in a manner very similar to Poké Balls. Contrarily, in the episode "Claydol Big and Tall", a giant Claydol was contained within a similarly giant-sized ancient stone Poké Ball.
In the original games (Red, Blue, and Yellow) and in the first Kanto arc of the anime, there was the basic set of four Poké Balls. The only variance among them was in their effectiveness at capturing Pokémon. Over time, specialized Poké Balls were created for various purposes (i.e. to facilitate capturing Pokémon of a species that the trainer already owned). The anime, becoming more in sync with the games, mirrored this and occasionally showcased trainers in possession of these more unique balls.
The four basic Poké Balls (Poké Ball, Great Ball, Ultra Ball, and Master Ball) were introduced in Pokémon Red and Blue and have remained a part of the series ever since. Each ball is more effective in catching Pokémon than the preceding one, with the Master Ball able to catch any wild Pokémon without fail. In addition to these basic Poké Balls, most games in the series (with the exception of the second generation) also feature a Safari Ball for use in a special Pokémon catching game played called the Safari Zone.
In the anime, most trainers only ever use the regular Poké Ball. The only times another type of the basic four is seen is in episode #1, as who appears to be Bruno of the Elite Four, calling back a Nidorino and calling out an Onix from a Great Ball, and in episode #351, Whiscash and Ash, in which a self-proclaimed "Legendary Fisherman" tries to capture the titular Whiscash with a Master Ball. He ironically fails when the Whiscash swallows the ball after it's thrown. However, in a later episode, Munchlax eats the Poké Ball thrown at it, but is then captured from the inside-out.
Unique Poké Balls in the anime include those owned by Richie who uses star-shaped stickers to aid in identification, and Pikachu's which has a lightning bolt symbol engraved near the top.
The Master Ball item itself has gained further notoriety beyond that of the other Poké Balls due to it constant focus as an exploitable item.[1][2] In the original games, the player could only acquire one Master Ball. In the second-generation games Gold, Silver, and Crystal players can win more Master Balls at the Goldenrod City's Radio Tower. In the third-generation games Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald players can win more Master Balls at the Lilycove City department store lottery. In fourth-generation games Diamond and Pearl, Master Balls are obtainable at the Jubilife TV tower after winning the ingame lottery.
The Apricorn Balls were later introduced in Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal and have remained exclusive to those three titles. Unlike other Poké Balls which must be found or bought, Apricorn Balls are obtained for free. Trainers find different colored Apricorns on trees and give them to Kurt at his house in Azalea Town. After a real-world day, the player can return to Kurt's house to receive a special kind of Poké Ball. The different types depend on the color of the Apricorn. The Poké Balls were the first to have their effectiveness based on more than damage and status. The balls' abilities were influenced by a wide variety of things: for example, if the player encountered a Pokémon of a lower level (lower than the trainer's Pokémon battling it) the Level Ball would become stronger, or the Moon Ball would be more effective against Pokémon that evolve using the Moonstone item. The Friend Ball and Love Ball shared a similarity in that they were both created to exploit new features of the second generation games (friendship and gender, respectively), however the Friend Ball was unique in that it was the only one not any more or less effective than a regular Poké Ball. Instead it made the Pokémon captured with it start off more tame, a key element to the evolution of certain Pokémon and the use of certain attacks.
The Johto games were also the first to offer a history for Poké Balls, explaining that before the creation of synthetic materials people in the Pokémon universe used Apricorns. This fictional history maintained its continuity with the concurrent anime in which the main characters hear the same story from the same Poké Ball creator, Kurt.
Through the course of a few episodes, the trainers learn about the various Apricorn Balls available and are each given a Fast Ball in addition to one other type of their choosing. Fast Balls are used to catch Pokémon that try to escape quickly, and Brock uses his to catch a Pineco in Goin' Apricorn (#145). Ash and Misty each receive Lure Balls, a type of ball that makes catching Water-type Pokémon easier. They try to use theirs at the same time when capturing a Totodile in The Totodile Duel (#153) and since they cannot determine whose ball actually caught it, they have a battle, with Ash as the winner. Misty later uses the leftover Lure Ball in The Corsola Caper (#215) to capture the pink "coral Pokémon". These rare balls don't make an appearance again until the Advanced Generation series in episode #341, Gulpin it Down. In this episode both a Gulpin and Ash's Treecko become giant sized in a freak accident and stage a Godzilla-esque battle which the Treecko wins. While the Gulpin is recuperating, the scientist responsible for the accident uses a Heavy Ball to capture it. Heavy Balls work more effectively the heavier the Pokémon is, so in this case it was the perfect choice.
Besides the Apricorn Balls, a minor, single-use ball was introduced as the Park Ball. The Park Ball was used in the Bug Catching Contest of GSC and while the game was much more elaborate than the Safari Zone game, the ball itself, like the Safari Ball, was about as effective as a Great Ball.
The Park Ball makes a reappearance in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. These balls are used in a capture game that allows players to acquire Pokémon they previously owned on the Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, and LeafGreen game cartridges. Here, it has a 100% capture rate.
In the anime episode, The Bug Stops Here (#163), the Bug Catching Contest is played out according to the same rules in the GSC video games. Ash ultimately catches a Beedrill and wins the contest, but gives it to his friend Casey who happened to have entered the contest as well. In addition to mirroring the Park Ball, the anime built upon the idea of contest-specific balls and in an episode entitled Hook, Line, and Stinker introduced the Lake Ball which were given to Misty and Ash for use in a Seaking-catching contest.
When Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire were released, it was revealed that they did not support the Apricorn feature of the previous games. Instead, many of the balls were either replaced with purchasable facsimiles, or completely removed (e.g. the Heavy Ball). Hoenn also introduced two new-concept Poké Balls, the Timer Ball and the Repeat Ball - capable of increasing in effectiveness depending on length of battle or whether the trainer has already caught that type of Pokémon, respectively. Instead of strict duplication like that seen with the Level Ball and its newer counterpart, the Nest Ball, developers expanded upon the Lure Ball and even created a second specialized version to capitalize on one of their new concepts (much like the Love Ball and Friend Ball from before).
The new Net Ball was created to replace the Lure Ball, and expanded its capabilities by proving more effective not only when the player has caught a Pokémon by fishing, but when they encounter any Water-type, or even Bug-type Pokémon.
A similar ball, the Dive Ball, exploited the new ability to dive underwater by making Pokémon found "on the ocean floor" more susceptible. These currently only include Water-type Pokémon, so Nets are better than Divers. They cost the same, too.
Two unique balls are the Luxury Ball and the Premier Ball. Both are colored very differently than other varieties - the norm being a variance on the top half of the ball only, as seen with the Master Ball and Apricorn Balls. The Luxury Ball is almost completely black with a gold band in the center, conversely the Premier Ball is completely white with a red band in the center. Neither of these balls are any more or less effective than a regular Poké Ball; while the Luxury Ball is the Hoenn counterpart to Johto's Friend Ball, the Premier Ball has the distinction of always being given away freely by mass-purchasing basic Poké Balls.
Repeat Balls are a tad more powerful than Ultras if the target is already in your Pokédex. Timer Balls are Pokéballs. After ten turns, its a Great Ball. After twenty turns, it's an Ultra Ball. After thirty turns, its a powered Repeat Ball. By then, you should be able to catch your target.
The newest games in the series, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, have introduced their own new variations. Most notable are the Dusk Ball and the Heal Ball, which were revealed in pre-release information. The Dusk Ball is twice as effective as an Ultra Ball at catching Pokémon in dark areas such as caves or at night, and the Heal Ball, while no more effective at catching Pokémon than a regular Poké Ball, restores the Pokémon's HP and cures any status conditions. However, if a Pokémon caught by a Heal Ball is automatically transferred to the PC, the effect is wasted, as any Pokémon put into a PC automatically regains all lost hit points and is cured of any status conditions.
Another unique ball, the Cherish Ball, is not sold, found, or even obtained through normal gameplay. Instead, some Pokémon given out at special events, such as Darkrai, are housed in it. It has a normal rate of capture.
Another new mechanic is the ability to apply seals to Poké Balls which affect the animation used when the Pokémon inside is released into battle. Various effects, such as hearts, stars, or a bust of flames accompany the animation of the Pokémon emerging from its ball. Seals may only be applied to Poké Balls with Pokémon inside of them. Pokémon cannot be stored in PC Boxes when Ball Capsules are applied.
Poké Balls are so iconic and symbolic in the Pokémon universe itself, that they have infiltrated various aspects of the anime, manga, and trading card games - manifesting themselves as symbols of capture and control.
Examples of this symbolic use include Team Rocket using various devices in the shape of Poké Balls that were designed to capture Pokémon or other things through unconventional means - often in the form of dispensing a net, or being connected to a large vacuum hose[3].
The Pokémon movies are a large source of the more unusual instances of Poké Balls. In the first Pokémon movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, the titular character, Mewtwo, creates his own sort of black Poké Ball. These balls do not follow the same guidelines as others, allowing the capture of trainer-owned Pokémon, even those that are still within their own Poké Balls - thus capturing the Poké Balls as well. In the third Pokémon movie, a little girl named Molly creates a crystal version of the Poké Ball with psychic power borrowed from Unown. She uses this crystal Poké Ball to release crystal Pokémon into battle. Then in the fourth movie, Pokémon 4 Ever, the villain, the Iron Masked Marauder, utilizes what he calls a Dark Ball in order to capture Pokémon and instill them with a more sinister personality. This concept is similar to the one used with Snag Balls in Pokémon Colosseum and its sequel.
In addition, several Poké Balls are shown to be altered in some way to show their association with a particular group or purpose. Examples include Nurse Joy using a Poké Ball that vaguely resembles Chansey (the Pokémon most often seen running about Pokémon Centers in the anime), Team Rocket using name-branded balls in the movie Mewtwo Returns, and the Pokémon trading card game featuring various Poké Ball cards that are associated with Team Aqua, Team Magma, or the aforementioned Team Rocket.
The Poké Ball has even been subjected to gold-plating throughout its history in the anime. The most notable example being the beginning of a running gag which involved a salesman selling a gold-plated Poké Ball containing a Magikarp to James. James is conned into thinking the Poké Ball is pure gold and led to believe that he'll make a fortune selling the Magikarp's eggs. He spends the team's entire advanced salaries to make the purchase. A fake golden Poké Ball is used again in "The Ribbon Cup Caper" when Officer Jenny spray paints a regular Poké Ball in order to catch a criminal.
In the Japanese version of Pokémon Crystal, the GS Ball (G and S probably stands for Gold and Silver) is obtainable as a key item. It is obtained after using the mobile phone hook-up feature that was not made available in US versions. A day after it has been delivered to Kurt, he returns it to the player and directs them to a restless Ilex Forest. Once the GS Ball is placed in the forest's shrine, Celebi appears and the player has a chance to capture it.
In the television series, Ash obtains the GS Ball from a Pokémon researcher, Professor Ivy in the Orange Islands. He is instructed to deliver the ball to his hometown's own researcher, Professor Oak. The GS Ball is a great puzzle. It cannot be opened or teleported and no-one can tell whether it has a Pokémon inside. After Professor Oak is in turn unable to figure out the GS Ball, Ash journeys to Johto and delivers it to Kurt, the Poké Ball master, in whose care it apparently remains. While the GS Ball appeared to play an important role throughout the series - several random scenes were shown throughout various episodes of Ash studying it, trying to figure out its origin - the GS Ball turned out to be apparently little more than a meaningless plot device; the thread was completely dropped despite allusions in its final episode that more information was to be revealed.
Only used in Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, the Snag Ball is not a separate type of ball; rather, it is a modified Ball created when a normal Poké Ball (or any other type of Ball) is used in conjunction with a device called a "Snag Machine". Snag Balls are significantly different from other Balls in that they can be used to capture other Trainers' Pokémon - a practice normally considered taboo within the games. While Snag Balls were originally used by criminals, the protagonists of both games use them to capture corrupted "Shadow Pokémon" in order to eventually return them to normal.
The Poké Ball also appears in Super Smash Bros. as an item. When thrown, it releases a random Pokémon that uses an attack which usually hurts all players except the one who threw it (an exception being Electrode). In Super Smash Bros. Pikachu and Jigglypuff also came out of thrown Poké Balls as a custom entrance. The role is reprised in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but with the addition of new Pokémon and the replacement of older Pokémon (for example, Beedrill are replaced by Unown). The custom entrances are also no longer in the game.
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