THE DISTANCE DISCREPANCY
In Pokémon, the main character is Ash Ketchum, who has remained the same age and height for nineteen seasons. While there is much controversy over Ash's height, there is a steady pattern; while the size of the Pokémon in the anime can change, in every Pokédex there is a size comparison to a Pokémon and a trainer. Because Ash is the main character of the series, it is safe to assume that the trainer portrayed in the scale is him. In Pokémon Platinum, the height of the trainer in the scale is listed as 4'8", so that is what we are calling Ash's height. 4'8" = 56" 56in x 2.54 = 142.24 cm In order to find the distance between the Pokémon when they battle, we used footage from one of Ash's gym battles (see the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaOrZii6kfU). While this set-up seen is not typical of a normal land battle, we can assume that because Ash is battling a Gym Leader, Crasher Wake would be sure to keep the distance relatively normal to what would be seen in other environments. While the full gym is never seen in this video, by overlaying screenshots of the gym shown we were able to make one complete image. We then drew a line on Ash's body to measure. As the video continues, we see Ash's Pikachu standing on the platform closest to him; later, Wake's Quagsire stands on the platform closest to him. These platforms are marked with Xs. The line drawn between them is the approximate distance. When measured (with the photo blown up twice its shown size), Ash's line measures approximately 2.6 cm, while the longer line measures approximately 24.7 cm. |
142.24 / 2.6 = 54.7
24.7 x 54.7 = 1351.09 cm / 100 = 13.5 m So, the approximate distance between Pokémon in battle is about 13.5 meters, which would explain why the trainers, who are standing even further apart, are always yelling their attack commands to each other. |