Why Grookey haven't appeared in the anime yet and when can we expect its debut?

When the gen 8 anime (Pokémon Journeys/Pocket Monster 2019) was announced, the fans expected to get a look at the starters in the anime very early on. This is a valid expectation as the starters represent the new Generation. But here we are after finishing 49 episodes of the series and still there is no sign of Grookey, the grass starter of Galar.

This is actually a clever marketing strategy. Grookey not appearing in the anime is a clever way of getting the fans talking about the anime. The gen 8 anime has been mostly focused on creating buzz online, this is not necessarily a bad thing. All of Ash's Journeys capture broke the internet in some capacity even the Farfetch'd capture as nobody expected Ash to catch a Galarian form. Even the returning characters like: Korinna, the Alola Gang and many others broke the internet. The more buzz is created online, the more free marketing it is for the anime and consequently the games. 

 Would I even write this if Grookey had already appeared in the anime? No. Would the fans freak out seeing a glimpse of Grookey in the Mewtwo episode had he appeared earlier? No. The delay has resulted in the hype. People are now waiting for a starter to appear in the anime which we would not have assumed earlier. The writers have laid the groundwork in such a way that, when Grookey finally appears in the anime some people would surely shoutout and there will be a lot of buzz online.

When will Grookey appear?

Well, there is no concrete date as to when Grookey would appear in the anime but we can speculate. We can see four things happening with Grookey.

 1. Ash catches Grookey, 

 2. Goh catches Grookey, 

 3. Chloe catches Grookey,

 4. Any other character (perhaps a potential rival of Ash) has a Grookey.

The first two are most likely in my opinion. We can see Goh catching Grookey and have all three starters. If Goh is to catch Grookey, we assume he would catch it after Sobble evolves into Drizzle. Goh caught Sobble after Scorbunny had evolved into Raboot. That way Goh would have all three starters in three different evolution stages. 

Ash could also catch Grookey as he usually catches at least one starter from each region. Earlier, Grookey would have felt a bit misfit in Ash's team of all hyped up Pokémons. Some fans would be really happy seeing Ash catch a Grookey but it wouldn't be as hype as say the Dragonite or Riolu capture. But now as the writers have successfully hyped up Grookey by delaying its debut, Ash catching Grookey will surely create buzz online.

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Pokémon Journeys is really very unpredictable just like Ash's battling style and we can't wait to see what the anime has in store for us. What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments section down below.

Credit: TV Tokyo/ The Pokémon Company