- In this story, EVERY member of the Squirtle evolution line is an Otaku for some kind of anime/media. So any time one shows up, count on a reference being made.
- The most frequently seen example of this is Ash's Squirtle, who is a walking Shout-Out to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and all that it stands for. It is wonderful.
- Also, in Chapter 37, he starts going on about how "This mouth of mine is dripping wet! Its loud slosh tells me to--" before getting cut off.
- In Chapter 236, Squirtle is told that he's not to turn Samiya into a giant robot to intercept the moon falling, directly referencing Arc Gurren-Lagann.
- The island of the Turtle Pokemon is home to the hidden village of the turtle.
- A Wartortle later on teaches Quilava all about Sailor Cresselia (AKA Sailor Moon)... which said Wartortle is a huge fan of, even with her own moves based on the show.
- One new starter Squirtle who sees May's Blaziken in action decides to take up kickboxing, and become the Strongest Squirtle.
- Another Blastoise that the group meets can recite half of Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Since this seems to be all that it does, it also seems to be one of the most normal of all the Squirtle family.
- May's Wartortle claims to not have any obsession, but controls water through dance. Others have thought of Avatar: The Last Airbender as her obsession, but the fact that she doesn't know that show, has musical scores on-hand for Be A Mon, and taught Manaphy how to shape water by singing how it's better underwater in a funny accent may indicate something else.
- The most frequently seen example of this is Ash's Squirtle, who is a walking Shout-Out to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and all that it stands for. It is wonderful.
- Riolu's Aura Sphere that he uses in the battle for the Thunder Badge is hinted to be similar to the Rasengan, which reveals that Surge is definitely not a fan of the show.
- Speaking of Riolu and Naruto, the former is can apparently water-walk through the use of Aura by using "modified physics" to keep the surface tension from breaking. Ash flat out called it ignoring the laws of physics.
- Another Naruto reference shows up in Max's Breloom, Guy. Who can use the Strong Fist to great effect.
- And then it's taken to the limit with Wallace's Greninja, who plays up every bit of the ninja franchise from the handsigns and spitting elements, to the Substitute and even Power Copying via Role Play.
- Blast Burn is openly called a Hellbore.
- Jessie's Cubone is a deliberate Expy of Archer from Fate/stay night, right down to the use of a Reality Marble.
- One of the movies the characters help film in the original version takes this theme and runs with it, creating an entire Pokémon-based version of the movie adaptation.
- Sir Aaron makes use of Kanshou and Bakuya, and can execute the Crane Wing Three Realm via Sacred Sword.
- In one chapter description, Saphroneth explains that their idea of Sacred and Secret Sword is very similar to unlocking a Noble Phantasm. Each person thereby has a version of Sacred Sword unique to them and based on a Noble Phantasm.
- Coballion has Curtana, the Sword of Mercy used in coronations.
- Verizion has Joyeuse, the sword of Charlemagne.
- Terrakion has Durendal, the unbreakable sword of Roland, one of Charlemagne's paladins.
- Keldeo has Excalibur and Excalibur Galatine.
- Sir Aaron and his Lucario had Kanshou and Bakuya.
- Ash has Caliburn, the sword that chooses... and can perform Saber's Excali-blast with Secret Sword.
- Sceptile has the sword of Olivier, another one of Charlemagne's paladins.
- Absol has Carnwennen, King Arthur's dagger of invisibility.
- The fight between Abra and Psyduck was inspired heavily by the fight with Zeruel from Neon Genesis Evangelion, specifically the rebuild (Word of God).
- One suggested method of using TMs is to "apply directly to forehead."
- Brock's Ninetales and Growlie reenact the famous Spaghetti Kiss date scene from Lady and the Tramp. Lampshaded when the waiter asks his boss why they're serving spaghetti when it's a sushi restaurant and where the manager and cook learned to play the violin and accordion.
- Macross: Do You Remember Love? is adapted into the plot of the mermaid show Misty and the others perform at the Cerulean Gym in the original version.
- During his Gym battle with Sabrina, Ash calls himself the "inner babysitter." Lampshaded when Sabrina asks if he stole that line from somewhere.
- In the previous chapter, Dialga's character in a roleplaying game is a monk of "Deja Fu".
- Gary nicknamed his Porygondex "Dee". Keep in mind that Ash's Porygondex is nicknamed Dexter.
- Otoshi, the trainer whom Ash met on the way to the Indigo League, states that he's a voice actor for an anime involving a Poochyena youkai, who decided to resume his League Challenge while the anime was on hiatus. In the real-life Pokémon anime, Otoshi's Latin American voice actor also voiced Inuyasha.
- James' guidebook is published by Prima. For those who don't get it, Prima is a company that makes video game strategy guides, including ones for Pokemon.
- And then it gets combined with Adaptation Name Change and Mythology Gag later on. It turns out that Lorelei (whose name became Prima in the English anime dub) wrote those guides and gives lecture tours under that alias, so as to keep her Elite Four career separate from her scientific one, and actually wrote guidebooks for Pokemon trainers in the anime (shown when Team Rocket suggested her to do it and she announced the price).
- The Team that Ash fights Erika with is identical to the one that Red uses in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and that fact is lampshaded in the author's notes and is noted to be fitting by the characters.
- And the SSB movesets are also incorporated: Ash's Lucario can use his Aura Storm Final Smash, and Meganium, Quilava and Totodile pull off a Johto-version Triple Finish during a triple battle.
- Jessie, James, and Meowth reference Agent Domino (from the Pokémon: Mewtwo Returns movie) having an old team that was basically the Kuno family.
- Riolu later uses the Flying Dragon Uppercut (or Hiryu Shoten Ha) against Ash during training, and later on uses a technique suspiciously similar to the Bakusai Tenketsu.
- Another one shows up in the form of Brawly's Pangoro, which is very reminiscent of Genma Saotome, from his dirty fighting, Brawly stating his style is "Anything-Goes", and a Lampshade Hanging when he gets hit with a Scald attack. Unfortunately, he makes the fatal mistake of deliberately pressing Squirtle's Berserk Button through his signature Parting Shot.
Pangoro: Gurren Lagann sucks! - During the Fuchsia Free-For-All race at the Laramie Ranch, Pikachu and Squirtle combine Magnet Rise with jet propulsion from Water Gun to catch up with the other racers. The result? A speedy blue shell covered in electric spikes. When they crash into Dario after nearly everyone else has already passed him at the finish line, one of the judges recognizes it as something from "Marillkart."
- When Dexter manifests a Porygon form for the first time, he says, "Stand by, ready. Set up." He later gains a projector based on Bardiche, and refers to one of his shapeshifting forms as "Sonic Form". Gary later gains a Porygon from his Pokédex as well, and its projector is a red/purple sphere, aka Raising Heart.
- Also, in the Kanto Grand Festival, May faces a heterochromatic-eyed trainer named Vivio, who has a Buneary on her shoulder. One of her Pokemon is a Furret, likely a further reference to Yuuno of the same universe (as the character spent a good deal of time as a ferret), especially since it tends to draw arcane circles when it uses its attacks.
- Primeape's Close Combat-based fighting style is essentially the Coup de Vitesse from Honor Harrington.
- Professor Ivy triggers a resonance cascade, leading to Brock having to fight off a horde of Unown with a crowbar.
- The story Brock tells with Steelix and Ninetales in chapter 47 is pulled straight from Ōkami.
- Also, Barry's Smeargle can invoke his Sketched attacks with similar brushstrokes, like invoking Whirlwind with a spiral or Energy Ball with a circle.
- Apparently, Rudy's Pidgeot requires a Theme Music Power-Up. The name of the song? The Dambuster's March.
- Max and May name their Porygons Kris and Ethan respectively.
- Quilava's Flame Wheel takes the form of a Spindash, and her Aerial Ace while in Flame Wheel is a Homing Attack.
- Muk has taken a cue from the Cookie Monster. He thinks TMs taste like cookies.
- Jessie suggests getting rid of Jessebelle by putting a Ponyta on her pillow.
- One trainer that Ash meets at the Johto bug-catching contest has a female Croconaw whom he mis-nicknamed Steve (Understandable, since Croconaw don't have gender-specific features). Once Ash pulls a Gender Reveal, her trainer decides on the nickname Terri.
- Ash's paperwork to become Max's tutor includes a question about the airspeed velocity of an unladen Swellow. They don't specify what kind of Swellow.
- Butch's latest wrong names are Sundance and Hopalong.
- Dr. Akihabara is taking his CyberMon system to new lengths, even finding "Cyber-Destined" to take on missions in cyberspace. There are currently four of them, and they and their Pokémon partners are all expies of existing characters from several different seasons of Digimon:
- Tachikawa and her Lilligant.
- Akiyama and his Fraxure, and Katou and her Pyroar.
- Noguchi and his Braviary.
- Also, Corona, Max's Charmander, can shape her Flame Charge and Flare Blitz attacks into a winged dragon Battle Aura and use it to fly. She must have been taking some cues from Agumon Burst Mode.
- Ash's Johto League semifinal opponent is named Steve, with a team completely based off of the Oogakari family from Third Fang's infamous Yet again, with a little extra help.
- Mega Heracross's massive forearms and their punching and projectile-launching capabilities are reminiscent of both a super-strong sailor and a blue cannon-armed robot.
- Ash's Swellow is a skilled flyer, a Fangirl to his Pidgeot and an overall tomboy, just like Rainbow Dash. And she can even pull off the Buccaneer Blaze offscreen.
- When Dexter is hacking and fighting off virtual Sharpedo, it takes the form of Space Invaders.
- Misty fights a Gym Leader candidate named Mavis, from Vermilion City, who uses Fairy-types, and battles with a Dedenne named Laxus.
- And when we see the rest of her team during her battle with Max, they all have nicknames like Gray (Alolan Ninetales), Juvia (Primarina), Lucy (Klefki), Gajeel (Mawile), Wendy (Altaria) and Erza (Gardevoir). Gray even has a shedding problem.
- Ash's Glalie also practices Ice-Make.
- Corphish exemplifies two iconic features of the Star Wars franchise: his Razor Shell attack takes the form of twin Lightsabers of water energy (and even has the snap-hiss sound to boot), and his projectile attacks indicate that he graduated the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
- And later, he shows that he can use The Power - Ancientpower, that is.
- And even later, when he finally evolves into Crawdaunt, his Razor Shell turns red, and he gives the classic "I have the high ground" line against his opponent. He even pulls off a Dynamic Entry through a cloud of mist, complete with Vader Breath, while invoking "That name no longer has any meaning for me".
- Lucario tries to use a Jedi Mind Trick on Brock.
- And later, he shows that he can use The Power - Ancientpower, that is.
- Tyranitar using Hyper Beam is reminiscent of his inspiration and the original Kaiju, Godzilla. It starts off at his tail, lights up all his spines in turn, and is even blue in color.
- Brock's Geodude practices Earthbending through his Stone Edge move.
- A few of Blaziken's kicking moves seem to stem from Sanji's Black Leg Style.
- When Professor Oak gets home from a meeting, Damos asks if he wants to play a game.
- Director Cleavon Schpielbunk's new film project is about an amusement park full of Prehistoric Pokémon.
- Giovanni's challenger uses a Floatzel named Finnbarr.
- Max's Shuppet is nicknamed Casper.
- Arbok and Seviper have a conversation filled with references to Gilbert and Sullivan plays.
- May somehow makes a Pokéblock that looks like it has jellybeans for ingredients, has a white bit in them, and when eaten, makes one spit multicolored fire - literally tasting the rainbow. Skittles, anyone?
- With Cosplaychu present in the story, her Cosplay skills and the moves they give her contain a lot of references. So far the list includes:
- Superman
- Professor X (Psychic)
- Pinkie Pie
- The Flash (Extremespeed)
- A portal gun (Hyperspace Hole)
- Sith Lord (Psychic)
- Keyblade wielder (Fairy Lock)
- Black Mage (one-shot Thunder, Blizzard, Hyper Beam & Draco Meteor)
- Dr. Doolittle (human speech)
- Golduck pays the bills while Misty's gone. Because he's a duck, and that's what they do.
- In her fifth Contest, May faces off against a Coordinator named Peter who uses an Ariados and an Araquanid.
- And in the Hoenn Grand Festival, she faces off against Perdita X.
- In the Hoenn Grand Festival, one of May's appeals with Altaria is the "Forbidden Friendship" scene from How to Train Your Dragon and it ends with Altaria revealing his Mega Evolution.
- Harley and his Banette gets knocked out of the Grand Festival by a Natu performing the Heavens Spell "Comet of Casandora" from Warhammer.
- The freshly-evolved Grumpig's Limb-Sensation Fascination plays out very similarly to the freshly regenerated Eleventh Doctor's checklist of his limbs.Grumpig: "Legs! I've got legs! Wow, that feels odd... wait, I'm feeling them? I've got arms! Hands! So this is what fingers feel like..."
- The whole "psychics assisting space flight and exploration" is very To Ride Pegasus in style, as noted by Saphroneth.
- Near the end of Chapter 4, Ash says something along the lines of "and because of him, and his little Dialga too" when talking to Riolu.
- …So no, this is not a problem you can fix simply by sending up a half-dozen guys and a really big bomb!
- Greta apparently plays Magic: The Gathering.
- May's new Joltik has another reference to a Tachikoma other than just her species' resemblance; she's also a philosopher.
- After getting a bath, a Fluffy Dry Skitty compares herself to a Tribble.
- Brock suggests that a Deoxys, an alien with No Mouth, is off to find out what cinnamon buns taste like.
- Keldeo is thinking of naming his new move Meteorain but is uncertain on whether it sounds over the top or not. He decided on it by Sinnoh.
- Also, Roland, Max's new Gallade, is starting to learn to fuse his blade moves together. He later pulls off an Omnislash combination as well.
- One participant in the Kanto Grand Festival is named Wu, has a Monferno named Kong, and has tactics named "Gold banded cudgel" and "Intelligent Stone Monkey".
- Barry has obtained a very expressive Smeargle, whose Big Ol' Eyebrows say a lot by themselves.
- Jessie's Marowak once created an entire Tyrantrum skeleton to ride.
- Altaria has a fun thought about Mewtwo becoming villainous again and declaring that he'll steal the moon.
- At one point, Lucario has to remind Ash that as a Steel-type, he is immune to poison.
- Chapter 242 has Glalie give some puns reminiscent of a very campy Mr. Freeze.Glalie: Hey, what wiped out the Fossils? The Ice Age!
- The author gives a Shout-Out to his other Pokémon fanfic Master, Pokémon?, when Ash says that he bets there are Zorua out there who've become secret trainers, as a suggestion that Tyrantrum become Mawile's Pokémon.
- One of May's contest appeals involves Manaphy water-crafting an entire fairy-tale castle, complete with fireworks and an arc trailing overhead. If that sounds familiar to you, remember that one of his teammates has a liking for a certain franchise...
- The Porygon assisting the contest judges for the Wallace Cup is named Jeeves, and the judges often ask him questions.
- When Oak and Dexter create twelve Porygon to help look for and/or monitor Team Galactic, most of them end up choosing very referential names:
- The original plan was to use Western Zodiac Theme Naming for all of them, but only 6 out of the 12 have any Zodiac theme whatsoever: Leo and Scorpius (Western Zodiac), Rooster and Dragonnote (Eastern Zodiac), Guanna (Taurus in the Sumerian Zodiac) and Laocoon (Greek mythological figure associated with Ophiuchus)
- Laser beak
- Apollo
- Babbage
- Dahak
- Fenris
- Bob (Also possibly a reference to We Are Legion (We Are Bob))
- When asked about his name, Bob defends himself by telling them to be glad that he didn't choose Durandal or Tycho.
- Lucario tells Ash to "Breath deep, seek peace" when he looks like he's about to deck Zero.
- Candice owns a Beartic nicknamed Iorek, who can use Bulk Up to generate ice armor.
- Tobias's starter is a Delphox, who either shapes her Mystical Fire attack to reference spells from other media, or can actually use magic spells from other media. In Ash's match alone, she made use of Wall of Fire, Aerora, Fuego, Stupefy, Dragon Breath, Pyroclasm, Flaming Sword of Rhuin, Fire Surge, and even Ouraniā Phlogōsis.
- Lieutenant Surge thinks that he recognizes the aura attack that Riolu is preparing, from an anime about "some kid with a Ninetales sealed inside him or whatever".
- When Ash confirms that they're not on camera, Mewtwo steeples his fingers and responds, "Excellent."
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