Pokémon lore is often regarded by fans as being unreliable, but in at least one case in the anime, a Pokémon’s proclaimed extraterrestrial origins actually proved to be true, raising some questions as to exactly what it means to be a Pokémon.
The Pokémon Clefairy has long been associated with the Moon, evolving with a Moon Stone and being shown to have celebrations regarding the full Moon each month, even in the wild. The anime took this a step further, though, by giving Clefairy a desire to actually travel to the Moon, with the implication that the Moon might even be Clefairy’s natural habitat. In the episode “Clefairy Tales,” this is first seen in the form of a group of Clefairy who resort to stealing items from around a nearby town in the hopes of constructing a spaceship, which might be able to return them to their lunar home.
Do Clefairy Really Come From the Moon?
In the episode, the Clefairy steal various objects, up to and including Ash’s Pikachu, and it’s eventually revealed that their goal is to build a spaceship. Shockingly, at the end of the episode, the Clefairy’s ramshackle UFO is able to take off, and the Clefairy seemingly depart for orbit, with a new friend of Ash’s on board. This same group of Clefairy are seen again later in “Wish Upon a Star Shape,” when their ship crashes in Johto. This time, they’re able to steal parts from a Team Rocket robot, and with Pikachu’s help, the ship takes off once more, presumably making it into space as they’re never seen again.
While Clefairy has a strong tie to the Moon in the games, its alleged lunar origin is something that’s completely original to the anime, with no Pokédex entries making this claim (though Cleffa’s does suggest they ride meteors down from space). Clefairy are said to be rare, which might be in line with the idea that they’re not native to the Pokémon version of Earth. If Pokémon can come from other places, though, and presumably evolved independently, it does raise a big question as to what it means to be a Pokémon. There are other Pokémon known to be extraterrestrial, such as Deoxys, or Beheeyem, with the latter also being shown to operate a UFO in another episode. Additionally, the Ultra Beasts are extradimensional beings considered to be Pokémon despite their alien appearances.
If Pokémon can come from space and from Earth, just what does it take for an organism to be classified as a Pokémon? In early episodes, ordinary animals such as fish and birds are seen, suggesting that Pokémon isn’t simply a catch-all word like “animal.” It may simply be that all it takes to be a Pokémon is the ability to be shrunk down and captured inside a Poké Ball, so as long as Clefairy can do that, it doesn’t matter where it’s from. It could also be that all Pokémon originated off of Earth, as has occasionally been suggested in some spinoff series. Whatever the case, these highly intelligent and seemingly alien Clefairy definitely leave some big questions unanswered for the Pokémon world.
