Today Satoshi caught a Kurumiru (Sewaddle), while he had a full team of six. This is the first time he's done this since he caught Krabby in episode 13 (which happens to be one of my personal favourite episodes), over 13 and a half years ago. However, instead of the PokéBall simply being "teleported" instantaneously to Prof. Oak's lab (or in this case, Prof. Araragi), the PokéBall shrunk and locked, being un-openable until one Pokémon was removed from the active party. This seems to have retconned the aformentioned teleporting. Also, he sent a Pokémon to Prof. Araragi and added Kurumiru to his active party, making this the first time he's ever rotated between 7 (or more) different Pokemon on his main team! DISCUSS!

Hmm... Interesting that they'd change what would happen when your team is full. But Pokemon are known to have broken out of locked Poke balls against the trainer's wishes before, like Jessie's Wobbuffet. So what if Sewaddle managed to brake out? Then Ash would have a seven-Pokemon team.

I guess it only made sense for Ash's Krabby to teleport to Oak's lab because the Pokedex was pre-programmed to send extra Pokemon there or something, and this is what happens by default if there isn't a pre-determined place for the Poke ball to go to.

The thing his pokeball didn't telaport, we don't even know which pokemon are part of his party now.

...Here's my personal take on this whole thing. Take it as you will:

1. The teleporting and locking is simply a matter of convenience. Pokéballs have to be programmed to know to do this.
2. In reality, a trainer could equip themselves with far more than 6 Pokémon (I'm sure Team Rocket has).
3. Because of standard battling rules, however (6-on-6), trainers never really have more on them and the Pokéballs lock as a matter of convenience/to avoid confusion.

There is one key (albeit not really big) flaw in this theory, but I'll let someone else point that out.

I've always known Ash to only have 6 pokemon on him. This is a big surprise since it happened 13 and a half years ago.

Well, considering it looks like the anime is hearkening back to the Kanto days, I'm not surprised in the least.

YAAAAY, HE CAUGHT A SEWADDLE!!!! ^o^

Oh, right. Cool, he's got more than 6 Pokemon. Cool. ._.;

To be honest, I never expected this capture. When I first learned that Ash caught Sewaddle, I thought that he sent it to Juniper straight away. But he changed one of his current Pokemon for Sewaddle. The only thing that matters to me is finding out which Pokemon he switched out.

That's fairly unexpected, to say the least. I'm curious to find out which Pokémon he switched out for Sewaddle (since I didn't watch the episode yet), but I like how the current animé is not entirely restricting itself to any limits, even the most basic ones. After all, unpredictable happenings like this are the main interest of the fans.

So

Snivy

YEEEEEEES! They kept

Snivy

Now,Which pokemon did he switch for Sewaddle !?