>>49429463The anime started following game rules more closely in later seasons and had to retcon a bunch of older stuff (there's an episode in gen 4 that blatantly shows "aim for the horn" no longer works). But Pokeballs no longer automatically teleport to the PC like they do in the games and early anime. Now they're just unable to open until Ash sends one of the extras to the professor.
The anime just has its own rules about everything. Sometimes it uses the game rules, other times it does its own thing. It's why the anime doesn't really matter when it comes to whether Pokemon naturally shrink in the games (because they very clearly don't under the anime rules).
