Ash first sees Ho-Oh flying above him in the Pokémon anime episode “Pokémon, I Choose You!”.
At the end of the first episode, Ash and Pikachu look up and see a large, colorful bird Pokémon crossing the sky. The Pokémon is Ho-Oh, although Ash does not know its identity at the time. Its appearance creates an early mystery because Ho-Oh was not included in the original Kanto Pokédex.
Ho-Oh belongs to the second generation of Pokémon and is associated with Pokémon Gold. Its presence in the first anime episode therefore became an early hint toward creatures and stories that would be introduced later in the games and television series.
Viewers sometimes mistake the Pokémon for Moltres because both are legendary bird Pokémon with fiery imagery. Lugia is another common mix-up, but Lugia is a different legendary Pokémon associated with Pokémon Silver. The brief sighting of Ho-Oh became one of the anime’s most memorable early clues.