You have no father, and your best friend is an orphan. Children are going to a journey around the world. Your mother accepts you as the man on the house, making your own decisions. Old man warns you of dangers around the corner. Most people you meet are children and/ or gym leaders. Most adult men are either very old, or have a job related to the military or organized crime. Hospitals and gyms are everywhere, but no forms of entertainment such as movie theaters.
LT. Surge:
"Hey kid! What do you think your doing here? You wont live long in combat! That's for sure! I tell you what kid, electric Pokémon saved me during the war!"
You now realize that there was a war in Kanto. Your father died, and your rival lost his parents. You are amongst the first generation of people to live in peace at post-war time.
Also, mew and ditto share the same normal and shiny colours, the only ones who know transform, both can learn every move, both weigh the same (8.8 pounds), and have the same performance stats. Mew used to be common, and the ancestor of all pokémon. Ditto is common where it is found, and arguably has the DNA of every pokémon in order to use transform.
More conspiracy theories than anything, but still.