Pokemon

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Pocket Monsters, Indigo League, Adventures on the Orange Islands, The Johto Journeys, Johto League Champions, Master Quest

Japanese: ポケットモンスター

More titles

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 276

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 1, 1997 to Nov 14, 2002

Premiered: Spring 1997

Broadcast: Thursdays at 19:00 (JST)

Producers: TV Tokyo, TV Tokyo Music, Studio Jack

Licensors: VIZ Media, 4Kids Entertainment

Studios: OLM

Source: Game

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy

Demographic: Kids

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: PG - Children

Statistics

Score: 7.38¹ (scored by 393,528 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2240²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #332

Members: 619,578

Favorites: 5,284

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Streaming Platforms

Netflix

7.38

Ranked #2240Popularity #332Members 619,578

Spring 1997TVOLM

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Episodes: /276

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Synopsis

Pokémon are peculiar creatures with a vast array of different abilities and appearances; many people, known as Pokémon trainers, capture and train them, often with the intent of battling others. Young Satoshi has not only dreamed of becoming a Pokémon trainer but also a "Pokémon Master," and on the arrival of his 10th birthday, he finally has a chance to make that dream a reality. Unfortunately for him, all three Pokémon available to beginning trainers have already been claimed and only Pikachu, a rebellious Electric-type Pokémon, remains. However, this chance encounter would mark the start of a lifelong friendship and an epic adventure!

Setting off on a journey to become the very best, Satoshi and Pikachu travel across beautiful, sprawling regions with their friends Kasumi, a Water-type trainer, and Takeshi, a Rock-type trainer. But danger lurks around every corner. The infamous Team Rocket is always nearby, seeking to steal powerful Pokémon through nefarious schemes. It'll be up to Satoshi and his friends to thwart their efforts as he also strives to earn the eight Pokémon Gym Badges he'll need to challenge the Pokémon League, and eventually claim the title of Pokémon Master.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Dengeki! Pikachu, Satoshi to Pikachu, Pocket Monsters: The Animation
Side story:	Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu, Pokemon Movie 02: Maboroshi no Pokemon Lugia Bakutan, Pokemon Movie 03: Kesshoutou no Teiou Entei, Pokemon Movie 04: Celebi Toki wo Koeta Deai, Pokemon Movie 05: Mizu no Miyako no Mamorigami Latias to Latios, Pokemon Crystal: Raikou Ikazuchi no Densetsu, Pokemon: Mewtwo! Ware wa Koko ni Ari, Pokemon Housoukyoku, Pokemon: Pikachu Tankentai, Pokemon: Pichu to Pikachu, Pokemon: Pikachu no Dokidoki Kakurenbo, Pokemon: Pikapika Hoshizora Camp, Pokemon: Pikachu no Fuyuyasumi, Pokemon: Pikachu no Natsuyasumi, Pokemon: Bokutachi Pichu Brothers - Party wa Oosawagi! no Maki, Pokemon: Pikachu no Fuyuyasumi (2000), Pokemon: Pikachu no Fuyuyasumi (2001)
Sequel:	Pokemon Advanced Generation
Summary:	Pokemon Introductory Recap, TV-ban Pokemon Special Masara Town-hen Recaps, Pokemon Diamond & Pearl: Clip Show, Pokemon: Aki no Special, Oshougatsuda yo! Pokemon Special!
Alternative setting:	Pokemon: The Origin, Pokemon Movie 20: Kimi ni Kimeta!
Other:	Torikaekko Please, Pokemon Sun & Moon, Pokemon Generations, Pokemon (2019), Gotcha!, Pokemon Evolutions, A Ripple in Time, Pokemon Legends Arceus: Yuki Hodo Kishi Futaai, Pokemon Dai Koushin!, CoroCoro Monster Ball, Pokemon Inai Inai Baa!, Dokidoki Ghost Mansion, Pokemon de Manabi, Asobu, Hisui Kobanashi, Pikachu no Asa no Nikka, Pokemon Daiundoukai, Pikachu, Pochama to Fushigi na Nendo, Pokemon-tachi to Asobou!, Pokemon Omosakurabe Battle, Kansatsu! Pokemon Zukan, Pokemon Kids TV Douyou, Pokemon Moncolle Story, Pokemon Center Okinawa PV, Pokemon Peaceful Place, Pokemon ASMR, Kemeng, Pokemon Scarlet Violet, Nanjamo no Aibou wa Nanimono nanja!? (Donna Monja TV), Pokemon (2023), Chan Chiho Challenge Channel, Pokemon Concierge, Tong Meng Zhi Lu, Fangkemeng: Bu Yuan Zhi Dao de Fangxing Baokemeng?!, Kimi ni Aeta!, Houkago no Breath
Character:	Metamon to! Purin no Stage

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Satoshi

Main

Matsumoto, Rica
Japanese

Pikachu

Main

Ootani, Ikue
Japanese

Takeshi

Main

Ueda, Yuuji
Japanese

Kasumi

Main

Iizuka, Mayumi
Japanese

Togepi

Main

Koorogi, Satomi
Japanese

Kenji

Main

Seki, Tomokazu
Japanese

Kojirou

Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro
Japanese

Mewtwo

Supporting

Musashi

Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Nyarth

Supporting

Inuyama, Inuko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Haigney, Michael

Producer, Script, ADR Director

Yuyama, Kunihiko

Director, Storyboard

Hidaka, Masamitsu

Director

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Edit

Opening Theme

	1: "Mezase Pokémon Master (めざせポケモンマスター)" by Rica Matsumoto (eps 1-82)
	2: "Rival! (ライバル！)" by Rica Matsumoto (eps 83-118)
	3: "OK!" by Rica Matsumoto (eps 119-193)
	4: "Mezase Pokémon Master (めざせポケモンマスター)" by Whiteberry (eps 194-240)
	5: "Ready, Go!" by Naomi Tamura (eps 241-276)

Edit

Ending Theme

	1: "Hyaku Gojuu Ichi" by Unshou Ishizuka and Pokemon Kids (eps 1-27)
	2: "Nyaasu no Uta" by Inuko Inuyama (eps 28-37)
	3: "Pocket ni Fantasy" by Sachi & Juri (eps 38-53)
	4: "Pokemon Ondo" by Garura Kobayashi (eps 54-66)
	5: "Type: Wild" by Rica Matsumoto (eps 67-104)
	6: "Lapras ni Notte" by Iizuka Mayumi and Aikawa Rikako (eps 105-116)
	7: "Nyaasu no Party" by Roketto-Dan (eps 119-143)
	8: "Pokemon Hara Hara Relay" by Aikawa Rikako And Korasu
	9: "Takeshi no Paradaisu" by Yuji Ueda (eps 159-174)
	10: "Boku no Best Friend e" by Iawasaki Hiromi (eps 175-193)
	11: "Maemuki Roketto-Dan" by Roketto-Dan (eps 194-238)
	12: "Poketaari Monsutaari" by KANA (eps 241-276)

More theme songs

Reviews

Oct 26, 2008

iamjoe

Recommended

It's pretty unfabulous to have to review something you love when you know it's not very good.

Pokemon works with a re-use formula, the story is long, it is repetitive, it doesn't progress in any way because development doesn't really happen.

Art and sound is mediocre as it is a mass-produced anime. Production costs would have been sky-high if they spent any more money on it, and it shows.

The characters are pretty two-dimensional. They aren't deep, you don't go into their heads, and they're all about 11-15 years old but all act the same.

But why do I love this anime so much?? I ...

Open

Gift

Jan 27, 2009

TheLlama

Mixed Feelings

Pokemon! We've all heard of the show, and most of us have watched and (probably) loved it as kids. So this means it's great, no? I mean, why else would kids all over the world love it? Well... kids often preceive things differently than the older demographic, and they find great what others think of as garbage. So... what about Pokemon? Is this the same? Let's see...

It starts out with a tiny step, like most other journeys. Our hero, Ash Ketchum, has high dreams of becoming the ultimate Pokemon trainer (I'll refrain from explaining that to you), and he starts out by sleeping in too ... late! before logn however, he's gotten his first (reluctant) Pokemon, everyone's favorite mouse Pikachu, and they're off on their epic journey!

The shows brings out an epic adventure of friendship, harsh battles and whatnot; everything you'd expect from a shonen that's aimed at the younger kids. It isn't that great however, as it gets very repetitive after a while; a Pokemon/person of the day formula with some kind of problem that always ends well. And that's what most of the episodes contain, with a small bit of getting further on their journey every now and then.

Animation-wise, the show doesn't feature anything boastable, with flat character designs, okay backgrounds and no spectacular special effects at all. Was it because of budget restrictions (it is a pretty long anime, after all), or was it because the producers knew the kids they were aiming the show at didn't care anyway? Well, whatever it was, the animation isn't anything to brag about.

The soundtrack is what you'd expect of such a show; adventurous opening themes, background music that's supposed to get you into the fighting/comedic mood, and a variety of sound effects to use for all the moves and whatnot you'll see. The voice acting is decent, but honestly - my unability to cope with dubs in anime pretty much wins over my nostalgia here, and that is the main reason I stopped watching the show some time ago.

The characters are, well, what you'd expect from a shonen. The rash, headstrong main character and his oh-so-arrogant rival, and the people he travels with; the older, more reasonable (mostly) fellow, and of course, the tomboyish girl with whome he argues a lot. Yup, that's shonen for ya. The main comedic relief of the series, the Team Rocket trio, is actually a pretty entertaining one. Despite constantly neglecting to look over their mistakes and realise that every one of their contraptions fail against Ash and company, they keep on trying, knowing thinking that their boss will reward them greatly of they bring him the Pikachu. I like their stupid enthusiasm a lot, and their scenes are often among amogn the better ones in the series.

So... Pokemon is basically a cliche-ridden shonen with no real thing to make it stand out. Wait... that can't be right? What about all the kids that love it? And what of all the others that love it? One of the things, I believe, is the adventurous feel of the series; who wouldn't want to experience such an epic adventure for themselves? (I know I want to, at least!) Not to mention, the great values of friendship, loyalty and trust which are presented to the viewers. That is one thing that makes Pokemon so great, and I'd try to get any kid into the show becasue of that reason alone. And that's what there is to say about Pokemon, actually.

Open

Gift

Aug 19, 2007

VK11

Not Recommended

Ok, so for the sake of creating the ultimate database for MAL on anime reviews, I have decided to create a review on an anime show that almost everyone in this community is familiar with - Pokemon. Have YOU caught them all?

As many people probably already know, Pokemon is the story of our young hero Ash (Satoshi) Ketchum and his dream of one day becoming a Pokemon Master. Of course, if that is your dream, one must defeat gym leaders, participate in the regional Pokemon tournaments and of course, must catch them all, as per the famous catch-phrase of the show. On ... Ash's journey, he meets up with many different friends who all have different dreams as well, but coincide with Ash's dream of being a Pokemon Master. While the story nowadays seems pretty cliche and straightforward, keep in mind that this show debuted in 1997, so let's give it that much.

The animation for Pokemon is something that gets better as the show goes on. In the first many episodes, the animation is not the greatest thing in the world, and many of the frames are repeated several times throughout the entire anime. But because of the huge improvement, I will give credit to the animators in keeping up with the times.

The one thing I really like about this show when I first watched it was the music. I totally fell in love with many of the scores used whenever Ash participated in a big battle against gym leaders or tough rivals. Many of these scores can be seen in the many games that have been created for it as well. Besides that however, a lot of the other music heard sounds kind of boring, which ironically, fits well with the pace of the story, which I'm sure we all are familiar with.

I feel that the characters in Pokemon are simply too perfect. I suppose that since this show was geared towards the younger age group, that may be the reason why, but each main characters we are presented with have either one or two obvious faults that the show always seems to dwell upon whenever there is a problem. Whether it be Ash's rash and stubborn nature or Brock's obvious love of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, it just becomes waaay too repetitive for it to be enjoyable anymore. Team Rocket anyone?

Which leads to the category of enjoyment. If Pokemon simply aired the important episodes (i.e. gym battles, Ash catching Pokemon, etc.), the show would be scores more enjoyable than what we are presented it. The insane amount of pointless episodes are so utterly boring, that calling them fillers would be an insult to the word "fillers." Whenever I turn on the television and find Pokemon airing, I would stay on that channel for however long it took me to deduce whether or not a gym battle was occurring. If not, the channel was flipped instantly.

Pokemon has tried to keep things fresh with introducing a whole new set of pocket monsters, but at this point, there are so many that its hard to keep track of them all.

Pokemon is the anime show which introduced many of us to the world of japanese animation. I believe that a lot of us grew up watching this show at some point in our lives and will always hold it in a special place in our hearts. However, now that we have become older and can compare this to other anime out there, we can see how Pokemon horribly fails as being an enjoyable show to watch. The fact that Ash almost never wins a regional tournament and relinquishes all of his Pokemon that he has worked so hard to evolve and train (cough* Pidgeot* cough) also gets on the nerves of many people as well. For argument's sake, I rated it a 4 (decent) because of the "used-to be" interesting gym battles. Even now, whenever I see Ash competing at the Orange Island final battle, its something I'll gladly stay tuned and watch again.

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Pokemon

Alternative Titles

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Characters & Voice Actors

Satoshi

Pikachu

Takeshi

Kasumi

Togepi

Kenji

Kojirou

Mewtwo

Musashi

Nyarth

Staff

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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Pokemon

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

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Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

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