Pokémon (anime)

After he turns 10 years old, Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in Japan) is allowed to start his journey in the world of Pokémon and dreams of becoming a Pokémon master. On the day he is to receive his first Pokémon, Ash wakes in a panic, having overslept. Professor Oak, the local Pokémon researcher, has already given away the three Pokémon (Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle) he entrusts to new Pokémon Trainers when Ash finally reaches Oak's Lab. The only Pokémon that he has left is a Pikachu, which he gives to Ash. Determined to make it on his journey, Ash does his best to befriend Pikachu, but it does not trust him and will not even return to its Poké Ball, even attacking Ash with its electric powers. It is only after Ash protects Pikachu from a group of angry Spearow that Pikachu realizes how much Ash cares, leading it to save Ash. Afterwards, they both see a mysterious and unidentifiable Pokémon that spurs both of them to work towards Ash's goal.

Along the way, Ash makes many human and Pokémon friends as he works his way through the ranks of the world's many Pokémon Leagues. Through the Kanto Region, Ash befriends Water Pokémon trainer and erstwhile Cerulean City Gym Leader Misty (Kasumi) and Pewter City Gym Leader and Pokémon Breeder Brock (Takeshi), and all the while thwarting the plans of the Team Rocket trio Jessie (Musashi), James (Kojirō), and Meowth, who want to steal Ash's Pikachu and any other rare Pokémon they come across. When the group travels to the Orange Islands, Brock decides to stay with the local professor, Ivy, leaving Ash and Misty to continue travelling together. After a while, they meet and begin traveling with Pokémon Watcher and artist Tracey Sketchit (Kenji). Once they reach Pallet Town in Kanto, Tracey decides to stay with Professor Oak and Brock rejoins the group. Following this, the trio continues on their way to the Johto region.

When Ash leaves for the Hoenn Region at the end of the original series, Misty returns to Cerulean City in Kanto to become the full-time Cerulean City Gym Leader. However, at the start of the Ruby & Sapphire series (also referred by fans as the Advanced Generation series), Brock follows him to Hoenn and Ash gains new companions in Pokémon Coordinator May (Haruka) and her younger brother Max (Masato), and together they face off against the rival teams, Team Magma and Team Aqua.

After returning to Kanto and participating in the Battle Frontier challenge, Ash battles with his rival, Gary. After seeing Electivire, a Pokémon from the Sinnoh region he has never seen before, Ash decides to travel to Sinnoh. At the beginning of the season, Ash travels with Brock, one final time, to the Sinnoh Region, with May and Max going on their own paths. Ash and Brock meet Dawn (Hikari), another Pokémon Coordinator, who travels with them as they go through Sinnoh where they must defeat Cyrus and his Team Galactic.

In the Black & White series, Ash, his mother Delia and Professor Oak take a holiday to the far-off Unova Region, where he meets and travels with would-be Dragon Master Iris and Striaton City Gym Leader, Pokémon Connoisseur, and sometimes detective Cilan (Dent). During their journey, they discover the evil plans of Team Plasma, a criminal organization that wants to free Pokémon from people's ownership so that they can rule the world unopposed. After winning all eight Unova badges, Ash, Iris, and Cilan travel throughout the eastern side of Unova to prepare for the Unova Pokémon League Tournament, after which they meet N, who is instrumental in defeating Team Plasma. After this, Ash, Iris, and Cilan travel through the Decolore Islands before Ash makes his way back to Pallet Town and the meet the investigative reporter Alexa (Pansy) who is from the distant Kalos Region. Having arrived back in Kanto, Iris and Cilan travel to Johto whilst Ash and Alexa head to Kalos soon after Ash reunites with Delia and receiving a new outfit from her.

In the XY series, Ash and Alexa arrive in the Kalos region and Ash is itching to get started in earning his Gym badges. But after Alexa informs Ash that her sister, a Gym Leader, is currently absent, Ash travels to Lumiose City where he meets boy-genius Clemont (Citron) and his younger sister Bonnie (Eureka), unaware that Clemont is, in fact, Lumiose City's Gym Leader – a fact he tries his best to hide. Ash also reunites with Serena, a girl from Vaniville Town whom Ash had met in his childhood at Professor Oak's Summer Camp in Pallet Town. During that time he helped her during a predicament, and she has had feelings for him since that time. After traveling with them to prepare for the Kalos Pokémon League Tournament, Ash competes and advances all the way to the final, where he loses to Alain (Alan), a member of Team Flare due to them misleading him. Once he discovers their true intentions, however, Alain reforms and joins Ash and his friends to stop Team Flare's plans. Bidding farewell to his friends in Kalos, Ash once again returns to Pallet.

In the Sun & Moon series, Ash, Delia and Delia's Mr. Mime, nicknamed Mimey, are on vacation in the Alola region when Ash has an encounter with Tapu Koko, the guardian Pokémon of Melemele Island, who presents him with the Z-Ring, a device that, when paired with a special crystal, allows a Pokémon to unleash a powerful move when synchronized with its trainer. This leads him to stay in Alola and enroll at the local Pokémon school. When he decides to undertake the trials necessary to master the power of the Z-Ring, Ash's new classmates Lana (Suiren), Mallow (Mao), Lillie (Lilie), Sophocles (Māmane) and Kiawe (Kaki) decide to accompany him, while also pursuing their own goals. Team Rocket is also in the Alolan Islands, with James taking a more decisive and leader-like role than in the previous series. A running gag is that they have become "adopted" by a Bewear that appears and carries them off back to its cave just as they are being defeated, instead of the traditional "blasting off" conclusion.

The current series focuses on all eight regions, including Galar, the new setting of the Pokémon Sword and Shield games. It sees Ash and Pikachu travel to each of the regions, accompanied by a boy named Goh (Go) and his Scorbunny, which later evolves into Raboot.[12] Currently, the supporting cast includes a girl named Koharu and her Yamper.

In addition to the main series and the movies, the anime has also shown various full-length specials and TV shorts. Many of these specials centered around legendary Pokémon or one or more of the main characters that is separate from the main cast during its corresponding series, while the sporadically-made later side story episodes typically air as special episodes.

Pokémon Chronicles is a label created by 4Kids which is used for a collection of several as yet undubbed specials, which were first broadcast in English between May and October 2005 in the UK, and in the US between June and November 2006. The vast majority of the episodes making up Chronicles were taken from what was known in Japan as Pocket Monsters Side Stories (ポケットモンスターサイドストーリー, Poketto Monsutā Saido Sutōrī), which aired as part of Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station. The remaining portions of Chronicles consisted of a TV special called The Legend of Thunder, and installments from Pikachu's Winter Vacation, originally released on video.

Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station (週刊ポケモン放送局, Shūkan Pokemon Hōsōkyoku) is a closely related spin-off series that aired with the beginning part of Pokémon: Advanced Generation. The show was presented as an animated variety show, and showed clip shows, reruns of Pokémon episodes, television airings of the Pokémon movies, cast interviews, and live action footage, in addition to the previously mentioned Pokémon Side Story episodes. The hosts were Mayumi Iizuka as Kasumi (Misty) and Yūji Ueda as Takeshi (Brock). They were regularly joined by Kaba-chan, Manami Aihara, Bernard Ackah and Rex Jones as the comedy team "Shio Koshō", Megumi Hayashibara as Musashi (Jessie), Shin-ichiro Miki as Kojirō (James), and Inuko Inuyama as Nyarth (Meowth). The show ran from October 15, 2002, to September 28, 2004, when it was replaced by Pokémon Sunday.

Pokémon Sunday (ポケモン☆サンデー, Pokemon Sandē) was broadcast on TV Tokyo from October 3, 2004, to September 26, 2010. The show is the successor to the Pocket Monsters Encore and the Weekly Pokémon Broadcasting Station. Like the shows before it, Pokémon Sunday is variety show featuring reruns of old episodes as well as a number of 'Research' episodes involving live-action elements. Regular guests include Golgo Matsumoto and Red Yoshida of TIM; Hiroshi Yamamoto, Ryūji Akiyama, and Hiroyuki Baba of Robert; Becky (through September 2006), and Shoko Nakagawa (starting October 2006).

Pokémon Smash! (ポケモンスマッシュ!, Pokemon Sumasshu!) is the successor to the Pokémon Sunday series. It aired from October 3, 2010, to September 28, 2013.[13] Like its predecessors, Pokémon Smash! is a variety show that features live-action segments and reruns of old anime episodes. The theme song is "Endless Fighters" by AAA. Regular guests include Golgo Matsumoto and Red Yoshida of TIM; Shoko Nakagawa; and Hiroshi Yamamoto, Ryūji Akiyama, and Hiroyuki Baba of Robert.

Pokémon Get TV (ポケモンゲット☆TV, Pokemon Getto Terebi) is the successor to Pokémon Smash!, which premiered on October 6, 2013. Shoko Nakagawa remains as a host, and is joined by Yukito Nishii and comedy team Taka and Toshi.[14] Just like its predecessors, it is a variety show featuring reruns of previous anime episodes and special live-action segments.

Meet Up at the Pokémon House? (ポケモンの家あつまる？ Pokémon no Uchi Atsumaru?), more commonly known as Pokénchi (Japanese: ポケんち) or Pokémon House (Japanese: ポケモンの家), is the successor to Pokémon GET TV, which premiered on October 4, 2015. It is hosted by Shōko Nakagawa, Otani Rinka, Hyadain, and Abareru-kun.[15] Similar to its predecessors, it is a variety show featuring reruns of previous anime episodes and special live-action segments.

In Canada, the series has aired on YTV for over 16 years. Partway through XY, in 2014, the series moved to Teletoon.

The Disney XD channels for the UK and Ireland and continental Europe handle broadcasting throughout Europe. In the UK, it was also aired on Sky 1, ITV, ITV4, Cartoon Network and Toonami, CITV, Pop, Pop Max and GMTV.[22] On ITV, it was originally broadcast as part of the Ant & Dec show SMTV Live, which featured "PokéRap" and "Pokéfight" sketches.

In Germany, it was on RTL Zwei, Junior, Disney XD and ProSieben Maxx, and is currently being aired on Nickelodeon and Super RTL/Toggo plus, in Belgium on vtmKzoom and Kadet.

In Australia, The show is currently broadcast on 9Go!, which began on 4 December 2016 airing Pokémon XY and 9 February 2017 of a repeat episodes of the show from the very beginning and all new episodes of Pokémon: Sun and Moon premiered on 17 July 2017 to onwards. This show was formerly shown on Network Ten from 5 October 1998 until 22 February 2012, and was later moved to a digital channel Eleven on 27 February 2012 until 30 April 2018, On Pay TV This show was shown on Cartoon Network in 2000 until early 2016 later moved to Boomerang for only aired Pokémon XY: Kalos Quest and On 2 July 2018 it moved to Disney XD until 6 January 2019 later moved to Disney Channel. It is licensed by Beyond Home Entertainment.

In Italy, it was on Italia 1, Jetix, K2 and Disney XD. In Romania, it was on ProTV, TVR1, Jetix, Disney Channel and Megamax.

In India, the series is broadcast by Hungama TV. The Pokémon anime has an Indian audience of 96.9 million viewers, out of which 32.9 million viewers are in the 4–14 age range, among whom it is the top-ranked TV show.[23]

In China, the series has been released in dubbed Mandarin on several streaming platforms. The first episode has been watched more than 200 million times on Tencent Video,[24] and more than 20 million times on Youku.[25] On iQiyi, the fourth season has been watched more than 800 million times.[26]

Pokémon anime is currently available for streaming on Netflix in 216 regions and countries with different dubs and subtitles; all countries have at least English audio.[27] Pokémon is globally one of the most widely watched shows on Netflix, as of 2016.[11] It is also available on Hulu (in the United States and Japan), and Amazon Prime Video (in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Austria).