1-Hour Pokemon Anime Special on April 1st for 25th Anniversary

Pokemon is a media franchise that is managed by The Pokemon Company. This is a Japanese company that consists of numerous companies namely Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures. This originated with a pair of video games that can only be played through Game Boy which were also developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. 

Pocket Monsters: Red and Green which was later released as Pokemon: Red and Green in Japan was the highest-grossing media franchise of all time. This was awarded to be the fourth best-selling video game with an estimated more than 380 million copies sold worldwide. 

In addition, the franchise also introduced and sold millions of trading card games and toys and their own pokemon theme park. The franchise is still releasing games, toys, merchandise, and cards up to this day. 

The Pocket Monsters Trading Card Game (TCG) was released 8 months later after the release of the first video game of the franchise. This turned the fans of the game into a big craze, especially in Japan. This was the first competitor of the TCG Magic the Gathering that was released in 1993. For the common folk that didn’t even know what TCG is, the Pokemon Monsters Trading Card Game changed it substantially. After this, the Pokemon Franchise renamed “Pocket Monsters” into “Pokemon” in the United States due to copyright/trademark laws

The Pokemon Trading Card Game was released in North America in January 1999 and it took the US by storm. Most of the kids simply collected these like baseball cards using them for collection, trading, and even buying and selling. They acted like the Pokemon cards are like actual Pokemon that they own and they battle it out with others that have pokemon cards. 

In April 1997, the Pokemon Company’s Media Franchise release their first original animated series of Pokemon and it was aired in Japan on TV Tokyo. In September 1998, they were released in North America and later released in other parts of the globe.  This follows Ash Ketchum starting his Pokemon journey in the world of Pokemon and his dream to become the Pokemon Master. The TV series essentially takes the plot of the video games and converted it into half-hour episodes. There is much successful anime series over the past years and Pokemon is right up there in the most successful ones of all time.

In July 1998, the franchise released their first-ever movie called “Pokemon Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back” in Japan. The movie introduces their first legendary Pokemon name Mew and Mewtwo. All of the movies the franchise released were theatrical in Japan while only a few of the films were released in the US and most countries were debuted on television or viewers have to buy the DVD directly. 

The animated series has aired over 24 seasons which started with the Orginal Series, Advanced Generations, Diamond and Pearl, Black & White, XY, Sun & Moon, Journeys, and a few mini-series, spin-off specials, special episodes,  Japanese variety shows, and movies. All throughout the year 1997 up to the present. The writers really tried to connect or tie the anime to the video game as much as possible so that the viewers and the fans would be able to maximize the Pokemon experience. 

Pokemon Video Game History

The Pokemon Company has divided the history of the game by generations in chronological order on release. There are 9 generations in the world of pokemon from 1996 to the present. The first generation has 151 pokemon that you can able to catch up to the ninth generation with a total of 905 pokemon. 

In April 1989, the franchise has also released the system emulators to play the game from Game Boy to Nintendo Switch and also give us the cartilages of the game from Pokemon Red & Green to Pokemon Arceus and on February 2022, the franchise announced that in the next few months another game will be released and this is called Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. 

The pokemon’s gameplay is quite simple. The fans that bought the game have to catch all of the pokemon to complete their very own Pokedex. A Pokedex is a device that is designed to provide information about the pokemon that the trainer encounters or catches. The game also provides plenty of challenges that you have to face like battling Gym Leaders in the area and defeating the Elite Four and etc. 

Pokemon’s 25th Anniversary

The Pokemon franchise has been celebrating its anniversary for the entire year of 2021. There have been various commemorations that the franchise has released and launched for the fans. One of the following is the releasing Pokemon Snap, a game that can only be played exclusively on Nintendo Switch. In the following months, they released Pokemon Unite. It is a MOBA game that was exclusively for Nintendo Switch and then later it was released to IOS and Android mobile users. By the end of the year and the start of 2022 respectively, they released Pokemon Shing Pearl & Brilliant Diamond and Pokemon Arceus for Nintendo Switch.

Apart from the games, they also celebrated by releasing Pokemon Evolutions. Pokemon Evolutions is a web anime series that aired on Youtube and Pokemon TV. They also had an event “Pokemon 25th Anniversary Region” from March until October 2021 wherein each month an online exhibit of a specific region was opened on the Official Pokemon Website. In the month of October, they launched new collectible pokemon cards for the fans of the franchise.

Pokemon Anime Special Episode

Following the 25th anniversary celebration for the Pokemon franchise, the Pokemon Company has announced that they will be releasing a 1-hour special episode aired on TV Tokyo in Japan on April 1st, 2022. This commemorates the 25th-year celebration since the launch of the Orginal Series. 

The Pokemon Journey Series: 1-hour special episode consists of 2 brand new episodes (episode 103 & 104) and it will be aired back to back. The first episode is named “Ash & Clemont – Special Friendship Training” where Ash will be reunited with Pokemon XY and Pokemon XY & Z series companions Clemont and Bonnie. Clemont is an inventor and is the Gym Leader of Lumious City and Bonnie, Clemont’s younger sister is also a Pokemon Trainer like Ash. They will start their journey in Lumious City in the Kalos region where they will face plenty of obstacles and challenges and battle it out in the World Coronation Series.

The second episode is called “Ultra Class vs Elite Four Drasna!”. Ash will be battling his heart out with the Kalos region elite four Drasna, who specializes in and uses dragon-type pokemon. In the games, Drasna is also found in the Pokemon X & Y where she is the Elite Four Trainer of Kalos. Her grandparents originated in Sinnoh’s Celestia Town and there she had learned the region mythology surrounding Dialga and Palkia. This inspired her to become a trainer of dragon-type pokemon. 

Conclusion

The series has high hopes for the main protagonist, Ash Ketchum, who is climbing his way up in the rankings to achieve his dream as the Pokemon Master. 

Pokemon’s cultural impact on its viewers has catapulted the excitement for these upcoming releases. The iconic characters paired with newer and exciting storylines have surely caught the attention of all its fans and fans to be. The popular franchise has creatively transformed its content from games to TV shows to movies to toys and even merchandise that has found its foundation base from the older generations to new ones today.