Pokémon has become a worldwide phenomena since its debut in 1996. Since then, it's taken a life of its own by way of Pokémon tv series; cards and live action competitions to see who's the best at the game.
It could be argued that it all started with the anime series. It has had a huge impact on the fan base.
There’s no denying Pokémon‘s iconic status worldwide; with the franchise celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026 while still being one of the most recognisable names in pop culture.
While the series enduring popularity can be greatly attributed to the success of the flagship video game series; Pokémon‘s anime adaptation hit the west on 8 September 1998, debuting the first episode of the Indigo League season; resulting in a pop culture phenomena anime fans may not ever see again.
Dubbed Pokémania by fans, the simultaneous release of the anime, video game and TCG caught like wildfire in the United States. Despite taking two years to make it to the west after the franchise’s 1996 launch in Japan; the franchise became so popular so quickly that by 1999, Pokémon had become a multi-million dollar franchise worldwide.
When the Pokémon anime originally released, the United States was just being introduced to the concept of anime, with Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon steadily making their own marks on pop culture during the 90s but Pokémon offered something completely unique from those stories.
While all three of these shows placed a narrative emphasis on the power of friendship, Pokémon‘s unique inclusion of adorable, collectible monsters - especially the show’s mascot and Ash’s partner, Pikachu - gave new fans something to seek out; which made the show’s obvious tie-in to the game even easier to move copies.
To prove just how much Pokémon had cemented itself for early anime fans in the west, just one year after its United States debut; Pokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back hit North American theaters on 10 November 1999, and became the 23rd-highest-grossing film that year, ranking just below other massive studio releases like Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace; Tarzan and Toy Story 2.
Around the time the second generation of Pokémon games made their way to western game stores in 2000; Pokémon Live!, a musical featuring characters from the anime, began touring around North America.
The games were just as popular, with the Pokémon franchise being heavily-attributed to a 250% spike in GameBoy hardware sales during the first quarter of 1999. The first generation of Pokémon games dominated sales charts in the United States, moving 11.2 million copies on launch.
By 2000, Pikachu secured a permanent spot at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. In the following decades, Pokémon‘s initial popularity began to taper off, mostly relegating itself to dedicated fans until 2016; when the launch of Pokémon GO in the United States brought a second wave of popularity for the series and completely took over the number one spot on Apple’s App Store,;being downloaded over 130 million times within its first month.
When you think about the truly global phenomenon that it is Pokémon; it can be hard to comprehend that this runaway success started in the mind of one man. Of course, the journey has involved countless talented people working hard to make dreams a reality but if it wasn’t for Satoshi Tajiri then Pokémon wouldn't exist.
The Japanese video game designer and director was the person who conceived of Pokémon, and who fought against the odds to bring it into the world.
This is the story of how one boy’s childhood passion of collecting insects became the inspiration for a world-conquering franchise that spans anime; video games; movies; card games; a musical and even a theme park. As with all great stories, this one involves struggle, sacrifice and the snatching of victory from the jaws of defeat.
Satoshi Tajiri was born in Stegaya, Tokyo and grew up in Machida, Tokyo. While Machida is a relatively large city now, back in the late 1960s and 1970s, it was going through a period of rapid growth and still had a more rural atmosphere.
It was in this rural atmosphere that Tajiri developed his love of collecting insects. He loved it so much in fact that he wanted to become an entomologist. The other kids even took to calling him 'Dr. Bug'. As the urban area started to spread and expand throughout Japan, the habitat of bugs was lost and it became more difficult to find and capture them.
Knowing that kids wouldn’t be able to experience the joy he had found in collecting insects, he was inspired to create a game for kids that replicated this feeling. It was this germ of an idea that led to Pokémon.
Luckily, Tajiri didn’t follow his original idea for a career path as an insect specialist and, instead, he became seduced by the world of video games. Tajiri was around for the birth of the video arcade scene in the late 1970s and became a fan of Space Invaders before video game development piqued his interest. He started to plan his own games, but before he got there, Tajiri started an arcade game fanzine called Game Freak.
From 1981 to 1986, Tajiri was the editor and writer of Game Freak, which mainly covered strategy for gamers and secrets of arcade games. The illustrator, Ken Sugimori, found a copy of the magazine in a shop specialised in self-published magazines, manga and books and would go on to become the magazine’s illustrator.
Tajiri and Sugimori started to realise that a lot of games were actually pretty bad and so, in 1989, they turned Game Freak into a game development company of the same name. That same year, the pair had their first game, Quinty, published by Namco.
All of this is interesting as it feeds directly into the surprising origins of the Pokémon universe. Inspired by the way Game Boys could be linked together with a cable and communicate with each other, Tajiri had a vision of bugs crawling between the handheld consoles.
Rather than just linking Game Boys' together so that people could compete with each other, he had the idea that people could use them to trade collectibles. This was the moment when the Pokémon concept was conceived. One of the early ideas was to call the game Capsule Monsters but this got changed to Pocket Monsters due to trademark issues and Pokémon is a syllabic abbreviation of this.
The idea was pitched to Nintendo, who were apparently confused by the concept. Luckily, Tajiri was well enough thought of as a game developer that they gave him the green light to produce. Little did they know that it would take six years before the game would be complete.
In this time, it almost drove Game Freak to bankruptcy, five employees quit because there wasn’t enough money to pay them, and Tajiri had to resort to working for free in order to get it finished.
In October 1996, soon after the release of the video games, the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) was produced by the company Media Factory. This card game followed similar rules to the video game and it too became a smash hit.
The Pokémon train had left the station and the franchise was on a roll. Today, it is still the most successful trading card game of all time and has sold an absolutely incredible 43.2 billion cards. Some of the most sought after cards reach sale prices of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Pokémon anime series was then born. The original anime show was conceived as a way to capitalise on the burgeoning popularity of the games and it first aired in Japan in April 1997. Soon, it was one of the most popular series on television.
It has been produced by the OLM Inc. animation studio from the start and right up to today. The adventure television series follows a 10 year old boy called Satoshi (named after Satoshi Tijiri himself) as he trains to become a Pokémon master. In the first episode, Satoshi’s main rival is introduced, Shigeru, which is named after the Pokémon illustrator Shigeru Miyamato. The English version of the original series aired in the US in 1998. Satoshi was renamed Ash Ketchum, and Shigeru was renamed Gary Oak.Now we reach the part of the story that we at Linearity Curve (formerly Vectornator) love the most – the Pokémon anime series is born. The original anime show was conceived as a way to capitalize on the burgeoning popularity of the games and it first aired in Japan in April 1997. Soon, it was one of the most popular series on television. It has been produced by the OLM Inc animation studio from the start and right up to today. The adventure television series follows a 10 year old boy called Satoshi (named after Satoshi Tijiri himself) as he trains to become a Pokémon master. In the first episode, Satoshi’s main rival is introduced, Shigeru, which is named after the Pokémon illustrator Shigeru Miyamato. The English version of the original series aired in the US in 1998. Satoshi was renamed Ash Ketchum, and Shigeru was renamed Gary Oak.
In the debut season of the show; we get introduced to the rich world of Pokémon. It opens with Ash Ketchum oversleeping and being forced to rush to his meeting with Professor Oak to receive his first Pokémon. In his rush, he runs into Gary Oak, who becomes something of Ash Ketchum's nemesis. The only Pokémon Ash has to choose is Pikachu and so this cute little creature becomes his companion on countless Pokémon journeys.
In the first season, Ash makes friends with the Cerulean City Gym Leader, Misty and Pewter City Gym Leader, Brock. Ash also encounters the criminal organisation, Team Rocket, for the first time. Team Rocket's mission is to steal Ash Ketchum's Pikachu and any rare Pokemon they can get their hands on.
The show was a huge success from the get go and it has aired almost every week since. It has become the most successful video game adaptation of all time and one of the most popular animated television series of all time. The adventure anime and the video games go hand in hand – each time a new game is released, a new series arc of the show begins.
You could say that the each game has its own anime version. The Pokémon characters are introduced in both the game and the series at the same time. In total, there have been 24 seasons of the show and more than 1 200 episodes.
The 24 seasons are actually broken down into seven sequential series that cover the main video game series. Along with the original series, there is Advanced Generation; Diamond & Pearl; Black & White; XY; Sun & Moon and Journeys.
What is it about Pokémon that has made it one of the most popular animated television series, from the original series through to Diamond & Pearl, Sun & Moon and up to today?
One secret is that even though this is anime for children, it resonates with all ages, and once you are locked in as a kid; you want to stick with it. Another big factor is that you become invested in all of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon journeys and find yourself rooting against Team Rocket. No big spoiler but needless to say he doesn't become a Pokemon master straight away and you find yourself really rooting for him every step of the way.
The crazy thing is, despite having been around for more than a quarter of a century, pretty much every component of the Pokémon franchise is still going strong today. The video games are still being produced; the card game is still super popular; the anime series continues to run; new movies are being made; spin-off series continue to pop up and we haven't even touched on the manga, books, toys, and other merchandise that are a big part of the Pokémon universe.
That all of this stemmed from the mind of one kid who was obsessed with insects is really a testament to the power of a great idea. It just goes to show how far a dream, passion and perseverance can take you.
Needless to say, with the Pokémon TCG being more popular than ever and plans on the horizon for more anime adaptations planned that move away from Ash Ketchum’s story, Pokémon isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
I'm not at all shocked by this. All types of anime seem to get popular and morph into more than just mangas. What makes each one different is how big the fanbase is.
Not all anime's can be as successful as Pokémon. I, too, am a fan of Pokemon. I like to watch the series and I used to play the Game Boy games.