Pokémon

is a media franchise owned by The Pokemon Company. It is based on the concept of hatching, catching, playing with, staying with, befriending, defending, raising, trading, training and battling with hundreds of different creatures. The concept was made by Satoshi Tajiri, Pokemon's creator. It is represented in many types of media, most famously video games, a still-running anime series, manga, and a trading card game. There are eight regions in the Pokemon games. Although there are 1013 different Pokemon, most people will know of the mascot of the company, an electric mouse Pokemon known as Pikachu.
The video games have sold more copies than every other series except Nintendo's Mario series.
Video games
A number of Pokemon games have been released, mostly on Nintendo systems, with the exception of Pokemon GO as The Pokemon Company is owned by Nintendo.
Most games are based on catching, training and battling Pokemon, and the player is a Pokemon trainer who does all these things. There are a number of aspects to the games.
In the games, Pokemon are creatures that trainers catch (using various types of capture devices known as Poke Balls), train, battle, collect, and trade with each other. As of the ninth generation, there are 1013 of them. One of the most popular Pokemon in competitive battling is Mega Kangaskhan, because of its ability to hit the target twice with each move.
Another Pokemon game is the famous Pokemon GO that can be played only on touch phones. It has a big difference from the other games but its basics are the same. This game uses Augmented Reality and the phone's GPS to give the player a very real sense of play. People literally walk around their neighbourhoods, explore new places and catch Pokemon which can be captured along with your surrounding environment by using the phone's camera. People can also go to special places or landmarks where there would be Poke Stops and Gyms which can be used to collect items, battle other Pokemon etc. This game has been a huge success when it was released and is widely considered as the beginning of the AR era.
Gameplay
The gameplay of the Pokemon series of role-playing video games involves the capture and training of many of fictional creatures called "Pokemon" and using them to battle other trainers. Each generation of games builds upon this idea by introducing new Pokemon, items, and gameplay concepts. Some of the general ideas were featured elsewhere before being introduced in the games; double battles appeared in the anime long before appearing in the games, and Pokemon abilities are similar to the Pokemon Powers first seen in the Pokemon Trading Card Game.
Anime
Not long after Pokemon Red and Blue (the first Pokemon video games) were released, a Pokemon anime was created. It was first shown in Japan in early 1997, and in the United States in late 1998. The anime started what has been called "Pokemania", which meant that after the anime came out, it became very popular among children, and many parents assumed it was a fad and no one would care about it in a couple years. However, it was never cancelled, and it is still running.
The interesting thing about the Pokemon Anime is that when a new Pokemon game is released that is not a remake, the whole Anime focuses on that with new Pokemon and the world that is in that Pokemon game.
The anime shows the adventures of Ash Ketchum, (with the exception of some special series) a ten-year-old Pokemon trainer who has many adventures, meeting many new people and Pokemon. His most famous Pokemon, and probably the most famous Pokemon, is Pikachu.
A number of Pokemon films have also been made that relate to the anime. The first one was Pokemon: The First Movie (released in 1998 in Japan and 1999 in United States). There are more movies still being made. There have now been seventeen films released.
2024 Live Action movie
Grayson Eddey as Ash Ketchum
Violet McGraw as Misty
Ethan William Childress as Brock
Mckenna Grace as Liza
Kate Mara as Delia Ketchum
Pierce Brosnan as Professor Oak
Angelique Cabral as Office Jenny
Alaina Huffman as Nurse Joy
Sophia Lillis as Jessie of Team Rocket.
Ty Simpkins as James of Team Rocket.
Isabel May as Wendy of Team Rocket.
Jeremy Palko as Giovanni the Boss of Team Rocket.
Tom Budge as Team Rocket Flatcap man #1
Trading card game
A Pokemon trading card game also exists. Players use Pokemon cards to battle each other and collect them by opening packs. There are also live tournaments hosted by Nintendo. Pokemon's damage is counted by "damage counters" or objects which are placed on the cards to keep track of damage. After you add up all of the numbers on the damage counters, you subtract it from the card's HP (health points) to find out how much HP is left. Only 60 cards are used in a player's deck, and six of these are set aside in a pile called "prize cards." After one player knocks out an opponent's card, the defeater takes just one face-down prize card for non-EX Pokemon. Meanwhile, when someone makes an EX Pokemon faint, he or she gets two prize cards. There is one discard pile for each player, where fainted Pokemon go. Some ways to win are taking all of your prize cards, and/or making your opponent draw all of his or her cards.
There are cards designed as various Pokemon, which usually need "Energy" cards to use attacks. There are also "Trainer" cards, which are used for additional things other than direct Pokemon attacks, like giving Pokemon more HP. Most fans of the series agree that a good deck is made of about twenty "Pokemon" cards, twenty "Energy" cards, and twenty "Trainer" cards.
Players can evolve their Benched or Active Pokemon. The Bench is a spot that can hold Pokemon, and these Pokemon can be evolved with its evolution card. Active Pokemon can evolve too, but can also use attacks. To evolve a Pokemon, you can just put its evolution card on top of it.
All Pokemon cards have types. The type affects how effective an attack is. For example, a certain Lightning-type Pikachu card can use an attack that normally deals 80 damage. If the Pikachu uses it against a Pokemon with a Weakness of +20 to Lighting, you add 20 more damage to the normal damage to make it 100. Types can also make things less effective.
There is also a special kind of Pokemon in the trading card game called "EX" Pokemon. EX & GX Pokemon are stronger than regular ones, but when they are knocked out, the player's opponent draws two of their prize cards (with regular Pokemon it is just one.) Also, there is another special type of Pokemon in the trading card game called "Delta Species" Pokemon, which have types that are different than typical cards, like an Electric-type Charmander, who is usually Fire-type. In the "Diamond & Pearl" trading card game expansion, "LV.X" cards were introduced. These are a little like evolution cards, but they can only be used on Active Pokemon. In the "HeartGold & SoulSilver" expansion, The Pokemon Company released new cards, called LEGEND cards. LEGEND cards are two cards sold separately that when put together make one picture. They can be used only when the two cards they are made of are put together; they cannot work separately.
Criticism
The Pokemon media franchise, especially the anime, has been often criticized by organizations such as PETA.
Denno Senshi Porygon
An episode of the anime called "Denno Senshi Porygon" ("Electric Soldier Porygon" translated in English) was first shown in Japan on December 16, 1997. One part of the episode showed quick flashing red and blue lights. This caused 685 Japanese children to have epileptic seizures. Because of this, the anime went on a four-month break, and several laws were put in place regarding the flashing lights. Also, the previous episodes released had been toned down when Pokemon aired again.
Porygon, one of the main characters in the episode, has not appeared again in the anime ever since "Denno Senshi Porygon". It has two evolved forms, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z, and neither of them have appeared in the anime at all, even though it was Ash Ketchum's Pikachu that made the explosion that caused the flashing lights.
An episode of The Simpsons called "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" made fun of "Denno Senshi Porygon", as well as an episode of South Park called "Chinpokomon".
Jynx
Jynx, a species of Pokemon, was criticized because it looked like it was using blackface (an old film-making technique that makes white actors look African-American). It was also criticized because it looked like a drag queen (a man who dresses as a woman). This was not an issue in Japan, but it caused a lot of argument in the United States because of the United States' history of racism. Ever since then, Jynx has purple skin instead of black skin, and anime episodes featuring it were banned due to argument.
Game censorship
In Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the Pokemon Registeel had its sprite changed in some European versions, because its pose was too similar to a Nazi salute.
Another Nazi-related censorship was the trading card Koga's Ninja Trick. In this card, there are various symbols, one of them being the swastika. The swastika symbol is used in some cultures and religions. However, it is also used as a symbol of Nazism. Because of this, the symbol was changed in the English and International versions of the trading card.