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Pokemon has become one of the most popular children's creations in recent years. The following excellent Wikipedia article tells you more.
Pokemon (Pokemon, poh-kay-mohn, although frequently, and even purposely mispronounced poh-kee-MAN), is a video game franchise, created by Satoshi Tajiri and published by Nintendo for several of their systems, most importantly the Game Boy. It has been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, and much more. The name Pokemon is a portmanteau of the words Pocket Monsters (Poketto Monsuta), which is its Japanese name.
Pokemon is also the collective name for the fictional creatures within the Pokemon games. The franchise has 386 unique monsters that lie at the heart of the Pokemon series (391 including currently known Pokemon from future games and 393 including the glitch Pokemon Missingno. and 'M). These figures have grown from the 151 monsters - including the almost unobtainable Mew - from the original games.
The Pokemon games are role-playing games with a strategy element which allow players to catch, collect, and train pets with various abilities, and battle them against each other to build their strength and evolve them into more powerful Pokemon. Pokemon battles are based on the non-lethal Eastern sport of fighting insects, but the Pokemon never bleed or die, only faint. The game's catchphrase used to be "Gotta catch 'em all!", although now it is no longer officially used. The games have sold over 100 million copies to date, not counting the ones released for home consoles (such as the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo GameCube). This makes it the second biggest-selling games franchise ever (after Nintendo's Mario series).
The Pokemon characters have become pop-culture icons; examples include the Pikachu balloon at a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, thousands of merchandise items, and in 2005, a theme park in Nagoya, Japan. Shows such as the Simpsons have made mild references to Pokemon and other anime in their cartoons.
Because of the unprecedented popularity of the franchise, Nintendo formed a subsidiary company called The Pokemon Company to handle the franchise. The subsidiary handles everything from publishing the games in Japan to running the official merchandise stores, the Pokemon Centers. The Pokemon Company in turn has a U.S. based subsidiary called Pokemon USA, of which a minority owner is 4Kids Entertainment, the international distributors (outside Japan) of the popular Pokemon anime series.
All of the Pokemon licensed properties overseen by the Pokemon Company are divided roughly by generation. There have been four generations, defined by the Pokemon which appear therein. Each of these generations has been first introduced in a pair of Pokemon video games for the Game Boy or its successors (including the Nintendo DS), beginning with Pokemon Red and Blue. Each generation introduces a slew of new Pokemon and a handful of new general concepts, usually without replacing any old Pokemon or concepts.
These generations are roughly chronological divisions; a handful of Pokemon from a subsequent generation appear in the anime, manga, or trading card game before the main Game Boy games which demarcate the generation are released, but the anime, manga, and even, of late, the card game divides itself into sagas or generations by the same scheme as the games.
Some of the general concepts were introduced elsewhere, before being introduced in the games. Two-on-two battles appeared in the anime long before appearing in the games, and Pokemon Abilities are similar to Pokemon Powers, introduced long before in the Pokemon Trading Card Game The generations:
First generation - Introduced in Pokemon Red and Blue. Introduced the first 151 Pokemon, as well as trading and battling Pokemon. In Japan the first generation was Pokemon Green and Red instead of the American Red and Blue.
Second generation - Introduced in Pokemon Gold and Silver. Introduced 100 additional Pokemon, as well as equipping Pokemon with items, breeding Pokemon and baby Pokemon, and the Steel and Dark Pokemon types.
Third generation - Introduced in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Introduced 135 additional Pokemon (133 if you don't count the generation's two promotional-only Pokemon), as well as Pokemon Abilities (always-on special innate abilities), Pokemon Contests (similar to dog shows), and two-on-two Pokemon battles.
Fourth generation - Slated to be introduced in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS. A handful of new Pokemon from this generation have made cameo appearances in the seventh and eighth Pokemon movies (Pokemon: Destiny Deoxys and Mew and the Wave Guiding Hero: Rukario, respectively), as well as promotional materials for Pokemon XD.
Main article: Pokemon (video games)
The Pokemon franchise originated with a series of Japanese video games created by Satoshi Tajiri for the Game Boy, and these games and their sequels and remakes are still considered the "main" Pokemon games, the games which most fans of the series are referring to when they refer to "Pokemon games." The first games in the series were the RPGs Pokemon Red and Blue' (Red and Green in Japan, followed by a Blue, and a Yellow special-edition version). These games were nearly identical, save for the fact that each version had a select group of Pokemon that the other version did not. The ultimate goal of these games was to catch at least one member of all the different species of Pokemon (150 at the time, 151 including one that could not be obtained during regular gameplay), and to do so, players had to trade for Pokemon not available in the version they had. While battling monsters is nothing new to RPGs, many players found themselves nearly addicted to finding, fighting, and capturing every Pokemon in the game. Another, perhaps easier, goal was to finish the game's storyline by becoming the Pokemon League Champion. This was done by collecting eight Gym Badges by beating the eight Gym Leaders and then defeating the Elite Four, plus the current League Champion.
Each generation of Pokemon games so far has followed a pattern of two complementing versions followed later by at least one other version with some extras. Pokemon Red and Blue were followed by Pokemon Yellow (in Japan, Red and Green were followed by Blue which was subsequently followed by Yellow). Gold and Silver were followed by the exclusively Game Boy Color version, Crystal. The Game Boy Advance first saw the release of Ruby and Sapphire. The most recent full fledged game has been Fire Red and Leaf Green which are remakes of Red and Blue. A third version of Ruby and Sapphire, called Pokemon Emerald, was released on May 1, 2005.
The series has also diversified into various spin-offs, such as pinball games, virtual pets, simulated photography, and racing. A handful of these spinoffs are remade in subsequent "generations"; for example, Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire is very similar to Pokemon Pinball but with newer Pokemon, and Pokemon Stadium 2 is largely identical to Pokemon Stadium but for the compatibility with Pokemon Gold and Silver.
The most recent game to be released was Pokemon XD for the GameCube. It came out on October 3rd, 2005. The next planned releases are listed below.
A number of Pokemon games are in development. These games include:
Pokemon Diamond and Pearl - Nintendo DS, 2006
Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon Red Rescue Force and Blue Rescue Force, for GBA and DS respectively, 2005
Two of the most popular Pokemon, Pikachu and Jigglypuff, were chosen to appear as two of the 12 characters in Nintendo's party/fighting game Super Smash Bros., which was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Pikachu appeared as an initially available character while Jigglypuff was an unlockable one. The pair returned in the 2001 GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee. They kept their positions, Pikachu was still an initial character while Jigglypuff was still an unlockable character, but two new Pokemon also appeared (joining Jigglypuff as unlockable characters: Mewtwo and Pichu.)
In both games, many different Pokemon can be used in a match by throwing the Pokeball item. A randomly-chosen Pokemon is released from the Pokeball, using one of its attacks to affect other players.
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the player can collect many different trophies of a variety of characters from numerous Nintendo games, including several Pokemon characters.
The next Super Smash Bros. game expected to feature Pokemon will be on the Nintendo Revolution in which Nintendo has already announced the new Super Smash Bros. Revolution. However, details of this game are still relatively unknown.
Pokemon for the new Nintendo Revolution has currently not been announced by Nintendo. However, Nintendo has produced a demo for the Nintendo Revolution (exclusive only to major game related companies such as Gamespot and IGN) known as the "Big Pokemon Hunter" game where the goal was to zoom with the controller and find different Pokemon. The review of this demo is currently available at Gamespot as well as many other sites.
Main article: Pokemon (anime)
There are two Pokemon anime series based on the video games. The first, and the more familiar one, Pokemon or Pocket Monsters (often referred to as Pokemon: Gotta Catch Em All to distinguish it from the later series) tells the adventures of Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in the original Japanese version) as he travels through Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto to become the greatest Pokemon Master. For the English language release, Pocket Monsters was split into four separate series spanning five seasons. This series is based on the first and second generation games.
The saga continues into Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation (in Japan) where Ash and company travel to Hoenn, a southern region in the Pokemon World. Ash takes on the role of a teacher and mentor for a younger, beginning Pokemon trainer in this series. Again, for the English release, Advanced Generation was split into separate series. This series is based on the third generation games. After this series Ash will go back to his home region of Kanto and visit new areas around there with the current team and Misty will meet him part way through this.
With the planned release of the fourth generation games for 2006, a follow-up to the Advanced Generation saga based on those games is expected. It is said to be titled Pokemon Ranger.
The second, entitled Shu-kan Pokemon Ho-so-kyoku is a spinoff of the first, and tells the adventures within the continuity of Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation, starring many of the recurring characters in Pocket Monsters. The English adaptation of this series, Pokemon Chronicles, combines the episodes from this series as well as various other made-for-TV specials (originally unrelated to Housoukyoku) that have aired in Japan but not translated for English release.
There is also a television program in Japan titled Pokemon Sunday, a live action Pokemon-themed variety show hosted by the Pokemon Research Team.
Currently, the English adaptation is still running and can be seen on Kids WB in the United States. In other countries its YTV in Canada, Sky One in the United Kingdom and RTE2 in Ireland. Housoukyoku originally aired on TV Tokyo but has since ended its run, while Chronicles can be seen in the United Kingdom on Toonami UK as of May 2005, Sunday is seen only on TV Tokyo and likely will not air in the US or Canada.
Main article: Pokemon (card game)
The Pokemon Trading Card Game was first introduced to North America in 1999, and in Japan at an earlier date. It is a collectible card game based off the famous Pokemon video game. At the time, it was published by Wizards of the Coast, the company most famous for Magic: The Gathering.
However, with the release of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire Game Boy video games, Nintendo took back the card game from Wizards of the Coast and started publishing the cards themselves. The latest incarnations of the card games is known as Pokemon-e Trading Card Game, the cards of which (for the large part) are compatible with the Nintendo e-Reader.
In 1998, Nintendo released a Game Boy Color version of the trading card game. This game included digital versions cards from the original set of cards and the first two expansion (Jungle and Fossil), but also included several cards exclusive to the game.
There are various Pokemon manga series, four of which were released in English by Viz Communications, and seven of them released in English by Chuang Yi.
Pokemon (The Electric Tale of Pikachu a.k.a Dengeki Pikachu), a sho-nen manga created by Toshihiro Ono. It was divided into four tanko-bon, each with four separate titles in North American and the English Singapore versions: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, Pikachu Shocks Back, Electric Pikachu Boogaloo, and Surf's Up, Pikachu. The series is based mostly on the anime.
Pokemon Adventures, a sho-nen manga based on the video games.
Magical Pokemon Journey (a.k.a. Pokemon: PiPiPi Adventures), a sho-jo manga
Pikachu Meets the Press (newspaper style comics, not released by Chuang Yi)
Ash & Pikachu (a.k.a. Satoshi to Pikachu, not released by Viz)
Pokemon Gold & Silver (not released by Viz)
Pokemon Ruby-Sapphire and Pokemon Pocket (not released by Viz)
Pokemon: Jirachi Wishmaker (not released by Viz)
Pokemon Card Ni Natta Wake (How I Became a Pokemon Card) by Kagemaru Himeno, an artist for the TCG. There are six volumes and each includes a special promotional card. The stories tell the tales of the art behind some of Himeno's cards (the tale of Persian from the Jungle set is particularly popular).
Pokemon Getto Da ze! by Satomi Nakamura
Poketto Monsutaa Chamo Chamo Puritei by Yumi Tsukirino, who also made Magical Pokemon Journey.
A live action show called Pokemon Live! toured the United States in late 2000. It was based off of the popular Pokemon anime, and was well-liked among some fans of the franchise (in spite of some continuity errors relating to the anime). In late 2002, it was scheduled to tour Europe, but was cancelled for unknown reasons.
Wikibooks has more about this subject: Pokemon
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