Pokémon

The full story of the biggest media franchise on Earth, from Satoshi Tajiri's bug-collecting dream and the 1996 Game Boy originals through the Pokémania that swept the planet, the trading-card crazes, twenty-five years of games and anime, the summer the whole world played Pokémon GO, Ash Ketchum finally becoming World Champion, and the card-collecting mania of today, told through the real commercials, news reports, trailers, tournament finals and photographs of each moment.

A chronological documentary of 573 moments spanning 1987–2026 on Loreline.

Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-09-20

1. 1987 - Tajiri and his game collection (part 1). A young Satoshi Tajiri, then a games journalist, years before Pokémon, shows off his personal collection of arcade circuit boards on Fuji TV's late-night 'VHS Video Channel' around 1987, running rare boards like Return of Invaders and a Mr. Do! prototype.
2. 1987 - Tajiri and his game collection (part 2). The second half of the circa-1987 Fuji TV segment on writer-era Satoshi Tajiri, demonstrating obscure arcade boards, the obsessive collector's eye that would soon lead him to found Game Freak and invent Pokémon.
3. 1996-02-27 - Pokémon Red & Green - original Japanese TV commercial. The original Japanese TV spot for Pokémon Red & Green, digitized from a home VHS recording, fronted by a live-action hostess. The Game Boy games launched February 27, 1996 after roughly six years of development at Game Freak.
4. 1996-10-15 - Pokémon Blue Version CM (1996). Japanese TV commercial for Pokémon Blue, released October 15, 1996. Blue was initially a mail-order exclusive offered through CoroCoro Comic before its general retail release.
5. 1996-10-20 - Pokémon Card Game - Japanese launch commercial. Japanese TV commercial for the original Pokémon Card Game, which Media Factory launched in Japan on October 20, 1996. This is the trading card game that would later conquer the world as the Pokémon TCG.
6. 1997-03-25 - Pocket Monsters anime - broadcast-start promo (1997). Japanese on-air promo announcing the start of the Pocket Monsters TV anime. The series debuted on TV Tokyo on April 1, 1997 with Satoshi (Ash) and a disobedient Pikachu.
7. 1997-04-01 - Mezase Pokémon Master - original 1997 opening. The raw first opening of the Japanese anime, 'Mezase Pokémon Master' by Rica Matsumoto, as used from episode 1 in April 1997. Its opening cry 'Pokémon getto da ze!' became a national catchphrase.
8. 1997-04-20 - Pokémon stamps commercial (1997). Japanese TV commercial for Pokémon toy stamps from around April 1997, part of the first merchandising wave that followed the anime's debut that month.
9. 1997-05-15 - Pokémon Card Game Japanese commercial (1997). One of the early Japanese commercials for the Pokémon Card Game from 1997, when the card game was riding the anime's breakout popularity in Japan.
10. 1997-06-28 - Mezase Pokémon Master - full song. The full-length 'Mezase Pokémon Master' by Rica Matsumoto, released as a single in June 1997. It sold over a million copies, a rare feat for an anime theme.
11. 1997-11-22 - Pokémon Gold & Silver - Spaceworld 1997 demo footage. All known period footage of the Pokémon Gold & Silver demo shown at Nintendo Space World in November 1997, including Japanese TV coverage. The demo's wildly different beta Pokémon stayed lost until the ROM leaked in 2018.
12. 1997-12-16 - Pokémon panic - Japanese news, night of December 16, 1997. Japanese news coverage from the evening of December 16, 1997, as reports poured in of children collapsing during the Porygon episode of Pocket Monsters. Around 700 viewers were taken to hospitals nationwide.
13. 1997-12-16 - Fuji TV News Japan on the Pokémon Shock (Dec 16, 1997). Fuji TV's 'News Japan' bulletin from the night of the Porygon incident, subtitled in English. The strobing 'Pikachu's attack' scene triggered photosensitive seizures in viewers across Japan.
14. 1997-12-17 - Special breaking news on the Porygon episode (1997). Japanese special breaking-news coverage on the danger posed by the Porygon episode. The incident put a children's cartoon at the top of national news for days.
15. 1997-12-17 - CNN reports on the Pokémon seizure incident (Dec 17, 1997). CNN and other US outlets report on the seizure-inducing Pokémon episode on December 17, 1997, many Americans' first-ever exposure to the word 'Pokémon', months before the franchise launched in the West.
16. 1997-12-17 - BBC News on the banned Pokémon episode (Dec 17, 1997). BBC News report from December 17, 1997 on the Pokémon episode that caused seizures in almost 700 Japanese children, taken from a period VHS tape.
17. 1997-12-17 - News Station - full Pokémon Shock report (Dec 17, 1997). The full-length December 17, 1997 'News Station' segment on the Pokémon Shock, with interviews and analysis of how the episode's red-blue flashing triggered photosensitive epilepsy.
18. 1997-12-18 - Oha Suta addresses the Pokémon Shock (Dec 18, 1997). TV Tokyo's kids' morning show 'Oha Suta' opens with an uncharacteristically somber statement about the Porygon incident on December 18, 1997, subtitled in English.
19. 1997-12-18 - Fuji TV morning show devotes 45 minutes to the Pokémon Shock. Fuji TV's morning show 'Good Morning! Nice Day' spent nearly 45 minutes of its December 18, 1997 broadcast on the Pokémon Shock, with studio experts and hospital reports, subtitled in English.
20. 1998-03-27 - Nintendo Pocket Pikachu commercial (1998). Japanese TV commercial for the Pocket Pikachu, Nintendo's 1998 pedometer-pet where walking in real life earned currency to feed your Pikachu, a precursor of Pokémon's later step-counting gadgets.
21. 1998-04-11 - Pokémon Problem Inspection Report (subtitled). TV Tokyo's on-air report into the Porygon incident, broadcast ahead of the anime's April 1998 return, explaining the investigation and the new broadcast safeguards. English-subtitled archival footage.
22. 1998-04-16 - Pokémon broadcast-resumption announcement (April 1998). The on-air announcement that Pocket Monsters would resume broadcasting after its four-month hiatus following the Porygon incident. The anime returned on April 16, 1998 with new photosensitivity safeguards.
23. 1998-06-20 - Mewtwo Strikes Back - Japanese trailer #3. Another period Japanese trailer for the first Pokémon movie, 'Mewtwo Strikes Back', ahead of its July 18, 1998 premiere, the film that proved Pokémon could fill cinemas.
24. 1998-07-05 - Carddass Pocket Monsters Anime Collection CM (1998). Japanese commercial for Bandai's Carddass Pocket Monsters anime card collection from July 1998, one of the many rival card products spun up during Japan's Pokémon boom.
25. 1998-07-10 - Pocket Monsters VHS volumes 1-3 commercial (1998). Japanese commercial for the first sell-through VHS volumes of the Pocket Monsters anime, from July 1998, how Japanese kids rewatched the series in the pre-streaming era.
26. 1998-08-01 - Pocket Monsters Stadium (N64) Japanese commercials. Japanese TV commercials for Pocket Monsters Stadium, released for the Nintendo 64 on August 1, 1998. The rushed first Stadium shipped with only 42 of the 151 Pokémon battle-ready.
27. 1998-08-10 - Pokémon Red & Blue 'Vacuum Cleaner' US teaser (Aug 1998). An obscure August 1998 US teaser commercial for Pokémon Red & Blue in which a vacuum sucks up a kid's toys, priming America for the September launch with the promise of 150 monsters in your pocket.
28. 1998-09-08 - Pokémon episode 1 - 'I Choose You!' (English). The full first episode of the English-dubbed anime, in which 10-year-old Ash Ketchum oversleeps and gets stuck with Pikachu. The dub debuted in US syndication on September 8, 1998.
29. 1998-09-08 - Pokémon - Indigo League opening theme (1998). The English Season 1 opening, 'I wanna be the very best', sung by Jason Paige, which debuted with the US anime premiere in September 1998 and became one of TV's most recognizable theme songs.
30. 1998-09-08 - The PokéRap - original full version (1998). The original PokéRap from Season 1 of the English anime, which rattled off all 150 Pokémon across the week's end-credits segments, homework American kids actually memorized in 1998.
31. 1998-09-12 - Pocket Monsters Pikachu (Yellow) Japanese CM. Japanese commercial for Pocket Monsters Pikachu, Pokémon Yellow, released September 12, 1998. The special edition let Pikachu walk behind you, mirroring the anime.
32. 1998-09-15 - Pokémon Game Boy commercial from September 1998. A US Pokémon Game Boy commercial pulled from a VHS tape of September 15, 1998 broadcasts, airing in the two-week ramp before Red & Blue hit American shelves on September 28.
33. 1998-09-20 - Pokémon Indigo League TV advertisement (1998). US television advertisement for the first season of the Pokémon anime from its 1998 syndication launch, when the show quickly became the top-rated kids' program in America.
34. 1998-09-28 - Pokémon Red & Blue US TV spot (1998). The US launch TV spot for Pokémon Red & Blue, released September 28, 1998, the infamous bus commercial where passengers get trapped with battling monsters, tagged 'Gotta catch 'em all!'.
35. 1998-09-28 - Pokémon Red & Blue 'Bus' commercial - full unreleased cut. A rare, longer unreleased cut of the 1998 Pokémon Red & Blue US bus commercial sequence, showing more of the ad's grimy live-action world than the broadcast version.
36. 1998-10-08 - New Pokémon Kids 4 commercial (1998). Japanese commercial for Bandai's Pokémon Kids finger-puppet figures from October 1998, candy-toy staples that put cheap Pokémon figures in every Japanese convenience store.
37. 1998-10-10 - Pokémon Red & Blue USA promo (1998). US promotional spot for Pokémon Red & Blue from the game's autumn 1998 launch window, as Nintendo of America pushed the link-cable trading hook that made 'catching 'em all' require a friend.
38. 1998-10-12 - Oshaberi Pikachu talking toy commercial (1998). Japanese commercial for the 'Oshaberi Pikachu 2' talking Pikachu toy from October 1998, part of Tomy's flood of electronic Pikachu companions at the height of Japan's boom.
39. 1998-11-10 - TOMY 'Ask Pikachu' / Togepi toy commercial (1998). 1998 Japanese commercial for TOMY's 'Pikachu ni Kiite Miyou!' fortune-telling Pikachu toy with wobbling Togepi, cashing in on Togepi's anime debut that year.
40. 1998-12-12 - Pikachu Genki Dechu - Japanese N64 commercial. Japanese commercial for 'Pikachu Genki Dechu' (Hey You, Pikachu!), released December 12, 1998 for the Nintendo 64 with its voice-recognition microphone, kids literally talked to Pikachu.
41. 1998-12-18 - Pokémon Card GB commercial (December 1998). Japanese commercial for Pokémon Trading Card Game for Game Boy Color from December 1998, which turned the physical card craze into a video game, it later reached the West in 2000.
42. 1999-01-30 - Kids' WB Pokémon 'New Episodes' promos (early 1999). Kids' WB promos for new Pokémon episodes from January-February 1999 VHS recordings, aired as the network prepared to take the syndicated hit exclusive.
43. 1999-02-13 - Kids' WB Pokémon premiere bumper (Feb 13, 1999). The bumper shown right before Pokémon's Kids' WB network premiere on Saturday, February 13, 1999, the day the show moved from syndication to the WB's flagship kids' block.
44. 1999-02-13 - Pokémon TCG commercial #3 (1999). Unedited 1999 Wizards of the Coast commercial for the Pokémon Trading Card Game, from the launch year when packs sold out faster than stores could restock them.
45. 1999-03-06 - Pokémon Trading Card Game ad (1999). 1999 US television ad inviting kids to card battles and to join a Pokémon TCG club, recovered from a period VHS recording.
46. 1999-03-15 - 'Who's That Pokémon?' commercial bumpers (1999). The original 'Who's That Pokémon?' commercial-break intros and outros from 1999 broadcasts, the silhouette quiz that became one of the anime's most-loved rituals.
47. 1999-03-20 - Pokémon toys commercial (1999). A 1999 American commercial for Hasbro's Pokémon action figures, part of the merchandising avalanche that made Pokémon a multi-billion-dollar licensing machine that year.
48. 1999-04-10 - Pokémon TCG League commercial - 'Lazy Dog' (1999). 1999 commercial for the Pokémon Trading Card Game League, Wizards of the Coast's organized-play program that gave the card craze an official home in hobby shops across America.
49. 1999-04-26 - Super Smash Bros. 'Happy Together' commercial (1999). The legendary US commercial for Super Smash Bros. (N64, April 1999), with costumed Mario, Yoshi, DK and Pikachu beating each other up to 'Happy Together', Pikachu's debut as a fighting-game star.
50. 1999-05-10 - Pokémon documentary shot in 1999. A student documentary about Pokémon made at The Evergreen State College in 1999, with real period interviews of kids and parents mid-craze, raw primary-source footage, not a retrospective.

…and 523 more moments.

Full text archive: /loreline-text/pokmon.md