Pokémon in Movies, on TV and in Pop Culture
The games created Pokémon, but it's the anime that made it universal. Twenty-five years of episodes, twenty-three feature films, one live-action movie and a lasting place in popular culture. This page covers it all.
- The TV series
- Ash Ketchum, twenty-five years spent being ten
- After Ash
- The twenty-three movies
- Detective Pikachu on the big screen
- Pokémon in culture
- Pallet Town, a missed alarm and a rebellious Pikachu
- A group of friends that changes with every region
- Twenty years of Leagues: a long run of near misses
- The crowning moment: the Masters Eight Tournament
- Jessie, James and Meowth: the pursuers who never quit
- 2023: Ash's farewell and the handover
- Ash's journey, saga by saga
- In short
- In the shop
- Explore the Pokémon universe
- Frequently Asked Questions
The TV series
On the air since 1997, the series has followed each generation of games about a year behind. It doesn't adapt the games: it extends them. Team Rocket's Meowth talks, Pikachu refuses his Poké Ball, and characters who don't exist in the games — Gary Oak, Paul, Goh — take on major roles.
It's also the series that fixed images the games never showed in the minds of millions of viewers: the Pokémon Center as a hospital, the Trainer as a traveler, and Nurse Joy behind the counter in every city.
The full breakdown of the series — twenty-five seasons for Ash, three for Horizons, spread over seven cycles and 1,368 episodes — is detailed in All the seasons of the Pokémon anime, where each season also has its own dedicated article.
Ash Ketchum, twenty-five years spent being ten
The hero of the anime took twenty-five years to win a world title. He lost the Indigo League, the Silver Conference, the Hoenn League, the Sinnoh League, the Unova League and the Kalos League before winning the Alola League, then the Masters Eight Tournament in 2022. Few fictional heroes have failed so often before succeeding.
His full journey is retraced in Ash Ketchum and the Pokémon anime. His companions, his rivals and the figures of Team Rocket are all listed on the page All the Pokémon characters.
After Ash
In 2023, the series turns the page and hands the lead to two new characters, Liko and Roy, in Pokémon Horizons. The change runs deeper than a simple handoff: the adventure leaves the "one region, eight Badges" format for a continuous story aboard an airship, with a band of adventurers and an overarching plot.
Horizons currently has three seasons, and its numbering starts over at 1: this isn't "season 26" of Ash's series, but the beginning of a separate one. The details of each are in the guide to every season.
The twenty-three movies
Every movie puts a Legendary or Mythical Pokémon center stage, and often serves as a species' first official appearance before its release in the games. The first one, released in France in 2000, drew more than two million viewers. The French releases were so chaotic that they scrambled the order of the saga.
The film-by-film details, the release order and the puzzle of the French versions are all gathered in The Pokémon movies. Each one also has its own dedicated article, from the very first, devoted to Mewtwo to Secrets of the Jungle.
Detective Pikachu on the big screen
In 2019, Detective Pikachu became the first live-action Pokémon movie. Adapted from the 3DS game of the same name, it rests on a simple, effective idea: a grumpy talking Pikachu that only the hero can understand. It's also the first time audiences saw Pokémon rendered realistically, fur and scales included.
Pokémon in culture
Beyond the screen, the franchise has spread far and wide: the trading card game, Pokémon GO that sent millions of players out into the streets in 2016, the manga, the Pokémon Centers, the fashion collaborations and the official events.
Thirty years on, Pikachu ranks among the most recognized fictional characters in the world — so much so that it serves as a mascot for campaigns that have nothing to do with video games anymore. Its story is detailed on the page devoted to Pikachu.
Pallet Town, a missed alarm and a rebellious Pikachu
It all starts on April 1, 1997 on TV Tokyo. That day, a boy from Pallet Town wakes up late to collect his first Pokémon: Professor Oak's three starters are already gone, and all that's left is a Pikachu whose temper is as electric as its type.
The little rodent flatly refuses its Poké Ball and starts by zapping its Trainer. Everything changes when Ash shields it with his own body from a flock of Spearow: ever since that founding scene, Pikachu has ridden on his shoulder and never gone back into its Ball.
In France, you had to wait until September 5, 1999 and the Fox Kids channel, available only to satellite subscribers, to discover the series. Free-to-air broadcasting on TF1 began on January 3, 2000 and turned the duo into a schoolyard phenomenon.
One detail has become legendary: Ash stays forever ten years old. The franchise has embraced that choice, officially presenting the character as a hero who is ageless, an icon who never grows old, however many seasons go by.
A group of friends that changes with every region
Ash never travels alone, and that's one of the keys to the series. In Kanto and then Johto, he makes his way alongsideMisty, a Water Pokémon Trainer with a fierce temper, and Brock, a Gym Leader turned cook for the group.
In the Orange Islands, Pokémon watcher Tracey Sketchit rounds out the team. Then come May and her little brother Max in Hoenn, followed by Dawn in Sinnoh, each of them chasing their own dream while Ash chases his badges.
In Unova, he shares the road with Iris and Cilan the Connoisseur; in Kalos, with Serena, the inventor Clemont and his little sister Bonnie. In Alola, the setting changes completely: Ash trades traveling for a desk at the Pokémon School, surrounded by Lillie, Kiawe and their classmates.
Finally, in "Journeys", he forms a duo with Goh, who is obsessed with catching, and crosses paths with Chloe, whose Eevee explores one by one the possible evolutions of Eevee.
Twenty years of Leagues: a long run of near misses
Ash's record is first of all a lesson in stubbornness. At the Indigo League, his very first, he goes out in the Top 16. At the Johto League, a lost quarterfinal leaves him in the Top 8, despite a prestige win over his rival Gary in the previous round.
Hoenn sees him finish in the Top 8 again, Sinnoh in the Top 4, and Unova once more in the Top 8. In the meantime, he did lift one trophy: that of the Orange League, the side circuit of the Orange Islands.
The real heartbreaker is still the Kalos League final. His Greninja falls to Alain's Mega Charizard X and Ash finishes second, one battle short of the title, in front of millions of stunned viewers.
It takes the Alola League to finally see him win: he beats Gladion in the final and becomes the very first winner of the region's League, before adding an exhibition win over Professor Kukui.
🌟 The companion of all those Leagues deserves a spot in your home: check out the Pikachu collection.
The crowning moment: the Masters Eight Tournament
In the arc "Journeys", Ash patiently climbs the ranks of the World Coronation Series, a global ranking that puts every Trainer in order. The top eight meet in a knockout final stage, the Masters Eight Tournament.
The lineup is dizzying: Cynthia, Alain, Iris and several League Champions rub shoulders with Leon, the Galar League Champion, sitting at number one in the world and reputedly unbeaten since his debut.
The final is played at Wyndon Stadium, six on six. Broadcast in Japan on November 11, 2022, the episode that closes it sees Pikachu get back up and take down Leon's Charizard, giving Ash the title of Monarch and world champion.
One nuance is worth stating: the title officially won is that of world champion, not "Pokémon Master". The mini-series that closes his story is in fact called "Pokémon: To Be a Pokémon Master", proof that his personal quest doesn't stop there.
Jessie, James and Meowth: the pursuers who never quit
You can't tell Ash's story without Team Rocket. Jessie, James and a talking Meowth show up as early as the second episode, attacking the Viridian City Pokémon Center, and have never let go of the trail of the boy they nickname "the twerp".
Their goal never changes: getting hold of the Pikachu that humiliated them. Twenty-five years of makeshift traps, ridiculous disguises and failed blast-offs later, the trio still hasn't laid a hand on it.
Comic antagonists more than threatening ones, they have become full-fledged characters, capable of unexpected help when the situation calls for it. They leave the series in 2023, at the same time as the duo they were chasing.
2023: Ash's farewell and the handover
With the title barely won, the production announces the end of the Ash era. Eleven special episodes, aired in Japan from January 13 to March 24, 2023, close twenty-five years of adventures with a long-awaited reunion alongsideMisty and Brock.
The baton then passed to "Pokémon Horizons", launched on April 14, 2023 in Japan and arriving in France on Canal J on December 9, 2023. Two new heroes, Liko and Roy, take to the road with a brand-new band of adventurers.
His journey isn't limited to the TV series: he also has the lead role in the Pokémon feature films, from the very first Pokémon: The First Movie to Secrets of the Jungle, released in 2020 in Japan. Our overview of Pokémon on screen puts both sides, the series and the movies, back on the same timeline.
Ash, for his part, leaves at the top, which is rare for the hero of a long-running series. His cap and his Pikachu remain the emblems of the franchise, found on everything from a keychain to a cuddly plush.
Ash's journey, saga by saga
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Kanto — Indigo League | Misty and Brock · Top 16 |
| Orange Islands — Orange League | Misty and Tracey Sketchit · Winner |
| Johto — Johto League | Misty and Brock · Top 8 |
| Hoenn — Hoenn League | May, Max and Brock · Top 8 |
| Sinnoh — Sinnoh League | Dawn and Brock · Top 4 |
| Unova — Unova League | Iris and Cilan · Top 8 |
| Kalos — Kalos League | Serena, Clemont and Bonnie · Runner-up |
| Alola — Alola League | Lillie, Kiawe and the Pokémon School · Winner |
| World — Masters Eight Tournament | Goh and Chloe · Monarch, world champion |
In short
From Pallet Town to Wyndon Stadium, it took twenty-five years for Ash to land his world title. A lesson in perseverance carried by a duo that nothing has ever separated.
In the shop
The anime has its own collection: Ash Ketchum for the hero's cap and outfits, Team Rocket for the trio, Pikachu for the mascot. The posters and the costumes take their designs from the series.
Explore the Pokémon universe
This page is part of a series of guides covering the whole Pokémon universe:
Frequently Asked Questions
Twenty-eight, split across two separate series: twenty-five seasons of "Pokémon the Series", Ash Ketchum's run, which aired from 1997 to 2023, and three of "Pokémon Horizons", launched in 2023, whose numbering starts over at 1. That's 1,368 episodes in total.
Twenty-three animated feature films, plus Detective Pikachu, released in 2019 and shot in live action.
Yes. After falling short in six regional Leagues, he won the Alola League and then the Masters Eight Tournament in 2022, which made him the best Trainer in the world within the anime's continuity.
Liko and Roy, the two heroes of Pokémon Horizons, which launched in 2023. Along the way, the series drops the classic structure built around regions and Badges.
No. The show stands on its own: it shares the world and the creatures of the games, but tells its own story with its own characters.
Ten years old, from the first episode to the last. The franchise has officially described the character as ageless, an icon who never grows older despite twenty-five years on the air.
Yes, twice. He first won the Orange League, a side circuit in the Orange Islands, then the Alola League by beating Gladion in the final. Everywhere else, his best result remains a runner-up finish at the Kalos League.
By winning the Masters Eight Tournament, the final stage of the World Coronation Series. He defeated Leon, the Champion of the Galar League, in a six-on-six battle that aired in Japan on November 11, 2022.
Because he refused it in the very first episode. The bond formed when Ash Ketchum shielded him from a flock of Spearow, and Pikachu has traveled out in the open ever since, riding on his Trainer's shoulder.
On September 5, 1999 on Fox Kids, a channel available only to satellite subscribers at the time. Free-to-air broadcasting on TF1 began on January 3, 2000, nearly three years after the Japanese launch on April 1, 1997.
Liko and Roy, the two heroes of Pokémon Horizons. The series premiered on April 14, 2023 in Japan and started airing in France on December 9, 2023 on Canal J.