The Beginning

Pokémon was created by two friends from Japan, Satoshi Tajiri and Ken Sugimori, who is an illustrator. In 1982, Satoshi began a gaming magazine with his friends called Game Freak. This then helped him to create his own video games.

Game Freak then formed into a company which released games like Pulseman, Yoshi and Mario & Wario.

In the early 90s, Satoshi came up with the idea for Pocket Monsters, a game centred around fictional creatures with unique abilities that humans can catch and train, and pitched it to Nintendo.

Nintendo accepted the pitch and Satoshi spent the next few years (while working with the creator of Mario and The Legend of Zelda), creating Pocket Monsters.

In 1996, Pocket Monsters (Red and Green) was released on the Game Boy in Japan.

Pocket Monsters went on to sell millions of copies, released around the world. This was when the name was shortened to what we know today.

Pokémon

Since 1996, there have been nine more generations of Pokémon games and nine generations of Pokémon species, totalling 1,025 Pokémon species.

Other Media

Trading Cards

After the first game's success, the trading cards were created by a company called TCG and the first set of 102 cards was released in 1996, roughly seven months after the release of the first game. In 1999, the cards were released to the rest of the world.

 Shortly after this, Pokémon card tournaments appeared where players could battle with one another.

There have been over 30 million cards released, with some people paying hundreds of thousands of pounds for more rare cards.

An example being a first edition holographic Shadowless Charizard, which sold for £262,000 in 2020

TV Shows

Pokémon the Series (1997-2023)

The Pokémon TV series began in 1997, following the main character, Ash Ketchum, who dreams of becoming a Pokémon Master. Across the seasons you follow Ash's travels around multiple regions where he competes with various gym leaders while meeting new friends and Pokémon along the way.

Since the beginning of the series, there have been other side stories with different characters from the world of Pokémon. With the current series called Pokémon Horizons

Movies

After the first season of the TV show aired, the first Pokémon movie premiered in Japan called ‘Pocket Monsters the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back’. Similar to the series, it follows Ash and his friends, who are invited to an island where they meet the Pokémon Mewtwo.

There have been 23 animated movies of Pokémon and one live-action movie, Detective Pikachu.

Games

Pokémon Go

In 2016, Pokémon Go was released on phones across the globe. This game allowed players to walk around where they lived and catch Pokémon on their phones by using AR (augmented reality). The game smashed records when it was released and has since been downloaded more than a billion times.

Remakes

In 2018, Nintendo released a remade version of Pokémon Yellow, Red and Blue. Due to the new technology, players can use Nintendo Switch controllers to throw Poké Balls. This game once again broke records and created the start of the Pokémon Remakes.

Advertisements

There have been many different and unique places where Pokémon have appeared in advertising. Here are a couple from over the years.

Pokémon x Oreo

In 2021, to celebrate the 25th anniversary, Pokémon and Oreo came out with Oreo cookies embossed with 16 Pokémon characters. There was also a large art installation in LA’s Venice Beach showing off 3D replicas of the cookies for a limited time.

Pokémon x Kogei 

At the end of 2023, the Los Angeles Japan House hosted an exhibition which showed different Japanese crafts using Pokémon as the main theme of the exhibition. The collection features over 70 works of different materials and techniques.

Click Here for a more in-depth evaluation of the collection

Pokémon x National History Museum

This collaboration has been created to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Pokémon’s original games, Red and Green. Pokémon has previously done collaborations with museums relating to fossils and animals, and even the Van Gogh Museum. In 2026, there will be a pop-up shop within the museum, which will encourage people to look around the museum while also grabbing some Pokémon merch.Hopefully, you had a fun deep dive into Pokémon. Now, when your kids bring it up you may be able to understand a bit more what they are talking about.