History ANime / Pokemon

* ''Pokémon Journeys: the Series'' (Episodes 1-present)

* ''''Pokémon Journeys: the Series''[[note]]Creator/{{Netflix}} exclusive in America. Unlike previous eras, this series has no subtitle in Japan, and has had episodes involve travel between all existing regions -- although locations, Pokémon, and aspects of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' have been prominently featured.[[/note]] (Episodes 1-present)

Japanese version:
* ''Pocket Monsters''[[note]]Unlike previous eras, this series has no subtitle in Japan, and has had episodes involve travel between all existing regions -- although locations, Pokemon, and aspects of ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' have been prominently featured. Pending a dub name, it was referred to by English fansites as the "new series".)[[/note]] (Episodes 1-present)

** A minor switch occurred for the ending in ''Journeys'', where after the first 19 episodes Pokémon Shiritori: Pikachu -> Mew Version was replaced by the Mew -> Zamazenta Version of the same song. It then immediately had its own evolution an episode later after [[spoiler:Riolu]] hatched (the episode 20 version simply featured [[spoiler:Riolu]]'s egg, [[SpoilerOpening which hadn't appeared yet]].

** Other weirdness includes the occasional mention of real-world locations such as France, England, and most famously, Hollywood, which was the setting of an entire episode devoted to telling Meowth's backstory.

** The version of "Pokémon Shiritori: Mew -> Zamazenta" that played in episode 20 included a random egg for seemingly no reason at all. [[spoiler:That was resolved an episode later when that egg appeared and subsequently hatched into Riolu, which then took its egg's place in the ending.]]

** There are lots of variants seen before Shiny Pokémon became a canon mechanic in Johto. Even then, the ''term'' "Shiny" itself isn't canon until Unova.

** ''Journeys'' has much less to do with its corresponding games, though it does introduce elements, characters, and Pokemon from the [''[VideoGame/PokemonSwordandShield]]'' games somewhat with a decent degree of frequency. The focus is put much more on what Pokemon is about, with episodes focusing on things like evolution and shiny hunting.

** Ash has had a Phanpy, Larvitar, Scraggy and Noibat hatch from eggs over the course of the anime.

*** The original series is especially guilty of this, since the Pokémon he doesn't carry in his party (Krabby/Kingler, Primeape, Muk and Tauros) are OutOfFocus and barely get any development or screen time. The 30 Tauros he has caught in the Safari Zone are a notorious victim of this trope, since it makes it difficult to determine whether he either uses one of different ones in battle and all of them seem to have the same personality. Furthermore, Brock's and Misty's Pokémon, with the exception of Misty's Psyduck, are mostly put OutOfFocus and barely get development since the focus is on Ash's team. However, Misty's Starmie and Horsea are left behind later on to give her fewer options for her team while also giving her the opportunity to catch new Pokémon in later seasons. Later seasons would cut supporting character's teams from six to three at most. Team Rocket's Pokémon would also follow this restriction, with both Jessie and James having at most two each (apart from Wobbuffet, who is officially Jessie's Pokémon but is mostly a permanent member like Meowth). ''Journeys'' would later adjust Team Rocket's formula by having them use a Gacha system that selects rental Pokémon rented from the rest of the team that are different in every episode.

*** The original series is especially guilty of this, since the Pokémon he doesn't carry in his party (Krabby/Kingler, Primeape, Muk and Tauros) are OutOfFocus and barely get any development or screen time. The 30 Tauros he has caught in the Safari Zone are a notorious victim of this trope, since it makes it difficult to determine whether he either uses one of different ones in battle and all of them seem to have the same personality. Furthermore, Brock's and Misty's Pokémon, with the exception of Misty's Psyduck, are mostly put OutOfFocus and barely get development since the focus is on Ash's team. However, Misty's Starmie and Horsea are left behind later on to give her fewer options for her team while also giving her the opportunity to catch new Pokémon in later seasons. Later seasons would cut supporting character's teams from six to three at most. Team Rocket's Pokémon would also follow this restriction, with both Jessie and James having at most two each (apart from Wobbuffet, who is officially Jessie's Pokémon but is mostly a permanent member like Meowth).

** Most trainers in the series, male and female, suffer a fair amount of slapstick abuse or awkwardness, usually caused by their Pokémon. Jessie in particular is assaulted indiscriminately with the the rest of her Team Rocket buddies each and every time.
** Burgundy in the ''Black and White'' series got a bit of slapstick and humiliation. In her debut episode she inadvertently insulted each of Ash's Pokémon, and each responded by attacking her.

** Iris in the games is very peppy and nice; however in the anime, while heroic, she's far more smug and bratty than in the games, her CatchPhrase telling Ash that he is "just a kid" due to his immaturity ([[HypocriticalHumor despite being the same age as him]]), although like Misty she ends up maturing mostly out of this by the end of her run.

* TooSoon: InUniverse, international dub only, in "The Kangaskhan Kid". After the events of "Hypno's Naptime", Misty reacting to being asked if she was a Pokémon or a person as though she'd just been asked about her rack (as she was in the Japanese version) makes perfect sense, seeing she'd been hypnotized into believing she was a Seel in that episode.

The ''Pokémon'' anime series, currently marketed in English as ''Pokémon: The Series'', is based on the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games by Creator/{{Nintendo}}. Given the success of the games, this series managed to make it to America as part of the marketing push, and, combined with the concurrent American airing of ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', helped keep the new wave of Western anime adaptations (which started after ''Franchise/PowerRangers'') going.

* BreakingOldTrends: The anime, for all its tendencies to patterns, is not above breaking them from time to time, due to airing for over twenty years,.

*** In both Kanto and Johto, Ash caught the three regional starters. Starting with Hoenn, the starters were divided between him and his supporting cast in some manner, and Ash wouldn't end up obtaining all three again until Unova.

*** This is the first region where Ash only starts off with just Pikachu instead of bringing over his current team from previous arcs, as in the Orange Island and Johto arcs. Starting with the Unova arc, it would be the standard procedure from then on once a new generation of Pokémon is launched.[[note]]For the Sinnoh arc, Ash only meant to take just Pikachu, but the Aipom he caught near the end of the Battle Frontier arc left Oak's lab to join Ash on the Sinnoh journey.[[/note]]

*** Ash finally catches a pseudo legendary Pokémon, or at least a member of its line.
*** Sinnoh was also the first series where another Pokémon shared the spotlight with Ash's Pikachu as the series mascot. This being Dawn's Piplup, who spent almost all of its time outside of its Pokéball.

*** The [[GoldfishPoopGang Team Rocket trio]] appearing in ''every'' episode since their debut, even if it's just a small 30-second cameo, starts to break the 16th Unova episode with their first absence.
*** Since Kanto Ash either had Misty or Brock traveling alongside him, with Johto being the only other region he had both. Unova was the first region where neither of them were amongst his companions.

*** First evolution of a Water-type starter, as well as a Water-type Pokémon finally evolving ever since way back in Kanto when Krabby evolved.

*** First region where all of Ash's Pokémon (save for Pikachu, of course) fully evolve.

*** Kalos also broke a trend involving the villains, namely that they didn't target either one of the initial cover legendaries, but rather the third Legendary Pokémon connected to them.

*** Alola changed up the overall series formula where instead of being an ongoing adventure around the region, it's now more of a SliceOfLife series where Ash goes to school. He still has adventures all over the region, but he only goes there as part of a school field trip. Ash still does take on a variant of the game's Island Challenge, but only faces of against the Island Kahunas.
*** The core cast that adventured around the region was usually made up of 3 or 4 human characters. Alola is the first series that goes beyond that by having up to 6 characters that the show focuses on, these being Ash, Lillie, Kiawe, Mallow, Lana, and Sophocles.
*** After six regions, Alola is the first where Ash doesn't catch the regional bird Pokémon, or a Water-type Pokémon.

*** This is the first region where the main cast are given legendary Pokémon. Ash caught a Meltan, and at one point had a temporary Poipole in his party. In addition, Mallow is seen caring for a Shaymin.
*** With a few notable exceptions, such as the main cast using some of the special Kurt balls in the original series, the creators of the Alola series finally take advantage of the fact that there are a variety of Poké Balls that the cast can use apart from the basic red-and-white ones. Some examples include Jessie catching Mimikyu with a Luxury Ball, Gladion using an Ultra Ball, Premier Ball, Heal Ball and Dusk Ball for his Lycanroc, Silvally, Umbreon, and Zoroark respectively, and Lana catching Eevee (Sandy) with a Dive Ball.
*** The Alola League breaks multiple trends that have been prevalent across all previous regional tournaments. Previously, the only important characters of note that enter are Ash and his rivals, with the standard 3-on-3 battles gradually building to full 6-on-6 as the tournament progresses. Here, all of Ash's companions, Team Rocket, Team Skull, and a Pokémon Professor (Samson Oak) also participate, with a gradual shift from 1-on-1 at the start and 3-on-3 at the end.

*** There are no guest appearance of any of Ash's companions from the immediate predecessor series, unlike before. Also not appearing are EarlyBirdCameo of Pokémon from the next generation of games.[[note]]It was thought for a while that Meltan and Melmetal filled this role, until the release of ''Sword and Shield'' showed that they weren't even in the base Pokedex.[[/note]]

*** In Japan, it is just called ''[[RecycledTitle Pocket Monsters]]'' instead of having a series subtitle.
*** The plot has Ash traveling on all of the known Pokémon world, not just the Galar region, as a research assistant instead of getting involved with the Galar Pokémon League. Although he does later get involved in something called the Pokémon World Championship in order to challenge Leon from ''Sword'' and ''Shield''.

*** Ash first captures for the series aren't any of the Generation VIII additions to the Pokédex, but rather Pokémon from previous generations.
*** Similar to Ash, Team Rocket doesn't get any Pokémon from Galar to train personally. Instead, They use a gacha matchine loaded with Team Rocket-loyal Pokémon, so the Pokémon they use in their plans are randomized for each episode they appear in.

** ''Sun and Moon'' is an exaggerated trope. The show is the lightest it's ever been, as a SliceOfLife show with lots of light-hearted comedy. [[spoiler: Subverted in that it also features one of the saddest episodes to date, with the death of an elderly Stoutland. In general, this season doesn't shy away from seriously discussing more complicated relational topics between people, and also pokémon, in a way the anime previously did only rarely. And then there's when the Aether Foundation and Ultra Beasts come into play...]]

* FantasyKitchenSink: At various points we've had psychics, [[KiAttacks aura]], ghosts, HumongousMecha, Magic (albeit very little), HardLight Holograms, a few superheroes (an aged Franchise/{{Batman}} parody, and a Franchise/KamenRider parody), ToonPhysics, WeirdScience, Cloning, {{Pirate}}s, {{Ninja}}s [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and a talking cat]]. And that's just the stuff that doesn't apply to the Pokémon themselves (though most of these do).