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Anime: Pokémon
All the groups over the course of the series. note 

"I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was!
To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause!"
— "Pokémon Theme" performed by Jason Paige

The anime series based on the Pokémon games. 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 Dragon Ball, helped keep the new wave of Western anime adaptations (which started after Power Rangers) going.

It features the tale of Ash Ketchum and his pals (who change every saga), as well as the perennially ubiquitous Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth, who attempt to steal Pikachu or another rare Pokémon/item nearly every episode and are, with even greater frequency, sent flying sky-high with the Catch Phrase "Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again! *Ding!*" (at least until Team Rocket Took a Level in Badass in Black and White).

The seasons are as follows:

    Original series (Kanto and Johto) 
  • Indigo League (Episodes 1-81)
  • Adventures in the Orange Islands/Orange Archipelago (Episodes 82-116)
  • The Johto Journeys (Episodes 117-157)
  • Johto League Champions (Episodes 158-209)
  • Master Quest (Episodes 210-274)
    • Pokemon Chronicles (Episodes 1-26)

    Advanced Generation (Hoenn and Kanto's Battle Frontier) 
  • Advanced (Episodes 1-40)
  • Advanced Challenge (Episodes 41-92)
  • Advanced Battle (Episodes 93-145)
  • Battle Frontier (Episodes 146-192)

    Diamond and Pearl (Sinnoh) 
  • Diamond and Pearl (Episodes 1-52)
  • DP: Battle Dimension (Episodes 53-104)
  • DP: Galactic Battles (Episodes 105-157)
  • DP: Sinnoh League Victors (Episodes 158-191)

    Best Wishes (Unova) 
Japanese:
  • Best Wishes! (Episodes 1-84)
  • Best Wishes! Season 2 (Episodes 85-108)
  • Best Wishes! Season 2: Episode N (Episodes 109-122)
  • Best Wishes! Season 2 Da! (Decolora Adventure) (Episodes 123-)

Dub:
  • Black & White (Episodes 1-48)
  • BW: Rival Destinies (Episodes 49-97)
  • BW: Adventures in Unova (Episodes 98-)

For more info on the many, many characters see the character sheet. Save all character tropes there, not here.

A list of the various movies can be found here.

This show is the Trope Namer for:

This show provides examples of:

  • Aborted Arc: The infamous GS Ball storyline in Johto - according to Word Of God, the ball was to contain Celebi, which would travel with Ash for a period of time. However, the plot line of a legendary following Ash was eventually used with Meloetta in Best Wishes Season 2
    • The Meteonite plotline in Best Wishes is an example of an aborted conclusion to a near-finished arc, being postponed indefinitely.
  • Abridged Series: There are literally dozens of attempts at this all over the internet, but fans seem to believe only a few are actually entertaining. Series that earned articles here include:
  • Adaptation Expansion: Ever since the early days, the anime has used the extensive time frame between new generations to develop the Pokémon world, sometimes even giving interesting Character Development for established personas. This was particularly handy back when the games had more of an Excuse Plot. Conversely, any adaptations of the anime (such as The Electric Tale of Pikachu) inevitably suffered from massive Compressed Adaptation.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot
  • Alien Geometries: The Reverse World.
  • Alternative Foreign Theme Song: As with a number of other animé dubs, the series has numerous English theme songs, all of them different from the Japanese version. For example, here's the original opening. For those who don't read Japanese, "ポケモンＧＥＴだぜー！" ("Pokémon Get Da Ze~!", yes with the quiggy) translates to (appropriately) "Pokémon Gotta Catch 'Em All".
  • Animal Chick Magnet: Used often enough—sometimes not just for how cute the Pokemon are but for the type of Pokemon too.
  • Animation Bump: Several battles are much better animated than others. If you see Masaaki Iwane listed in the credits as the animation director, expect a damn good looking episode.
  • Anime First: Okay, Video Games First, but the anime did come before the manga it bears the most similarity to; not always the case in the other manga continuities, however.
    • Played straight in the US. The anime started 23 days before Red and Blue were released in the US.
    • And 22 days for Black and White.
  • The Anime of the Game: Probably the most successful adaptation of a game to another media.
  • Art Evolution: Kind of a given since the show has probably outlasted much of its original art staff.
  • Ash Face: Being set on fire appears to be just a minor inconvenience in the Pokémon world.
  • Attack Reflector: The Counter and Mirror Coat moves.
  • Bad Export for You: The first three movies and the eighth movie have yet to see a widescreen home video release Stateside, though four through seven were released on DVD and Blu-ray by Platinum Disc Corporation with widescreen versions on all Blu-ray releases and a couple of DVDs.
    • And to an extent, the home video release of Movie 5, since it had a distracting bluish tint throughout that wasn't present in the theatrical version.
  • Banned Episode: The first-season episode "Tentacool and Tentacruel" features an enraged Tentacruel wrecking havoc on a large city in an act of revenge against construction crews destroying the Tentacools' reef, including destroying skyscrapers. This episode had been pulled from most television markets due to the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, but it was aired on American Cartoon Network in 2002.
    • That same season, the episode "Electric Soldier Porygon" aired once in Japan, but sequences involving continually strobing blue and red lights caused several Japanese viewers - both kids and adults - to experience terrible seizures. While it was removed from Japanese reruns for a period of time, the episode has never seen the light of day in American markets, nor anywhere else in the world, and likewise, has never seen any official commercial home video releases.
  • Banned In Sweden: Briefly so, under a law that banned television advertisements targeted at children.
  • Battle Couple: Oscar and Andi, from the Advanced season episode "The Bicker The Better."
  • Beach Episode: Complete with swimsuit competition! And Banned In America!
  • Because Destiny Says So
  • Big Damn Movie: When legendary Pokémon get involved, the fate of the world is often at stake.
  • Blinding Bangs: The ghost-girl in "Ghoul Daze!"
  • Body Wipe:
    • "Bad to the Bone", where Professor Oak tells Ash that he should leave his lab.
    • "Berry Berry Interesting", where Munchlax walks into the Pokemon Center and to a berry bush.
    • In "A Fishing Connoisseur in a Fishy Competition", Bianca runs through the camera.
    • "A Shipful of Shivers", one of the ghost's tongue fills the screen as he is licking Jessie and Meowth.
    • "Spell of the Unown", in Larvitar's mind, the Slowking's mouth fills the screen as Pikachu and Togepi are entering it.
  • Calling Your Attacks: A variation; the calls are commands by a Trainer for the Pokémon to execute a specific technique/attack, as the Pokémon can use them without human intervention.
    • The Pokémon showboat episode implies that the Pokémon do this, but we can't tell because of Pokémon Speak and the dubbing process.
  • Chain of People
  • Chaos Architecture: The Pokémon world has long been Earth with new names for places and slight changes to Japan-based areas, filled with supernatural creatures (and in the anime, name-dropping real world places didn't stop in Generation I). The first episode of Black and White however, at last shows a map of the Pokémon world◊. The continents look nothing like Earth.
  • Christmas Episode: "Holiday Hi-Jynx!", which due to two unfortunate circumstances, did not air when originally intended in Japan and internationally.
    • The Pikachu's Winter Vacation shorts.
  • Circling Birdies: While the games usually feature generic birdies, the Pokémon anime sometimes features characters seeing circling bird-like Pokémon; the anime has shifted to frequently utilizing Pidgey or Torchic for this effect. Often, it indicates when a Pokémon is succumbing to the effect of the Confusion status. There is also a low chance of circling stars.
    • Oddly enough, in one episode of Pokémon Black and White, Ash's Snivy got circling stars when she was confused by one of Trip's Pokémon, in which, in that case, was Trip's Frillish, who had used Water Pulse on Snivy.
    • Also, the Ditto at the beginning of Pikachu's Ghost Carnival, in which the Ditto gets circling stars when it got hit on the head by a Cubone while Ditto was disguised as a Cubone.
  • Clip Show: Three of them (one in Hoenn, two in Sinnoh), all skipped in the dub.
  • Conspicuous CGI: Especially in some of the movies, but plenty of attacks in the Diamond and Pearl series of the anime also had a tendency to clash with the animation. The Gear Pokémon Klinklang was also CGI rather than traditional animation, which made its rotating parts look unusually smooth.
  • Continuity Cameo: Brendan, Isamu Akai, Lucas, Todd Snap, and Ethan and Silver.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: This scene◊ from the first episode of Black and White.
    • The newest Best Wishes ending has this◊ pic of all the main characters and nearly all their mons.
  • Convection Schmonvection: Pretty much any time someone gets hit with a move like Flamethrower at close range.
  • Cooking Duel: In "Hail to the Chef", Rhoda and Rhonda face off against each other with their Mr. Mime and Sneasel, respectively, to see who's the best.
  • Cooldown Hug: Several examples.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Marilyn is a girl that goes gaga over any Pokémon she says is cute, though not as bad as Gardenia with Grass Pokémon. So anybody watching the episode would've never guessed that she's good in Pokémon battles.
  • Cross Counter: Used in quite a few match-ups between Pokémon, but though the episode "Pasta La Vista" was set up for one, Team Rocket interrupted before the two fighting Pokémon could hit each other.
  • Cultural Translation: Infamously, riceballs as "donuts"; apparently caused enough fuss that later examples referred to them as riceballs. Then in Season 8, 4Kids would only get worse than ever before until PUSA took over and avoided making the same mistake.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Quite a few characters, be they lifted from the games or anime-original characters.
  • Cute Bruiser: Any cutesy Pokémon with fight in them may count.
  • Darker and Edgier: Black and White is looking to be even darker than Diamond & Pearl, if it does go into the game's plot...
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Pick any Dark or Ghost Pokémon. "Houndoom's Special Delivery" is one of the best examples.
  • Deadly Doctor: Dr. Proctor from the Indigo saga, who fought Team Rocket armed with nothing but a labcoat full of scalpels.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: The Elite Four, as well as several other characters.
  • Demoted to Extra: Most of the games' male playable characters, though notably subverted by Jimmy (who, along with Marina, had a special to himself) and Pokémon Rangers Solana, Kellyn, and Ben, who joined the group for two two-part episodes (one episode for Ben) and a special promoting the first game.
  • Disney Death/Near Death Experience: Nearly every single movie has a Pokémon die and come back to life, or barely avoid dying in the first place.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Plenty in the leadup to each new generation, both in the series and the movies.
    • Second: Ho-Oh (a literal example, appearing at the ending of the first episode two and a half years before appearing in the games), Togepi, Marill, Snubbull, Donphan, Elekid, Ledyba, Slowking, Hoothoot, Lugia.
    • Third: Azurill, Kecleon, Wailmer, Latias and Latios, Blaziken, Wynaut.
    • Fourth: Munchlax, Lucario, Weavile, Bonsly, Mime Jr., Chatot, Buizel, Mantyke, Manaphy, Electivire.
    • Fifth: Zoroark, Zorua.
    • Sixth: Sylveon.
      • Additionally, in an example concerning humans, Gym Leader Roxie made her debut in the Pokémon anime nine days prior to the Japanese release of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the games where she is introduced. This also extends to her bandmates, Billy Jo and Nicky, who are her guitarist and drummer in the games as well.
  • Early Installment Weirdness: Compare the Kanto league saga, which only took around 80 episodes to complete, to later game-based league sagas. For one, the only Gym Leader of the Kanto League to dress like his game counterpart was Koga.
    • Other weirdness includes real-life animals being seen on several occasions early in the first season (such as real fish in the aquarium in the Cerulean Gym). A few early Gym Leaders gave Ash their badges for helping them out in different ways, even though he didn't officially defeat them (the Cerulean and Celadon Gym Battles were interrupted by Team Rocket and a fire respectively, and the Haunter that Ash led back to the Saffron Gym snapped Sabrina out of her Emotionless Girl/Creepy Child persona)— starting with Koga, no other leaders have made exceptions like these.
      • This was lampshaded at the Cinnabar Gym, when Ash expects to receive his badge, but Blaine only intended to let him re-challenge him for it.
    • Emphasis on Rule of Funny also led to some bizarre situations, like a talking Gastly which godmoded by conjuring up illusions (rather than using typical moves) to counter any Pokémon attack.
    • There was also the Pokédex, who is usually just a computer spouting off information about Pokémon. In the first episode, it seemed to have a personality as a Deadpan Snarker, acting like a dick toward Ash when he found a Rattata going through his bag.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Toned down some from the games' Pokédex descriptions, but some of the Pokémon remain delightfully creepy.
  • Elemental Hair: The Eevee brothers — the yellow-haired Sparky having a Jolteon, the redhead Pyro a Flareon, the blue-haired Rainer a Vaporeon, and brown haired Mikey has an unevolved Eevee.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors
  • Enter Eponymous: "Enter Galactic" in the dub (though this title was meant to be a pun on the term 'intergalactic'), multiple examples in the Japanese version.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles: In a Contest battle, anything + everything = sparkles.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Teams Magma and Aqua as always, and Teams Rocket and Plasma as well.
  • Evolving Credits: Done rather interestingly with the first Black and White opening, where, in the opening for the first episode, everything, including all the Pokémon, are in black and white, except for Pikachu who shows up fully colored. In the second episode's opening, as Pikachu passes the Pokémon, any that were seen in the previous episode start filling in with color to show who's been seen so far. This was thrown aside in the dub.
    • The dub plays it straight for Adventures in Unova's opening — the footage changed to the opening used in the Episode N arc when it reached that point.
  • Executive Meddling: After the Seizure Incident, the animators were forced to make a new episode, "Pikachu's Goodbye", but fortunately, it ended up as one of the most memorable episodes of the series.
  • Face Nod Action
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: At various points we've had psychics, aura, ghosts, Humongous Mecha, Magic (albeit very little), Hard Light Holograms, at least one superhero (albeit an aged Batman parody), Toon Physics, Weird Science, Cloning, and a talking cat. And that's just the stuff that doesn't apply to the Pokémon themselves.
  • Fighting Series
  • Filler: Throughout every season, but more noticeable after Kanto. Possibly justified, as there's an obligation to introduce every single Pokémon at least once (except for the Porygon family). It IS a "-mon" show, after all. Since each new generation introduces at least a hundred new Pokémon, fillers are pretty much inevitable.
    • This has the additional benefit of delaying any actual plot advancement until the next generation (and thus, a new plot with new Pokémon) is released. Best Wishes is moving far quicker than Diamond and Pearl due to the fact that they don't need as much filler, due to having two game sets (B/W and B2/W2) set in the same region instead of only one.
    • Johto, however, is infamous for how many it had. Fifty percent of Johto is filler.
  • Fluffy Fashion Feathers: A few feather boas are worn, one by a Socialite on the St. Anne.
  • Free-Range Children: No one finds it disconcerting that ten-year olds run about the world by themselves - except Bianca's father, and he gets over it by episode's end. That's what they do in the world of Pokémon so it's usually never a problem.
  • Fun Size: Cute little Pokémon are even cuter in the anime...
  • Gag Boobs: While Ash did get some Marshmallow Hell moments in the series, the true case of this actually came in this fairly infamous Japanese made picture here.◊
  • Gag Dub: While not technically a parody, the English dub usually results in Rule of Funny and tons of Lampshading.
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: Has its own page.
  • Gratuitous English: Oh so very much. And the Japanese opening themes amount to little more than this and boatloads of random Pokémon terms with a catchy tune. Case in point: Everyday is spelled evierdai Lyrics are here.
    • The seasons based off of Black/White is called Best Wishes in Japan.
  • Green Aesop: Almost unique for both the series and the trope in that it doesn't drop the proverbial anvil. Beyond the obvious demonizing of poachers and animal abusers, it really just provides an example of humanity gone right. Animal rights are rarely an issue (especially because The Dog Bites Back with a vengeance if you kick one too hard). It's rare that smog from vehicles is even seen despite the existence of personal automobiles and heavy air transport, the skies are perennially clear and blue even over the largest metropolises, and huge tracts of land go free of harm. Even when pollution is referenced (outside of the Koffing and Grimer families), it's never actually seen, or else is promptly cleaned up. And no one says a word. Because no one has to.
    • And then there's Gringy City found in an early episode in the first season, whose air and water is so polluted from the extremely exaggerated number of factories most of which seem to exist only to pollute the air and water. The water is green and polluted with multiple Grimer and Muk (because of all the factories), the air is dark and filled with soot (because of all the factories), and there's no grassy area to speak of (because of all the factories). Misty and Brock then end the episode by telling Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny that the Sludge Pokemon are a good indication, that they should probably clean the place up a little.
  • Hammerspace
  • Hexagonal Speech Balloon
  • Hurricane of Puns: The 4Kids dub did this frequently, especially in the early episodes of Season 1.
    • After TPCI took over, they seemed to be either doing it less or stopping altogether as of the Best Wishes series.
    • Puns are quite frequent in the original Japanese version too, particularly in Team Rocket's dialogue. The Diglett episode from the original series had an endless stream of bad puns in the original, far more so than its dubbed version. Blame the lack of knowledge of this on the lack of available fansubs.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: "The Ninja Poké-Showdown" and "From Cradle to Save".
  • Instant Costume Change
  • Interspecies Friendship: Friendship, trust, and understanding between trainers and their Pokemon are recurring themes on the show.
  • Interspecies Romance: Tropius/Meganium, Golduck/Azumarill, Bulbasaur/Gloom etc. Breeding group is also not important (Lombre/Mawile; Lombre is in the Water 1 and Plant groups, while Mawile is in the Ground and Fairy. Marill/Elekid: a Water 1 and Ground and a No Eggs who evolves into one in the Humanshape). There are also some Human/Pokémon examples (Ash/Pikachu, Ash/Bayleef, Ash/Aipom, Ash/Latias, Cassandra/Meowth, Harley's Cacturn/Jessie). Most of the love is one sided and on the human/Pokémon it's always on the Pokémon's side, except for Gardenia and her fetish.]
  • Kaiju: Legendary Pokémon are anywhere from "extra-large" to "titanic" in size, especially if it's a more "beastly" Legendary (Groudon, Rayquaza, Giratina). Non-Legendary examples include the cliff-sized Dragonite in "Mystery at the Lighthouse" and the skyscraper-tall Tentacruel in "Tentacool and Tentacruel".
  • Kids Rock: 2 B A Master
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Don't these two◊ look familiar?
  • Lemony Narrator: Not during the main anime so much, but he does during Pokémon Chronicles and such.
  • Lighthouse Point: Episode 13, "Mystery at the Lighthouse".
  • Limited Wardrobe: Although Ash & co. usually get new outfits for each new journey.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: And that's just the human cast, excluding the hundreds of one-shots.
  • Long Runners: Has been running almost nonstop since April 1997 in Japan, with almost 700 episodes and 15 movies.
  • Lull Destruction: The more recent episodes have very few moments of silence, the maximum being about three seconds of silence per episode. The old episodes were short on silent moments as well, but the silent moments were much easier to find back then.
  • MacGuffin: The infamous GS Ball; also badges and ribbons to some extent.
  • Made of Iron: Almost every named human character.
  • Magical Computer: Pokédexes. Pretty powerful ones, too, at least for the nineties.
  • Merchandise Driven: One of the most well-known and successful shows of this type.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: New captures, attacks, and evolutions are typically gained throughout a season rather than being localized near the beginning or the end. This is mostly because the ungodly amounts of Filler act as huge buffers between plot points and wind up distributing them fairly evenly.
  • Missing Episode: Several (see the trope page for examples)
  • Monster of the Week: They're usually kind or misunderstood, though.
  • The Movie: Sixteen of them, two of which are actually one for the price of two.
  • Mushroom Samba
  • Musical Episode: Though not really an episode of the show nor even canonical to it, the stage show Pokémon Live! would seem to fit in this trope.
    • "Gotta Dance!", the short before the sixth movie.
  • Mythology Gag: The Best Wishes series has one in the first episode!◊
    • Also in the first episode of Black and White: the plane Ash takes to Unova is flight number 151.
    • Black and White also has episode 6's classic "ding-ding-ding-a-ding!" chime when healing Pokémon in the games.
    • In DP094, "Doc Brock", a Zapdos makes a quick cameo. In Pokémon Platinum, Zapdos can be found roaming Sinnoh in the post-Elite Four storyline. Notably, this was the first episode to air in Japan after the release of Platinum.
      • Repeated in DP142, "Where No Togepi Has Gone Before", where the evil Killer Rabbit Togepi knows Extrasensory. In Japan, this was the last episode to air before the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. In those games, guess which move Togepi can use for the first time?
    • In "Ya See we Want an Evolution!", the organization dedicated to showing the strength of Pokémon without evolving them is called the "B-Button League", referring to the actual game mechanic used for the very same purpose.
  • Never Say "Die": Dub only, naturally.
    • This is actually averted in many instances (mostly the movies), even while 4Kids Entertainment was handling it. For example, Pokémon 4Ever actually has Sammy say that Celebi was going to die. However, it's still softened a bit — in the original, it's already dead by that point. They also didn't make any attempt to cover up Latios's death in Pokémon Heroes or Lucario and Sir Aaron's deaths in Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.
    • The second episode of the post-4Kids dub threw in a rather casual aversion. James says that he'd "rather die" than marry Jessie.
  • No Export for You: The UK has never got DVD releases of ANY of the main series. Movies eight and nine have never been released there either. However it DID get Pokémon Chronicles.
    • In the USA, Pokémon Chronicles still hasn't been released on DVD yet.
      • Neither have boxsets for the Johto seasons.
      • Except for Master Quest, but those are out of print for a few years now (they were last released in 2005).
    • In the UK, a deal HAD been struck up with Network DVD (A label that usually sells DVDs of old British shows) to release the series, but the only DVD they released for it was The Rise of Darkrai. Hell, the site even at one point HAD a Pokémon section, but that didn't last.
    • No Export for You might FINALLY be averted for the UK as Universal will be releasing Zoroark: Master of Illusions on DVD late April. If they'll distribute the anime DVD releases like they do in France is unknown at this point, but right now it's a start.
      • Now mostly averted, as Universal UK have released the Giratina and Arceus movies, with the Black and White movies not too far off, and if the inlay sheet with Poképark 2 suggests correctly, they will be re-releasing the Darkrai movie as well. Destiny Deoxys is also due for a release on Blu-Ray within the next week or two, as well as 4Ever and Heroes on Blu-Ray as well, just leaves the Lucario and Manaphy movies without a UK release. Seeing as the last two have recently had an airing on CITV, there may be hopes for a DVD release soon.
    • Australia never received releases for the sixth or seventh movies, even though all others have been or are still available.
  • No Hugging, No Kissing: The best you'll get for anyone (barring temporary characters and guest stars) is Ship Tease.
  • Non Dubbed Grunts: Some Pokémon, mostly the ones who kept their Japanese names.
  • Novelization: Certain anime episodes (some books even compile several episodes within its pages) and at least two of the movies (some of the later movies have been released in manga format).
  • Oddly Named Sequel: The dub changes names every season except for between the first two, so whereas the original Japanese series has Pocket Monsters (seasons 1-5), Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation (seasons 6-9), Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl (seasons 10-13), Pocket Monsters Best Wishes! (seasons 14-15), andPocket Monsters Best Wishes! Season 2 (seasons 15+) the dub has Pokémon (seasons 1-2), Pokémon: The Johto Journeys (season 3), Pokémon Johto League Champions (season 4), Pokémon Master Quest (season 5), Pokémon Advanced (season 6), Pokémon Advanced Challenge (season 7), Pokémon Advanced Battle (season 8), Pokémon Battle Frontier (season 9), Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (season 10), Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Battle Dimension (season 11), Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Galactic Battles (season 12), Pokémon Diamond and Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors (season 13), Pokémon Black and White (season 14), Pokémon Black and White: Rival Destinies (season 15), and Pokémon Black and White: Adventures In Unova (season 16).
    • The DVD releases have remedied the problem for the first two seasons: season 1 is now "Indigo League" and season 2 is now "Adventures on the Orange Islands."
  • Off Model: As often as we have the Animation Bump, there's plenty of instances of this too. Black and White seems to be cutting back on it however.
  • Old Shame: "Electric Soldier Porygon"
  • Ominous Fog: Results in a Ship Tease with holding hands.
  • Ondo: Do-do-dogaasu, Do-doga-do!
  • The Other Darrin: The entire American voice cast (with a few exceptions among the recurring cast) is changed three-quarters of the way through Advance Generation.
  • Overly Long Gag: Professor Westwood V's (a colleague of Professor Oak in "The Evolution Solution") constant apologies to his ancestors, Westwood I-V before remembering that he's the fifth one.
  • Overtook The Games: The Indigo League conference had ended early in 1999, eight months before Gold and Silver's release. As a result, for the next few months there was an anime-exclusive region known as the Orange Islands.
  • Paper Fan of Doom
  • Party in My Pocket: They're called "Pocket Monsters" for a reason.
  • Pokédex Is a Free Action: No matter whether it's a friendly encounter with a Pidgey or they're being chased down by an angry wild Ursaring, no Pokémon ever attacks while a trainer is using their Pokédex. Ever. Well…except for that one filler which started off with a very random Giratina attack (caused by a Murkrow's illusion).
  • Powder Trail: "Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon", coupled with Indy Escape...sort of.
  • The Power of Friendship: All Pokémon companions.
  • Promoted Fanboy: Chris "Kirbopher" Niosi as Khoury. Though she was already a promoted fangirl by the time she made her mark, Cristina Valenzuela as Layla also counts.
  • Pun-Based Title: The American episode titles, sometimes going to "gems" such as "Doin' What Comes Natu-rally" and "Smells Like Team Spirit". Japan sometimes fall to this ("Do Coilnote  Dream of Electric Mice!?")
    • Partially stopped as of Black and White.
  • Punny Name: Best Wishes is both initialized "BW" (Black and White), and in Japanese "Wishes" would be pronounced very similar to "Isshu", the Japanese name of Unova, the region the series is set. Also, the Gratuitous English is - goes without saying - a totally Justified Trope in this series given that Unova is based on North America rather than Japan.
  • Recycled Script: For a long-running series like this one, certain storylines usually end up getting used over again over the years. One notable example is that all four main casts have gone through an episode where the majority of the cast and/or their Pokémon get paralyzed with Stun Spore, and the unaffected cast must search for the only plant that can cure the ailment. This usually also leads to the focused Pokémon (always a Water-type) of that episode either joining the cast or learning a new skill and overcoming its own problem.*
  • Rhymes on a Dime: One segment in "2.B.A. Master":
    So you've reached the Plateau, but not yet a hero.
    Are you ready to meet and defeat...the Elite?
    Can I expect survival...against your rival?
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Too many to list. Even some Pokémon you wouldn't think as cute to begin with.
  • Rule of Funny: The English Dub.
  • Run the Gauntlet: The Orange Crew and the Frontier Brains are non-villainous versions of this. While League tournaments involve hundreds of trainers, a participant in either of these special "leagues" only ever battles each of the Orange Gym Leaders or Frontier Brains one at a time.
  • Scenery Porn: Every single movie has at least one positively epic set piece in full Conspicuous CG. And they are gorgeous.
    • You're also likely to see that set piece get absolutely trashed at some point when the local Olympus Mons get pissed.
    • The movies also tend to open with gratuitous, sweeping shots of wild Pokémon. These are also typically gorgeous.
    • The entire three part mini arc with the resolution of Team Galactic, from Hunter J's ship getting sucked up with water to the Spear Pillar...whoa. Just whoa.
    • The regular series isn't too bad, either. The backgrounds have gotten a lot better: just compare the forests as seen in the Orange Islands arc to those in Black and White. The trees, riverbeds, and cliffsides are more meticulously painted, and so do some of the city areas.
  • Schizo Tech: You have Poké Balls that transmute living beings to light and store them in containers, which are used and sold in rural forest and mountain towns with little transportation.
  • Second Person Attack: Used frequently in the fight scenes.
  • Secret Test of Character: A few of the Gym Leaders do this, which makes sense as their job is to test trainers in a multitude of ways.
  • Serious Business: The fourth episode of the anime has a Bug Catcher type Pokémon trainer who dresses and acts like a samurai, treating his bug Pokémon catching profession as seriously as a samurai would treat his duties.
  • Setting Off Song: "Viridian City".
  • Shout Out: Musical shout outs can be found from time to time, usually in episode titles such as "Smells Like Team Spirit" or "Tears for Fears". The stealth shout-out award goes to Casey, however, when watching a (losing) baseball game, she says, "Where have you gone, Cory DiMario?"
  • Sigil Spam: The stylized Poké Ball emblem appears everywhere.
  • Skeleton Government: Besides Officer Jennys, there seem to be no form of government at all.
    • In one Orange Islands episode there's the mayor of the city running for re-election, but he turns out to be paranoid about hiding the fact that he abandoned his Bulbasaur in the sewer.
  • Slasher Smile: If a Pokémon has sharp teeth and isn't Ugly Cute, expect its grin to look like this.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Whether it be Misty, May, Dawn, or Iris, only one girl is allowed in the group at a time. Word Of God has admitted it's mainly done for Fanservice purposes.
  • Something Completely Different: The Pokémon Chronicles side series.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The Gen IV saga did this a few times, playing absurdly epic and dramatic music as the backdrop for chasing Pachirisu around for several minutes, or Team Rocket's evolution machine sputtering out repeatedly.
  • Spin-Off: The Pokémon Mystery Dungeon specials, and Pokémon Chronicles.
  • Spoiler Opening: The openings are pretty notorious for this. It only got worse when they started making one per year, which means most of the plot points of the next year are spoiled in one go.
    • Generally they're pretty good at avoiding this, at least in Japan. When a Pokémon evolves or is captured, it's added to the opening where empty space was before. The dub, however, tends to use visuals form the final version of the Japanese openings, so played straight there.
    • Played straight in The Greatest - Everyday!, however. We see Ash with Infernape and Torterra, and Dawn with Togekiss. We also saw all of Ash's old Pokemon that eventually returned for the league (even though not all of them ended up actually being used). Gliscor's return was still a surprise though.
    • The first Black and White opening soundly averts this. Only Pokémon which have appeared in previous episodes are revealed, and there is no way to tell which Pokémon the main characters will catch.
    • Averted with Spurt!— TONS of Ash's old Pokemon appear in this opening (including Butterfree), but, with the exception of Charizard, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur (who don't appear until near the very end), NONE of them actually appear in the show itself. Still, this isn't the first time we've been teased with possibilities of old characters showing up again, only to have the rug pulled out from under us...
    • Third Best Wishes ending Seven-colored Arch brings this back with a vengeance, spoiling four future evolutions (Unfezant, Pignite, Leavanny, and Crustle) and a capture (the Sunglasses Krokorok!).
    • The remixed opening and new ending for Episode N gives away the return of Ash's Charizard.
    • The opening for Decalora Adventure has a few hints of episodes in that arc, but the one that really counts is the return of Blackthorn Gym Leader Clair.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: The male and female Nidoran from the Orange Islands episode "Wherefore Art Thou, Pokémon?", an obvious Shout Out to Romeo and Juliet. As a bonus, they are named Tony and Maria after the protagonists of West Side Story, a modern take on the original play.
  • Stock Footage: Although it's more like "Recycled Footage", since it's reanimated and recoloured to fit the scenario. The footage from the "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter - where the Relic Castle's mechanism is activated, revealing the Meteonite - was reused for the scene in BW2-12, in which the Abyssal Ruins are activated to uncover the Reveal Glass.
  • Stock Sound Effects: The last few movies keep using sounds from Godzilla monsters: Dialga and Palkia use the roars of Rodan, Ghidorah and Godzilla, Giratana has Mothra sounds and the ship of the 11th movie's villain sounds like Megaguirus.
    • When one considers that it's Toho Studios (the same company that makes the Godzilla films) that distributes the films...the rest speaks for itself.
    • Palkia also has the roar of Boga, Obi-Wan Kenobi's varactyl mount, in the films and in Super Smash Bros Brawl. Boga is the first part of the roar, with either Heisei King Ghidorah (films) or Godzilla 1954 (Brawl) at the end.
  • Strictly Formula: Every episode of Pokémon that isn't a Gym battle or other plot point from the game follows the formula: Meet person of the week or Pokémon of the week, this person/Pokémon will either have a problem or cause someone in Ash's group to see a problem in themselves, Team Rocket will sometimesnote  plot to steal Pikachu and/or Pokémon of the week, Team Rocket unleashes their plan and is defeated in short order, the problem of the week is solved either by Team Rocket's defeat or some unrelated event.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: The actual competence and strength of characters and Pokemon is highly dependant on the plot.
  • Super Empowering
  • Theme Tune Extended: Occurs with several of the English theme songs. Some of the extended versions can be heard in select episodes, but such extended songs are typically heard in the Pokémon movies. Usually, the movie in question will feature the theme song of the season that is airing at the time of the movie's release. The first original series' theme song is probably the most notable example, though - it received an extended version of the regular show theme and, for Pokémon: The First Movie, a remix of said extended edition.
  • To Be Continued: Even though most episodes don't end in cliffhangers.
  • Too Soon: After the April 2011 earthquake in Japan, the Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma episodes were postponed, presumably due to a scene where James destroys a lot of Castelia City with an energy blast. A similar earthquake caused a filler episode of AG to be completely cancelled. According to Bulbapedia, the move Earthquake was never used after the Earthquake corresponding to the AG episode; the more recent disaster not helping matters...
  • Totally Radical: Several characters and instances in the dub, including Brawly and a one-shot DP character named Sho, who the dub made into a Jive Turkey turned Up to Eleven.
  • Traitor Shot: The Teddiursa in episode "UnBEARable" has five of them.
  • Transformation Sequence: Pokémon evolution.
  • Tournament Arc: The point of every region, both the League (called Conference for some reason) and the Grand Festival.
  • Under The Mistletoe: The Christmas Bash CD has a song with the same name as this trope. Misty sings about how she wants it to happen, Ash sings about how he doesn't want to be caught under it. You know the rest....
  • The Unintelligible: Most Pokémon, although many of the human characters understand them just fine; actions speak louder than words, after all.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: During the Sinnoh League, a Heatran is seen in the background several times as a trainer's Pokémon. Nobody even mentions it. One would think that it would be a big deal, considering Tobias has at least two legendaries.
  • Video Phone
  • Walking the Earth: Except when returning to Pallet Town.
  • Wasn't That Fun?: Pretty much every Pokémon movie. Characters arrive at destination, all happy and sunshine for a good 10 minutes, figures out the threat or central plot, danger happens, barely survives the threat, then, live happily ever after for another year.
  • What Could Have Been: Takeshi Shudo had story plans for Johto including Celebi being inside the GS Ball and finding out more about Ash's father. These ideas were scrapped and we ended up with the show we have now because of it.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: In general, most remotely sinister-looking Pokémon, like Arbok and Murkrow, play antagonistic roles in the series, whereas all the "cute" ones are usually on the good side. This is deconstructed in "Island of the Giant Pokemon" where the Rocket trio's Pokemon tell their side of the story.
  • Wild Child: Tommy in the anime, and twice in the manga.
  • Women Are Wiser: To a subtle extent with most female companions. While they still have profound moments of humility or hypocrisy, they usually have at least a small cut of competence over Ash. Brock initially balanced this until, well...
  • Worst Whatever Ever: The Japanese title for one episode translates to "The Worst Togepi Ever!" Sadly, the English dub changed it to "Where No Togepi Has Gone Before".
  • The X of Y: There have been at least 16 instances of this: Challenge of the Samurai, Island of the Giant Pokémon, Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon, The Case of the K-9 Caper, The Battle of the Badge, Tricks of the Trade...
Minna no Pokémon, getto da ze!
Gotta Catch 'Em All! Pokémon!
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PokémonTrope OverdosedSonic the Hedgehog
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Perfect BlueAnime of the 1990sPrincess Mononoke
PinwheelLong RunnersPolice, Camera, Action!
Rise Of The Planet Of The ApesFilms of the 2010sPokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions
Pokémon ConquestFranchise/PokémonPokémon
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