Trivia / Pokémon: The Series

• Acting for Two:
  • Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart and Rachael Lillis, the original voice actors for Ash, Brock, and Misty also voice Delia Ketchum (Ash's mom) and May, James, and Jessie respectively.
  • When TPCi took over the English dub, the voices of James and Meowth were taken over by Jimmy Zoppi (under different pseudonyms; Meowth is credited to Carter Cathcart), who originally voiced Gary Oak (and continued to do so).
  • Dawn and Cynthia are both voiced by Emily Jenness in English.
• Adored by the Network:
  • The Watch Disney XD app (later rebranded as Disney NOW) and website may have more episodes of the show than their original shows, although no show Disney XD has ever run comes close to Pokemon's episode count. The app has almost every dubbed episode up to the present (except for the banned and undubbed episodes), as well as many of the movies.
    • The impressive part of this is that fellow anime acquisition, Beyblade, doesn't get this kind of treatment with seasons just appearing and vanishing, and that original shows with far fewer episodes do often show up on the apps in their entireties with much fanfare, but usually vanish after a few months. When Pokemon was acquired, they started with Season 1, then continued adding seasons and the entire series had been there for quite a while. Certain seasons go missing from time to time though.
  • The anime was this for Kids' WB! back in the day, with frequent marathons and back-to-back episodes.
  • The anime was also this for Cartoon Network in the mid-to-late 2000s with the movies airing routinely and the show getting several marathons. Then they went in the completely opposite direction and the rest is history.
  • Boomerang also treated the show well too. It was given a good time slot and from the schedule change in 2014 to when the show moved to Disney XD, it would air eight times a day.
• All-Star Cast: As time went on, the English dub began attracting well-known anime dub voice actors. Among them are Todd Haberkorn, Cherami Leigh, Xanthe Huynh, Erica Mendez, Richard Epcar, Zeno Robinson, J. Michael Tatum, Cassandra Lee Morris (who was relatively unknown when she voiced her first character of the day in Diamond and Pearl), Vic Mignogna, Christopher Sabat, Xander Mobus, among many others.
• 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.
  • Played straight in the UK as well - the anime debuted on March 29th, 1999, whilst the games weren't released until October 5th of that year.
• Bad Export for You:
  • For the longest time, the first eight movies were released on home video in North America with cropped aspect ratios and the occasional change in color and brightness. As of now, the eighth movie has yet to see a widescreen physical home video release Stateside, though it was recently released on digital platforms in HD. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh films were released on DVD and Blu-ray by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (with the DVDs later reissued by Lionsgate and later Paramount) with widescreen versions on the Blu-ray releases and some of the DVDs^note At first, only 4Ever and Deoxys got separate widescreen DVDs, though Echo Bridge would later release Heroes and Jirachi on DVD in widescreen, both in quadruple features and on separate DVDs, and, after six years of being in licensing limbo the first three movies were rereleased on DVD and Blu-ray in February 2016.
  • The American home video releases of Heroes have a distracting bluish tint throughout that wasn't present in the theatrical version. This was eventually fixed.
• Banned Episode: So many that it has its own page.
• Banned in China:
  • Briefly banned in Sweden, under a law that banned television advertisements targeted at children.
  • For similar reasons, the Finnish dub stopped including the Pokérap and "Who's That Pokémon?" segments beginning with "Abra and the Psychic Showdown". Some parents were less than happy with the Merchandise-Driven nature of the show and accused it of surreptitious advertising, with the Pokérap and its "gotta catch 'em all" message in particular being seen as blatantly telling children to collect all the toy versions of the monsters in the show. After the matter went so far as to warrant an inspection from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, the network stopped showing the Pokérap and "Who's That Pokémon?" to be on the safe side.
  • On a lesser note, a number of overtly Japanese culture-focused episodes were removed from the South Korean dub, which created plotholes since several included Ash getting Gym Badges; the earliest featured his Metapod evolving into Butterfree. It's worth noting that this occurred before the government eased its restrictions on Japanese imports, though.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: While the games are a juggernaut hit, the anime is just as, if not more, popular when it comes to merchandise.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese version, Meowth/Nyarth is voiced by theater actress Inuko Inuyama.
• Channel Hop: For the dubs in various countries:
  • In the U.S, it Started off in syndication on UPN affiliated channels (and affiliates of other networks in markets with no UPN affiliate), then it was picked up by Kids WB starting in the second half of the original Kanto season until the end of the eighth season. Cartoon Network (who had been airing reruns since 2002; Boomerang took over rerun duties in 2006) became its home from the ninth season until the end of the nineteenth, in the XY series. In 2016, the show moved to Disney XD with the U.S. debut of the nineteenth movie and the Sun and Moon series, previewing before the XY series even finished on Cartoon Network. Following the end of Sun and Moon the series left U.S. televisions entirely, with Journeys opting to just stream on Netflix, with episodes being released in batches every three months.
  • In Canada, the series continually aired on YTV from the first episode (1998) all the way to the first quarter of X and Y (2014), where it was moved to Teletoon and continues to air there.
  • In Australia, from the original series up to XYZ, the show was aired on Ten (the show moved to sister channel Eleven in 2012) as part of its Toasted TV (formerly Cheez TV) block. In 2017, the series' free-to-air rights were picked up by Nine, airing on its youth-focused sister channel 9Go!, which has aired both Sun & Moon as well as XY reruns. 9Go! also reran both the Indigo League and Orange Islands seasons.
  • The UK broadcast has also bounced around a fair bit - the show originally launched on Sky One and the ITV network in 1999, and it aired all seasons up to Advanced Challenge. Cartoon Network then took over, airing Advanced Battle through to Diamond & Pearl, as well as repeating the older seasons on its sister channel Toonami (Later Cartoon Network TOO). The show then hopped once again to Jetix, which started with Diamond & Pearl: Battle Dimension, and it continued to air when the channel was rebranded as Disney XD, but it was pushed into a graveyard/early morning slot by the time that the XY season started airing, eventually vanishing from the lineup. Pop MAX (A kids TV channel formally known as Kix! that shows cartoons that used to air on other networks alongside newer seasons of Power Rangers) started showing episodes from Black & White onward since the start of 2018. On the terrestrial side of it all, it used to air on ITV's CITV kids block, but in its original run several episodes were awkwardly cut into two ten-minute segments. It aired on and off, originally only showing the first couple seasons and a small handful of Pokémon Advanced episodes. Around 2009/10, it started airing on the dedicated CITV free-to-air channel, where new episodes aired long in advance to those on satellite networks, with some episodes airing weeks ahead of their US broadcast. Whilst it focuses on showing the current season, they air older seasons from time to time, with Advanced getting a proper run back in 2015. This only lasted until 2020 when Pokémon Journeys made its debut on Pop instead (although they had been airing older episodes since 2018) and CITV stopped airing the show at all. This isn't getting into the fact that CBBC and the BBC iPlayer have also been airing several of the older series from Diamond and Pearl onwards since 2021, with Pokémon Horizons: The Series making its debut on the BBC iPlayer in December 2023.
• Creative Differences: Takeshi Shudō's vision of the series as one that could be enjoyed by both children and adults led to a lot of disagreements with the anime staff. He eventually got fed up with how the show became overly kid-focused. This and his own failing health were the reasons why he ultimately left during the Johto League. The show did eventually began trying to draw in more older viewers starting late into Advanced Generation, to varying degrees of success.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Takeshi Shudo (the original head writer) disliked how the series became Strictly Formula, which is why he left the show during the Johto League.
  • The Japanese voice actors for the Team Rocket trio have been very vocal on how much they hated their characters' serious characterization in the Black and White series. They also were disappointed in their characters no longer appearing in every episode, a complaint that would last for the remainder of their run in the entire anime.
  • Eric Stuart, the dub voice of Brock, was initially accepting of his role; but grew tired of how people would seldom acknowledge his other work and only talk to him about voicing Brock. This was seen as a significant factor in his decision to retire from anime voice acting to focus on his music career. To a lesser extent, Veronica Taylor (Ash) and Rachael Lillis (Misty) were also weary of how fans would bring up voicing Ash and Misty when they both had many other anime roles; they, however, at least seem pleased that people enjoy watching Pokémon.
  • While Andrew Rannells, the dub voice of Morty from the Johto region and Harley from the Hoenn region, was grateful for his voice-over work in Pokemon, he's not very fond of the series due to finding its concept bizarre and confusing. He also didn't like the character James because he found him an offensive depiction of a gay man due to his purple bob cut hair and over-the-top feminine voice.
• Creator's Favorite: Takeshi Shudo stated Musashi/Jessie and Kojiro/James to be his favorite of the characters he created, which made him all the more irritated when Executive Meddling resulted in them becoming Harmless Villains.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Rica Matsumoto (Ash's Japanese voice actress), Shoko Nakagawa (a prominent actress and singer for the Japanese version), and Sarah Natochenny (Ash's current English voice actress) have all stated their favorite battle in the anime to be the Sinnoh League battle between Ash and Paul.
• Creator's Pest: Andrew Rannells, the 4Kids voice of Harley, doesn't like Team Rocket member James due to finding him to a bad representation of a gay man. He went into greater detail about his experience of playing said character in the show's musical Pokémon Live! in his 2019 memoir, Too Much is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • One of the most famous examples in modern anime, with male character Ash voiced by women in Japanese, English, European Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Russian, Greek, and Catalan. Averted in Spanish, French, Italian, Danish, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian, Czech, Turkish and Hebrew.
  • Originally played straight in German with Caroline Comrinck (Seasons 1-3, 12-19) and the late Veronika Neugebauer (Seasons 4-11). Averted as of Sun & Moon, where Ash is voiced by Felix Mayer.
  • Zigzagged in Polish where Ash was voiced by Hanna Kinder-Kiss for the first six seasons of the show. Seasons 7-9 were never aired in Poland. In Season 10, Ash was replaced by a male voice actor, Grzegorz Drojewski. However, in Season 11, Hanna Kinder-Kiss returned to voice Ash and has since continued to voice him up until the present.
  • Meowth is voiced by Inuko Inuyama in Japan but averted elsewhere though it's a subversion in the English dub during the Turn of the Millennium as the character was voiced by Maddie Blaustein, who was transgender but his original and later voice actors are male.
• The Danza: Yuko Sanpei voices Sanpei.
• Dawson Casting: In the Swedish dub, eternally 10-year old Ash is voiced by Dick Eriksson, who is 62 years old as of December 30th, 2022.
• Defictionalization: Y'know what infamous Jelly Doughnut line from the dub meant to sub in for mentioning Rice Balls or Onigiri? At least two recipes have been released to make Jelly Doughnuts that actually look like Onigiri (three if you don't mind the not!seaweed looking lighter than it should).
• Delayed Release Tie-In: The first season of Pokémon: The Original Series features several episodes which lead into Pokémon: The First Movie. However, due to the infamous "Electric Soldier Porygon" seizure incident, the show was taken off the air for a few months. The movie's release date did not move to compensate for the schedule delay, meaning the Mewtwo tie-in episodes ended up airing a few months after the movie had already come out. This was averted in the American release, as the English episode package did not include "Electric Soldier Porygon" and it allowed the episodes to be broadcast before the movie's U.S. release.
• Died During Production:
  • Some of the creative team and cast members involved in the series have since passed away, including Takeshi Shudō, Hirotaka Suzuoki, Tomoko Kawakami, Unshō Ishizuka and Keiji Fujiwara. Thus, Giovanni has been voiced by Kenta Miyake since September 2006 and Professor Oak (along with Samson Oak) has been voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi since September 2018.
  • On the English dub’s side, Billy Kametz died from Colon Cancer in 2022. His roles of Goh’s Inteleon, Ren, and Rotom Phone would end up being taken over by Barrett Leddy.
• Directed by Cast Member:
  • All of the English dub's voice directors are known to have lent their voice to the series on at least one occasion:
    • Michael Haigney, who was one of the main voice directors of the first three seasons as well as a script adapter, is better known in the fandom for providing the original voices of Ash's Charmander and Misty's Psyduck (among a few dozen other Pokémon). He also voiced the Kanto Gym Leader Blaine.
    • Jim Malone, the other main voice director up to the end of season four (as well as the director and script adapter of the the fifth movie's dub), voiced the Orange Islands Gym Leader Danny.
    • Jason Bergenfeld, a script adapter for season two, assistant voice director for season three and four and the main voice director for season five, voiced a few incidental characters, such as an assistant to Giovanni in season two as well as the pizza delivery man seen in "The Mystery Menace".
    • Eric Stuart, who provided "additional direction" during seasons four and five as well as directing the sixth movie's dub, is of course known for voicing Brock and James during 4Kids Entertainment's time with the series, as well as Butch, the male Pokédex and Ash's Squirtle (among several other Pokémon). Ted Lewis, the voice of James (before Eric Stuart took over), Giovanni and Tracey, also occasionally directed.
    • Darren Dunstan, who took over as the primary voice director at the beginning of season six, was the original voice of Mr. Sukizo, as well as Loudred, Grovyle, Swellow, Blaziken, Munchlax and many other Pokémon. Even after he lost that position at the end of season eight, when 4Kids' rights to the series lapsed, he still has provided voices for the series from time to time, most notably that of Ash's Unova rival Stephan.
    • During the time Pokémon was dubbed by TAJ Productions in seasons nine and ten, Armen Mazlumian served as voice director and also provided a few additional voices, including one of the Sinnoh Now crew members.
    • Tom Wayland was the voice director of the tenth movie and the series proper from eleventh season all the way until early on in the eighteenth season, where he lost the role following his rape accusation. During his run, he voiced "about 80" Pokémon, including Ash's Charmander (taking over the role from Michael Haigney), Gible and Goodra, Cilan's Dwebble and Arceus. He also voiced several human characters including Paul's brother Reggie, Sinnoh Elite Four member Flint and Clemont and Bonnie's father Meyer.
    • Theresa Buchheister took over for the rest of the eighteenth season as well the first third of the nineteenth season, providing several human voices with their most prominent being Team Flare scientist Aliana.
    • Lisa Ortiz, the current voice director, is a longtime cast member, having provided the voices for Misty's sister Daisy, Kanto Gym Leader Sabrina, Hoenn Gym Leader Flannery, Team Galactic commander Mars, Kalos Gym Leader Korrina, and Ash's Oshawott and Fletchling, as well as numerous One Shot Characters over the years. Since taking on the role as voice director, she has also voiced Ash's Litten and Poipole, Chloe's mother Talia and Team Rocket's Rotom Phone.
  • The Latin American voice actress of Jessie, Diana Pérez, also directed the series' dub for Latin America from season seventeen until she passed away in April 2021.
• Distanced from Current Events:
  • After the April 2011 earthquake in Japan, the Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma episodes were shelved, presumably due to scenes where there are earth tremors and a scene where a lot of Castelia City is destroyed by a fiery energy blast (the earthquake had also caused a meltdown at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant).
  • 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.
  • A DVD release of the first three movies took place in the United States in Spring 2009—just after Noriko Sakai ^note who did the narration for "Pikachu and Pichu" was convicted of drug possession. Needless to say, the set, which included Pikachu and Pichu (which was taken out of circulation in Japan on Sakai's account), was soon pulled, and the international distributor ultimately lost the rights for good in part as a result of the set's failed release. Its foreign dubs are still clear for circulation, since Sakai's narration was dubbed over by different voice actors, with Rodger Parsons dubbing over Sakai's narration in the English version.
• Dueling Dubs: The show has been pretty lucky with one consistent dub for the whole franchise (though handled by more than one company). However, the 10th Anniversary Special (Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon) got two dubs. The first was for the initial television broadcast, and was notable for being the first production to use the new voice cast following a change in companies. This dub was so detested that the voice cast was re-evaluated, and a few recasts took place (most notably Ash) for future media. The special was later redubbed with the updated cast (and others, who were now better used to their roles) and included as a special feature on the original Movie 8 DVD.
• Dueling Works: Over the years, many anime have tried to emulate Pokémon's success, most notably, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yo-kai Watch. The results vary, but all of them faded from the mainstream's consciousness to various degrees, while Pokémon manages to endure.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The show was toned down a bit in terms of risque content after episodes like "Holiday at Acopaulo/Beauty and the Beach" and "The Legend of Dratini" were banned outside Japan and caused a few Dub Induced Plot Holes.
  • After the Pokémon Shock, the animators were forced to make a new episode, "Pikachu's Goodbye". Fortunately, it ended up being one of the most memorable episodes in the series.
  • Executive Meddling also removed most Japanese culture elements and text from the show so 4Kids Entertainment wouldn't have to edit them out themselves (they ended up removing the made-up text they replaced it with as well). Some of the anime's staff did not appreciate this. This "culturally neutral" rule is still mostly present today, even though 4Kids have long lost their rights to the series.
  • After the announcement of Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the Unova arc was forced to be revamped to promote the new games. This is especially evident when looking at Ash's badge case from the earliest episodes, the final slot is clearly for the Legend Badge, meaning Ash would have fought Iris or (more likely) Drayden for his last badge. But in BW055, Scraggy and the Demanding Gothita!, which was aired in Japan November 10, 2011, around the time the anime staff would be notified in advance of the sequels, the badge slots were suddenly Retconned into generic circles, and right before the games' release, Roxie was indeed shoehorned in for the last badge instead of Iris/Drayden, among other things.
  • As of Journeys at the latest, the series is under a direction from the higher ups to depict the Pokemon World as the real world, but with Pokemon, a change from previous depictions of the setting where the world was depicted as being a lot more distinct from the real world. The decision from Gen V onward to base regions on other countries outside of Japan was likely a contributor to this.
• Franchise Zombie: The anime was intended to only last one season, with head writer Takeshi Shudo even planning a Grand Finale episode in which Ash would beat Lance and achieve his dream of being a Pokemon master, but the series was extended past that and continues to this very day, although it has had many ups and downs.
• He Also Did: In 1983, Kunihiko Yuyama, director of the Pokémon anime, directed Plawres Sanshiro, an anime TV adaptation of a manga by Jiro Gyu. The series also has a theme of proxy battles, albeit using handmade model robots instead of animal-like creatures. In addition, the protagonist of the series, Sanshiro, resembles Ash Ketchum both in terms of looks and personality, and has a love-hate relationship with the series female lead, Kyoko, similar to Ash's with Misty (and Kyoko, like Misty, is a ponytailed Tsundere, though also a Ms. Fanservice as she is quite a bit older than Misty is). Unlike Pokémon, Sanshiro had limited distribution outside Japan, though it was very popular in Greece and the Arab world.
  • Both Yuyama and Takeshi Shudo both worked on the 1982 Magical Girl series Magical Princess Minky Momo, which also had a major merchandise push.
  • Serena's English VA, Haven Paschall, was part of the original cast of Shrek: The Musical as Gingy and Sugar Plum Fairy, later playing Princess Fiona on the national tour. She has also been in Legally Blonde as the first replacement for Elle Woods, as well as RENT and Kinky Boots in numerous roles. Serena was her first foray into voice acting, and she has since focused completely on it, having voiced other humans and Pokémon, as well as being the current English voice of Bloom on Winx Club.
  • Kathryn Raio, who was the female vocalist on the theme songs for the Black & White seasons, has written several songs for Sesame Street.
• I Am Not Spock: Veronica Taylor seems to have encountered this sort of problem herself as the original voice of Ash Ketchum. Yet, she did enjoy her time as Ash, anyway, so...
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: "Electric Soldier Porygon" was permanently removed from the air and never given any sort of legal release due to the seizure incident it caused. Stories vary as to whether an English dub of this episode was ever made, but either way, it's gone for good.
• Meaningful Release Date: Netflix in the United States added each season of Sun & Moon on April 1 of 2018 to 2020. April 1 is the anniversary of the anime’s premiere in Japan in 1997.
• No Dub for You: Inverted, as the series has never been officially released with Japanese audio and English subs. Most likely due to the fact that the licensor believes the Target Audience wouldn't be interested in watching it in a language they don't understand, and likely not helped by Japanese home video releases being very incomplete, with a whopping four episodes of the Advanced Generation series getting a DVD release. Even when Pokémon Journeys was released as a Netflix original, English is the only language available, unlike practically every other anime Netflix has licensed (although previous seasons have multiple audio and subtitle languages). The first work to avert this was Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, which was released internationally on Netflix with Japanese audio and subtitle options among other languages. However, when Pokémon Horizons: The Series was released on Netflix, it was once again lacking a Japanese language option.
• 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.
  • Subverted now that VIZ Media has re-released all three of the Johto seasons in full season box sets. It took until the mid-2010s, when VIZ re-release their earlier "Indigo League" and "Orange Island" sets (albeit with the three episodes featuring Jynx in its original design removed) that they began to release more Complete Collections. With this, two previously-unavailable "Johto Journeys" episodes finally hit disc.
  • The UK, for the longest time, saw little in the way of official releases. Pokémon Chronicles had a complete release, as did the first six movies (Warner Bros. released the first three movies, Miramax handled 4Ever and Heroes, and Paramount (under license from Miramax) released Jirachi Wish Maker. Miramax eventually released Destiny Deoxys in 2012). This wasn't helped by the fact that the distribution license kept jumping about between companies - Network (A company that specializes in re-releasing shows from the BBC and ITV libraries among others) released The Rise of Darkrai on DVD, and had plans to release other movies and seasons (The website itself had a short-lived Pokémon section), but nothing came to pass. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment UK started distributing the movies years later, with Zoroark: Master of Illusions being the first release, and their last release was Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice, after which there were no other releases from them. Eventually Manga Entertainment started releasing the films on DVD and Blu-Ray, starting from Hoopa & The Clash of Ages, also having re-released the first three movies and everything from Diamond and Pearl onwards, leaving Lucario & The Mystery of Mew and Pokémon Ranger & The Temple of The Sea as the only movies to not have a physical release (As well as being unable to issue rereleases of 4Ever through Destiny Deoxys as Miramax still hold the rights)). The Indigo League season was released on DVD and Blu-Ray as well, but no other seasons have been announced so far.
  • Australia never received releases for the sixth or seventh movies, even though all others have been or are still available. This was finally averted in November of 2016 with the Region 4 release of the aforementioned movies, over 10 years after their releases in other western counties.
  • Malaysia never got the Advanced Generation anime. Any anime after that were hit or miss and were prone to getting Screwed by the Network after several episodes had aired.
  • The Japanese OST has not been officially distributed overseas post-Best Wishes. This is likely because of the change of music companies to SonyMusic Japan, who is notorious for their tight hold on the properties they own.
  • There is currently no single hub through which every episode can be watched digitally, with the rights to various seasons and movies being held by Netflix, Amazon and the BBC. The official Pokémon website used to have a section titled "Pokémon TV" which showed a rotating selection of series, but this was shut down for unknown reasons in February 2024.
• The Original Darrin:
  • Nurse Joy's original voice actor Megan Hollingshead left the show after season seven, moving to California. However, she returned to her original role for Journeys, thanks to the dubbing now being primary done in Los Angeles.
  • The original voice of the Narrator, Rodger Parsons, left the show during the sixth season, being replaced by Mike Pollock. After 4kids lost the license, he would return as the narrator.

• The Other Darrin:
  • Giovanni's original Japanese voice actor, Hirotaka Suzuoki, passed away towards the end of Advanced Generation, requiring him to be recast as Kenta Miyake. Reversed in a less tragic way for the English dub. After the switch in studios, Craig Blair replaced Ted Lewis. Blair quit shortly afterwards, by which time Lewis had returned to the show and reclaimed the role.
  • In the Latin American dubs of the Mega Evolution specials, Steven is voiced by Miguel De León instead of Alfredo Gabriel Basurto.
  • The Italian dub had multiple voice changes.
    • Gary was initially voiced by Nicola Bartolini Carrassi in the first episode, but in his later appearances he was replaced by Paolo Sesana, as in the meantime Carrassi was already voicing Brock. Sesana was briefly replaced by Renato Novara at the end of Ruby and Sapphire and came back one last time during the Diamond and Pearl seasons, when he was finally replaced by Massimo Di Benedetto.
    • Meowth was voiced by Giuseppe Calvetti for the first six seasons, and was then replaced by Pietro Ubaldi.
    • Brock was voiced by Nicola Bartolini Carrassi for most of the Kanto arc, only to be replaced by Luca Bottale after the character comes back at the end of the Orange Islands arc.
    • Misty is usually voiced by Alessandra Karpoff, but Benedetta Ponticelli took the role for the redub of the earlier seasons because Karpoff didn't want to redo her old work. Ponticelli later came back for a brief appearance of Misty in a flashback sequence in a Black and White episode, but Karpoff returned on the character in her successive appearances.
    • Giovanni was initially voiced by Tony Fuochi, with Riccardo Rovatti and Oliviero Corbetta briefly replacing him for an episode each. Fuochi kept the role until the early part of the Ruby and Sapphire seasons, then he retired from voice acting. Giovanni was then briefly recast with Sergio Romanò for a single appearance, and later Federico Danti took the role for the Diamond and Pearl series. In the Black and White series he was recast with Giovanni Battezzato, but halfway through first he was briefly replaced with Pietro Ubaldi (who also voiced the character in the redub of the first season) for a single episode and then Danti came back. Battezzato then took the role again in the second half of the X and Y series and remained on the character until his death, with Danti taking the role again after that.
    • Dawn was voiced by Tosawi Piovani for her first two seasons. After Piovani retired from voice acting, Ludovica De Caro took the role.
    • Paul was initially voiced by Massimo Di Benedetto, but after a season he was replaced with Maurizio Merluzzo.
    • Cynthia was voiced by Alessandra Karpoff for her first few appearances, but Elisabetta Spinelli took the role for the reminder of the Diamond and Pearl series and most of the Black and White episodes she appears in. Her last appearance in Black and White had her voiced by Renata Bertolas instead, while in Journeys she was again recast with Elisa Giorgio.
    • Kiawe was voiced by Alessandro Capra during the Sun and Moon series, but was recast with Renato Novara in Journeys as Capra moved to Rome in the meanwhile.
    • Early on, every Nurse Joy and every Officer Jenny had a different voice actress (albeit repeats happened here and there), but towards the end of the Ruby and Sapphire series this was changed to giving a single voice actress to all of them. Joy has been voiced by Laura Brambilla up until Diamond and Pearl, by Tiziana Martello from Black and White to Sun and Moon and by a yet unknown voice actress in Journeys, while Jenny has been voiced by Renata Bertolas until Black and White and by Jolanda Granato from X and Y onwards.
• 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.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In Brazilian Portuguese, May and Max were voiced by sister and brother (Tatiane and Thiago Keplmair).
  • In Hebrew, Daniel Magon replaced his older brother Jonathan as the voice of Ash.
  • In Czech, Jan Skvor (the voice of Tracey), replaced his younger brother Radek as the voice of Ash during XY.
• 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 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. (Black and White did both, even!)
  • Another famous example is repeating a Villain Episode dedicated to Team Rocket breaking up, but then suddenly realizing by the end of the episode that they need each other to accomplish their plans.
  • Episodes where Pikachu temporary leaves Ash for some reason (attempted release, brainwashing, amnesia, etc.), only for Ash to reignite their bond to continue traveling together, is also quite prominent.
  • How some Pokemon captures went down in later seasons. Turtwig's capture for example, was seen as an exact copy of how Bulbasaur's capture went about where both grass-starters were trying to protect Pokemon from humans. Not to mention the Fire-type starters Ash has captured minus Cyndaquil all having rough backgrounds.^note Though even this is debatable; in its capture episode Ash ended up saving Cyndaquil from another trainer who would almost certainly have given it a rough background.
  • The cancelled Celebi and GS Ball arc from Johto was reused for the Meloetta arc in Unova, which resulted in Ash battling Giovanni for the first time over a decade after the series' debut. In this case, Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • Many, many episodes (notably the Johto episodes) can be boiled down to "Ash and company meet a new friend who has a new Pokémon that they haven't met yet, Team Rocket tries to steal the Pokémon; Ash and Pikachu defeat Team Rocket".
  • Not to mention, that several episodes had Ursaring threatening the main characters (both the heroes and Team Rocket), or other Pokémon, one even had the Ursaring start out as a Teddiursa.
  • A Diamond and Pearl episode involved Jessie coming down with a fever before a Contest and James having to crossdress as her to replace her (it was the first time he had crossdressed in years as well). A few years later, an XY episode had Ash coming down with a fever when a Trainer challenges him. Serena ends up crossdressing as Ash in order to battle and make the Trainer go away.
  • The plot of Ash's first Gym Battle episode in Kanto is redone 2 times each, with Brock in a different role in the rehashes. In addition the plot of Ash's second gym battle is also rehashed two more times, and Ash even mentions the original episode the third time the plot is used. Also the plot of Ash's Gym Battles against both Lt. Surge^note  a Trainer running with a sick Pokémon (itself being one of two rehashes of Ash's very first Gym Battle against Brock) and the Striaton trio^note  Iris not liking Roxie being a Smug Snake is just like how she originally viewed Cilan, before getting to know him better are combined and rehashed in the gym battle against Roxie in season 15.
  • Ash has encountered a lost and injured Lapras twice. The first time was early into the Orange Islands arc and the Lapras ended up being Ash and company's primary transportation that season. The second encounter occurred years later during the XY season though that episode ended with the Lapras getting led back to its herd.
  • The end Pokémon league arc tends to have a Breather Episode Filler placed in the middle of it that has Ash and the gang running around the location of the league searching for something that they need. In the Kanto tournament, it was a night search looking for a Pokémon Center for Ash to rest his Pokémon, and in the Unova and Masters 8 tournaments, it was to search for Iris' lost Axew and a lost little girl respectively. A lot of viewers came to view these types of episodes as the "Lost at the League" formula.
  • An odd use of Filler that the anime has repeated multiple times is the "stuck Wailmer needing to be freed" plot. DP109 was about a Wailmer trapped in a sewer while SM031 and JN143 had Wailmers that got stuck in rock formations.
• Refitted for Sequel: The footage from the cancelled "Team Rocket vs. Team Plasma" two-parter - where the Relic Castle's mechanism is activated, revealing the Meteonite - was reused for the scene in Best Wishes Season 2, when the Abyssal Ruins are activated to uncover the Reveal Glass.
• Role Reprise:
  • English Dub:
    • Jimmy Zoppi (credited as Billy Beach) continued to voice Gary even after TCPi took over production of the dub from 4Kids.
    • Andrew Paull, who voiced Steven in his one-shot Advanced Generation appearance, was brought back to reprise the role in XY, making him one of the very few English voice actors who were able to reprise their role in the TPCI dub without having been replaced between occurrences. In comparison, they had a new voice actor for the Japanese version.
    • Dan Green voiced Chuck when he reappeared in Journeys a whopping 19 years since he last appeared in Johto. This does not apply to his Japanese voice actor professional wrestler Nobuaki Kakuda being replaced by Takahiro Fujiwara.
  • For the Latin American dub, Alfredo Gabriel Basurto retook his role as Steven too, but only for one episode.
  • For both the original Japanese version and the English dub, Susumu Chiba and Wayne Grayson returned their role as Wataru/Lance in Journeys, whose last appearance was back in the Advanced Battle season.
  • For the Swedish dub, Joakim Jennefors returned to reprise his iconic performance from the first seasons opening with the season 17 remix after having been absent since season 7.
• Schedule Slip: The "Electric Soldier Porygon" incident delayed airing of new episodes in Japan for four months to make sure future episodes did not cause mass seizures. It also resulted in two episodes airing out of order. Because of the delay associated with 4Kids Entertainment producing the English dub, it was only noticeable outside of Japan due to the two episodes that aired out-of-order, and the lack of the offending episode.
  • The Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic caused a delay in production of the anime, resulting in Season 23 pausing in mid-April 2020 after 22 episodes in Japan, resuming later in June.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • According to Bill Rogers, side story episodes post-Chronicles are "passed over" by the dub, possibly for not focusing on Ash.
  • Kids' WB! in the U.S. and TF1 in France screwed around with Pokémon, airing as many new episodes as they could, and then airing reruns for several months (often airing episodes Out of Order or certain ones to death) when they exhausted them. They did this for a few years until fans started to get annoyed and move on to other shows, while the anime itself declined in popularity.
  • On Cartoon Network, the anime eventually stopped being promoted and was relegated to early Saturday mornings. With the ratings continuing to fall, Cartoon Network opted to drop the series entirely in early 2017, and Disney XD quickly scooped up the rights when they got the chance, treating it much better by giving it better timeslots.^note Some suggest Executive Meddling and not CN's infamous obsession with Teen Titans Go! played a role in the Channel Hop, however; CN sibling Warner Bros. lost a bidding war that year for the Pokémon movie rights to their former financing partner Legendary Pictures, who promptly gave a piece of the pie to their then-current partner, Universal Pictures. This turn of events may have caused CN to walk out of contract renewal talks in revenge. It ultimately may have been a bad move, though, as Legendary later came calling back to Warner Bros., who agreed to take Universal's piece of the pie in their place.
  • When it Pokemon first debuted in first-run syndication, none of the station in the Mobile-Pensacola TV market has picked up the anime (that applied to Robocop: The Alpha Commando) ^note FOX affiliate WALA, former UPN affite WJTC (now independent for the second time), nor former independent-then-WB-then-independent station WFGX (now MyNetworkTV). When Pokemon was moved to Kids’ WB, it was finally aired in the market via WFGX but the station wasn’t available in the Alabama side (including Mobile) of the TV Market ^note It's likely due to weak signal WFGX had which was why Comcast of Mobile refused to pick it up, considering WFGX was licensed in Fort Walton Beach). WFGX wouldn't be available to the Alabama side until 12 years later.. When WBPG ^note Now WFNA and affinited with The CW launched in September 2001 taking The WB affiliate from WFGX, Pokemon can be finally shown in the Alabama side.
  • In January 2021, after the anime had moved to Netflix, it was pulled from Disney XD's line-up.
• Shipper on Set:
  • The former English voice actresses of Ash (Veronica Taylor) and Misty (Rachael Lillis) have shown their support for Pokeshipping. The two would hang out and act in-character off set.
  • The current voice actress of Ash (Sarah Natochenny) and the voice of Serena (Haven Paschall) have shown their support for Amourshipping, with Sarah even tweeting "my favorite #armourshipping" in response to a Pokemon official tweet about the greatest love story.
• Throw It In!: According to the first of the Takeshi Shudō-authored novelizations, Team Rocket's line said every time they're defeated, 「やな感じ」 "ya na kanji," lit. "bad feeling," was ad-libbed by their Japanese voice actors.
• Torch the Franchise and Run: Considering one of the planned endings for the anime originally, Pikachu leading a revolt against the humans with Meowth as his ambassador, Misty becoming a Faux Action Girl, Ash putting away his childish To Be a Master dream, and playing up Pokemon as fantasy dog fighting, it seemed like Takeshi Shudo was planning to do this once the original anime is up. Probably best for the games that Game Freak understandably stepped in upon hearing this.
• Troubled Production: OLM lost a hefty portion of its workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, and one of the animators revealed in October 2022 that being understaffed and insubstantial communication between the production teams◊ had a tremendous impact on a series as constant as this one, not limited to the number of clipshow/recap episodes Journeys has compared to previous seasons or increases in stock footage usage.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, all Pokemon were supposed to talk, but Game Freak nixed the idea, so Meowth ended up as the only regularly-appearing Pokemon that talks.
  • Takeshi Shudo had story plans for Johto including Celebi being inside the GS Ball and finding out more about Ash's father. He also had plans on ending the anime with the Pokemon revolting against humans with Pikachu as the leader and Meowth as an ambassador, Misty being an invocation of Faux Action Girl, and a general implication that Pokemon training is as much Fantastic Cockfighting as Moral Guardians feared. All these ideas were scrapped and we ended up with the show we have now because of it, for better or worse.
  • The early◊ Pokémon previews from Nintendo Power◊ provided different English names for the titles and organizations we come to know of, as well as unused concept art from the anime. For starters, the shortened name Pokémon was originally "Poke-Mon", with a hyphen in the middle and no é. Pokémon Trainers were also going to be called Pokémon hunters as well, while Team Rocket was originally going to be called the Rocket Society. Jessie and James were originally wearing the black Rocket uniform with white gloves and boots, being more closer to the Rocket Grunt designs instead of their classic white uniform and black gloves and boots (with the exception of early BW).
  • Ash's original partner was supposed to be a Clefairy instead of a Pikachu. Isamu from Pocket Monsters (which is the second adaptation of the series, predating the anime) has both a Clefairy and a Pikachu as a reference to Clefairy being the original series mascot. Think about it: if successful as a franchise icon as Pikachu has been, Super Smash Bros. players could have been able to play as a Clefairy that could Metronome other fighters' Final Smashes for its own Final Smash... Another choice for Ash's original partner was also a Jigglypuff, but one who couldn't sing.
  • The anime was originally just supposed to last through Kanto, with an assumed ending of Ash defeating Gary and winning the Pokémon League. Here's one to consider in light of that 18-month report: Pokémon Gold and Silver was originally scheduled for release in late 1997, but was delayed to be adapted for the Game Boy Color. The first episode of the Anime aired on April 1, 1997, and because of the delay to Gold and Silver, the Orange Island filler arc was created.
  • The very first trailer for the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back! in Japan, it is completely made out of scenes that didn't make it to the final product; the grown-up Misty segment, in particular, is a huge source of speculation and discussion withing the fandom, specially by taking account the movie would be the Grand Finale for the anime.
  • Media Blaster wanted to release uncut DVDs in America at one point, but of course Viz got the rights and they were unable to do this.
  • There was originally going to be an episode (probably just a Clip Show based on its title, "It's New Year's Eve! Pocket Monsters Encore") that celebrated the Japanese New Year during the Kanto run. This episode was intended to air soon after the infamous Porygon "seizure" episode, so production was halted, and after a while simply cancelled.
  • The GS Ball was originally going to contain a Celebi that was to star in a large portion of the Johto arc. After Pokémon 4Ever came out, it was decided that having a Celebi in the anime right after a movie featuring Celebi would be redundant, so the idea was shelved.
  • Pokémon 3 was originally set to address the question of "What happened to real-world animals in the Pokemon universe" and instead of Entei and the Unown (Gold and Silver had been delayed at this point of development and they were unsure about doing another movie debut Pokemon) the focal point would be the reanimated fossils of a Tyrannosaurus rex.
  • According to ADR director Tom Wayland, in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life Arceus was originally going to be voiced by actor Vincent D'Onofrio of Full Metal Jacket and Men in Black fame. However, before his recording session, there were difficulties with D'Onofrio's agent and he was unable to record for the movie. After re-auditioning, Tom Wayland himself was chosen to voice Arceus instead.
  • Team Plasma was supposed to make their debut appearances in Castelia City during Best Wishes, but their episodes were indefinitely postponed after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, as the episodes featured Castelia City being destroyed. This plus the Black 2 / White 2 games utilizing a different incarnation of Team Plasma led to the originally intended arc for Team Plasma being scrapped altogether.
    • A related episode about a fishing competition in Castelia City was also postponed, but was broadcast without any references to the original setting of Castelia City.
  • When the Advanced Generation was in pre-production, there was a discussion on who would get Put on a Bus, Misty or Team Rocket. Misty leaving the show was controversial enough, but one wonders how much the fandom would have flipped their lids if Team Rocket left.
    • Team Rocket was also going to be Put on a Bus in Best Wishes, but their fans in the production staff vetoed the decision. Ironically, their intended write-off was still advertised as their Grand Finale, just to test the waters with fans as to how the idea of them leaving would pan out. The answer was "not well".
  • Takeshi Shudo had story plans for finding out more about Ash's father. This idea was scrapped and we ended up with the show we have now because of it.
  • According to voice actress Veronica Taylor, they were originally going to hire a child actor to voice Ash. Those plans fell through, apparently, because they called her back in.
  • Early previews for Spell of the Unown refer to it as Tower of the Unown.
  • Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was supposedly going to focused on Jackie Walker as the protagonist, along with Manaphy as his sidekick, but this shifted around as May became a more interesting viewpoint for the story and they realized how May and Manaphy's Mother/"Son" dynamic might appear to be recycling Misty and Togepi.
  • Latias from Pokémon Heroes was originally meant to join Ash for at least the remainder of the Johto season, but that plan was scrapped possibly due to the staff not willing to work with a serious Pokémon/Human relationship on a kid's show (then again Bayleef did like Ash too, so it's also possible that they didn't want to risk having it seem redundant).
  • The podcast bumper for the original Japanese airing of "Unova's Survival Crisis" gave the audience a telephone poll over which Pokemon they wanted to return to Team Rocket; Wobbuffet, Mime. Jr or Dustox. While Wobbuffet won the poll, one has to wonder how XY would have played if Mime. Jr or even Dustox inexplicably rejoined.
  • Another bit of Shudo-related early days trivia came to light in 2016: aside from the possible ending shown in the earliest Mewtwo Strikes Back! trailer, he also had an idea for an ending that involved an old Satoshi reminiscing about his childhood, and remembering the series; yet it was clear that it had mostly been the fantasy of one young boy and it had faded as he had aged. It would end, then, with Satoshi closing his eyes, hearing his mother's voice... and a young Satoshi running off to another adventure, raising the question of whether being a dream even mattered. That would have been quite a tone shift for the anime series and taken successor series in a much different direction.
  • Ash's original dub name was "Casey". This was shown in an early trailer and later re-confirmed by Veronica Taylor. The name was later given to a recurring female character in the Johto seasons, who is, quite fittingly, a baseball fan.
  • Several pieces of promotional art for the Diamond and Pearl series featured Paul alongside Ash and Dawn, with near to zero mention of Brock. Whether this meant he was intended to be a traveling companion rather than rival is unknown, however, although Paul does seem to be significantly less sour looking in those pictures when compared to his usual default expression in the anime proper.
  • Seeing as the majority of the show is now available on Disney's streaming apps, there is the possibility that, had Turner Broadcasting not lost the rights, the show would have ended up on their Boomerang streaming service.
  • A poster from Banpresto 1999 implies that originally Ash's Bulbasaur was meant to evolve into Venusaur, but this plot point was eventually discarded.
  • An interview with Tomioka revealed two changes from the initial plan of the later Journeys series, the first being that Paul's return was not originally planned but added in to expand on what was originally a Oak Lab training episode and show off Paul's growth since we last saw him. The second is that originally, non-Ash Master Eight battles were going to be underfocused on to focus more on Ash's unpredicatable battle style over their more focused ones, but the producers quickly told Tomioka doing that would be a waste.
• Write Who You Know: According to an interview with The Pokémon Company's president Tsunekazu Ishihara, Max's design is based on Satoru Iwata's son, with his glasses being the same model that Satoru Iwata wore then.
• Word of God: Storyboarder Masamitsu Hidaka said that Ash's father is on his own Pokémon journey, and his character would be explored if it is necessary to further Ash's Character Development. The later "Clear Blue Sky" special episode later clarifies that this "Pokémon journey" also involves a professional job which keeps Ash's father too busy to be present in his son's life.

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