How Pokemon Conquered The World - FULL DOCUMENTARY

0:00 welcome to watch Mojo series how Pokemon became a global phenomenon from Humble Origins Pokemon has evolved into the world's largest media franchise turning Pocket Monsters into worldwide pokemania join us as we look at how Pokemon video games trading cards and Anime became pop culture Giants [Music] hey guys it's Ash here with WatchMojo and today we're going to take a look at how Ash and Pikachu became household names because whether it's the anime the TCG or the video games people have been enamored with this series for quite some time but how did a series inspired by bug catching become so popular let's

0:46 take a look it's crazy to think that one relatively small game developer gave birth to the massive multimedia franchise we know today together founded in the 1980s game freak was initially a small self-published video game magazine created by Satoshi taishiri and illustrated by Ken tsukimori the magazine found modest success with its best performing issues selling over 10 000 copies but it wasn't long before Tajiri began to aim for bigger and better things

1:32 growing disillusioned with the quality of the latest video game releases Satoshi Tajiri decided to try his hand in video game development foreign the hardware required and studying the basics here alongside Ken sugimori and junichi mazura would go on to develop games for big name Publishers such as Namco Sega and Nintendo it was during the release of these games that Satoshi Tajiri would begin the initial concepts for what would eventually become Pockets monsters Tajiri would first conceive the idea after seeing Nintendo's Game Boy

2:18 handheld system and its ability to connect to another with the game Link cable harkening back to his childhood hobby of collecting bugs Tajiri and vision trading creatures between systems after a successful pitch to Nintendo game freak would go on to develop the game for nearly six whole years something that almost bankrupted the company on many occasions Pocket Monsters red and green was finally released in Japan on February 28 1996. although it was not expected to do well the games quickly found success due to great reviews and also the fact that there were two versions which led to

3:04 many consumers purchased using both of them although the game was advertised to contain 150 Pokemon Tajiri secretly coded in one extra Pokemon to the game called Mew the not even Nintendo was aware of okay rumors of this secret Pokemon helped increase the overall interest in the game and its popularity grew in Japan the games were eventually adapted into other forms of media such as an anime series manga and even a trading card game but none of this would compare to the global phenomenon that was to come hey little buddy want a ride

3:49 yeah whatever the Pocket Monsters franchise finally made its way to the West under the acronym of Pokemon with the Airing of the first episode of the anime series just a couple of weeks later on September 28 1998 the Pokemon Red and Blue video games released to critical Acclaim and combined with the anime series trading card game and an abundance of merchandise the franchise was an instant Mega hit the game would go on to sell I can bind 4 million by the end of the year in United States and worldwide sales reached over 31 Million by the end of their run [Music] during the peak of Pokemon's popularity Nintendo released a number of spin-off

4:36 titles such as Pokemon pinball and Pokemon Snap the most impressive spin-off of the time however was Pokemon Stadium which allowed players to battle with their Pokemon from red and blue in full 3d on a console via the Nintendo 64 transfer pack Pokemon Stadium became the best-selling console game of 2000 in North America which was an incredibly big deal at the time considering how much the Nintendo 64 struggled against its competitor PlayStation [Music] the great success of Pokemon Red and Blue game freak followed up with Pokemon yellow vision special Pikachu edition an updated version of the original game

5:22 that was heavily influenced by the anime series but a true sequel wouldn't arrive for another year the hotly anticipated sequels Pokemon Gold and Silver finally arrived on October 15 2000 and continued the success of its predecessors the games were the highest selling of the year and are considered by some to be the best in the series [Music] the mainline series of games continued onto Nintendo's next handheld system the Game Boy Advance with the release of Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire and the remakes of The Originals fire red and leaf green the franchise cooled off a little during this generation but soon

6:07 found its footing again with the release of Nintendo's best-selling video game console of all time the Nintendo DS this system became the home for multiple Pokemon games thanks to its long lifespan with titles such as Pokemon Diamond and Bill and later Pokemon Black and White foreign Nintendo's follow-up handheld console the 3DS initially struggled from poor sales however thanks to a price drop and the release of the first ever 3D games in the mainline series Pokemon X and Y sales quickly began to pick up but this was nothing compared to the storm Pokemon was about to unleash upon the world

6:55 developed by American software company Niantic Pokemon go was released for IOS and Android on July 6 2016. the game allowed players to locate and capture Pokemon in the real world via the GPS on their mobile devices to say this game was a hit is an absolute understatement as it ushered in the second coming of pokemania during the summer of 2016 you'd be hard-pressed not to find someone on the streets trying their best to capture Pokemon but if that's not your style guaranteed you will see plenty of others walking around Gathering and battling Pokemon the game is one of the most profitable apps of all time and has been downloaded more than 500 million times worldwide its

7:44 success caused the sales of Pokemon X and Y to skyrockets and also put a lot of attention on the newly released Pokemon Sun and Moon just a few months later thank you [Music] the phenomenal success of Pokemon go was enough to influence game freak's next release with Pokemon let's go Pikachu and let's go Eevee the first Mainline Pokemon games released for a Home console the Nintendo switch both of these games would feature some of the same mechanics and would even allow players to transfer their Pokemon from Pokemon go game freak would later return to its roots a year later on the

8:30 Nintendo switch with Pokemon sword and shield which would go on to sell more than 21 million copies worldwide [Music] the mainline Pokemon video games are just as strong as ever as following the remakes of diamond and Bill the series went in a brand new Direction with Pokemon Legends Arceus this new title took players to the Sinnoh Region's past and allowed them to capture and battle Pokemon in ways never seen before foreign freak would release Pokemon scarlet and

9:18 violets which would have players take on a brand new Pokemon journey within a massive open world the Pokemon video games let us live out our dreams of becoming Pokemon trainers and so too did the TCG in a different more tactile way because there's nothing quite like opening a booster pack and pulling some brilliant cards and of course the video game saw a massive Evolution over the years but so too did the TCG so let's take a look hey little buddy want a ride in early days of Pokemon most fans were first introduced to the franchise in 1998 via the original red and blue games for the Game Boy it goes without saying they were hugely successful so when the Pokemon Trading Card Game arrived it was

10:04 like being able to hold a piece of the action well I like Pokemon because it's fun to play since you couldn't go out looking for real life Pokemon card collecting immediately allowed children to feel like Pokemon trainers themselves hunting for their favorite pocket monsters in a booster pack ready for Pikachu in those days you usually had to choose between the classic base set jungle or fossil these three sets served as a direct companion to the games and still to this day they are probably the most beloved for that reason it was the first time we got to lay eyes on the Majestic artwork of illustrators like Ken sugimori and mitsuhiro arita these packs contained all the 150 lovable and cute

10:50 monsters we were already used to from the video games and the anime so it's only natural that the trading card game blew up immediately because it does the most damage and it has the most HP although the common and uncommon cards had uses in the game itself a lot of kids were slowly after the holographic cards like Charizard Venusaur and Blastoise so you can imagine how easily trade deals would go awry on the playground he swapped three Game Boy games of the two have a value of about 150 dollars for one Pokemon card whether you played the actual game and went to tournaments or simply collected the cards being a part of the initial Pokemon TCG craze with strange

11:36 and exciting well my main goal is sort of like to beat his Pokemon and then I get to win the yellow Mouse's face was everywhere even on jumbo Jets Topeka Kansas was renamed to to Pikachu for a day even Christopher Malta Santi of The Sopranos wanted a piece of the action oh oh tonight boss I got something on edge what Pokemon cards me and Tommy Mac are taking on a truckload yeah where Tommy knows you win what me on the other hand schools started implementing bands after too many hurt feelings and lopsided trades we do not bring Pokemon cards to school remember that please fellas because if

12:21 you do they will be taken and given back to you at the end of the day to take home not to reappear when the Fizz movie opened kids skipped school to watch it in what the New York Times described as a case of Pokey flu the second generation of cards to arrive with the Neo Series in 2000 which introduced shining Pokemon to the trading card game as well as light and dark variations will you choose to play the dark Pokemon or are you destined to play the light Pokemon what's your destiny while some people hadn't even finished the first 150 these sets introduced all the Pokemon from the gold and silver games for the Game Boy Color in addition to collecting shinies and second generation starters you could

13:09 also hunt down the first holographic Lugia card which would go on to become extremely valuable by 2002 they dabbled with the e-card series car wanting these sets which were Expedition aquabilis and Skyridge had an e-reader strip which could be entered into the companion attachment for the Game Boy to reveal extra features and games it wasn't a huge success but the cards were nonetheless amazing and featured designs that moved the game's aesthetic forwards Charmander oh there's a nice pull right there this was also the last collaboration between Pokemon and Wizards of the Coast the US company that had been supplying the cards in North America since the very beginning with the departure of wizards the Pokemon

13:55 company International took over production of the TCG entirely for the third generation in 2003 109 new cards reader [Music] these sets starting with ex Ruby and Sapphire were the first to feature Pokemon EX in addition to Prime level X and legend cards by this point in time though interest in Pokemon had slowed down a little many of the kids who once sported mushroom cuts and trainers were now becoming edgy teenagers it were too cool to be messing about with pocket monsters some picked up a skateboard after Tony Hawk's Pro Skater made the rounds others simply switched over to

14:42 Digimon or Dragon Ball Z [Music] Champion I mean no way there is no shortage of amazing franchises getting off the ground at this time as a result the mid-2000s onward was less of a frenzy for Pokemon card collectors it wasn't really in the immediate Spotlight anymore video game consoles were getting a lot better there were new Harry Potter movies on the horizon and the generation that welcomed Pikachu and Company into their lives in the late 90s was slowly growing out of it while there's plenty of amazing cards to look at and collect from these years more than we have time to show you in this video it wasn't until the black and white Series in the 2010s the Pokemon really shook things up with their products 70 new Pokemon more

15:29 than 110 cards these games ushered in the legendary Pokemon regiram and Zekrom it were available as full art cards for the first time a new tier of Rarity fall art cards extended beyond the normal illustration window and usually have some kind of embossed texture on the card we got the Reshiram full art ultra rare oh my gosh these products were part of a fresh start that looked to bring in new generations of trainers to the game to cap off these sixth generation sets Pokemon released Evolutions in 2016 which featured reprints of some of the classic artworks from the original 150 created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pokemon while not everyone was a fan it's this combination

16:16 of nostalgia and Innovation that made the franchise such a phenomenal success Mewtwo Strikes Back the original Mewtwo card has returned now twice as strong as before if you're a Pokemon card fan you probably know where we're going next before we said the Pokemon Black and White era brought in a new age of collectors and players well the Pokemon boom of 2020 did that tenfold when the pandemic hits early that year the world had to adjust to living in ice isolation many took up the collecting hobby during this time as it was something fun and safe that you could do from the comfort of your home popular YouTube channels like leonhards loot box TV UnlistedLeaf real breaking nades and more provided an

17:03 endless supply of incredible videos this showcase the Beloved packs from back in the day others went hunting in the attic to uncover their childhood collections whether it was sports cards you were into or Pokemon collecting was once again alive and well let's uh SAT Word of the Day impeccable meaning your card is perfect but here's where things got a little bit insane on September 2nd 2020 YouTube Creator Logan Paul announced he was investing in Pokemon cards having seen the trend spiking during the pandemic one of his first purchases was an original sealed first edition face set booster box which he bought for a record-breaking 200 000 he saw the packs inside at eleven thousand dollars a pop

17:50 and opened them on a live stream between his twitch audience 23 million YouTube subscribers and 20 million Instagram followers you can only imagine how many fresh Zeds of eyes were being exposed to the exciting world of Pokemon and specifically the TCG many for the first time PSA has agreed to put this little tag this Logan Paul break up top to give it like an extra premium before you know it logic and Steve Aoki we're joining in on the fun and next thing you knew everyone and his dog wanted to open Pokemon cards however due to the pandemic Supply was shrinking just as demand was spiking this combination of factors had new collectors competing with scalpers who were leaving the

18:36 shelves bare there were even altercations over sealed Trading Card products it cost so bad that big box retailers like targets announced they were suspending the sales of Trading Card products meanwhile Pokemon card sales on eBay jumped 500 and Grading Services like PSA had to stop accepting submissions due to the influx of new creators two one pull it foreign saw a huge spike in interest as it was more affordable than the 500 and up base set packs from the late 90s luckily the pokemania has calmed down a little since then and the price is on high level

19:21 cards have come down significantly from the astronomical peaks of 2020. what was clearer than ever during this time however was the incomparable level of nostalgia and excitement that Pokemon can conjure up for a generation that's just lived through a pandemic and faces an uncertain future this hobby brings us back to a basically pre-internet time where life was simpler when battling and collecting Pokemon was our biggest concern it gives us a way to connect it gives me and Andrew a chance to hang out today be a part of the tournament and things we can do together when we get so into the video games it's between them and the TV This Is Us Now a new generation of Galactus has been established what's amazing is that if you happen to still enjoy collecting

20:07 Pokemon there's no shortage of new sets and products to choose from that lightning in a bottle feel of pulling your favorite Pokemon is still alive too as they continue to elevate the artwork and design of the cards for example alternate art cards have become a vessel to tell an entire story with one single artwork namely from new sets like evolving skies and chilling rain this style of artwork immediately became a fan favorite and fortunately for collectors it looks like it will be carried forward in the new Scarlet and violet era it seems as if there's an endless supply of creative directions they could take with this TCG and if the last few years are any indication there's no shortage of fans inside

20:53 the TCG has of course blown up in recent years but for some people such as myself the anime is always gonna be king and I'll never forget my favorite moments in episode 66 snow way out when Ash and all his little Pokemon huddle together in that cave and just thinking about it makes me want to cry but we almost didn't get that far as episode 38 was so controversial the series went on a long Hiatus but before we get ahead of ourselves let's go back to the start it's really hard to imagine a world without Pokemon for the better part of 25 years the series has absolutely dominated the video game and trading card Landscapes but perhaps its most notable accomplishment is that of the anime an industry Titan with over 1 100

21:41 episodes to its name all revolving around a little boy a yellow Mouse and their quest to become the very best like no one ever was but how did we get here how did Pokemon become the universally known name it is today let's have a little look bed in 1997 Japanese animation studio olm or Oriental light and Magic was test with creating a new animated series for TV Tokyo that capitalized on the burning hot video game series that had taken over Japan they created Satoshi as the lead of the series whose design was heavily based on red the hero from the

22:26 video games [Music] all right but still they needed a mascot a Pokemon who could carry the franchise with its easily recognizable design and merchandise selling adorability and who better than Clefairy ah and what you were expecting someone else Clefairy had already proven to be popular in the korokoro comic manga adaptation of the series so why not make him the anime's hero too well somewhere during production they realized that clefairy's appeal was skewed towards their female demographic they wanted

23:12 something that would be a hit with both boys and girls so they flip through the Pokedex in search of a character with bright colors and a pet-like charm and that's when they stumbled upon the electric Mouse [Music] Pikachu is the perfect blend of cute eye-catching and recognizable the production committee sign him up as satoshi's partner and they went off on their journey together so yeah it's thanks to the anime that Pikachu became the mascot of the entire franchise olm changed a few things from the video games like the whole Pokemon only saying their names thing

23:58 yep apparently olm wanted Pokemon to speak the same as humans but game freak hated the idea and this was their compromise but for the most part they stuck to the same road map as the red and blue Pokemon games only with the protagonists losing frequently and seldom catching any Pokemon let alone all of them welcome to the team Squirtle Squirtle the show proved an instant success in Japan with children tuning in every week to watch Satoshi travel with his companions Kazumi and Takeshi meeting new monsters winning Gym badges and thwarting the efforts of Team Rockets as they tried to steal his beloved Pikachu

24:45 foreign [Music] however all this progress came to a screeching halts on December 16 1997 in an incident that could have ended the Pokemon dream for good on this day the episode titled cyber Soldier Porygon aired and the results were director during the climax of the episode the Pokemon Porygon causes an explosion that was animated with flashing strobe lights as a result 685 children across Japan watching the episode experienced seizure-like symptoms and had to be rushed to

25:30 hospitals it was a major controversy and the show was taken off the air after a four-month Hiatus Pokemon was back to right its wrongs they aired an informative apology segments and the new episode Pikachu's good Joy which is cited by many as one of the most important episodes of the series due to its emotional impact [Music] the series quickly recovered from the bad press and pokemania was back and that's about the time the West started to take notice the series was licensed by the company for kids entertainment a studio that's been criticized for their

26:15 eagerness does sensor localized content nothing beats a jelly filled donut unsurprisingly they did just that but that didn't deter the young Western audiences from falling in love with the Pokemon television series as it aired on CW Kids In America Teletoon in Canada Skywarn in the United Kingdom and many more across the globe here Satoshi became Ash Ketchum Kasumi became Misty Musashi and kojiro became Jesse and James and so on and so forth you got a Pokemon and a new friend yeah for every piece they left on The Cutting Room floor four kids to their credit replaced it with something equally memorable the music videos to

27:01 this day the pokerap pops up in many bars at late hours across the globe almost any fan can bust out every lyric [Music] and no one can deny the impact of Pikachu's jukebox with hits like together forever what kind of Pokemon are you and the iconic to be a master a capture my master we have to appreciate the gravity of the Pokemon anime success while shows like Dragon Ball Z did a lot of the heavy lifting it can be said that

27:47 Pokemon truly introduced a whole generation of Western audiences to Japanese animation pokemania at this point dominated not only Japan but also the rest of the world then something unprecedented happened Pokemon the first movie you are as pathetic as the rest while the film was released to Wild success in Japan in 1998 it wasn't until a year later that it reached the states and became the first anime movie to receive a wide release in the country for a Time Pokemon the first movie held the record as the highest grossing opening to an animated film making over

28:35 10 million dollars on its first day you probably remember those awesome Burger King promotional toys around that time [Music] from there Pokemon was able to reach New Heights as the anime started to influence the video games with a re-release of Pokemon Red and Blue as Pokemon Yellow it featured Pikachu as the starter Pokemon and several cameos from the television series [Music] they even made live stage play based on the anime series but uh well the less said about that the better as the years passed the Pokemon anime would maintain

29:22 its solid audience perhaps not quite as intense as in its Kanto Heyday but still passionate enough as Ash traveled through Johto hoen Sinnoh and so on following each new video game release hello I'm Ash I'm from Pallet Town I'd like a battle the anime would eventually draw more eyes towards it with the X and Y Series in 2013 which many sites as the strongest in the entire franchise due to its focus on storytelling and high quality sakuga animation but in Japan in 2014 something was changing Pokemon was waning in

30:09 popularity compared to a new rival series Yokai Watch [Music] foreign [Music] began to put down their Pikachu plushies and pick up a japanion instead Yokai watches focus on humor and creatures packed with personality with drawing eyes away but the Pokemon company wasn't gonna take it sitting down they decided to take a page out of the Yokai book with the sun and moon series which saw Ash halt his trebles to kick back in the paradise-like alola region tackling smaller Mysteries with his school friends very similar indeed they also adopted a more simplistic art and animation style allowing for goofier

30:55 reactions and humorous interactions old school Pokemon fans were not so keen on the changes but it managed to grasp an entire new generation of young viewers however fans of every age came together with the series conclusion which saw Ash Ketchum after over 20 years finally achieved his dream of winning a Pokemon League congratulations thank you so much Pocket Monsters was big again with the series that's followed they've returned a little closer to their Roots proving that they simply refused to sit still

31:41 [Music] what's more Jenny's is the first series to be exclusive to Netflix in the US a massive change in Direction that's proven that streaming services are perhaps becoming the more dominant medium over television guess this is what you meant by them learning to live on their own it would however prove to be Ash ketchum's final Journey as upon becoming world champion he would hang up his boots as the protagonist of the Pokemon anime he'll be replaced by two new trainers in Pokemon Horizons before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for

32:26 occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure to go into your settings and switch on notifications yes Pokemon continues to grow and adapt while the anime has these days taken third place in popularity behind the video games and card game it has no signs of slowing down it's undeniably the secrets of the franchise's success and let's be honest the anime series will probably continue to air until the Sun Burns Out take care of Butterfree good luck buddy it is incredible to see the journey that Pokemon has been on over the years to become such a massive Global hit whether it's the TCG the video games or the

33:12 anime they've all played a massive part and so have we too but here's my question for you guys how did you get into Pokemon let us know in those comments below thank you