The Pokemon anime, often referred to as just "the anime" by Pokemon fans, is a collective term referring to currently 986 main series episodes, 23 movies, and a number of side story episodes, all focusing on Pokemon. The great majority of these focus on Ash Ketchum, a Pokemon Trainer from Pallet Town, and his journey toward his ultimate goal of being a Pokemon Master, his many friends, and most especially his Pokemon, whom he considers his partners and friends. Though the anime is ultimately based upon the games and draws heavily from them, many concepts which are only touched on the games are spun in a unique way, and expanded on."

It was originally called Pocket Monsters or just Pokemon to mean that little creatures could fit into out pockets.

Pokemon was developed when Satoshi Tajiri had a hobby of catching insects and tadpoles in his hometown of surburban Tokyo. He then made these ideas and put it into practice and created Pokemon. He was fascinated by the Gameboy and the Gameboy linking cable, because it gave him an image of insects traveling along a wire. He also was influenced by Ultraman, where he used ball capsules to help him fight. With a help of friends, he created Game Freak and then the design became Creatures.

The first three games of Pokemon: Red, Blue and Green, were an instant hit, fulfilling Tajiri's dream of what he wanted to create. Eventually more spin-offs were made such as Pokemon FireRed, and LeafGreen. It became so popular that they kept creating more games series. That's where the Pokemon TV series come in. The series were based off of the games but more detailed and more parts that the video game would not cover.