The Pokémon anime first premiered in Japan in 1997.
The series debuted on TV Tokyo on April 1, 1997. Its Japanese title was Pocket Monsters, matching the name used for the original Japanese video games. The story followed Ash Ketchum and Pikachu as they travelled through the Pokémon world, giving the characters and creatures a weekly television audience.
The anime did not launch at the same time as the games. Pokémon Red and Green had already appeared in Japan in February 1996, and the television series arrived about a year later. This gap allowed the games and related merchandise to establish the franchise first.
The series later spread internationally, with the English-language version beginning in the United States in 1998. A notorious broadcast incident involving flashing lights led to production and broadcasting changes, but the anime continued and became one of the franchise’s longest-running major adaptations.