The Story of Pokémon · Chapter III
This is the real-world story of how Pokémon was made and how it grew. Every line says where it comes from: a dated record, something a creator said in an interview, or something the press reported. Where the story is told more than one way, the caption says so.
Dates are Japanese release dates unless the line says otherwise, and they match the Pokémon Timeline. People appear only as silhouettes, hands and the things they used; everything on screen is built in 3D for this film.
IIIGame Freak, TokyoThe idea
The Cable
1989–1990
The Game Boy came with a cable to link two together. Tajiri imagined living creatures moving back and forth along it: catch them, collect them, trade them.
In 1989, Nintendo released the Game Boy, and with it a cable to link two together.
April 21, 1989Nintendo · Company history: “Launched the handheld video game system, Game Boy” (1989)
Tajiri imagined something travelling along that wire.
“I thought of actual living organisms moving back and forth across the cable.”
In their wordsTIME · “The Ultimate Game Freak”, interview with Satoshi Tajiri (1999)
Catch them, collect them, trade them. No one could find every one alone.
“The idea I had was for information to go back and forth. It wasn't about competition.”
In their wordsTIME · “The Ultimate Game Freak”, interview with Satoshi Tajiri (1999)
Its first name was Capsule Monsters. Tsunekazu Ishihara produced it with Game Freak, and Shigeru Miyamoto gave advice.
ReportedWikipedia · Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow: Development (2026)
The story goes that trademark trouble changed the name more than once. It became Pocket Monsters.
As it's toldWikipedia · Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow: Development (2026)
The rest of the story
- I · The 1970sThe CollectorSatoshi Tajiri grew up in Machida, on the western edge of Tokyo, among rice paddies, rivers and woods. He caught more insects than anyone, until the city grew over the fields.
- II · 1981–1989Game FreakAs a teenager Tajiri found the arcade, then wrote a handmade magazine about games called Game Freak. Ken Sugimori drew for it, and in 1989 it became a game studio with the same name.
- IV · 1990–1996Six YearsMaking Pocket Monsters took nearly six years and nearly broke Game Freak. Junichi Masuda wrote the music, Atsuko Nishida designed Pikachu, Ken Sugimori led the art for all 151, and at the very end Shigeki Morimoto slipped in Mew.
- V · February 27, 1996Red and GreenPocket Monsters Red and Green came out in Japan on February 27, 1996, late in the Game Boy's life. A magazine contest for Mew and word of mouth did the rest.
- VI · 1996–1999PokémaniaThe card game, the anime, The Pokémon Company, the first Pokémon Center and the first film, and then North America and Europe: within three years Pokémon was everywhere.
- VII · 1999–2010A Growing WorldGold and Silver's clock, Ruby and Sapphire's colour, Diamond and Pearl's online trading, the first World Championships, and Black and White's all-new region.
- VIII · 2013–2016TogetherX and Y launched worldwide on the same day, fully in 3D. Pikachu paraded through Yokohama, the originals came back for the 20th birthday, and Sun and Moon set out for islands inspired by Hawaii.
- IX · July 2016OutsideAn April Fools' joke on Google Maps grew into Pokémon GO. In July 2016 it turned the real world into the map, and people everywhere went outside to look.
- X · 2018–2025Open WorldsLet's Go's return to Kanto, Galar's stadiums, Hisui's distant past, Paldea's open world, Ash's championship and farewell, and a whole adventure inside Lumiose City.
- XI · February 27, 2026Thirty YearsThirty years to the day after Red and Green, the next generation was announced. It started with two Game Boys and a cable; now there are more than a thousand Pokémon.