Pokémon
The full story of the biggest media franchise on Earth, from Satoshi Tajiri's bug-collecting dream and the 1996 Game Boy originals through the Pokémania that swept the planet, the trading-card crazes, twenty-five years of games and anime, the summer the whole world played Pokémon GO, Ash Ketchum finally becoming World Champion, and the card-collecting mania of today, told through the real commercials, news reports, trailers, tournament finals and photographs of each moment.
A chronological documentary of 573 moments on Loreline.
Curated by Olivier · last updated 2026-08-22
Eras
- 0 · Satoshi Tajiri, The bug-collecting boy who dreamed up Pokémon. Before Pokémon, before Game Freak, Satoshi Tajiri was a games journalist and obsessive arcade collector, glimpsed here in rare late-1980s television footage, at the start of the road that led to 1996.
- Origins, Satoshi Tajiri turns a childhood spent collecting bugs into Pocket Monsters Red & Green, six years in the making at tiny Game Freak. Within two years Japan has a trading card game, a TV anime, and the Porygon broadcast incident that made world news.
- Pokémania, Pokémon hits the West and becomes a full-blown mania: Red & Blue, the 4Kids anime, cards banned in schoolyards, Burger King promotions, a Time magazine cover and a movie that topped the US box office. Gold & Silver arrive before the wave has even crested.
- Advance Era, The Game Boy Advance generation, Ruby & Sapphire, FireRed & LeafGreen, Emerald, rebuilds the series after the fad-crash headlines, and the first official Pokémon World Championships crown the game as a real competitive sport.
- Nintendo DS, Diamond & Pearl make the Nintendo DS a Pokémon machine and online trading goes global. Platinum and HeartGold & SoulSilver follow, and the Video Game World Championships are born.
- Black, White & 3DS, Black & White dare a full reboot, X & Y launch worldwide on the same day, and the internet makes Pokémon its own: sixteen days of Twitch Plays Pokémon, the Helix Fossil, and a thousand Pikachu marching through Yokohama.
- Pokémon GO, A Super Bowl ad for the 20th anniversary, then the summer that broke reality: Pokémon GO sends millions into parks and streets, stampedes through Central Park, and puts Pokémon back on every front page. Sun & Moon ride the wave.
- Switch Era, Pokémon conquers the living room again, Let's Go, a Hollywood Detective Pikachu, Sword & Shield and the Dexit revolt, while a pandemic-era collecting boom sends trading cards to prices nobody thought possible.
- Scarlet & Violet, Legends: Arceus reinvents the formula, Ash Ketchum finally becomes World Champion and hands the anime to a new generation, Worlds comes home to Japan, a Van Gogh Museum collab descends into chaos, and TCG Pocket makes card-ripping a daily ritual for millions.
…and 573 more moments. Full text archive: /loreline-text/pokmon.md
