Pokémon

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This article is about the media franchise fandom. For the fictional creatures, see Pokémon (creature). For other uses, see Pokemon (disambiguation).
Fandom
Name: Pokémon
(ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā)
Abbreviation(s): PKM, PKMN
Creator: Satoshi Tajiri (Game Freak/Nintendo)
Date(s): 1996 - present
Medium: video game, anime, manga, etc.
Country of Origin: Japan
External Links: wikipedia
Bulbapedia - Pokémon wiki
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Pokémon, short for Pocket Monsters, is a Nintendo media franchise that began as a video game and gained immense popularity with the release of an anime series. The popularity of the franchise lead to the release of a Pokémon trading card game, numerous manga series, and various other merchandise. While each Pokémon medium follows its own canon, all are set in a fictional world in which there exist creatures called Pokémon that "Trainers" capture and use to battle one another.

Video Game Series

Main article: Pokémon Game Fandom

The Pokémon video games consists of several generations of a main series as well as multiple spin-off games. The main series was introduced in Japan in 1996 with the release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, and in North America two years later with the slightly altered versions Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue. Each generation consists of a pair of counterpart "versions" that are nearly identical except for some of the types of Pokémon one can catch, and a third version, released a year or two later, which has the same basic plot as the first two but features some enhanced content. The deviations from this pattern are Generation III and Generation IV, which include remade versions of Generation I and Generation II games respectively in addition to the standard trio of new games.

The most popular ships based on the games pair a player character with the rival of his or her respective generation. The quintessential example of this is Red x Blue ("NamelessShipping"), the rivals from Generation I. Ships that pair the male and female player characters are also popular, even if the characters never meet in the game (e.g. Red x Leaf and Ethan x Kris).

Apart from fanac such as shipping and fanfiction, fans often interact with one another to trade and battle Pokémon within the games. While fans previously had to physically meet up and connect Gameboys with a link cable, games beginning with Generation IV were released on the Nintendo DS, which has Wi-Fi capabilities, allowing fans from all over the world to meet, trade, and battle over the internet.

Game Challenge Communities

The Pokémon games have resulted in many common challenges amongst fans, creating different types of communities dedicated to these challenges. This includes:

Anime Series

Main article: Pokémon Anime Fandom

The Pokémon anime is a long-running set of television series, spanning 23 years as of 2020, and also incorporates numerous television specials and spin-off material, including 13 films. It was initially based on the Generation I video games and features Ash Ketchum, the counterpart of the player character Red, as well as Gary Oak, the counterpart of rival Blue, and two of the Gym Leaders from the games, Misty and Brock, as major characters.

Subsequent seasons also feature characters present in the newer games, such as May and Dawn, who are both options for the player character, and Iris, a Gym Leader. The Pokémon series have been divided roughly based on the region in which Ash travels and the female character that travels with him: the Original Series features Ash and Misty in Kanto and Johto; Advanced Generation features Ash and May in Hoenn; Diamond and Pearl features Ash and Dawn in Sinnoh; and Best Wishes features Ash and Iris in Unova.

The anime fandom focuses largely on shipping, and is known for its abundances of ship wars and wank when pairings don't become canon or new female characters are introduced. The first and possibly the most heated ship war began during the first series of the anime and was between fans who supported the Ash/Misty pairing, called "PokéShippers," and those who supported the Ash/Gary pairing, called "PalletShippers." This occurred primarily on the message boards of popular Pokémon fansites such as the Universal Pokémon Network, Bulbagarden, and Serebii.net.[1]

Manga Series | Pokémon Special

Main article: Pokémon Manga Fandom

The Pokémon manga refers to a collection of officially-published manga series based on the Pokémon world. While fans often create their own manga (doujinshi), they are not considered manga unless published professionally.

There are a number of manga series, most of which have their own canon that is independent of other Pokémon manga and media. Many manga are never translated into English, providing opportunities for fan scanlations.

(Manga censoring: [1])

Notable Fanworks

Doujinshi

See List of Pokémon Doujinshi and Category:Pokémon Doujinshi

Fanart

Fancomics

Fangames

Fanfiction

Fanzines

Fanvids

Meta

Memes

Animatics

Challenges

Other

Remixes

Pokétubers

Pokétubers, a portmanteau of "Pokémon" and "YouTubers", are a subgenre of YouTubers who exclusively create content that involve Pokémon media.

Content made by Pokétubers may include Let's Plays, creating animatics, music videos, fanart, fan-comics/doujinshi or partaking in Pokémon-related variety challenges (Nuzlockes).

Notable Pokétubers

  • TrueGreen7, known for their series of creating Pokémon fanart and Fakémon challenges
  • Moxie2D, known for their Pokémon Let's Play challenges and Pokémon fanart
  • Alpharad, known for their Pokémon Let's Play Nuzlocke challenges, and Pokémon fan-game (romhacks) Let's Play's
  • pChal, known for their Pokémon Nuzlocke challenges, and Pokémon fan-game (romhacks) Let's Play's
  • Marriland, known for his Pokémon Diamond Adventure and Wedlocke challenge (a romance-themed Nuzlocke)
  • HoopsAndHipHop, known for his theorizing, tidbit lists, and Top 5 lists.
  • CandyEvie, known for her shiny hunts, top 5 lists, and factoids

Shipping

See also: List of Pokémon Pairing Names and Category:Pokémon Relationships

Pokémon fandom has an active shipping community. Pairings are often referred to by a single-word ship name with the suffix "Shipping", e.g. PokéShipping or ApprenticeShipping.

Almost every conceivable pairing has an "official" ship name, including group ships, human/Pokémon, etc. The current list can be found at Neverending Romance: an Incomplete Nightmare.[2]

See Also

Fan Communities

Fansites & Archives

LiveJournal Communities

Mailing Lists

  • Pain Angst Slash Pokémon offline "M/M Slash, F/F Slash ·· Discussion, Fiction, Art/Multimedia, Other, Updates. For stories/pictures about the characters in Pokemon, no restrictions on this list, and crossovers are allowed as well."
  • Rocketslash Team Rocket slash
  • Pokefanfic - mailing list from 1999-2001

References

  1. ^ Bulbapedia. Shipping:History of Pokémon Shipping. (Accessed 03 May 2011.)
  2. ^ Previously hosted at freewebs.com/incompletelove (archive link). Moved to Bulbagarden on 17 October 2011.
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