Pokmon

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For other uses, see Pokmon (disambiguation).
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The official logo of Pokmon for its international release; "Pokmon" is short for t
he original Japanese title of "Pocket Monsters".
Pokmon (???? Pokemon?, /'po?ke?m?n/ POH-kay-mon)[1][2] is a media franchise owned
by The Pokmon Company,[3] and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. It is centered
around fictional creatures called "Pokmon", which humans capture and train to fig
ht each other for sport.
The franchise began as a pair of video games for the original Game Boy, develope
d by Game Freak and published by Nintendo. The franchise now spans video games,
trading card games, animated television shows and movies, comic books, and toys.
Pokmon is the second-most successful and lucrative video game-based media franch
ise in the world, behind only Nintendo's Mario franchise.[4]
The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006.[5] Cumulative sales of t
he video games (including home console versions, such as "Hey You, Pikachu!" for
the Nintendo 64) have reached more than 200 million copies.[6] In November 2005
, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokmon
, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokmon representation agreement.
Pokmon USA Inc. (now The Pokmon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Po
kmon Co., now oversees all Pokmon licensing outside of Asia.[7] As of 2013, the Po
kmon media franchise has grossed revenues of 4 trillion worldwide[8] (equivalent t
o $50.13 billion).
Name
The name Pokmon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand Pocket Monster
s (????????? Poketto Monsuta?).[9] The term Pokmon, in addition to referring to t
he Pokmon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 720 known fictional s
pecies that have made appearances in Pokmon media as of the release of the sixth
generation titles Pokmon X and Y. "Pokmon" is identical in both the singular and p
lural, as is each individual species name; it is grammatically correct to say "o
ne Pokmon" and "many Pokmon", as well as "one Pikachu" and "many Pikachu".[10] (Ho
wever, Pokmon Red, Blue, and Yellow feature NPCs referring to the plurals of Clef
airy and Diglett with an "s" at the end, shown "CLEFAIRYs" and "DIGLETTs", respe
ctively. This was fixed in FireRed and LeafGreen.)
Concept
Tajiri first thought of Pokmon around 1989, when the Game Boy was first released.
[11] The concept of the Pokmon universe, in both the video games and the general
fictional world of Pokmon, stems from the hobby of insect collecting, a popular p
astime which Pokmon executive director Satoshi Tajiri enjoyed as a child.[12] Pla
yers of the games are designated as Pokmon Trainers, and the two general goals (i
n most Pokmon games) for such Trainers are: to complete the Pokdex by collecting a
ll of the available Pokmon species found in the fictional region where that game
takes place; and to train a team of powerful Pokmon from those they have caught t
o compete against teams owned by other Trainers, and eventually become the stron
gest Trainer: the Pokmon Master. These themes of collecting, training, and battli
ng are present in almost every version of the Pokmon franchise, including the vid
eo games, the anime and manga series, and the Pokmon Trading Card Game.
In most incarnations of the fictional Pokmon universe, a Trainer that encounters
a wild Pokmon is able to capture that Pokmon by throwing a specially designed, mas
s-producible spherical tool called a Pok Ball at it. If the Pokmon is unable to es
cape the confines of the Pok Ball, it is officially considered to be under the ow
nership of that Trainer. Afterwards, it will obey whatever its new master comman

ds, unless the Trainer demonstrates such a lack of experience that the Pokmon wou
ld rather act on its own accord. Trainers can send out any of their Pokmon to wag
e non-lethal battles against other Pokmon; if the opposing Pokmon is wild, the Tra
iner can capture that Pokmon with a Pok Ball, increasing his or her collection of
creatures. Pokmon already owned by other Trainers cannot be captured, except unde
r special circumstances in certain games. If a Pokmon fully defeats an opponent i
n battle so that the opponent is knocked out (i.e., "faints"), the winning Pokmon
gains experience points and may level up. When leveling up, the Pokmon's statist
ics ("stats") of battling aptitude increase, such as Attack and Speed. From time
to time the Pokmon may also learn new moves, which are techniques used in battle
. In addition, many species of Pokmon possess the ability to undergo a form of me
tamorphosis and transform into a similar but stronger species of Pokmon, a proces
s called evolution.
In the main series, each game's single-player mode requires the Trainer to raise
a team of Pokmon to defeat many non-player character (NPC) Trainers and their Po
kmon. Each game lays out a somewhat linear path through a specific region of the
Pokmon world for the Trainer to journey through, completing events and battling o
pponents along the way. Each game features eight especially powerful Trainers, r
eferred to as Gym Leaders, that the Trainer must defeat in order to progress. As
a reward, the Trainer receives a Gym Badge, and once all eight badges are colle
cted, that Trainer is eligible to challenge the region's Pokmon League, where fou
r immensely talented trainers (referred to collectively as the "Elite Four") cha
llenge the Trainer to four Pokmon battles in succession. If the trainer can overc
ome this gauntlet, he or she must then challenge the Regional Champion, the mast
er Trainer who had previously defeated the Elite Four. Any Trainer who wins this
last battle becomes the new champion.