Running head: TELEVISON HISTORY 1

Chronological and Contextual Aspects of the Pokemon Anime Series in Singapore

Name

Institution
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Chronological and Contextual Aspects of the Pokemon Anime Series

Introduction

The Pokemon anime, regularly known by Pokemon fans as ‘the anime’ is a common

expression used in referring 971 major sequences of episodes. It similarly entails 23 movies

together with the side story episodes which are primarily concentrating on Pokemon. Essential

parts of these are focusing on Ash Ketchum who is a trainer of the Pokemon attained from the

Pallet town. The ballet similarly majors on a goal of the ultimate journey towards becoming the

master of Pokemon, his several allies and typically his Pokemon who is deemed to be his friends

and partners (Scannell, 2009, p.79). Even though Pokemon anime is in the long run anchored on

games alongside drawing hugely from them, several concepts that are merely touched on games

are gyrated within an exceptional manner and has been expanded comprehensively (Buckley,

2006, p.89). The anime is presently being aired within 98 different nations. Several times it is

being dubbed into various languages in favor of the various locales. It is similarly accessible via

Netflix within 217 states having different subtitles and dubs.

Besides, every country apart from Japan has at least English as audio (Cubbison, 2005,

p.46). Taking from episode one, Ash is seen as a dominant character. This is making his

intention of turning out to be the Pokemon Master to be known to every person he is meeting.

Nevertheless, he simply became a trainer of Pokemon having a primary objective of beating his

rival, that is Gary Oak. Essentially, several Pokemon Ash has encountered within his journey

have indicated to him whatever being a Pokemon Master requires. Not like several trainers of the

Pallet, Ash never commenced his voyage with Charmander, Bulbasaur or rather Squirtle during

the period in which he arrived late to Oak’s lab having the intention of receiving his starter
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Pokemon (Freiberg, 2004, p.10). In place, Ash was handed Pokemon Oak which Pikachu had left

giving.

From here, Ash got some lessons on how to treat Pokemon like his partners thus earning

the trust of Pikachu via ensuring that he was safe the Spearow flock which he had initially

angered. As from this point, Ash has moved all over six areas which appear within major series

of Pokemon games together with Orange Archiepelago, an area he visited before the starting of

his voyage in Johto (Adorno, 2008, p.89). In every journey, he battles against natives of the Gym

leaders in support of their Badges. This is happening as trainers are doing within core series of

the game to compete within the regional league for Pokemon (Graham, 2006, p.11). Whereas his

first stratagem was to continue employing a similar party over his journey course. This is

permitting some Pokemon to go wherever they are needed to perform something or rather train

transformed his plan. Currently, he is using the Pokemon that he has caught within the area

together with Pikachu to battle it out with Gym Leaders. Within the entire series, Ash acquired

many friends who traveled with him all occasionally from one point to the other. The friends he

gained incorporated Misty who is from a Cerulean city and a Gym leader within several games.

Misty joins him within original series at the point he opts to do Brock who is the Gym leader in

Pewter city (Cooper-Chen, 2011, p.98).

The aim of this essay is to map out chronological alongside contextual aspects of the

famous Pokemon anime series within television history. Journals, newspaper articles, and other

primary and secondary sources would be used in extracting the information. Primarily,

information would be attained from various publications. The essay would discuss the major

events of Pokemon anime in Singapore starting from the year 2010 up to 2017. The paper will
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similarly discuss how Pokemon Anime Series is being enshrined and remembered by fans in

Singapore

Keywords: Pokemon anime- A collection of episodes, Series- A sequence of events,

Pokemon movie- a theatrical film released in Japan. Team Robo- A group of people who are

dedicated towards promoting Pokemon anime in Singapore. Elite Four Tournament- A

tournament held in Singapore to determine the top video game performers.

Chronology of major events of Pokemon anime in Singapore

2010

Pokemon or rather the Pocket Monsters were collectively known as original series by

most of the fans. They are the initial set for the Pokemon anime which were anchored on events

concerning major series of generation I and II in the games of Pokemon. The big initial event

which was held in Singapore certainly was Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver TCG

Tournament (Bainbridge, 2014, p.340). This happened during March in the year 2010. The

function was held Junction 8, Bishan. This occurrence was targeting the players of TCG. After

that the same year in June, another event took place at Millennia Walk that increased the

audience who were being targeted to attend. These were the major fans of Pokemon in

Singapore. This event included Pokemon TCG National Championship 2010 (Lewis, 2008). This

was certainly the ever first challenge for elites in Singapore alongside being a digital contest

within the country. Starting from November up to December of the year 2010, a Christmas-

themed was organized by Team Robo at Tampines Mall. This event included several activities

together like workshops, mini-games, tournaments and stage shows. A challenge for video game

known as ‘Battle Mall Challenge’ included characteristics of the in the game for the Elite Four
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together with Battle Frontiers amenities. The challengers were required to defeat four trainers in

a row. The trainers were each stationed at every corner of the floor. This was meant to be in the

capability of challenging Battle Mall Captain. The players were required to restart whenever they

lost any game for any of the trainers. However, when the player managed to defeat Battle Mall

Captain, it finally gave him the opportunity of taking part in the tournament. That is Boxing

Challenge that was held in December 2010. In this case, top three players for this match had the

opportunity of winning coupon which was exchanged with Pokemon Black and white copy

during the day of its release. The fans were mesmerized with the act as this was the initial stages

in which they were interacting with the film (Parini, 2012,p.78).

2011

In the year 2011 March, Pokemon Black and White was released in English. The launch

and tournament happened at Funan DigitalLife Mall. Those who took part in the tournament

were required group themselves in a team while at the same time playing a new game for three

hours. The participants were needed to battle one another in the tournament through their teams.

The matches were carried out through Wonder Launcher Triple Battles. The general winner for

the tournament would by then walk away with a copy of Pokemon White or Pokemon Black as a

prize. Similarly, the general winners were provided with the companion guidebook meant for the

game. In the same year between June 13 to June 19, an event happened within West Mall. This

event included Pokemon TCG National 2011 together with the Pokemon Black and White Video

Game Elite 4 Tournament. This tournament for the video game employed various rules of the

2011 Video Game Championships (Butler, 2007). In this scenario, the players daily competed in

Swiss rounds towards being in the top three when the final was drawn. Every finalist in this

tournament was required to compete in the year 2011 June 19. This happened to determine the
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players who were in top four that were to be crowned during Elite 4 in Singapore. In this case,

the overall winner from here would win Nintendo 3DS.

In the year 2011 between November 19 to December 31, a Christmas event having a

theme of Pokemon was held at City Square Mall. Together with the theme of this small of being

eco-friendly, there existed stage shows and craft workshops in support of children that had

promoted the benefits of reducing, recycling and reusing. There were similarly tournaments

which happened in the period of events like that of the Pokemon TCG City Championships 2011.

This was meant to be in favor of the player of TCG together with a challenge of Pokemon

Nintendo DS in support of the players for the video games. This was where the top three winners

were expected to walk away Pokemon Rumble Blast new copy.

2012

In 2012 from May 11 up to 2012, an event which was organized by Maxsoft in

conjunction with Pokemon Company known as ‘Pika Pika Carnival’ was held to the Isetan

Scotts. This featured merchandise of Carnival from motion sensor game, Pokemon center, Mini

games as well as photo seeking session having a Pikachu mascot. In this event, Pikachu was

similarly distributed in the period of the event that had light balls as well as knowing various

moves of Thunder, Quick Attack as well as Volt Tackle. Within this event, it marked an initial

time of the event in which Pokemon was duly distributed in the entire Singapore.

By 2012 June 16 and 17th, Pokemon TCG National Championships 2012 together with

the Video Game Elite 4 Competition happened in Singapore at Funan DigitalLife Mall. This

event was arranged by Team Robo and Maxsoft. It was the third in which an Elite 4 tournament

was being held in Singapore. The rulings in support of Elite 4 tournament followed the video
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game championships of 2012. In the same year October, a first inter-country video tournament

within Southeast Asia happened in Philippines and Singapore (Lee, 2011, p.1132). This event

was indeed synchronized between two heads concerning two heads for important video games

community as well as battles were carried out within the room of Wi-Fi.

On October 7th, 2012, the US English released Pokemon Black and White Versions 2.

The launch together with a tournament was held in Singapore at Funan DigitalLife Mall. This

event was comparable to the one which took place for Pokemon Black and White in the year

2011 March (Buckingham, Sefton-Green, Allison & Iwabuchi, 2004, p.91). The only

dissimilarity was the version which was employed in support of the tournament.

In December 1st and 2nd, Singapore certainly hosted a championship of Southeast Asia

in support of trading card game. This was held jointly with tournaments for video games as well

as some side events. The regional championship which was held in Singapore, Philippines,

Malaysia, Indonesia as well as Hong Kong became the first regional tournament to be held in

these regions. The second day, a video game took place that just permitted Pokemon Black 2 and

White Video games 2 to be played in the tournament. The rules were similar to the video game

champions which was done in the subsequent year. The event similarly featured PokePark 2 on

Wii.

2013

In the year 2013 December 27th, Video Games was organized by Team Robo. It was

Pokemon XY event for a video game. It was held at Gaming Entertainment E-sports which took

place in Singapore, Downtown East. The major attraction certainly was Pokemon XY Double

Battle Championships. This was a competitive tournament for the video game which happened
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on December 28th. By and large, there were similarly side events that incorporated Battle

Factory such as events were meant for fresh players. There were mini-tournaments together with

challenges which were taken on veteran players. The players played for Singapore in the year

Pokemon World Championship in the year 2013.

2014

During 2014, there existed ‘2014 Elite 4 Challenge’. This was the other Pokemon X

together with Pokemon Y video game tournament that happened Singapore at College Central. It

was part of the festival which held in the year 2014. This event was jointly organized by Team

Robo together with Singapore Cybersports. The tournament entailed two days for the qualifiers

as well as culminating a single elimination tournament. By October 24th, there was a celebration

of Pokemon day in Singapore for the first time. During this person, nearly 3,000 copies of the

merchandise were distributed at the event.

2016

In 2016 May, there was the opening of Pokemon Café in Singapore. The café was themed

Pokemon alongside having an interior menu. On October 22nd March up to March 5th, 2017,

there was an inauguration of Pokemon Research Expedition which happened at Resorts World

Sentosa. This similarly marked an initial event which was held outside Japan. The participants

opted to go for three major difficulties anchored on Poke Balls. These incorporated Great Ball

which was in the medium in size, Poke Ball which was a bit easy and Ultra Ball which was

slightly hard. The participants employed four out of eight categories of machines towards

reducing Pokemon within their Poke.

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2017

By January 14th in the year 2017, a theme of Pokemon known as Pokemon Run occurred

in Singapore at Promontory. During this event, approximately 6000 people took part in a five-

kilometer run. The participants had different activities themed Pokemon situated along the route.

Junichi Masuda who was the game freak director participated in the action as the guest of honor.

Children were offered opportunity towards interacting with the manager. By June 2017,

Shogakukan Asia announced that Pokemon Day should be held come June 23rd the same year in

association with the local distributors. Participants had the opportunity of meeting and greeting

Pikachu Mascot. They similarly received some merchandise as a giveaway.

How Pokemon Anime Series is being enshrined and remembered by fans in Singapore

The fans in treasure and remember Pokemon series through various weird characters

present in the movie. The characters such Ash Ketchum thrills fans by pulling various funny

faces at every episode. The series is similarly remembered by the various scenes going up to

Dragon Ball Z. Thus, it going with the cultural trends in Singapore. The people of Singapore

have been taking part in all games of Pokemon Anime (Bravo & Canave, 2012, p.9). The video

games are attracting huge gatherings whenever they are held. This is a manner in which

Pokemon Anime fans normally remember the series. According to Butler (2007, p.89), television

series are often enjoyed whenever fans follow the plots. Singapore fans followed Pokemon

anime series with passion Hilmes, 2014, p.45). People find it enjoyable when a series they liked

most is being aired in television (Scolari, 2009, p.48). Airing of Pokemon anime in Singapore

made it to be remembered by the fans. Hartley (2012, p.67), notes ‘placing movies online by the

producers augments the fan base for such movies’. Thus, through various online platforms,

Pokemon anime could be enshrined by the fans as the movie was available to everyone. As per
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Adorno (2008, p.158) “the effect of television cannot be adequately expressed in terms of

success or failure, likes or failure, approval or disapproval”. Thus, television effects made

Pokemon anime be remembered when the show commenced being shown in Singapore. Also,

“the central cultural experience is modernity…” (Hartley, 2012, p.32). This shows that the use of

internet was employed in distributing the series to the fans.

Conclusion

According to Corner (1997, p.63), movies of Pokemon anime are shown in Japan since

1998, and in the USA, these movies have been in the public domain since 1999. Most of these

movies are focusing on mythical or rather legendary Pokemon. Such movies are often a success

in Japan and have remained successful in the USA together with other nations. This is because

such films are being aired in most of the cartoon networks. The movies similarly have theatrical

releases in the period of the first five episodes. The movies are never deemed by people to be the

canon to most of the shows. This is because most of the series are occurring within alternate

timelines. This theory is coming from the fact that Ash together with his friends is never

appearing to be profoundly influenced by the show through events in the movies. This is making

the movies proved to be perilous and have some sorts of drama. However, most of the movies

are certainly akin to filler episodes because most of the parties are transforming at all cost. The

correct interpretation is to have various events within the film referenced in series.
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