General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Pokémon Generations (ポケモンジェネレーションズ)

Pokémon Generations (ポケモンジェネレーションズ) is a Japanese animated anthology miniseries of 18 short episodes, each 3 to 5 minutes long, that retells memorable moments from the first six generations of the Pokémon video games from a new perspective. It was produced by OLM, the studio behind the main Pokémon anime, and released weekly on the official Pokémon YouTube channels from September 16 to December 23, 2016, as part of the franchise's 20th anniversary celebrations.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	18 episodes of 3–5 minutes each, released weekly on the official Pokémon YouTube channel¹
Run dates	English: September 16 – December 23, 2016; Japanese: December 9, 2016 – February 2, 2017³
Studio	OLM team Kato²
Regions covered	Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos²
Basis	Anthology based on Game Freak's video games, not the Ash Ketchum anime⁴
Final episode	"The Redemption" (贖い), released December 23, 2016⁵
IMDb rating	7.7⁶

Spoilers

Premise and structure

The series revisits each generation of the Pokémon video game series to shed new light on moments from the games, from the earliest days in the Kanto region to the splendor of the Kalos region.⁷ Each episode is a self-contained vignette focusing on specific characters during particular events, chosen both for their significance to the game storylines and for how memorable they are to fans. Some episodes added new elements to the lore entirely, such as Looker's involvement in stopping Team Rocket in episodes 2 and 5.¹

Unlike the long-running main anime, which has followed Ash Ketchum since 1998, Generations contains no Ash and instead dramatizes the game protagonists and villains. Some dialogue is lifted directly from the video games; the Elite Four battles in episode 3, for example, have characters speak lines from Pokémon Red and Blue.¹

Production

The series was announced on September 13, 2016, and produced by OLM, the studio behind the main Pokémon anime; the Japanese credits list animation production by OLM team Kato, direction and storyboards by Daiki Tomiyasu (冨安大貴), scripts by Atsuhiro Tomioka (冨岡淳広), and Pikachu voiced by Fumiko Orikasa (折笠富美子).¹^•² JustWatch credits Sunghoo Park and Arifumi Imai as directors.⁶

Because of the short run times and small episode count, the series carried a higher per-episode budget than the weekly main anime, which reviewers said was most evident in the Pokémon battle scenes. Episode 9 featured the longest and most detailed battle of the first half, showcasing Deoxys' transformations between its different forms.¹

A deliberate tonal choice separates Generations from the main series: the Pokémon do not say their names. Instead they grunt and roar the way real animals do, which reviewers described as giving the shorts a more realistic, more mature feel.¹

Release and distribution

The English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch versions premiered weekly on The Pokémon Company International's official channel for each language between September 16 and December 23, 2016; the Brazilian Portuguese version began on February 10, 2017.⁸ The Japanese dub ran on the official Japanese Pokémon channel from December 9, 2016 to February 2, 2017.³ The first two episodes were re-uploaded in HD on December 14, 2016, with the originals replaced in the series playlist rather than taken down.⁹

The 18th and final episode, "The Redemption," was published on December 23, 2016; its description promises a new champion rising, an ancient king returning, and the end of a sorrow that has lasted 3,000 years, referring to the Kalos storyline of Pokémon X and Y.⁵^•⁷ The shorts remain available free on YouTube; in Germany the series is listed on RTL+ and Toggo, while it does not appear on Netflix, Crunchyroll, or Amazon Prime Video there.¹⁰

Reception and legacy

A mid-series review praised the high-quality animation, the efficient storytelling, and the game-faithful dialogue, while criticizing over-acted dubbing, the scarcity of full battles, and the limited roles given to female characters in the first half; of the three game protagonists shown by episode 11, none were women, and four episodes had included no female voice at all.¹ On IMDb the series holds a 7.7 rating.⁶

Generations established a format that The Pokémon Company reused for later YouTube anthology shorts, including Pokémon Twilight Wings, Pokémon Evolutions, and PokéToon; fans and commentators commonly group these web miniseries together as game-canon companions to the main anime.⁴^•¹¹

A different "Pokémon: Generations"

The title also belongs to an unrelated fan project: an unofficial 3D action-adventure game called Pokemon: Generations, whose rough prototype was shown in a May 2013 YouTube video by JolteonPlays. In 2026 the Japanese Patent Office cited that fan demonstration as prior art when upholding its rejection of a Nintendo patent on an in-game monster-capturing system during the dispute with Palworld developer Pocketpair, arguing the patented idea lacked an adequate inventive step.¹²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Anime and manga › Anime series, episodes, and franchises › OVAs, ONAs, and streaming-original anime

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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