Ash Ketchum

Pokémon Horizons: The Series, the latest season of the Pokémon anime and the first to star protagonists other than Ash Ketchum, has finally premiered in the U.S. via a 12-episode drop on Netflix. It’s a big deal — Ash finally became the very best, and now we have to leave him behind. But the new Pokémon trainers are just the beginning.

When it comes to games like Minecraft, pretty much anything is on the table when it comes to making whatever pops into your mind. Whether that be a ridiculously large maze built solely to torture other players, or a working version of the first Legend of Zelda game, you constantly see impressive creations coming out of the game's community. Terraria is a little less concerned with limitless creativity, but that doesn't stop some people from building some truly ridiculous stuff.

One dedicated Terraria player has used their creative skills to transform their in-game world into a replica of Mt. Moon and its surrounding areas from the original Pokemon games. While Terraria takes place in a side-scrolling 2D landscape and Pokemon allows for 3D movement with a top-down view, this player utilized their years of experience with the game to make the transition work.

One artistic fan recently created an impressive square rug inspired by the Squirtle Squad from the Pokemon anime. In the original Pokemon Red and Blue, Squirtle was one of three Starter options that players could choose from at the very beginning of the game, but Ash Ketchum met his first Water-type partner differently in the long-running Pokemon TV series. There, Ash’s Squirtle was the leader of the Squirtle Squad, a group of abandoned Tiny Turtle Pokemon who went about causing mischief in the Kanto region.

A Pokemon fan has compared images from the games with how they look in the anime to highlight some huge differences. The Pokemon franchise started with the 1996 release of Red and Green, and the anime has taken some liberties from the beginning.

The Pokemon Company has officially shut down its Pokemon TV app, sunsetting the anime streaming app available for fans on Switch. Since its debut in the late 1990s, the Pokemon anime has been one of the most popular facets of the massively popular monster-catching franchise, airing consistently for more than 25 years. The franchise has typically debuted a new series of the anime to coincide with each of its new game releases, featuring the most recent games' new region and Pokemon. Now, however, one popular way of watching the anime has now been shut down.

A creative Pokemon fan has recently devised an amazing piece of artwork in which Pikachu wears the clothes of all the villains’ teams featured in the franchise’s games. From the beloved Team Rocket to the recent Team Star, villain groups are one of the most important parts of Pokemon games, and Pikachu looks adorable when wearing their outfits.

The next Mass Outbreak event in will focus on Baby Pokémon, including the tiny Electric-Type that's become one of the community's most beloved pocket monsters. To keep the player base invested and constantly hunting for the best creatures for their team, developer Game Freak implemented a mechanic that sees herds of Pokémon storming across the map. While these opportunities are usually a great time for Trainers to catch some powerful critters, the next Mass Outbreak should also appeal to players who like their teams to be more adorable than deadly.

Relic Castle, a popular website dedicated to creating and curating Pokemon fan games, has been taken offline following a DMCA. The long-running Pokemon franchise has inspired plenty of creativity among its legions of fans over the past few decades, from impressive artwork of creatures like Pikachu and Eevee to fan-made spin-off games that place the series in genres that likely wouldn’t be explored by Game Freak. This includes mods that add Pokemon characters to other video games like Minecraft and custom Pokemon games that recreate Ash Ketchum’s journey in the Pokemon anime.

In the world of Pokemon, the trainers travel around the world battling one another, catching wild Pokemon, and earning gym badges. Pokemon Champions like Ash Ketchum even travel to other regions and continents in search of new Pokemon and new opponents to face. And now, when you are traveling both domestically and abroad, you can look like you are a Pokemon Master, too!

Pokemon GO developer Niantic has released a new code that unlocks bonus Timed Research culminating in an encounter with Captain Pikachu, as seen in the Pokemon Horizons anime series. Pokemon GO often features crossover events with other Pokemon media, and with Pokemon Horizons finally making its US debut on Netflix, it makes sense that Niantic is capitalizing on the hype.

As part of the Pokémon Horizons event for Pokémon Go, Charcadet was added to the game — and we’ve got all the info, including how to evolve them into Armarouge or Ceruledge explained, so that you don’t miss out on all the hype.

A fan recently combined their love of Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender with a creative tattoo that reimagines Dragonite as Aang. Both these properties have captivated the imaginations of fans for decades, with Pokemon in particular building on its collection of elementally empowered creatures with each new game. This has enabled players to show off their own artistic skills through drawings, crafting, and even tattoos.

We’re more than a week away from Pokémon Day, the annual celebration of the Japanese release of the original Pokémon games and with it, the English debut of Pokémon Horizons: The Series. The upcoming season will be the first in the series to star characters other than Ash Ketchum since the anime first premiered all the way back in 1997.

A talented Pokemon fan recently gave the popular Generation 1 creature Lapras an impressive past Paradox form. The Pokemon franchise has seen several interesting variants over the years, with the most recent being introduced in 2022’s Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Paradox Pokemon are versions of certain Pokemonbreeds from a particular time period, with Pokemon Scarlet featuring creatures from the distant past and Pokemon Violet showing players what their favorite monsters will look like in the far-off future. Each Paradox Pokemon has at least one different type from their contemporary relative, as well as a unique name to set them apart.

As we noted yesterday, Pokemon Day is drawing ever closer. Right now, it’s two weeks away, and fans are curious about what might be done during the traditional fan-made holiday that The Pokemon Company later turned into an annual event. We say “annual event” because the company also seems to do something on the day to honor the brand and give fans something in return for their loyalty to it. Many are wondering whether a Pokemon Presents will happen, potentially showing off the new games they’re making or getting hints at what may be in the pipeline.

A week after the release of Palworld in early access, The Pokemon Company issued an official statement. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the similarities between Pokemon and Pocketpair’s survival game, as Palworld features various creatures that look just like The Pokemon Company's pocket monsters.

Palworld may have just come out recently, but its popularity is growing daily as the open-world survival game's US daily players briefly surpassed Fortnite on Xbox.

Only three days after Palworld launched, which fans have been calling 'Pokemon with guns' since it was announced anyway, someone made a mod that turned the player into Ash Ketchum and Pals into 'mons. But less than a day later, it has already been taken down by Nintendo.

The modder who put Pokémon into Palword has claimed “Nintendo has come for me” after a takedown of a tweet.

If the accusations of Palworld peeking at Pokémon’s homework for its catchable monster designs weren’t already rife enough, a modder has decided to take the Garth Marenghi approach and remove any possible question by turning Palworld’s Pokémon-a-likes into just straight-up Pokémon.

Pocket Pair’s Palworld is getting a Pokemon mod that introduces various characters from the popular Nintendo franchise into the game. Since the release of the first Palworld trailer back in 2021, the game has turned heads for having elements that bear a striking resemblance to Pokemon, from some of the Pals such as Lamball and Direhowl to even the device used to capture these creatures, Pal Spheres. These similarities have led gamers online to refer to the game as “Pokemon with guns.”

It was inevitable, but someone has already modded Pokemon’s pocket pals into the new creature catcher on the block, Palworld. 

It was inevitable — someone has already made a Pokémon mod for Palworld on PC.

Palworld now has a Pokémon mod from the same creator who hit the headlines recently for adding famous Disney characters to Mortal Kombat.

US Pokémon fans will now need to wait until 7th March to watch the rebooted Pokémon Horizons: The Series on Netflix.

The Pokémon series’ next big animated show, Pokémon Horizons, has been delayed on Netflix.

You're going to have to wait even longer to see the Pokemon Horizons anime on Netflix, as the series has just been delayed two more weeks on the streaming service.

Pokemon has a weird thing with father figures, stemming all the way back to the release of the Pokemon anime and Ash Ketchum's constantly missing dad. Throughout most of the games, you only have your mother as a parental figure, as it seems like every main character's father just suddenly vanishes upon turning 10. Thankfully, other Pokemon characters have much more supportive father figures, including Penny from Pokemon Scarlet & Violet.

Pokémon TV, the app and website that let you watch episodes from the long-running Pokémon anime for free, has been removed from app stores.

It’s a sad day for fans of pocket monsters. Why? Today, The Pokemon Company announced that its Pokemon TV app, which is available on numerous platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, is shutting down. The app will be unable to be downloaded by the end of today, and by the end of March, it’ll be shut down completely. The goal of this app was to give access to hundreds of episodes of the beloved anime series while also giving fans livestreams of certain competitions, such as for their trading card game. Here is the full statement that The Pokemon Company gave on the matter:

While US fans have been watching the conclusion of Ash Ketchum’s journey in Pokemon Ultimate Journeys, audiences in Japan have already embarked on a new adventure, Pokemon Horizons. Fans excited for this new chapter are in luck, as the Pokemon Horizons Netflix release date has been announced.

After over 1,200 episodes and well over a dozen films, Ash Ketchum’s Pokémon journey concluded earlier this year. But you’d be crazy if you thought that would be the end of the immensely successful anime series. Pokémon Horizons is on the way to pick up the mantle, with Netflix confirming in a new trailer that it will begin airing stateside early next year.

Pokémon Horizons will be released on Netflix in February 2024 in the US.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore, a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

How do you move on from Ash Ketchum?

Netflix has confirmed its new stop-motion Pokémon series, Pokémon Concierge, will release on 28th December this year — and there's a fresh two-minute trailer to accompanying the news.

The new Pokémon animated series is set to launch in the UK on the BBC in December.

Pokémon Horizons: The Series will launch in the UK this December.

The Pokémon Black and Whitegames are lauded for their thoughtful story, ingenious antagonist team, and well-oiled gameplay. As such, their inevitable anime adaptation would have a lot to live up to. In another reality, it might have met that challenge, too. At first, the plot that the evergreen Ash Ketchum and his pals seemed to be facing in the world of Pokémon the Series: Black & White was a breath of fresh air. And it was headed to an explosive two-parter, one that promised a shake-up in a change-resistant series. The kind of event that fans would spend years talking about.

If exploring Starfield's 1,000 planets is proving too exhausting for you, this new life sim offers a much more manageable 100 islands and a cozy Stardew Valley vibe. 

I first sat down to play Dave the Diver expecting a few hours of casual fishing fun. 30 hours of game time later, I’m realizing that Dave the Diver goes much deeper than you’d expect from a $20 title. Its writing is hilarious, its art is simple but gorgeous, and its gameplay scratches my exploring/collecting itch in a way that’s supremely satisfying.

The world of Pokémon animation, for a long time, always seemed to have two different directives in the wider scheme of the franchise — it constantly needed to be both an introduction and an alternative. It had served as a sort of Pikachu-filled warmup in the most literal sense, debuting a few weeks before the Pokémon games did in the United States as a teaser taste for the “Pokémania” to come. And from then on, with a more obvious focus at younger audiences, it would always be a great way for youngsters to get their feet wet before they jumped into actually taking a role themselves.

It’s hard to believe that the Pokemon franchise is well over 25 years old and that we’ve gone from the original 150 Pokemon to now over 1000. There have been many highs and lows for the series, yet it has endured. Many would agree that it being around so long has been a boon for many things, not the least of which is The Pokemon Company and Nintendo. But being around so long also means there will be some key anniversaries to celebrate. Today is the anniversary of the Pokemon Yellow Version, a game that would set the trend for many generations to come.

The world of Pokémon media is expanding. A new, live-action Pokémon drama premiering this fall will focus on the impact of the game on a former fan’s life — not on the Pokémon themselves. The show will air in October in Japan, according to a tweet from Japanese TV company Tokyo TV, translated by Pokémon website Serebii.

The Pokemon Company shared plenty of details on new animated projects, mobile game updates, and what's next for Pokemon Scarlet and Vioelt.

The next Pokémon Presents will take place next week.

We've got a brand new look at Pokemon Horizons: The Series, and it looks like an incredibly relatable anime.

Ash Ketchum’s final episodes of the Pokemon anime will be added to Netflix in September.

For English speakers, Ash Ketchum's journey with Pikachu in the Pokémon anime will come to an end in September.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore, a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.