Pokémon
Pokémon - I Choose You!
TV Flash files “Pokémon - I Choose You!” as a desk essential hour — Pokémon (1998–present (U.S.)) on Kids' WB/Syndication, season 1, episode 1, aired 1997-04-01, 22 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 1220 in the Pokémon guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1997-04-01 (22 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Pokémon Emergency!” (S01E02). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.
Essential hour: “Pokémon - I Choose You!”. I Choose You!: a ten-year-old, a yellow mouse, globetrotting as a childhood operating system — anime as U.S. syndication engine.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Pokemon: Ash Ketchum is finally 10 years old, old enough to become a Pokemon Trainer. He wakes up late, and arrives to Professor Oak's lab late, and all the Pokemon are gone! Ash has no choice but to take a naughty Pikachu. Pikachu won't listen or go inside it's PokeBall, so Ash must drag it along (literally). After many failed attempts at capturing some Pokemon, Ash throws a rock and it hits a Spearow. The Spearow gets angry and starts attacking them! Soon, the entire flock start chasing Ash and Pikachu! Ash, with no Pokemon that will listen to him, he must escape from the raging Spearow. Can they escape and will Ash ever earn Pikachu's trust?
Viewer FAQ
Where does Pokémon - I Choose You! sit in the Pokémon guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 1220 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Pokémon S01E01 air?
Pokémon - I Choose You! aired 1997-04-01 and is listed at 22 minutes.
Do I need the games first?
The TV series is one engine with the games and cards, not a homework prerequisite. U.S. breakthrough is 1998 anime syndication as childhood OS.
In the series
Why this series still plays
A ten-year-old, a yellow mouse, and a globetrotting checklist that became a childhood operating system. Anime lands in American syndication as one engine with the games and cards — catch, train, argue about types. Kids’ TV as collection ritual, gym-badge serialization, and the rare cartoon that still prints money because the adventure never quite finishes.
The work, first: a young trainer, a yellow mouse, a globetrotting checklist that became a childhood operating system. Based on Game Freak/Nintendo games, the anime's U.S. TV breakthrough in 1998 (Kids' WB and syndication) detonated a multi-platform kids' empire: games, cards, films, toys, one engine. Satoshi Tajiri and Kunihiko Yuyama's world turned anime into mainstream American children's programming. Rica Matsumoto and Veronica Taylor as Ash across languages; Ikue Otani's Pikachu. Catch, train, argue about…
Filed against
- Rica Matsumoto as Ash Ketchum (JP)
Rica Matsumoto voices Ash Ketchum on Pokémon — the ten-year-old whose globetrotting checklist became a childhood operating system in Japanese, then a syndication engine abroad. Catch, train, argue about types. TV Flash files her as 1990s…
- Veronica Taylor as Ash Ketchum (US early)
Veronica Taylor was early U.S. Ash Ketchum on Pokémon — a ten-year-old, a yellow mouse, a globetrotting checklist that became a childhood operating system. Anime landed in American syndication as one engine with the games and cards:…
- Ikue Otani as Pikachu
Ikue Otani voiced Pikachu as a childhood operating system — a ten-year-old, a yellow mouse, anime landing in American syndication as one engine with the games and cards. Catch, train, argue about types. TV Flash files her as 1990s kids-TV…