Credits to Staff artist ECrystalica for the wonderful header image!
Bulbapedia's 5000th Article - Ho-Oh (anime)
Just as Ho-Oh inspires Ash Ketchum during significant moments of his journey, we too have encountered Ho-Oh during a pivital moment of our own. Our 5000th article, Ho-Oh (anime), was created by retired staff member Pie on May 19, 2007, a little over two short years after Bulbapedia's public debut. In the 17 years since, this article was edited over 200 times by 93 different contributors! During that time, the article evolved from its humble start to include entries on manga, merchandise, and even a fateful encounter from 2017!
While we recently found ourselves with 10 times as many articles last year, we hope this early milestone can continue to inspire us as we make our way to greater heights - the journey to 55000 articles starts today!
Bulbapedia's 5th Featured Article - Pokémon world in relation to the real world
Did you know that each region in the Pokémon world bears striking similarities in geography and demographics to regions in the real world? Sometimes these similarities are more than just speculation, but are officially confirmed fact! According to Junichi Masuda himself, the Kalos region is based on France, and Lumiose City takes after Paris.
Pokémon world in relation to the real world is the page to find all of these details and more! This article is the fifth of Bulbapedia's 17 featured articles, which are some of the best the encyclopedia has to offer. Nominated on October 29, 2008, this article has been edited over 2000 times; you can just feel the passion and dedication of our editors when checking out this jam-packed page!
Bulbapedia Fan Favorite - April Fools' Day 2022/Duck (Pokémon)
I'm sure we all remember our first time catching Duck, after defeating the Elite Four and Blue 9,997 times (not more, not less), speaking to Daisy, then spinning widdershins three times (four times during a blood moon). It feels like just yesterday when we then exited Daisy's house and used Teleport to Vermilion City, entered the Pokémon Center, and released a level 100 Mewtwo. And I'm certain that we still can feel the rush of excitement when we proceeded directly to the truck next to the S.S. Anne at the harbor, used Strength in front of that truck, and finally completed the Pokédex when Duck was added to storage in Mewtwo's place. It's memories like this that unite us as a community!
The official announcement for Duckpedia can be read in the cut below.
Quack quack quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack! Quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack, quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack quack? Quack quack quack quack quack quack quack?
Quack quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, Quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack, quack quack. Quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack quack? Quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack!
Quack quack quack quack.
: - Duck
Quack quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, Quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack, quack quack. Quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack quack? Quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack, quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack quack. Quack quack quack quack quack!
Quack quack quack quack.
: - Duck
And the nominee goes to... - Photography
Back in February 2010, editor Pokemon1234567890 nominated this page for featured article - though it didn't succeed that time, our institutional memory is long and it's high time it got a shout-out! This article details a variety of times photography has been featured in both the Pokémon world and our own. From the surprise encounters with Smeargle in Pokémon GO, to an entry on Todd Snap, to the Rotom Phone, you might be surprised by the pervasiveness of Pokémon photography!
Were you one of the people lucky enough to have their photo printed on a card? Check out this 15 year old article, created by staff member ht14!
Staff Picks
We asked some of our newest staff members to highlight their favorite articles; here's what they had to say.
Landfish7 - Death in the Pokémon world
I first had the idea to create this article back in 2022, and it just sat in my brain for a while. I never really thought there would be much to write about - after all, how much does death come up in a franchise geared primarily towards children? It wasn't until I finally started compiling info and working on it that I realized how much of a recurring topic death really is in the series. Death may seem like a glum subject to celebrate here, but as Satoshi Tajiri (the creator of Pokémon himself) once said, death should be treated with respect, and I think it's a topic worth exploring and accepting as an important part of life.
Anzasquiddles - Pokémon Card Channel
I enjoyed watching the official TCG channel so I think it's just fair to make a page documenting it, in the hopes that other people especially outside of Japan know about it too. I still plan to expand the page with profiles on each current and former members.
We featured Anzasquiddles contributions to the Pokémon Card Channel in the July edition of What's GROWING on?. Since then, Anzasquiddles has listed out as many former members as he could find, and also added content for the Traditional Chinese Card Channel that sometimes participates in cross-over episodes with the Japanese Card Channel team. Please enjoy this specially curated video from the Pokémon Card Channel!
Boblers - List of Pokémon Conquest characters I played Conquest at launch back in 2012, but never got into its postgame until I watched a Twitch streamer trying to 100% it in summer 2019. I was inspired to do the same, but quickly realized that I couldn't find a list of locations for all warriors in the game, and tools to extract the data had not been created yet. So I spent about a month playing through all 37 postgame stories, taking notes manually in several spreadsheets for whether each of the 200 warriors showed up or not. I'm sure I missed some locations, but I was able to find at least one location for each warrior, so I considered it a victory and sent my findings to the streamer, who was very grateful for the help.
Later on, in early 2020 I was approached and asked to add my findings to Bulbapedia. To do that, I reformatted the whole article into a table format, so I could then insert all of the location data I had. In late 2020, this article would be cited as a resource in the Conquest speedrun community, and tools to extract full location data (as well as other things) were developed in 2021. I like to believe that this article helped increase interest in Conquest, even so long after the game's initial release.
Storm Aurora - Red (game)/Quotes
Originally, I didn't want to touch it at all - it's just a bunch of ellipses, right? There's no lore or characterization to be found there. But at some point, I noticed that there was a trivia point on Red's pages (both Red (game) and Red (Masters)) that said "In Pokémon Masters EX, Red is heard speaking several times." and then proceeded to list all his spoken lines and internal monologue lines. This seemed totally inappropriate to me because listing all a character's quotes is what a quote page is for. However, the Masters section on his quote page was incomplete, so I would be removing information if I just removed those lines of dialogue from the trivia sections.
So, I decided to dig through all the Masters story and event info I'd been collecting to find all the occasions when Red speaks and all the occasions when he doesn't, and I can now confidently say that Red has a total of seven lines of spoken dialogue and two lines of internal monologue in Pokémon Masters EX. Wanna get a glimpse into what Red is thinking behind all those ellipses? Get Red-y to find out by Red-ing this page!
Please enjoy this official valentine, courtesy of the legend himself!
This article was brought to you by the Bulbapedia team! All of our content is produced by our invaluable volunteers, so if you're interested in contributing to the collective knowledge of the Pokémon community, check out this handy page on getting started or join the conversation in the Bulbagarden Discord. We're always welcoming new editors!
