• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Was Pokémon meant to be one generation or it was all planned

Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
1,195
Reaction score
2,848
Pronouns
  1. He/Him
There is a first trailer of the first movie in which Pikachu ends up with Misty after all and there is no clue about Ash. That was released on the theaters but then it was all removed. That is a big clue that after the first movie, Pokémon was not meant to keep going. Besides that, in the early series, Ash collects badges real fast and the anime was not even settled.

Nonetheless in the first games, the region name "Kanto" was mentioned only once which gets me thinking the staff did not want to make it too obvious, but just gave a clue that there would be another generation(s). I know that the second Generation was already being planned (and there are some speculations that the Orange League was set to buy some time), but the question is that,

When the staff released Red and Green versions and until the halfway of the Original Series of the anime, was Pokémon series actually meant to end with that all, or the generations and other regions were already kept in mind even at the time the first generation was being prepared?
 
It's not one or the other

It wasn't "meant" to end with Gen 1, but they obviously couldn't know at first that it would be a titanic success, so there would have been caution. They may have had some distant ideas about what they might do if an opportunity for a sequel game ever came up, but it wouldn't have necessarily been a good idea to get comfortable with that plan, because Red and Green could have failed. That would have been the end, but not by design.

On the flipside, I doubt they take these things more than one installment at a time. Even if they had started thinking of the future, I doubt it would have been for anything past Gen 2/Johto, because their products are intrinsically linked to specific hardware advancements. They couldn't possibly have known about the capabilities (which play a role in determining what they want to do with a certain game) of, for example, the GBA all the way back in 1996 and earlier, which means that any conception of Gen 3 or Hoenn would have been so vague as to be virtually nonexistent, and that's not even accounting for the possibility of them revising those ideas as time went on.
 
Gold and Silver's development started in 1996 well before that movie trailer was conceived.

However, it is an established fact that the anime was originally meant to last just one season. For that matter, Tsunekazu Ishihara imagined Gold and Silver being the last games, at least as far as he was concerned. From Iwata Asks:

Iwata:
You’ve just used the term “ultimate” and I feel that even in their names, Gold and Silver were meant to be the ultimate in Pokémon games.

Ishihara:
That’s right. After we released Red and Green, we began working on these titles, thinking that the ultimate in Pokémon games could only ever be Gold and Silver.

Iwata:
Not in your wildest dreams did you think that you’d be making more and more games after Gold and Silver. (laughs)

Ishihara:
The reason that I licensed so many products and developed things like the trading cards was basically to ensure that Gold and Silver were successful. I felt that this was my primary role. So at that time, I worked with the assumption that after we put out Gold and Silver, my work as far as Pokémon was concerned would be done.

Iwata:
I see.

Ishihara:
So for me, Gold and Silver represented the finish line.

Iwata:
They were the finish line?

Ishihara:
I didn’t intend to make any more Pokémon titles. I even thought that once we entered the twenty-first century, it would be time for me to do something else entirely. (laughs)


Iwata:
(laughs)

Ishihara:
I was determined to create the optimum conditions for Gold and Silver’s release. That’s why I initially opposed even the animated series…

Iwata:
Why was that?

Ishihara:
Well, after researching all sorts of previous data, I learned that animated series on television tend not to last very long. So even when a series based on a game starts, it tends to last six months or, at most, a year.

Iwata:
It would be awful if the series was already over before the game was even out.

Ishihara:
Exactly. The animated series started in April 1997, and if it had stopped broadcasting in 1998, what would we have done then? We had made Gold and Silver with the intention of releasing them in 1998.

Iwata:
But you didn’t manage to get Gold and Silver ready in time either, did you? (laughs)

Ishihara:
That’s right. (laughs) We originally started work on Gold and Silver right after releasing Red and Green, and then just when we were racing forward with the development, Tajiri-san came to us and said: "We've finished one!" I thought that this was really quick and asked him what it was, to which he replied: "We've finished 'Blue'!" (laughs)

By the way, Gold and Silver were the end for Tajiri's involvement in the series, at least to any notable extent. Ironically, Ishihara created The Pokemon Company and planned the basic outline of how the series would continue.
 
Last edited:
I remember reading somewhere that Gold and Silver were meant to be called Pocket Monsters 2, meaning they were direct sequels to Gen I's Red/Green/Blue/and Yellow. I guess ideas on how the timeline worked just went along as the franchise got more popular. Ruby and Sapphire didn't branch off from the timeline but instead shared the same time as Generation I and Diamond and Pearl sharing the same timeline as Generation II's.

As for how the anime went, they all just shared the same name with RGBY and GSC sharing the same anime title. It didn't branch off into seasons like it did here in the US or internationally until it reached the Advanced Generation.
 
@Silktree
May I ask when did that conversation with Tsunekazu Ishihara happened? Do you perhaps know the original Japanese version of that conversation?


BTW in replying to this thread, the game and anime are two completely different departments. The Game Freak staffs working for game development do not go to TV Tokyo nor OLM to work for the anime, the Pokemon Anime had their own group of staffs that has nothing to do with GF. Although the latter may consult with the former for adaption ideas, but I really doubt GF provides any idea in helping the Pokemon Anime in determining their future direction.

And in regarding to the anime OS saga, I always take reference from Shudo Takeshi, because he was the series constructor and head screenwriter at that time.
He did mentioned that when he constructed the Pokemon OS saga, he did had the notion that this anime will at best last for 2 years. If in case the Pokemon game did produce more title in the future, he may just construct a new "Pokemon 2" anime series. So initially he did intended to end the Pokemon Anime in one generation, and start anew when the next game of new generation came.

But, whatever "superior" that is in a position higher than him which Shudo Takeshi didn't explicitly mentioned the name dislike such idea of ending and start anew, rejected all the plot elements that may leads to a possible ending, resulted in the current Pokemon Anime we knew nowadays.
 
Tsunekazu Ishihara imagined Gold and Silver being the last games, at least as far as he was concerned.

I've read that interview before, but there is something I'm not clear on. Just because Ishihara thought that Gold and Silver would be the end of his involvement in the series doesn't necessarily mean he thought the series was going to end, right? The way he talks later on about wishing everyone else good luck from that point on sounds to me like he was just going to leave to do other things, while the Pokémon series would continue without him. Or am I underestimating his role in determining the franchise's continuation at that time?
 
I guess, but you can definitely tell that he expected the series to lose steam. That, and Nintendo's original president (Yamauchi) had this to say in July 2000 (a month prior to Crystal's announcement):

Pokemon's popularity will not last forever, said Hiroshi Yamauchi, president and founder of the 53-year-old company. Nintendo is therefore developing game software with "something different that will be able to replace (Pokemon characters) even after the popularity of Pokemon dies away".

The new game is being fashioned as the key software title for the Game Boy Advance, the successor to Nintendo's best-selling Game Boy device.
I saved the quote from a web page (on ZDnet) that is now gone. But Yamauchi didn't actually say anything about Yokai Watch this so-called spiritual successor. The project was obviously scrapped due to Gold and Silver's worldwide success.

My research years ago led me to believe that the aforementioned project was Hal Laboratory's Lunar Blaze, which was unveiled in 2001 but never saw the light of day. Mind you, Ruby and Sapphire had already been announced by then (albeit not in name).
 
Last edited:
Anime wise it was supposed to end after gen 1 but game wise, when you had Ho-oh in episode one... the games were always going to continue.

Interesting to see they were supposed to have died after gen 2.
 
Interesting to see they were supposed to have died after gen 2.
I doubt they would have let it die altogether, but Yamauchi and Ishihara expected the craze to fizzle out to the point that another project would be more worthy of their attention. They were wrong.

I wonder if Iwata had anything to do with Lunar Blaze, considering that he had been HAL's president until some point in 2000. And on the other hand, by 2002 he was Nintendo's president and probably realized that Lunar Blaze was a misplaced idea.
 
Last edited:
Anime wise it was supposed to end after gen 1 but game wise, when you had Ho-oh in episode one... the games were always going to continue.

Interesting to see they were supposed to have died after gen 2.

Not necessary, because not known by many people, GenI was originally planned to have total 190 pokemons instead of 151, 39 of the nowaday GenII pokemons already had its design finalized before the release of GenI game. Ho-Oh is most possibly one of it.

So even Ho-Oh which as a result didn't appeared in GenI game but instead in GenII game was included in EP001 of the anime, was not really any guarantee that the anime will continue towards Johto back at that time.

Though at the end of the day, it did extended to Johto. So I will only say at the best it is just a pleasant surprise instead of being a sign of any provident foresight about the future of Pokemon Anime.
 
I did know the 190 thing actually but since the games and anime were planned at the same time, Ho-Oh would've already have been decided to be delayed for the sequel.
 
Please note: The thread is from 7 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom