Pokémon

Pokémon (ポケモン Pokemon), abbreviated from the Japanese title of Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター Poketto Monsutā) is a Japanese anime series, based on the series of video games and is part of the franchise of the same name. It originally aired in Japan from April 1, 1997 to November 14, 2002 on TV Tokyo.

The Pokémon anime series is largely credited to having allowed for anime to become more popular and familiar around the world, especially in the United States, where the two highest grossing anime films are both Pokémon films. It is also considered to be the first and so far only anime that has been able to reach this level of mainstream success with western audiences, as well as being credited with allowing the game series to reach such a degree of popularity, and vice versa.

Dubbing History
The series was dubbed by 4Kids Entertainment, produced by 4Kids Productions and syndicated by The Summit Media Group. The dub has been the target of criticism and controversy throughout its history. Despite these criticisms, most of the English dub is well-received, and has many viewers, some even preferring it over the original Japanese anime.

Nintendo asked for changes to be made to the original Japanese show in the English adaptation. "We tried not to have violence or sexual discrimination or religious scenes in the United States," said Masakazu Kubo, executive producer of Shogakukan. The names of the characters and monsters were Westernized: Satoshi became Ash, and Shigeru became Gary, and the Pokémon were given descriptive names. For example, of the three starter Pokémon, Hitokage, a salamander with a ball of fire on its tail, became Charmander; Fushigidane, a dinosaur with a green garlic bulb on its back, became Bulbasaur; and Zenigame, a turtle who squirts water, became Squirtle.