Pokémon: Indigo League

Pokémon: Indigo League
Pokémon: Indigo League
	The front cover of the DVD collection box of English Pokémon: Indigo League season, containing the first 26 episodes of this season
No. of episodes	82 (Japan); 80 (USA)
Release
Original network	TV Tokyo
Original release	April 1, 1997 –; January 21, 1999
Season chronology
	Next →; Adventures on the Orange Islands

This is a list of episodes in the animated series Pokémon, named Pokémon: Indigo League for the DVD releases. The episodes aired in Japan as Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā), covering the first season of the series about the adventures of series protagonist Ash Ketchum and his friends Misty and Brock on the way to the Indigo Plateau. The episodes were directed by Masamitsu Hidaka and produced by Oriental Light and Magic and TV Tokyo.

On US television, how the seasons are organized is changed: the first 52 episodes that aired in the US are a part of the first season, and the remaining 28 episodes are a part of Season 2 (and Beauty and the Beach of Indigo League is aired during Season 2), followed by 25 Adventures in the Orange Islands episodes. On DVD, Season 1 is made up of all 80 Indigo League episodes that aired in the USA.

The Japanese opening song is "Aim to be a Pokemon Master" by Rica Matsumoto. The ending songs are "One Hundred Fifty-One" by Unsho Ishizuka and Pokémon Kids, "Meowth's Song" by Inuko Inuyama, "Fantasy in My Pocket" by Sachi & Juri, "Pokemon Ondo" by Sachiko Kobayashi, Koffing, and Ekans, and "Type: Wild" by Rica Matsumoto. The English opening song is "Pokémon Theme" by Jason Paige, while each episodes close with the PokéRAP, which contains 5 different versions (each profiling about 30 Pokémon for a total of 150).

Main overview

Ash Ketchum turns 10 years old and is able to start on a new journey as a Pokémon trainer. The night before Ash is to meet Professor Oak, he has a dream and breaks his alarm clock. The next day he oversleeps, which causes him to miss his chance at getting one of the three Kanto starter Pokémon: Charmander, Bulbasaur or Squirtle. However, Professor Oak has one last Pokémon at his lab, a Pikachu. Pikachu initially does not get along with Ash, but in the first episode, Ash saves Pikachu from a flock of angry Spearows and they become best friends, developing a special bond. On the way Ash meets Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader who loves water Pokémon and wants to join him until he pays her for her bike which was accidentally destroyed by Pikachu; and Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader who wants to join Ash on his journey so he can become the greatest Pokémon breeder. Ash catches and makes friends with many Pokémon while dealing with opposition from the Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth, and his childhood rival, Gary Oak, Professor Oak's grandson, who is also a Pokémon trainer and always keeps ahead of him.^[1]

Airing overview

File:Pikachu's Jukebox.png

"Pikachu's Jukebox" as seen at the end of episode 56.

The division between seasons of Pokémon is based on the English version openings of each episode, and may not reflect the actual production season. The English episode numbers are based on their first airing in the United States in syndication, and on The WB Television Network. (Other English-speaking nations largely followed either this order or the Japanese order.) Subsequent airings of the English version follow the original Japanese order, except in the case of episodes which are no longer shown in English. Midway through the original series, YTV began to air the episodes before Kids' WB until sometime in Johto. There are two end-of-show segments and one mid-episode segment during the season. The mid-episode eyecatch is called "Who's That Pokémon?", where viewers identify the Pokémon covered in the episode. The first one that is shown at the end of the episode is the Pokérap, where they can rap the 150 total Pokémon. The second one is called "Pikachu's Jukebox", which includes six songs from its first official soundtrack 2.B.A. Master.

The first season ran from April 1, 1997 – January 28, 1999 in Japan. This season was shown on TV Tokyo. In the United States, new episodes originally aired in syndication from September 8, 1998 – November 20, 1998 for the first 41 episodes (excluding the banned episodes), but were moved to the Kids' WB! Saturday morning line-up on February 13, 1999, where the rest of the season was aired. With a total of 80 episodes (82 in Japan), on June 24, 2000 (January 21, 1999 in Japan) Pokémon: Indigo League finished and became the longest running Pokémon season.

The episodes of this season have been released in 26 individual DVDs and VHS between December 13, 1998 and January 23, 2001.^[2]^[3] Between 2006 and 2008, Viz Media re-released episodes of the season in three DVD compilations. The first twenty-six episodes of this season were released on DVD on November 21, 2006, with "Beauty and the Beach", being skipped. The second US season came out on November 13, 2007, with "Princess vs. Princess" and "The Purr-fect Hero" being moved onto the third part, to match the airing order. The third and final part was released on February 12, 2008. On November 5, 2013, Viz Media re-issued the first twenty-six episodes on DVD with all new packaging.^[4]

As of November 4, 2013, Pokémon is airing on Boomerang every Monday through Friday from 4-5pm and every Saturday and Sunday from 6-7pm, but on March 3, 2014, it was pushed back to 6:30pm which means that Cartoon Network's sister channel is airing it every day.

On February 27, 2014, it was announced that the first season of Pokémon would be streamed on Netflix from March 1, 2014. The full first season is now on Netflix with the original 1998 versions that included the commercial bumpers voiced by Brock. Since Netflix uses the dub versions of the episodes, "Dennō Senshi Porygon" (translated Cyber Soldier Porygon) is not on there due to not being officially dubbed, so as episode 35 (translated The Legend of Dratini). Beauty and the Beach and Holiday Hi-Jynx are not on Netflix even though they were dubbed and aired. Netflix divides Indigo League into two seasons, according to the dub broadcast order seasons. Therefore, the second season includes Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands, up to Charizard Chills, since the last 11 episodes are in Season 3 in the dub broadcast. Since then Netflix episodes have been reduced to just 52 episodes with "Beauty and the Beach", "Princess vs. Princess", and "The Purr-fect Hero" missing.

Season 1 – Pokémon: Indigo League (1997–1999)

EP#		English title Japanese title	Air date
J#	E#	English title Japanese title	Japan	United States

Notes

References

General

"List of Pokémon episode titles" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2009-01-22.

Specific

^ "Pokemon Indigo League Season".
^ "Pokémon DVD: TV". akacool.com. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
^ "Pokémon Indigo League DVD Guide". bulbagarden.net. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
^ "Pokemon Season One: Indigo League Pt.1". Amazon.com (US), Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2013-12-02.

External links

Pokémon US official website
Pokémon anime website at TV Tokyo Template:Ja icon
Pokémon TV Anime at Pokémon JP official website Template:Ja icon

[1] "Pokemon Indigo League Season".

[listofDVD-2] "Pokémon DVD: TV". akacool.com. Retrieved 2009-01-23.

[3] "Pokémon Indigo League DVD Guide". bulbagarden.net. Retrieved 2009-01-23.

[4] "Pokemon Season One: Indigo League Pt.1". Amazon.com (US), Amazon.com, Inc. Retrieved 2013-12-02.

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