‘Pokémon’s’ 20th Year Celebration Comes With The 20th Film In The Franchise

Pokémon is currently in its twentieth year in the entertainment industry and the twentieth movie in the franchise has recently been teased. The new movie called "Pokémon, I Choose You" bears the same name of Pokémon's very first anime episode. The movie is speculated to be a story about the origins of Ash and Pikachu.

The teaser was aired by a Japanese variety show last December 14, 2016. The teaser contained 30 seconds of footage extracted from the upcoming animated flick. The initial premier date of the movie is scheduled on July 15, 2017, according to AnimeNewsNetwork.

Satoshi Tajiri 's concept of Pokémon was loosely based in his childhood days of collecting insects. The tiny little monsters called Pokémon were created in 1995 for Nintendo's original Game Boy. The very first Pokémon video game was called 'Pokémon Red and Green" in Japan and "Pokémon Red and Blue" in the international market. Pikachu was introduced three years later with his very own video game called "Pokémon Yellow Special Pikachu Edition."

"Pokémon" became an instant hit, in fact, 280 million units of Pokémon related software were sold worldwide since launch. The popularity of the franchise enabled the company to venture out into the other areas of entertainment such as trading card games, animated television shows, movies, comic books, and toys. The phenomenal "Pokémon GO" for mobile has shattered a lot of records when it went live earlier this year. It seems that almost any merchandise related to the Pokémon franchise is an easy sell these days.

A fighting game called "The Pokkén Tournament" was also launched for Nintendo's Wii-U, 3DS, and arcade. The Pokken Tournament was released in 2015 and just like any other "Pokémon" related merchandise it became one of the most played fighting game to date. The Pokken Tournament even has its own tournaments and competitions during major e-Sports events.