Pokemon

is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own Mario series. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated Category: Pokémon - : Tenth Anniversary|its tenth anniversary in 2006, and , cumulative sales of the video games (including home console versions, such as the "Pikachu" Nintendo 64) have reached more than 186 million copies.

The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand , as such contractions are very common in Japan. The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 493 fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media as of the recent release of the newest Pokémon role-playing game (RPG) for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon Platinum. Like the words deer and sheep, the word "Pokémon" is identical in both the singular and plural, as is each individual species name; in short, it is grammatically correct to say both "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon" as well as "one Pikachu" and "many Pikachu". In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc. (now The Pokémon Company International), a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia."Pokemon USA Moves Licensing In-House", Gamasutra.

This is a list of characters in the Pokémon games, animated TV series, and manga series. Save for notable specific Pokémon, the specific species of Pokémon are not listed here; they are instead detailed further at List of Pokémon.

Note that this list includes characters from all of the various incarnations of the Pokémon franchise. This includes characters from a number of discrete, similar-but-separate continuities, including the video game continuity, the anime continuity, the Pokémon Adventures continuity, the Electric Tale of Pikachu manga continuity, and the Magical Pokémon Journey manga continuity. The anime continuity and most of the manga continuities are based to varying degrees on the games, but they all diverge at key points. A single character may appear in multiple continuities, sometimes in the same basic role (e.g. Giovanni), sometimes in very different roles (e.g. Brock).

All references to the "video games" collectively refer to Pokémon Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, LeafGreen, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, HeartGold, and SoulSilver only, unless noted otherwise. Likewise, references to the Pokémon anime also include, in addition to the eponymous anime itself, the related sidestory Pokémon Chronicles anime, the game Pokémon Channel, and Ash & Pikachu manga unless otherwise noted.

This is a complete list of Pokémon which appear in the National Mode Pokédex as of the release of Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver. This list covers all of the 493 Pokémon in roughly the order of their first appearance. Pokémon can be listed according to a number of different attributes. The list provides their English names and several variants of the Japanese.

Pokémon can also be divided by the ?generation? of games in which they were introduced and sorted by the other numbering systems introduced in those games. The first 151 Pokémon, introduced in Pokémon Red and Blue, have Kanto Pokédex numbers (official as of those games' remakes), which are the same as the first 151 National Pokédex numbers. Another 100 appeared in Pokémon Gold and Silver to expand the list to 251 for the Johto regional Pokédex (to which 5 evolutions were added when the games were remade). The Hoenn regional Pokédex included 67 of these, alongside 135 new species that debuted in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, bringing the total to 386. Finally, the fourth generation combined 81/100 (for the first time not all) of the 107 new creatures from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl with 70/110 of the old ones to form the regional Pokédex of Sinnoh, bringing the grand total to 493.

Pokémon may also be grouped into ?families? of the Pokémon(/eggs/fossils) they evolve (or hatch, or are cloned) from and into.

The Pokémon Rangers of Fiore and Almia use Pokédex-like devices called ?Ranger Browsers?, but their numbering systems are not currently included here.

:*These pre-evolved Pokémon were introduced in generations following introduction of the species they evolve into (and after the 2nd, which introduced breeding). The pre-evolutions will only hatch from eggs produced under special conditions. All other eggs will hatch directly into the next stage of evolution.

:?These Pokémon cannot be encountered and caught in the course of normal gameplay in the international releases of the games, although Mew and Celebi could be obtained in the Japanese releases of Red & Green and Crystal, respectively. They are officially only made available via promotional events, or transferred from Category: Template - :Pokémon spin-offs|spin-off titles under certain conditions.

:?Manaphy hatches from a special egg found in the Fiore and Almia regions. When bred, it produces normal eggs, which hatch into Phione, but Phione does not evolve into Manaphy.