Franchise: Pokémon

The trophy representing Meowth in Super Smash Bros. Melee is a reference to his appearance in a tech demo shown off at Spaceworld 2000 called "Meowth's Party", which itself was based on a recurring ending musical number from the Pokémon anime. In his trophy he is holding the same red guitar that he performs with in the tech demo. The flavor text for his trophy even directly mentions this tech demo:


A version of Meowth's Party eventually made its way into the GameCube release of Pokémon Channel.

Early in the Pokémon franchise's life, the Poliwhirl line received a major push in marketing, comparable to that of series mascot Pikachu.

Mascot costumes were made of Poliwhirl for promotional events, the Pokémon Adventures manga featured Poliwhirl as one of Red's Pokémon, Poliwag was placed closely to Pikachu on the box art of Pokémon Snap, food and toy lines would near-consistently feature a member of the Poliwhirl line alongside Pikachu even when the pool of Pokémon was as limited as 3 or 4 (with exceptions primarily being ones that also lacked Pikachu), and, most famously, Poliwhirl appeared on the center of the cover of TIME magazine's issue addressing the popularity of Pokémon.

This could be related to Poliwag being Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri's favourite of the original 151 Kanto species.

According to Tsunekazu Ishihara, the president of The Pokémon Company, Nintendo of America didn’t like the original Japanese designs for Pokémon as they thought they looked “too cute”, so they made their own redesigns.

In particular, Pikachu was apparently redesigned to resemble a tiger with big breasts. When Ishihara asked how it was meant to be Pikachu, the American designers responded that because it has Pikachu’s tail, then that makes it Pikachu.

Contrary to popular belief, the name "Pikachu" is not derived from the pika (a rodent-like lagomorph found in Japan that gains a yellow tinge in the winter), but rather a Japanese onomatopoeia for an electric spark. It should be noted that pikas are known as "nakiusagi" in Japan.

Between 2016 and 2017, male specimens of a new species of Nocticola cockroach were discovered at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore. The species' discovery was first published in 2023, and it was also announced that it had been named after the Ultra Beast Pheromosa, a Pokémon designed to resemble a "freshly-moulted" American cockroach, from the Generation VII games Pokémon Sun & Moon. The authors of the findings were fans of the series and noticed similarities between the two, including "having a long antenna, wings that mimic a hood and long slender legs." Unlike the hardy American cockroach, cockroaches in the Nocticola genus are very delicate and are known to be found in Africa, south-east Asia, and Australia. This species, Nocticola pheromosa, is the first scientifically-documented instance of a Nocticola cockroach in Singapore.

Each of the games in the first four generations feature a reference to a famous movie, found by checking the TV in the main character's house.

• In Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow, "Four boys are walking on railroad tracks", referencing "Stand by Me".
• In Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, "Two men are dancing on a big piano keyboard.", referencing "Big".
• While Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen kept the Stand by Me reference with the male character, the female one will see a film where "A girl with her hair in pigtails is walking up a brick road", referencing "The Wizard of Oz".
• In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, "Two boys are in a cave searching for treasure", referencing "Tom and Huck".

Despite being called the "Licking Pokemon", and the line "It leaves a tingling sensation when it licks enemies" appearing in its Pokedex entries in Pokemon Red & Blue, Lickitung couldn't learn Lick until Generation II.

Game Freak employees are found in every main entry to the Pokemon series with their canonical base of operations being the Celadon Condominiums.

Satoshi Tajiri decided to make Pokemon faint instead of die to make sure children don't associate losing with death.

Vullaby is able to use Fly, even though in its Pokemon Black Pokedex entry says "Its wings are too tiny to fly."

If you visit a real life Pokemon Center in Japan on your birthday, you can download a special Pokemon for visiting.

It's possible to get a legitimate Celebi without the use of a Gameshark code or any third-party software in Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal.

Arbok's hood pattern differs in each of the main regions of the Pokemon universe.

Of all Pokemon, Larvesta takes the longest to go through a single evolutionary stage, evolving at Level 59.

In the first 3 generations of the Pokémon games, the player can use the HM "Cut" to remove patches of tall grass to avoid wild Pokémon. In Pokémon Emerald, the ability Hyper Cutter enhances this feature of Cut, causing it to clear a larger area of tall grass around the user. However, neither of these features were carried forward to the fourth or subsequent generations of Pokémon games.

There's a theory that Wobbuffet's blue body is a decoy, and that the black tail is the actual Pokemon. Many believe this due to the fact that Wobbuffet can take such a beating and not be affected. Multiple Pokedex entries also say that Wobbuffet is very protective of its tail. The Pokedex entry in Pokemon Silver claims "To keep its pitch-black tail hidden, it lives quietly in the darkness." In Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the Pokedex entries claim "It desperately tries to keep its black tail hidden. It is said to be proof the tail hides a secret." On top of all of that, the tail does possess a pair of eyes, which further supports this theory.

"Shiny Pokémon" was originally a fan term used to describe the sparkle effect whenever such Pokémon appeared. They were originally referred to as "色違い" (Different/Alternate Color) Pokémon from the mechanic's debut in Generation II (Gold & Silver, Crystal). Starting from Generation V (Black & White, Black & White 2), "光る" or 'Shiny' became the official term for alternately colored Pokémon, with a non-playable character in Nimbasa City using the term in Black & White.

Archeops' National Pokédex number, 567, is also the same as it's base stat total. It is the only Pokémon to do this. Also, in the Dewey Decimal system, 567 refers to fossil cold-blooded vertebrates, which is where the creatures the Pokémon resembles would be classified.

Ekans is snake spelled backwards and Arbok is cobra spelled backwards.

Rotom is the only non-legendary Pokémon to have legendary music when encountered.