Is Pokemon an Anime or Cartoon?

Also known as Pocket Monsters, Pokemon is a Japanese franchise by The Pokemon Company. It is a company founded by Creatures, Game Freak, and Nintendo. It was created by Satoshi Tajiri and focuses on fictional creatures called Pokemon. In the said world, humans are called Pokemon Trainers wherein they train and catch Pokemons to battle another Pokemon as a form of a sport.

It started as a video game for Game Boy before it was adapted into a television series that has more than 20 seasons. The popularity of Pokemon is no joke as its franchise is already considered the world’s top-selling toy brand other than being the top-selling card game.

Is Pokemon an Anime or Cartoon?

Before we answer that, we must first differentiate the two. According to Diffen.com, anime come in different formats like short films, feature films, and television series while a cartoon is two-dimensional visual art.

In terms of visual characteristics, an anime has distinct facial expressions while a cartoon has features that are not relative to the character’s body, making it look far from reality. In addition, anime mirrors life issues and human emotions whereas cartoons are comical and made for entertainment.

With these two distinctions, we can say that Pokemon is an anime. Pokemon come in different formats: anime, movie, video game, and more. There are over 1,000 episodes that are divided into 7 series in Japan. In addition, there are 23 animated films and a live-action movie. Of course, a manga adaptation is available and is translated into English by Viz Media.

The characters also have distinct facial expressions and the story somewhat touches human emotions and show life issues. The story follows Ash Ketchum or Satoshi in Japan. He is a Pokemon master in training who wanted to be the best trainer in the world. He and his friends travel around the world to catch and train different Pokemons.

Pokemon is a popular Global franchise that the Pokemons are considered pop culture icons. There are Pokemon-themed airplanes and theme parks dedicated to the franchise.

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