Wanna Be a Master: The Story of Pokémon/transcript

Prologue
Ash (in clip from Ash Catches a Pokémon): "Yes, we've got Pidgioto!"

Narrator: "It is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time."

Pikachu (in clip from same episode): "Pikachu!"

Narrator: "It's one of the most groundbreaking sagas in the histories of anime and video games."

Team Rocket (in clip from The Water Flowers of Cerulean City): "Team Rocket's blasting off agaaaaain!!!"

Narrator: "It captured imaginations, with an irresistible force."

Lt. Surge (in clip from Electric Shock Showdown): "You're no baby."

Narrator: "And catapulted Japanese anime to the American mainstream."

Eric Stuart: "My whole life was changed by the opportunities that came to me with the success of Pokémon."

Sarah Natochenny: "It really is a tale of friendship and perseverance."

Veronica Taylor: "It's a cultural icon, and it really was done by visionaries."

Narrator: "But the Pokémon franchise didn't just change the way we look at anime or gaming, it changed the way both mediums are made."

Ash: [T]he greatest Pokémon master, OF ALL TIME!!!"

Shigeru Miyamoto (in Japanese): "There's so many accomplishments the people at Game Freak have done that really changed both the gaming and anime industries."

Brock: "Ash, I need you to take this for me and follow my dream."

Narrator: "What began as a duo of role-playing games for the Game Boy handheld console became a success story beyond Nintendo's wildest dreams."

Tsunekazu Ishihara: "Making Pokémon a hit brand was never really our intention, and we certainly didn't expected to be such a worldwide hit like it is today. But, it became a phenomenon."

(title screen) Wanna Be a Master: The Story of Pokémon

Part I
Narrator: "It's hard to imagine a time before Pokémon. The world was different then. There were no smartphones or tablets. The internet was just beginning to emerge, and video gaming was seeing a re-emergence thanks to a company called Nintendo. The Soviet Union collapsed. A president named Ronald Reagan ignored victims of a new disease called AIDS, while in stark contrast, a doctor named Anthony Fauci did extensive research on it. It was a time of social division, and changing demographics in the United States. And the island nation of Japan was seeing an economic boom."

Zack Beauchamp - Reporter, Vox: "In the United States, Ronald Reagan's response to AIDS tore us apart as a country. And then we had Iran-Contra, which was also his doing. And while Reagan was showing his incompetence, Japan experienced an economic boom. That caused a lot of violence against Asian-Americans. This kind of sentiment would return during the Trump era when China emerged as an economic superpower with Republicans continuing their jealousy of other non-white countries becoming more successful than us. Bush, Sr. would also end up being worse than Reagan before him."

Narrator: "But Hollywood had returned to escapism. While in the nation with a booming economy, the film and TV industries were grim - at least in the animated world. The Japanese animation - or "anime" - released from the '80s to mid-'90s was gritty, explicit, and often times downbeat. Reflecting the fears of natural disasters the Japanese had during their time. Instead of heroes saving the world, there were girls with guns, and sometimes, dark and gritty stories of war."