Image of the five pokemon tv show logos in order of air date.

Pokemon TV Shows in Order

So, as a kid I watched Pokémon.
But as you grow older you lose track, move on to other shows, you know…

Well, as I got older nostalgia got a hold of me and I went back to rewatch some old Pokémon episodes…
And I discovered that not only had Kids WB not shown me the episodes in order, there were more episodes than I thought.

After some digging I discovered ANOTHER problem.

Which Pokémon TV series comes after the other was not very clear. In fact it’s STILL not very clear. Why? Because the episodes on TV were not always shown in order, the networks swapped episodes from different seasons around on TV, and some episodes were never shown. So this means that the episodes you remember on TV aren’t what you’ll see on the DVD’s or on Netflix.

So I thought I’d clear up the order in which the legacy Pokémon TV shows went…

So the very first Pokémon TV show in the United States was the Indigo League.

The Indigo League is 79 episodes long. Some episodes were not shown on TV initially and another episode that featured Porygon was banned entirely because it caused children in Japan to get sick.

Next came… well… Technically the ending episodes of the Indigo League are the ones where Ash competes in the championships. However these episodes were sometimes treated as an event all to themselves and separated from the rest of the episodes in the Indigo League (so you’d see the normal Indigo League episodes in the TV rotation but may have never seen the championships).

The second season, the second Pokémon TV show, was not the Johto Journeys as it seemed on Kids WB.

The second season of Pokémon is the Adventures on the Orange Islands.

Not many people actually know about this one… the Adventures on the Orange Islands was a side journey added in to help prepare the story line for the GS Ball. However this plot line was dismissed when the creators of Pokémon decided to put the GS Ball plot line in the fourth Pokémon movie instead. So basically, nothing happens in the Adventures on the Orange Islands.

There are 36 episodes in this series. You will only see 36 on the DVD’s. If you remember more episodes, it’s supposedly because the networks shifted episodes from the Indigo League into this season. And if you live in Finland, sorry… they didn’t even bother to release this season to you. The Adventures on the Orange Islands was skipped over entirely in Finland.

The third Pokémon TV series is… the Johto Journeys!

There are 41 episodes in the Johto Journeys!
Honestly I think this is when Pokémon TV shows begin their quality decline. The Johto Journey’s episodes were even more cursory than the Indigo League’s or the Adventures on the Orange Islands. There weren’t really any funny story episodes like the St Anne episode in the Indigo League or the creepy Indigo League episode where Ash battles the little doll Sabrina.

The fourth season of Pokémon is… the Johto Journeys!

Just kidding, it’s actually called the Johto League Champions… but it’s basically the Johto Journeys part two. There are 52 episodes in this season.

Oh and the fifth season?

The Johto Journeys part three!!! Not even kidding. The fifth season is called Pokémon Master Quest and is the wrap up season for the characters in the Johto region. There are 64 episode in this season.


Pokémon TV Show Order

  1. Indigo League

    Image of the Indigo League logo.

  2. Adventures on the Orange Islands
    Image of the Adventures on the Orange Islands logo

  3. The Johto Journeys
    Image of the Johto Journeys logo

  4. Johto League Champions
    Image of the Johto League Champions logo

  5. Pokémon Master Quest
    Image of the Master Quest logo

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