1000 Episodes!!!

Believe it or not, the Pokémon anime is now at an important milestone, and that milestone regards the number of episodes. That's right: the Pokémon anime is at 1000 episodes, as hinted by the title of this post. 20 years and many adventures later, and it has come all the way to this pinnacle. It is surely something important to note and perhaps even to celebrate by those who are big fans of the anime, and that includes me.

I remember times when the number of Pokémon anime episodes were only in the lower three digits. The number seemed like a lot, but then it had to be, to try to showcase the Pokémon of the current generation at least once (although the Legendaries would be mostly present in the movies and specials instead), as well as to make sure progress through the region is steady. Through all the episodes I've watched, it seems that this has been kept in mind, and the result is the number that they are now. It might seem overwhelming, but in it there are adventures of diverse moods in diverse places.

That said, achievement of this milestone now is also a bit of a surprise, something hard to believe. I passed the word of this milestone to a friend, and he thought that this milestone had already been achieved sooner. On the other hand, I personally thought this milestone would be achieved later. I suppose this difference of perceptions may be related to how we take in the episodes - it's slow when we're slow and it's quick when we're quick. With the onset of this milestone, perhaps it may be time to slow down or speed up our respective paces.

Speaking of diverse moods and places, it seems everyone has some quibbles over what goes on in the episodes. While understandably they can't all be resolved, it may be fair to say that what we feel is our ideals abstracted into the situation of the episodes. We're not necessarily happy, but we'll accept whatever goes on. Maybe, in the future, there might just be a reason to rejoice in the stories of the episodes, to a much greater degree than today.

For now, 1000 episodes is a good enough reason to rejoice. It's an amazing milestone, and it speaks to the staying power of the anime among its fans. It can almost be considered... legendary, much like certain Pokémon that bear the same attribute. Here's to all 1000 episodes, and here's to the possibility of a 1000 more. 😉