The Pokémon anime metaseries, based on the video game series, was created in Japan and was then adapted for the North American television market. The series, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā?), is a part of the Pokémon franchise.
The metaseries appeared outside Japan before the video games did, and has since spawned several movies. It is aimed at younger viewers but many other devoted fans of all ages enjoy the anime as well. Originally a single series, Pocket Monsters, it has since been spun off to three: Pocket Monsters: Advanced Generation, and subsequently Pocket Monsters Diamond & Pearl, continue the story of Pocket Monsters, while Pokémon Sunday (formerly Shūkan Pokémon Hōsōkyoku) is a series of stories revolving around some of the recurring characters.

The Pokémon Series
Throughout the run of the show the subject matter changes. In the early episodes, the show is more comical and whimsical (light and airy). It uses “goofy” humor (or “cute” humor when it comes to Pikachu, who does wacky things in between important scenes). As the show progresses and as Ash becomes more of a mature and leader-type character, the main course of the show becomes more or less serious, and its previous comical nature (for the most part) changes into comic relief, attributed mostly to Team Rocket.
English-language episode titles tend to be a play on common words or phrases in pop culture (e.g. “I Feel Skitty”, “Where’s Armaldo?”) rather than phrases or short sentences from other anime (e.g “Tetsusaiga, the Phantom Sword” from Inuyasha, “Byakugan vs. Shadow Clone Jutsu!” from Naruto) although early episode names were mostly translations of their Japanese counterparts.