Pokémon’s 30 Years: A 22-Minute Pokérap With All 1025 Creatures

For viewers of the original Pokémon anime in the 1990s, the “Pokérap” was an iconic closer: James “D Train” Williams and Babi Floyd delivering rapid-fire verses that named all 151 Pokémon from the Kanto region. The anime revisited the concept for the Johto and Hoenn generations, but the roster has grown substantially since those early days. With 1025 Pokémon now in existence—and more arriving with next year’s Winds and Waves expansion—the Pokémon Company marked its 30th anniversary with a modern successor to that format. The result is a 22-minute composition that commits to something the originals couldn’t: representing every single Pokémon without compromise.

The Original Pokérap and Its Evolution

A 1990s Innovation

The Pokérap emerged during the original anime’s run as a novelty bonus designed to capitalize on the series’ momentum. James “D Train” Williams and Babi Floyd delivered the concept through rapid-fire verses, listing all 151 creatures from the Kanto region in rhythmic patterns that lodged themselves in viewers’ memories. The format proved durable enough that animators returned to it for the Johto and Hoenn generations, expanding the roster each time to reflect the new Pokémon that had entered the official canon. At that scale—hundreds rather than thousands—a televised Pokérap remained feasible, if increasingly ambitious.

The Scale Problem

By the time the Pokérap concept faded from regular production, the scope of the franchise had grown exponentially. Creating a comprehensive rap that named all creatures had become logistically impractical for broadcast television. A 22-minute performance was manageable when only 151 names needed listing, but 1025 Pokémon represented a different order of magnitude. Rather than abandon the concept entirely, the Pokémon Company chose to commemorate its 30th anniversary with a revival that would finally achieve the previously impossible: a single official performance acknowledging every creature in the franchise without omission.

Genre and Composition: Masayoshi Oishi’s Approach

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A Genre-Shifting Journey

Masayoshi Oishi performs the new Pokérap across constantly shifting musical terrain. The track opens like a traditional anime opening theme, then transitions through swing, salsa, smooth jazz, and heavy metal before eventually returning to that anime-opening sensibility. These genre shifts aren’t arbitrary embellishments scattered throughout the runtime. Instead, they function as structural necessity—a 22-minute composition with a single mood would strain even patient listeners. By creating distinct musical sections, Oishi establishes peaks and valleys that maintain engagement across the extended duration, treating the composition less like a novelty song and more like a progressive orchestral suite adapted into hip hop and pop forms.

Matching an Episode’s Length

The 22-minute duration mirrors the typical length of a Pokémon anime episode, a deliberate choice that connects the new Pokérap to its televised origins. Despite its expanded scope and the sheer number of creatures requiring representation, the composition doesn’t exceed the format that inspired it. This suggests that Oishi and the production team treated runtime as a meaningful creative constraint rather than a problem to be solved through extension. The result respects both the audience’s attention span and the connection to the original format that made the Pokérap conceptually significant.

The Video: Comprehensive Coverage Through Visual Collage

Every Pokémon Visible

Creating a 22-minute video that gives 1025 distinct creatures at least a few seconds of screen time required careful resource management. The Pokémon Company achieved comprehensive coverage through collage: combining official artwork, game screenshots, and clips from the anime rather than commissioning new animation for every entry. Despite this efficiency-focused approach, some Pokémon receive original animation or highlighted moments—typically the franchise’s perennial favorites, the creatures whose cultural profile justifies additional production investment. This distinction becomes apparent during viewing, but even less prominent creatures appear on screen, though their presentations don’t receive the same visual polish as major entries.

What the Video Adds

Audio alone cannot carry the weight of a comprehensive Pokérap—viewers need visual confirmation that their favorite made the cut. The video’s collage approach succeeds because it’s honest about resource allocation without dismissing any single creature. An obscure Pokémon might appear as game art for just a few seconds rather than receiving custom animation, but it still appears. The accompanying visuals transform what could have been a simple audio novelty into an engaging visual experience, particularly for viewers checking whether specific creatures received representation.

Language and Recognition

Performing the Pokérap in Japanese rather than English creates an educational element for audiences most familiar with English localizations. Many Pokémon have distinctly different names in their official Japanese romanizations compared to their English localized versions. For viewers who grew up with the English anime, identifying creatures by their Japanese names requires a moment of translation, though the visual accompaniment helps bridge that gap. This choice reflects the Pokémon Company’s positioning of the 30th anniversary celebration as a global franchise milestone, emphasizing the original Japanese source material rather than prioritizing the English-speaking market that grew up with the original anime’s localized version.