You can find out everything you needed to know about the mega-global blockbuster game and anime franchise Pokémon on the fourth and final chapter of Spotify and Higher Ground’s podcast The Big Hit Show. The documentary-style podcast dissects pieces of pop culture that have defined the internet era and forever changed American culture.
Over the course of five episodes, host and journalist Alex Pappademas looks at how a Japanese video game from the 1990s became the single highest grossing franchise in history — bigger than Star Wars and Harry Potter combined. How did these adorable pocket monsters evolve into a media supernova unlike any the world has ever seen? Chapter 4 takes listeners through the history of the Pokémon franchise, covering everything from its origin in the mid-90s, through its journey to becoming a global sensation full of video games, trading cards, animated series and even a feature film starring Ryan Reynolds! Throughout this season, Alex and his team of Pokémon trainers explore how and why the franchise has become a lasting global phenomenon at the forefront of pop culture and technology, because remember – Pokémon might faint and leave the battlefield for a little while… but they never die.
In the two-part season premiere , listeners get to time-travel to the dawn of the video game wars in 1990’s Tokyo. We’ll revisit Pokémon’s inception; reflect on the downfall of Atari; and see how the invention of the Game Boy revolutionized the video game industry and created a unique opportunity for Pokémon’s creator, Satoshi Tajiri; and examine how the Pokémon experience was reinvented in 2016 when Pokémon GO released these adorable pocket monsters from behind the screen and brought them into our world.
You can listen to the first two episodes of The Big Hit Show Season 4 HERE.
The Big Hit Show has looked at Twilight, the teenage vampire romance novel turned multi-billion-dollar movie franchise that has been revisited in the Tik Tok age for some of its more problematic themes; and To Pimp a Butterfly, Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-Award, emotionally complex album that fans are still unpacking half-a-decade later; and Fight Club, David Fincher’s 1998 cult-classic that re-framed how media looked at and treated masculinity and violence. The fourth and final chapter, covering the global phenomenon Pokémon, is out now.
Pokemon is the subject of the new four-part documentary podcast “The Big Hit Show” currently available on Spotfiy and Higher Ground.
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