The Mystery Bird in the Very First Pokémon Episode

Okay, you guys. At the very end of the very first Pokémon episode, a golden bird flies over a rainbow. And Ash's Pokédex has no idea what it is! A mystery Pokémon. In episode one. That's so cool. This is Random Pokémon Facts. I'm Josh. It's Friday, so it's Anime & Movies! Today is all about the very first episode, and how far the show has come. So that golden bird was Ho-Oh. The episode is "Pokémon, I Choose You!" That makes Ho-Oh the first Legendary Pokémon ever shown in the anime. And the first Generation Two Pokémon too! Ash's Pokédex had no data on it. It just said there were still Pokémon nobody had identified yet. And that first episode had sixteen Pokémon debuts. That's more than any other episode in the whole series! Now here's who's missing from episode one. Team Rocket! Jessie, James and Meowth don't show up at all. Team Rocket shows up in every other episode of the original series. So when was the next regular episode without them? Guess how many episodes later. Six hundred seventy-two episodes later! It was "Rematch at the Nacrene Gym!", in Black & White. That makes Ash's first day without them one of the rarest things in the whole anime. And the show just kept going. Guinness World Records lists Pokémon: The Series as the longest-running anime based on a video game. It started in Japan on April first, 1997. By April twenty-fifth, 2025, Guinness had counted one thousand, three hundred twenty-seven episodes! Back in 2016, the record was nine hundred forty-nine. Story two. Ash and May once tied in the final of a Pokémon Contest, in Terracotta Town. Ash's Sceptile was battling May's newly evolved Blaziken. When the five-minute time limit ran out, they had the same points. A tie! But there was only one prize Ribbon. So what do you do? Ash's Sceptile cut the Ribbon in half with Leaf Blade! And each of them kept a half. That's in the episode "Once More With Reeling!" The contest was just for fun, so there was no sudden-death round. Half a Ribbon each. I love that. Wild Facts! In May 2019, Pokémon Detective Pikachu made fifty-eight million dollars in its first weekend in North America. At the time, that was the biggest opening ever for a movie based on a video game. And Ryan Reynolds voiced Pikachu! And Pokémon: The First Movie, with Mewtwo, came out in 1999. It was the highest-earning anime movie in US theaters for twenty-six years! It made about eighty-five million dollars. No anime film beat it until September 2025. Riddle time! Who am I? I'm a grumpy Pokémon in the anime. In my very first episode, Brock fixed my sore throat with a piece of fruit. Here's a clue. In that episode, I dug a marker out of Ash's backpack. Ever since, I use that same marker as my microphone. And I use it to scribble on sleeping faces. And here's the biggest clue. I got that marker after my song put everyone to sleep! Okay, ready? It's Jigglypuff! Grumpy, singing Jigglypuff! That's the show for today. Tomorrow is Saturday, so it's Origins & Creators! I can't wait. Be here! See you tomorrow! Bye! This was Josh.