A Comprehensive Look at Pokémon VHS Tapes

[@samnation9324]

Great video! Some info some people might not know: Viz Video, also known as VIZ Media now, is owned by Shopro, who produces the Pokemon anime. And VIZ LLC combined with Shopro's US brand to make VIZ Media. Which makes a lot of sense how they always deal with the books and anime.

[@brianodonnell4496]

What about 4Kids?

[@IMEEntertainment]

@@brianodonnell4496 About their DVDs and VHS's or the company in general?

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@IMEEntertainment How about all of the shows, they have at the 1990s and early 2000s?

[@samnation9324]

@@brianodonnell4496 4Kids only had license to dub the show. Pioneer and VIZ had home video rights with The Pokemon Company International. Now the home video releases are by VIZ Media (Shopro's USA brand) and The Pokemon Company International.

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@samnation9324 You've think so?

[@RayOfTruth]

Fun fact: Team Rocket James' childhood flashback of starving and freezing on the streets with growlithe was just an elaborate reference to the tragic ending of A Dog of Flanders.

[@tenebrisity6170]

that is very cool tbh

[@RayOfTruth]

@@tenebrisity6170 yes, freezing in the heavy snow outside of a church with a dog is very... *cool.*

[@aknight7642]

@@RayOfTruth oh god why.

[@tenebrisity6170]

@@RayOfTruth i meant the fact you knew it LMAO

[@CosplayCore]

I had the VHS with that episode and although I sadly never saw Dog of Flanders, I had an eerie feeling every time I saw that scene that it had some connection to Dog of Flanders… lol

[@NinjastarCompass]

To think there was a time when pokemon episodes were released on DVD, VHS, and GBA video (if you count Kanto and Johto rereleases) at the same time

[@joniivee]

I hadn't even considered the GBA Video cartridges! Truly the era of greatest accessibility.

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@joniivee Don't you've just missed the early 2000s?

[@darkninjafirefox]

My dad got sick of me renting the same Pokemon tapes over and over again so he bought a machine to copy them on to blank tapes! Please do more!

[@Lightspeeds]

My dad did the same for the first pokemon movie.

[@ColeFam]

That Ranma preview was always something I looked forward to at the end of the tapes. Like, gees, the song is so good. I still need to see that movie.

[@catholiccontriversy]

When I saw the title of the video, I clicked on it solely to learn what "that 1 trailer was," and now I know it's Ranma 1/2. I knew the game trailer with the bus driver, and I knew Kimba because my mom once said "I used to watch Kimba as a girl" when I was watching these, but I could never remember what Ranma was.

[@chrisgangsta]

I love youtube and creators like you for exactly this reason, specific topics so few people would even think of investing their time in and yet so entertaining and educational.

[@ungraded_treasures4057]

I agree

[@dyrr836]

I'm a simple man, I see a smaller KZbinr making videos on hyper specific subjects that me and 20 other people care about and I pledge my loyalty to them.

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

Dog of Flanders, of course, was parodied in Pokémon, the episode with James' parents and fiancé. It's also in one scene of Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan.

[@AndySola]

The theme song of Dog of Flanders is also referenced in Re:Zero, it's Subaru's ringtone.

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@TheDanishGuyReviews Is it, a bad episode?

[@LucyKosaki]

19:35 I think what may you feel weird with the animation may be the level of quality, like how fluid and expressive the characters are drawn. The japanese anime is mostly drawn in limited animation, meaning little movement in most shots like for example only 2-6 individual drawn frames in talking shots and even if there are more complex action shots, they still only have around 10-12 drawn frames per second, the bare minimum required for us to still concieve it as fluid movement. But the animation in the ad is drawn with much more frames per second, I guess in order to match the framerate of the real life footage, which probably is 25 or 30 frames per second. And they used these extra frames to make every character constantly moving in some way, be it wiggling their arms, looking around ect. It's something usually not done in anime tv series aside from specific sakuga scenes.

[@GregCubed]

If every Jonii video had CGI doors, maybe I would officially become a simp for the channel 🥸 until then.. I’ll have to keep waiting

[@AyeDaniels]

How does such a small channel have such JUICY quality??

[@brianodonnell4496]

1998: I've care about that. 2021: Don't care about that, anyway.

[@BlueEye096]

Here's a fun story. I'm from Iceland and the company that licensed the show to be dubbed and aired in Iceland only licensed the first 50 episodes or so, and then never any more and there were also never any reruns. Luckily me and my sister managed to record around 40 episode on several VHS tapes and I rewatched them over and over myself as I played the games for the millionth time. The first 4 movies were also licensed and dubbed and I had those but a quirk about the 4th movie is that it was released a good deal later than the first 3 and the voice actor for Ash was actually a kid at the time and didn't return for the 4th so instead they got an adult man to do it instead and it's very jarring. Unfortunately they're all gone now, lost or sold when my mom moved houses years ago and the Icelandic dub is considered lost media which is very sad.

[@目は心の鏡]

I had a Japanese foreign exchange student that brought the first Pokémon movie on VHS and I got to watch it (without understanding) before it came here. I felt so special. It was the legit Japanese release so no subtitles or anything,. Those times were so simple. Although no one believed me until they saw it and realized I knew what I was talking about. I could only talk about what I saw though i didn’t really have a clue what was going on haha. And it wasn’t the special edition because it didn’t have Mew in it. Damn I got to see some ultra rare stuff I guess!!!! I wish I remember more, it was so long ago. I just remember watching the movie in Japanese before it was released here. And a good few months, the student was newly arrived and had brought it with him. It was pretty much the same though I don’t recall it being different, it might have looked less mastered but I watched it on such a small TV I wouldn’t have noticed. The students we had also brought over a bunch of OG Gundam movies (Japanese releases of course). It’s what gave me such love for Japan, enough that I use a Romanized Japanese name. My handles just my English name converted into Katakana. But yeah I thought I’d just clarify I’m not Japanese because my story would be confusing haha.

[@Violet560]

jonii i have to personally thank you for showcasing the ranma 1/2, dog of flanders, and kimba trailers included in these VHS tapes as you've effectively unearthed them from the dustiest dankest corners of my brain. holy shit.

[@PhantomDusclops92]

Here are my two cents. I'm Italian and I can tell you that our VHS tapes were kinda sorta the same as the US ones. Except for the few small differences: -The entire series was released both in plastic and cardboard boxes, with the latter being a newsstand edition. The plastic ones had the same art as the US tapes but the side had a rainbow pattern. The cardboard ones had the red sides like the US tapes, but with different art (just generic stock art of Ash and Pikachu on various colored backgrounds). The tapes themselves were also different in the cardboard box release, with 2 episodes per tape instead of 3. -There were no trailers, but the company logo made up for that. The company that released the tapes was called Bim Bum Bam Video and was made just to release on VHS the cartoons that were aired on the namesake cartoon block that aired on the channel Italia 1, so the logo was like a small montage of scenes from many of the other cartoons that were published thus far by the company set to an abridged version of the programming block's 1990 opening song. -The theme song was obviously the one from the Italian dub. There were no short version to transition between episodes. And also no Pokérap, since the Italian dub didn't use it at all (but still had an Italian version that was released exclusively in the Italian version of 2.B. A Master alongside an alternate take of Pokémon Dance Mix that haves a completely different melody than the original one but with the same lyrics) -The K9 Caper tape had four episodes instead of 4 in Italy too, and the tape was actually marked as "Special edition" because of that. -Also they never went past Kanto and the Orange Islands. In fact, here in Italy a large chunk of the Pokémon anime was never released on home media. Kanto and Orange Islands were released both on VHS and on DVD, and on DVD they also released the first two seasons of Black and White. But everything in between and after that? NOTHING.

[@brianodonnell4496]

What about 4Kids?

[@PipimiOden]

@@brianodonnell4496 they don't have 4kids in italy i don't think

[@QueenCloveroftheice]

So I didn’t watch Ranma 1/2 until I was 22, and when I did, I was like “holy shit! This is the commercial from the Pokémon tapes!” Lmao

[@MustacheDuctTape]

Holy heck, yes to the Mewtwo video!! Found you from your post on r/animeVHS, and I loved what I learned here. Your editing and depth of research was so heckin good. Thanks for the awesome vid!!

[@brianodonnell4496]

You mean, the first movie?

[@PhoeniksStorm]

So the swedish vhs tapes each had two episodes. All in plastic cases. The fronts was always weird, they just had a missmatch of generic jpegs. While the back usually had a screenshot from the show. The very first vhs we got had the first two episodes and was titled after the second episode, the front cover was when Ash battled the guy with the sandshrew. Literally sandshrew attacking Pidgeotto. Back image was from the Bulbasaur episode.

[@alexandermariagernielsen8780]

Interesting! If memory serves, the Danish tapes followed the American releases more closely, so it’s interesting that the Swedish version is seemingly more bare-bones

[@GokaiPlatinum]

Well, The Dog of Flanders is phenomenally relevant as far as the anime goes in Japan, as well as like you said, the book, albeit in Japan. I am really glad you touched on these classic anime ads that would never occur in later years because they are generally for unedited anime, but back then Pioneer made no distinction between how certain anime would be considered more teen friendly in the West rather than child friendly. Ranma *is* of course a kids show in Japan, but it's funny that in a world before 4kids picking up Yugioh, One Piece, Shaman King, and more, Pokemon viewers were a trailer and a trip to the video store away from things their parents wouldn't want them seeing if you were in the west, such as anime breasts.

[@brianodonnell4496]

What about Kirby and Sonic?

[@80sDisneyFan]

@@brianodonnell4496 Get out of this comment section and stop asking unrelated questions on comments.

[@swagkirby3449]

I bought some of the DVD variants of these. One Indigo, two Johto Journeys, and one Johto League Champions.

[@brianodonnell4496]

@swagkirby3449 Not if, Season 2 and season 5 were not on VHS?

[@TheMGMfan]

19:34 I imagine the reason it looks off too you is that it's much more fluid than in the anime, which kinda makes sense considering how this is a 30-second commercial as opposed to an ~24 minute episode, so assuming the animation budget was about the same as for an episode, you wouldn't need to spread that budget nearly as far, and even if we're to take the fact that this probably didn’t have the same budget as an episode because of how much shorter it is, depending on how much lower it is, they could still have plenty of money for more fluid animation. To be fair, it's not like I really have a clue what I'm talking about here, so this could all be wrong, but that’s just what I think is going on here. Also, yes, I would consider "plot" the right turn here since the commercial is telling a story in a way. Furthermore, while I understand the question about how the bus specifically becoming a Game Boy Pocket was from a logical perspective, but to play devil's advocate (or I guess strawman) and pretend that you're arguing from the perspective of it as a creative decision, that was just the latest model of the Game Boy at the time; there was the Game Boy Light a few months prior, but that was Japan-exclusive, so it doesn't really count when talking about North America specifically, and the Game Boy Color was still two months away by this point, so it only made sense to use the Pocket.

[@TANMAC43]

Wow, just found you because of your PokéShipping video popping up in my recommended, and now here’s another analytical Pokémon deep dive I didn’t know I needed! You make such great content from what I’ve seen so far, and I’m definitely gonna explore the rest of your videos.

[@GamerJrdn]

I've been looking for that song from the Ranma ad spot for YEARS and couldn't remember where I heard it from. Thank you so much! Love your Pokemon content about the original run of the series and hope to see more!

[@DarkestVoid]

These tapes highlight my childhood. I stayed up so many nights binging these VHS tapes never skipping the beginning trailers and commercials. And I also got extremely hyped when the Ranma trailer kicked off lol.

[@decapodAJ]

my favorite type of content, random, slightly obscure video essays about things from my childhood

[@LeafRazorStorm]

I'm gonna be a total geek about episode order for a sec. When Porygon pushed everything back by four months, the release order for every holiday special went out of whack. "Princess vs. Princess" and "The Purr-fect Hero" were never meant to air right next to each other, but that's how damage control went down. Truth be told, when 4Kids marked Purr-fect as a Season 2 episode, they put it exactly where it was meant to be before Porygon ruined everything. As for why Princess was also a Season 2 episode, it was mostly because 4Kids had to brush away a lot of Japanese text and they didn't have the time or money to do it within their first-year contract. Whoops. Also, "Pallet Party Panic" wasn't the last Indigo episode. It was the FIRST Orange episode. Most people don't think of it that way because it was still 1999, Ash was still in Kanto, the out-of-order Christmas specials hadn't aired yet, and Kids WB refused to change the theme song because they wanted to keep Brock's departure a secret for as long as possible.

[@NegaHumanX]

That Ranma commercial. The nostalgia hit off that song could be deadly.

[@wyvern0m3g42]

Holy fuck, I was already in my nostalgic comfort zone when you were going through the content of the tapes themselves, but those promos at the end of the Indigo Plateau tapes made me feel some kind of nostalgic glee somehow. Just hearing the off brand "Pikachu!" as Pikachu gets on to the bus made me clutch my chest and smile. To some, it's cursed. To me, it's fucking 90's kid childhood memories that keep me going as the rest of the world burns around me. Not to mention those guitar riffs from It's Love as the Ranma promo plays. Honestly, everything except The Dog of Flanders got to me in some way. Nothing against The Dog of Flanders, but I saw so little of it as a kid that I'm not as sentimental about it as I am towards something like the announcer going full ham by shouting "KIMBAAA!!" This was a joy, good sir. I thank you.

[@HerculesMays]

This is easily the definitive video for anyone looking to collect the Pokemon VHS tapes, kudos on it! I'm not sure what it is, but dvds just don't have nearly the same appeal as tapes do, the roughness of analog is just so charming to me.

[@lucleblanc7029]

I use to have all of those VHS tapes back in 1999!

[@TooManyInterests775]

Thanks for the video! I've been collecting the Indigo League and Johto Journeys tapes for a long time, but never knew Advanced got a VHS release. I would love to see this style of video for the movies, and I would love to see the differences from the original Japanese cut of the movie. Thanks in advance!

[@brianodonnell4496]

That was in 2003.

[@razriri1467]

Watched this video for the sole purpose of figuring out the name of the Ranma movie trailer that haunted my memory and you covered exactly that thank you

[@ishmael802]

Couldn’t go to the local Dollar Store without picking one of these bad boys up…along with Sailor moon

[@Xenovicious]

I'm interested in more of the Pokemon 1st movie JP and English comparisons as well as the M2M "Don't say you love me" rabbit hole (I have the Pokemon soundtrack single with that song and blasted it too much as a kid). Just subscribed :3 the algorithm recommended me this video.

[@RayOfTruth]

The blog Dogasu's Backpack has a bunch of posts for Japanese vs Dub comparison of most Pokemon movies.

[@RikuHino]

Anime commercials on odl vhs tapes were just something else like that Ranma 1/2 one at 4:27

[@MangaDungeon]

I love seeing people talk about narrow aspects of pokemon. Please, go make another video about the limited release of the first movie! Im waiting breath abaited

[@brianodonnell4496]

The first movie and the first movie were way better in the 1990's, than the other seasons/films from 2000's/2010's/2020's.

[@CosplayCore]

I’m waiting for that now as well. MewTwo is my favorite Pokémon because of that movie and its “added in” “short”. I’m a sucker for sad back stories!

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@CosplayCore It should have been way better than the remake, that Netflix has?

[@Rouz102]

Oh god I miss these. I remember the first one I got was the tape where Ash catches the three starters. It was like $15. Then a year or two later a 99 cent store near me had a bunch of tapes for a dollar and I bought EVERY one they had. My sister (born in 2005) later ruined them when she played them a lot and didn’t know how to put them in properly lol. But still great times. Additionally, absolutely remember recording shows from the TV on a regular basis. I used to want The Simpsons box sets but they cost too much so I recorded months worth of Simpsons episodes on tape. Great times.

[@GBA22]

I know I'm super late to this video after falling down the pokemon VHS rabbit hole again, but damn this is some high quality shit. I paused the video to subscribe and was expecting to see like 300k subs and bro you deserve that many at least. Hopefully you blow up real soon, love the content! Super informative and exactly what I was looking for.

[@saultpnutz]

I didn't have cable growing up so my entire experience of the anime was through renting these from blockbuster.

[@daseal1479]

This has been an absolute nostalgia trip, I'm so happy I discovered your channel recently, another top quality KZbinr lost in the shuffle, covering topics of my particular interests, lol. Love it, keep it up!

[@mikew1507]

Excellent video! Very well put together. Brought back a lot of memories of my Pokemon VHS days.

[@brianodonnell4496]

Don't you've missed the 90s?

[@greenmonkie]

Not a single mention of the mini-manga comics that came with first run of the tapes? Pokemon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu was my introduction to how much more rich the world of Pokemon could be.

[@SpookySpenny]

Just purchased the entire 1st season of Pokémon indigo league on vhs and came across this video! You earned a new sub :)

[@EmberOakSquids]

OH MY GOD I FORGOT ABOUT THE RANMA PROMO IT WAS ALWAYS SO CONFUSING TO ME BECAUSE I WAS LIKE "WHERE DOES THIS FIT INTO POKEMON"

[@MrRioluRileyRykins]

A year late, but as somebody who’s always had an interest in the Pokémon VHS tapes, this video was eye opening. If you haven’t already, I really hope you cover more of the stuff you brought up in this video. It would be amazing to see!

[@NatetheNintendofan]

I get hyped up when I hear I want to be the very best but no one ever was

[@SparkpadArt]

I had a whole shelf of these. All but the last two Kanto tapes. The commercials at the end are burned into my memory. The bus driver, Ranma, Kimba, Dog of Flanders.

[@BigGnome]

The bit at 3:58 with the Pikachu PNGs appearing on screen in sync to the music is one of the most oddly satisfying things I've seen. Thank you for that.

[@Poyostar]

Gotta say, this is a pretty solid video! I've always been intrigued by these kinds of things when it comes to some of my favorite series, and this look back at the VHS releases of the Pokémon anime does not disappoint!

[@StyleshStorm]

A guy that sounds like Sanic the hedgeheg talks about gen 1/2 late 90s/2000 Pokémon anime. Subscribed for childhood nostalgia.

[@overall_great816]

Being a kid who was born in 2005 this really does help me catch up on what I missed out on.

[@parukosleepy]

i have literally never watched an episode of pokemon in my life great video tho its super entertaining and well structured

[@joniivee]

Hey thank you! I try to make sure even people with little knowledge of the subject of any given video can still enjoy it so I'm very happy to hear that you did. :D

[@loraxc596]

the tower of terror vhs confused me and i bought the wrong one trying to get that single episode. it was one of my faves!

[@khfan4life365]

I was born in 1994, so I have first-hand experience of the Pokemon craze. My older brother (born in 1991) and his friends would trade the cards and play the Gameboy games with each other. He even had this red Pokemon shirt that became a hand-me-down to me. Even though I was 4-5 years old when the show hit the US, I started playing the games. I’ll never forget the hot pink Gameboy I got for Christmas. It was a faithful old system until it broke for good. Pokemon Yellow was my first Pokemon game. Even now in my 20s, I still play the Pokemon games, be it on my DS or my Switch.

[@swaggerman2179]

My favorite part of watching my pokemon movie vhs tapes is seeing the old pokemon ads, like that pikachu game for n64 and the gameboy bus ad, and the one for the pokemon trading cards

[@youngsterj4y]

Please I'd kill for more super long rabbit holes related to pokemon anime. Super strong area of interest for me too I'd love to see more

[@MLESoup]

This was so lovely and nostalgic! I actually had no idea the first movie was re-cut. Would love to see a full analysis on it (and any other Pokemon thing you might feel inclined to talk about!)

[@MicahBuzanANIMATION]

I want to see the original animation from the first Pokemon movie now. The 2D stuff holds up better than the early CGI.

[@ZeranZeran]

This brought back so many good memories :) Great job on this man!

[@ZeranZeran]

29:50 lmao. I said "LET'S DO IT" with you. I remember

[@aidinexmachina4232]

I remember buying the VHS with Pikachu Boxing on the cover at FYE. Came home, opened it, it was the 2nd movie...

[@NewportBox100s]

This was oddly specific. I'm so nostalgic for VHS and Pokemon! I still have The Moonlight Showdown on VHS.

[@HiJello64]

From 2013 to 2017 I'd visit a lot of thrift stores searching for Pokemon VHS tapes and some tidbits about my hunt is that the red case indigo league tapes were by far the most common. If there were Pokemon VHS' available, yellow cases were available like 3% of the time and they were almost always Our Hero Meowth. I've only seen one Johto tape ever during this period and I've never seen one for Hoenn. The most common tapes I'd encounter were Seaside Pikachu and The Great Race. Starting in 2017 there was a huge decline in these tapes appearing at thrift stores, which is kinda odd since the shelves still get restocked with tapes to this day.

[@articakennedy4822]

Okay, now you’ve got me interested in the Don’t Say You Love Me music video production.

[@TheGemHead]

Dude you make such high-quality stuff! How do you only have 18K subscribers?

[@picklejoedeanbob]

Got into tape collecting and getting Pokemon tapes is a treat. Only good vibes

[@PurpleTwirler]

I'd be interested in hearing more about the original version of the movie

[@shrek1428]

I never had many vhs tapes of Pokémon because we could only ever find them at estate sales and they were pretty rare. I only have Pokémon the great race, Pokémon the first movie, and Pokémon 3 the movie.

[@brianodonnell4496]

What about volume 1, "I Choose You, Pikachu"?

[@shrek1428]

@@brianodonnell4496 I don't believe I had a copy of volume 1.

[@SharkWitchMeruna]

We got rid of all our vhs but BOI DOWS THIS TAKE ME BACK! You even mentioned the marathon that led up to DP...oh gosh, the nostalgia. ;u;

[@mememcqueen5052]

This video was so good, it made me cry

[@SNBfilms]

I'll check out whatever future comprehensive deep dives you do, per your comment about some of the rabbit holes being of interest. Good content, thanks for putting in the time!

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

17:45 I have the tape "Primeape Problems" (EP 23-25) and I can confirm they got rid of the Pokerap by this point, too. Whenever it was, it was before that tape. This was a great trove of information, dude! Your presentation was as informative as it was engaging and funny. Colour me surprised!

[@joniivee]

Oh yo thank you for that little tidbit of information! I have Psychic Surprise (EP 20-22), the tape immediately before Primape Problems, and that tape actually has the Pokerap which means we can confirm that Primape Problems is the first tape to lack it. Thank you by the way! I'm super happy you ended up liking it. Also happy to see you here, I've watched a good handful of your videos and I love the ones about the Pokemon anime especially, you're one of the only KZbinrs I know whose gone in depth on a lot of interesting subject matter like the dub switching voices or Takeshi Shudo's role. Definitely an inspiration in that regard. :D

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@joniivee Sorry I took so long to reply, but I’m truly humbled by your kind words, and super flattered you saw those videos as some form of inspiration. I just felt they had to be made since, like you said, no one was talking about them before!

[@joniivee]

@@TheCartoonGamer8000 Hey absolutely! You do good work so I'm happy to compliment it. Got that new top ten sitting in my Watch Later, eager to watch it along with the rest of the Pokemonth stuff :D

[@TheCartoonGamer8000]

@@joniivee Awesome! Hope they entertain! :)

[@alaskaberri]

I also have that tape.

[@khfan4life365]

I still have a few tapes of Pokemon. Still one of the best shows ever.

[@HomeCookinMTG]

Damn you took me straight back to 1999 with your intro lmao. I had a shit load of these VHS tapes as a kid too, though, I was born in 1992, so I remember quite a bit of the VHS craze.

[@WhiffyPlush]

I had grown up watching the Indigo League via KZbin reuploads and rare Cartoon Network airings. Did the job and all, but man these VHS tapes look so charming

[@joniivee]

I got plenty of Indigo League in via tapes recorded *from* Cartoon Network so I can relate to you there :P

[@bookmew1081]

OMG I remember these so much from when I was a little girl Thankyou! Before I even started primary school I watched so much of these Pokemon Tapes, & several other anime through VHS. Johto wasn't promoted as much as either Kanto or Hoenn were from what my brother & I remember. We also watched several other anime series & movies through VHS.

[@TakatofanAgain]

When I was a kid, I lived in a small town that actually didn't get the WB. Not sure how that worked, we got everything else, just not the WB. So Pokemon was foreign to me. It wasn't until I was in 6th grade and I saw some ads for it, I wanted to try and watch it somehow. Around that time, Big Lots started selling the VHS tapes in 2 packs, 2 for $3. I dunno how I figured this out but (And maybe you mention this, I haven't actually watched your video yet, but will later today) that on the side, the VHS code actually had them numbered, and that's how I watched it, until the middle of Junior High, when my local Fox station started playing them at 6 and 6 30 AM - and I wouldn't have had to get up for the bus until around 6:30, but I got up at 5:45 so I could watch Pokemon. But I had all the red ones, several of the yellow ones, and the very first Jhotto.

[@BRUIN1821]

At one point the dollar store was selling all of them, so I owned all of them. Treasures.

[@itsjayden8002]

I love these home media retrospective-type videos. Keep it up.

[@DrawciaGleam02]

My family often rented VHS but one day we went to the video store and basically ALL the VHS stuff was gone.... That's when we finally got a dvd player. 😆

[@Megaritz]

I watched a lot of the Indigo League tapes as a kid, and I was sometimes confused about how some of them were out of order, and confused on how some episodes seemingly only aired on TV and didn't make it onto the tapes, even though they were not banned episodes. Interesting.

[@marcinkuc9349]

You should've way more views dude, I've spent last 3 hours watching your videos (took a day off today to relax a bit) and they are fucking amazing! Hope your channel will get more popular, and waiting for next Monkey Ball video!

[@joniivee]

Yo, that means a lot, thank you very much! I started my channel when I was in a pretty dark place and I'd watch KZbin to take my mind off stuff so I'm happy to hear that someone uses my stuff to unwind. Can't promise an exact time for the next SMB video because I have a lot in the pipeline but it is being worked on. :D

[@SnowWolfAlpha]

I remember those Kimba promos. Sadly, I don't think the show was ever fully dubbed.

[@coreykelley9441]

I remember when I discovered that 2BA Master had the FULL POKERAP in the 90s, I about died of excitement. I listened to it over and over. What a great CD.

[@megatronacepticon]

Picture Perfect has 4 episodes because those are the last 4 episodes of Season 1, so instead of having one tape straddling the season gap they did a 4-episode volume. Why they didn't give Pallet Party Panic or the last two Johto Journey's episodes the same honor I don't know. Fun fact, Picture Perfect was a red case release in the US while Siren in Australia and New Zealand held it back until later where it released in a yellow case as Volume 22. The latter volumes of the yellow case releases became rarer and rarer (at least in NZ) to the point where I don't even think they came out outside rental stores. I think I saw a Round One! tape at a Blockbuster back in the day, but I've never seen a PAL Friends and Rivals tape in person.

[@darkninjafirefox]

Coming back after a few years, still love this video. I got a dvd of the 2nd season of the orange island episodes for my 6th birthday and it was my favorite for a long time. At one point i saw the 3rd season and my dad got it for me. Ive never really seem the first few episodes of the orange islands because of it. I think those seasons hold up pretty well, it made me love Scyther and Tracey

[@dawnkist1456]

I had 12 of the red kanto tapes and 4 yellow ones along with the first 3 movies, mewtwo strikes back, and pikachu's winter vacation 1 and 2. I had a lot but not not even close to catching them all. They really shouldve at least made the yellow tapes blue to be like pokemon red and blue

[@MediaNutso]

One thing I want to mention is that many of the early Indigo League VHS Tapes did not have the Dog of Flanders trailer on it. Otherwise, you did an excellent job with this video. You really put a lot of time and care into it.

[@brianodonnell4496]

Why not, Seasons 3-4 and Season 6?

[@pokenutter]

Ah, Dogasu's Backpack. That's a blast from the past. Wish I could still enjoy his episode comparisons, but he's an excellent source for behind-the-scenes stuff.

[@thesaltyseadawg6972]

ngl i'd love to see vids of both the m2m video and the extra mewtwo footage awesome vid dude!

[@MrChristianDT]

That cut-off date was 2004. I remember because my grandmother was paranoid about new technology breaking too easily & never wanted to upgrade. After that, we kind of had to. Lol

[@ScottPillgram20]

God, seeing those trailers from the end of the Indigo League tapes takes me back! I had no idea what those animes were (cause I was an inpatient little shit with a terrible attention span lol), but they always fascinated me. Especially the Ranma one. Up until I think middle or high school, that trailer was my only exposure to the series. I didn't understand anything that was going on or who any of the characters were, but it looked really cool to me back then.

[@marxistharpy]

Omg I loved that Ranma movie trailer as a kid. Never saw the movie but it looked badass

[@Whatineedaname]

This is one of those niche videos that really make me feel stuff about those vhs tapes and how important they were to me, orange islands gad dvds i had one i think

[@chipsdonut1]

Did you know in the UK we only got up to volume 11 and the tape cases were just like a regular vhs case no cardboard.

[@PhoenixResale]

Dude this video was so good. Well done.

[@danielgreen2578]

Hey Jonii, great job on the video! I loved hearing about the history of these tapes. It's very impressive you did so much research just to put all of this together. In fact, I started to collect these tapes myself. I have 5 of the Indigo League tapes and I'm expecting a lot more very soon, three Johto Journeys tapes and the first, second and Mewtwo Returns special. Could you tell me what Pokemon VHS tapes you have? I'd love to hear your feedback.

[@joniivee]

Thanks for the lovely comment! I'll put together a list Indigo League: -The Mystery of Mount Moon -The Sisters of Cerulean City (VCR ate this one) -Poke Friends -Seaside Pikachu -Psychic Surprise -Fashion Victims -Fighting Tournament -The Great Race -Pikachu Party -Wake Up Snorlax Johto Journeys: -A Brand New World -Snow Rescue Johto League Champions: -The Moonlight Showdown Advanced: -A Hole Lotta Trouble Movies: -Mewtwo Strikes Back -The Power Of One -Spell of the Unown -Celebi: Voice of the Forest -Heroes -Jirachi: Wish Maker Other: -A Sneak Peek at Pokemon -Mewtwo Returns -Pokemon Insider

[@joniivee]

Most of the Kanto tapes, Johto Journeys, and movies I had as a kid and seem to be fairly common but JLC and Advanced seem harder to come by. I've also never seen a Destint Deoxys VHS for sale, hence why it's the only movie I'm missing.

[@brianodonnell4496]

@@joniivee What about all of the other vhs tapes of Season 6.

[@captainnintendo]

Speaking of Pikachu having a different VA, I always think back to that episode "The School Of Hard Knocks" where the gang goes to this academy place and for the whole episode Pikachu has a very different voice compared to any other episode I can think of.

[@maripaws]

I was born in 2008 and my dad had a ton of vhs tapes, I watched the lion king all the time on vhs and although he doesn't have his large collection anymore we have a bunch of disney films on vhs.

[@Quartzer.]

I never had any VHS tapes but I did have 3 possibly 4 DVDs (The First Movie, PokeFriends, and Thunder Shock(along with maybe Heroes but I can't remember if I got it from the library or not (either way I don't have it anymore)) (Note:I was born near the end of Vhs' life (and got interested in Pokemon during Black and White) and we already had these DVDs before I discovered we had them so they were probably my older brother's.)

[@dangan2s976]

It's been so long since an upload 🙏

[@brianodonnell4496]

I hope, all old originals things were way better.

[@fromationart5371]

I didn't have these tapes but I did have the infamous Orange Nickelodeon VHS tapes. One of the most 90s things ever 😅😅