I’ve been on a bitܫ of a tear against streaming platfo🙈rms recently. Seeing Amazon introduce ads to Prime Video while increasing the monthly price (after already increasing the annual price of Prime earlier last year) was the straw that broke the camel's back, and I’m about ready to give up on the entire content streaming industrial complex and head back to the high seas. Between the constant price increases, platforms like Max removing shows completely, and the fact that searching for something across dozens of subscription services has led to the need for third-party services to collate information, we’re no longer getting the value and convenience out of streaming we were promised. If you need a clear example of what I’m talking about, just take a look at the official guide to watching Pokemon. Or don’t, because it might make you lose your mind.
As I mentioned, I’ve been vocal about this issue a lot lately, but I found this particular example from . Dunkey mocks how confusing modern streaming platforms have become by exaggerating the problem with comical examp🧸les. At one point he claims you have to watch the first half of Titanic on Crackle and the second half on Vudu, then says Rogers NHL Live is streaming the Indiana Jones movie. Making up a bunch of fake examples almost undercuts how bad things actually are, because the reality of the streaming diaspora is already absurd enough. One of the only real examples Dunkey uses makes this case perfectly: you need a walkthrough for streaming Pokemon.
Prime Video has a separate add-on subscription called Pokemon Start which will give you 💧access to Seasons 2, 10-16, 20-22, and the movie Lucario and t🧸he Mystery of Mew $3/month.
The Pokemon website brea𒅌ks it d🗹own: Season 1 of the Pokemon anime is available to stream on Netflix and the Pokemon TV website. You’ll need to stay on (or switch to) Pokemon TV for Season 2, then Prime Video for the Gold & Silver era of Seasons 3-5. Season 6-9 are also available on Prime Video, or you can watch them on Freevee, but after that, you’ll have to switch to Hoopla (with a library card) to watch the Diamond and Pearl series. Note that season 13, Diamond & Pearl: Sinnoh League Victors, is not available on Hoopla, so you’ll have to buy all of those episodes individually from Amazon.
Season 14-16, aka the Black & White era, are on Tubi, while the X & Y seasons 17-19 are only available on Hulu. You can then go back to Pokemon TV for Sun & Moon’s seasons 20-22, or watch them on the Roku channel, but I don’t know why you would do that. The recently completed Pokemon era Journeys is available on both Pokemon TV and Netflix, which takes us back to where we started and to the end of this nightmare trip through s🍒treaming🍎 hell.
Just kidding! We haven’t talked about the film series yet. Hoopla has the first three, as well as 8-20. Netflix has the 23rd movie (the Mewtwo Strikes Back remake) and the 24th movie, Secrets of the Jungle, which is currently the final entry. I found Pokemon 4Ever and the 21st movie, I Choose You, on , for some reason. The rest of the movies you&rsq🥂uo;ll need to buy.
Pokemon ann♎ounced today that , so﷽ there goes your only free way to watch the anime!
Oh god, I almost forgot about all the mini-series. The Arceus Chronicles is on Netflix, while PokeToons, Paldean Wings, Evolutions, Generations, Twilight Wings, and Hisuian Snow are all on YouTube. If you want to watch Origins, you’ll need Amazon’s Pokemon Start subscription again. There’s also Pokemon Concierge, possibly the best Pokemo🔯n series of all, currently available on Netflix.
This has been a miserable exercise, hasn’t it? Now imagine trying to introduce a new fan to Pokemon and trying to navigate all thi⛄s nonsense. It shouldn’t be this way. There’s nothing convenient or pro-consumer about any of this. Pokemon is an extreme example, but you’ll find plenty of shows and film series broken up across multiple subscription services if you go looking. I don’t know what it’s going to take to fix this issue, but I swear ♊to Arceus, I’m not going to play along with the streaming circus much longer.
