Pokémon's 22-Minute Pokérap Celebrates All 1,025 Monsters

Pokémon has turned one of the franchise's most memorable anime-era musical ideas into an enormous anniversary showcase. A newly released, 22-minute-long Pokérap-style music video runs through all 1,025 Pokémon currently in the series, giving fans a marathon tribute that spans every generation of creatures introduced so far.

The project arrives as Pokémon marks its 30th anniversary, and its scale is immediately apparent. The original Pokérap was a compact, high-energy roll call of the first 151 Pokémon, remembered by many viewers of the 1990s anime for its rapid-fire delivery and impossible-to-forget cadence. This new production faces a much larger assignment. The Pokémon roster has grown dramatically since Kanto, and the anniversary song attempts to account for every monster currently counted in the main collection.

That total will not remain fixed forever. Pokémon currently has 1,025 creatures before Winds and Waves adds more next year, making this video a snapshot of the franchise's roster at a particular point in its long history. For now, though, it is an unusually comprehensive celebration of the creatures players have collected, battled, traded, trained, and argued about across three decades.

From a simple rap to a full musical journey

The new song is performed by singer Masayoshi Oishi, and it does not simply try to replicate the hip-hop approach associated with the original Pokérap. It opens with the bright, driving energy of an anime opening theme before repeatedly changing its musical character over the course of its lengthy runtime.

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Rather than maintaining one beat for 22 minutes, the composition moves through a broad mix of styles. Swing, salsa, smooth jazz, heavy metal, and other sounds appear during the Pokémon roll call, before the piece circles back toward its energetic anime-theme feel. The structure gives the song a sense of movement that suits its unusually long duration. At 22 minutes, it is roughly the length of a standard Pokémon anime episode, so a constant pace or single style could have made the gimmick wear thin long before the final names arrived.

That genre-hopping approach also makes the video feel less like a straightforward novelty and more like a musical tour through the series' history. Pokémon has always had an unusually wide tonal range: cute mascot characters sit beside kaiju-like legendaries, ghost stories, mechanical creatures, ancient fossils, martial artists, household objects, and bizarre deep-cut designs. A production that shifts between playful, dramatic, jazzy, and aggressive modes has plenty of room to match that variety.

Every generation gets its turn

The defining promise of the video is simple: every currently known Pokémon appears. That includes the famous stars that have carried movies, merchandise lines, competitive teams, and fan communities for years, but it also includes creatures that rarely receive much attention outside dedicated corners of the fandom.

For longtime players, that means the appeal is not limited to spotting Pikachu, Charizard, Eevee, or other perennial favorites. The full-length format encourages viewers to watch for the Pokémon that mattered to them personally, whether that is a starter chosen in a childhood save file, an unexpected party member that helped win a difficult battle, or an obscure design that never gets much representation in major promotional material.

The Japanese-language presentation means that viewers familiar primarily with English Pokémon names may encounter a few surprises. Many species have different Japanese names, so recognizing each spoken name is not always as immediate as recognizing its on-screen design. Still, the visual component ensures that the project remains accessible as a celebration of the creatures themselves. A recognizable silhouette, a particular color palette, or a favorite animation can be enough to create that quick burst of recognition.

It is also a reminder of how much the franchise's naming conventions and design language have evolved. The original 151 emerged from a relatively small set of Game Boy games and a rapidly growing anime phenomenon. The modern lineup stretches across many regions, systems, gameplay mechanics, and decades of artistic experimentation. Putting every Pokémon into one video makes the expansion feel especially tangible.

A visual collage across Pokémon history

The music video does more than display a list of names over static images. Its visuals assemble material from across Pokémon's many forms, combining official artwork, footage and imagery associated with the games, and clips from the anime. The result is a collage that reflects how Pokémon has operated simultaneously as a game series, animated universe, collectible hobby, and global character brand.

Some Pokémon receive more conspicuous treatment than others. Major favorites and especially recognizable mascots can be identified through original animation or prominent moments in the arrangement. That is hardly unexpected in a franchise with characters that have become icons in their own right. But the important achievement is that the video still commits to including everyone else. Even a fan whose favorite Pokémon is rarely featured in trailers, promotional art, or anime episodes has a reason to scan the entire 22-minute presentation.

This attention to the full roster gives the video a communal quality. Pokémon fandom has never been built solely around a handful of headliners. Players form attachments to the strange and overlooked creatures as often as they do to the obvious stars. One person remembers a starter; another swears by a bug-type, an underappreciated normal-type, or a Pokémon caught by chance in a single playthrough years ago. A complete roll call validates all of those attachments at once.

The long shadow of the original Pokérap

The original Pokérap remains one of the most distinctive pieces of Pokémon anime nostalgia. In the 1990s, it turned the task of learning 151 names into an end-credit spectacle. James "D Train" Williams and Babi Floyd performed the familiar rap, which helped make the first generation's roster feel like something fans could memorize, repeat, and challenge one another to finish.

Pokémon revisited the idea for later anime eras, including songs connected to the Johto and Hoenn generations. Yet the franchise's growth eventually made a single all-inclusive track much more daunting. Each generation adds not just a few new faces but an entire ecosystem of starters, route encounters, evolutions, regional specialists, mythicals, legendaries, and unusual one-off concepts. The more Pokémon there are, the harder it becomes to present them all in a way that feels celebratory rather than exhausting.

That is what makes the new anniversary version notable. It embraces the absurdity of the task instead of shrinking from it. A 22-minute runtime is not trying to be background music for a quick commercial break. It is a deliberate event: an invitation to settle in, listen closely, and see just how far the series has come.

There is also something fitting about using music to count the roster. Pokémon names have always been part of the franchise's shared language. Fans learn them through games, episodes, cards, playground conversations, strategy guides, streaming videos, and tournament broadcasts. A song transforms that enormous catalog into a collective memory exercise, even for people who cannot possibly recall every name without help.

An anniversary project built for repeat viewing

The first viewing offers the obvious challenge of trying to catch every Pokémon, but the video is likely designed to reward repeat trips. With 1,025 creatures moving through multiple visual styles and musical sections, it is nearly impossible to absorb every reference at once. Viewers can return to search for a single evolutionary line, compare how different generations are presented, or simply wait for a personal favorite to appear again.

Its broad visual sourcing adds another layer to that rewatch value. Official character art evokes the core collecting identity of Pokémon, game imagery recalls the series' interactive roots, and anime clips connect the project to the medium that made many of these characters feel alive beyond their battle stats. The anniversary format is therefore not only cataloging Pokémon; it is cataloging the ways people have experienced them.

For newer fans, the video can work as a whirlwind introduction to a roster that may otherwise seem overwhelming. For veterans, it is a compressed history lesson that starts with the franchise's familiar musical nostalgia and expands into a reminder of every era that followed. The names may be delivered in Japanese, the genres may change without warning, and the visual pace may demand close attention, but the central message remains easy to understand: every Pokémon has a place in this celebration.

Pokémon's 30th anniversary naturally invites reflection on its biggest landmarks, from games and regions to anime storylines and its most famous mascot characters. This 22-minute Pokérap chooses a more exhaustive approach. Instead of narrowing the focus to a greatest-hits selection, it makes room for the entire current lineup--big, small, beloved, forgotten, powerful, strange, and everything in between.

With additional Pokémon expected when Winds and Waves arrives next year, the all-species song may eventually become a time capsule of the 1,025-Pokémon era. For now, it stands as a huge, energetic tribute to the full roster and to the fans who have spent decades finding favorites within it.