'Pokemon' Is Preparing To Debut Its 1000th Anime Episode

Pokemon may be twenty already, but the franchise isn't ready to slow down. Japan is still churning out Pokemon games left and right, but it is the series' anime that is about to blow. After all, Pokemon Sun and Moon will be airing the anime's 1000th episode next week.

Earlier today, the Pokemon Company released an image to celebrate the anime's insane milestone (via Crunchyroll) The franchise, which started its first anime series back in April 2007, will air its 1000th episode on November 9, 2017. The episode will bring back a fan-favorite Pokemon as comedian Sunshine Ikezaki will voice Hypno.

If you are in Japan, you can go celebrate the episode live with other Pokemon fanatics. Sunshine City Fountain Square in Ikebukuro will host a live event on November 11 to commemorate the event. Voice actors like Rica Matsumoto, Kei Shindō, Hitomi Kikuchi, Fumiko Takekuma, and Keiichi Nakagawa are all set to appear at the event.

For those of you who can't visit the live event, then you still have a chance to win big with Pokemon. TV Tokyo is hosting a lottery-style giveaway campaign that will be announced next week. The event will give out exclusive prizes like a limited-edition Pikachu Nintendo 2DS LL as well as a Blu-ray copy of Pokemon the Movie: I Choose You! and more.

Since 1997, the Pokemon anime series has been separated into various generations. The original run hosted five seasons before the Advanced Generation rolled in. Diamond & Pearl, Best Wishes, XY, and Sun and Moon then followed. To date, there have been 21 seasons of Pokemon to binge and soon to be a 1000 episodes. If you want to check out Pokemon: Sun and Moon, you can do so in the U.S. if you have the Disney XD channel. You can also brush up on some of the franchise's earlier seasons on sites like Hulu.