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Pokémon (ポケモン Pokemon?, IPA: [ˈpoʊ.keɪ.mɑn]) is a media franchise owned by video game giant Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative videogame-based media franchise in the world, falling only behind Nintendo's Mario series. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary on February 27, 2006, and as of December 1, 2006, cumulative sold units of the video games (including home console versions) have reached more than 155 million copies The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand, "Pocket Monsters" (ポケットモンスター Poketto Monsutā?), as such contractions are very common in Japan. The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 493 fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media as of the recent release of the newest Pokémon role-playing games (RPGs) for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. As with the words deer and sheep, the singular and plural forms of the word "Pokémon" do not differ, nor does each individual species name; in short, it is grammatically correct to say both "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon". Nintendo originally translated Poketto Monsutā literally, but a naming conflict with the Monster in My Pocket toy line caused Nintendo to rebrand the franchise as "Pokémon" in early 1996. The game's catchphrase in the Japanese language versions of the franchise is "ポケモンGETだぜ! (Pokémon Getto Daze! - Let's Get Pokémon!)"; in English language versions of the franchise, it was originally "Gotta catch 'em all!," although it is now no longer officially used except in the spin-off anime series Pokémon Chronicles. In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia. Pikachu (ピカチュウ Pikachū?) are one of the 493 fictional species of Pokémon creatures from the multi-billion-dollar Pokémon media franchise—a collection of video games, anime, manga, books, trading cards, and other media created by Satoshi Tajiri. As do all Pokémon, Pikachu fight other Pokémon in battles central to the anime, manga, and games of the series. Pikachu are among the most recognizable of Pokémon, due to the fact that a Pikachu is a central character in the Pokémon anime series. The name Pikachu is a portmanteau of the Japanese words pika, an onomatopoeia for electric sparkling, and chū, which is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a mouse's squeak. The name is similar to but not based on the pika, a small North American rodent. The name refers to both the overall species, and to individual Pikachu within the games, anime, and manga series. Pikachu is also the name of an individual character that belongs to this species and is the Pokémon companion of the anime's main protagonist, Ash Ketchum more... The newest release in the video game series, Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will be relased on April 22, 2007. So this month's Did You Know? is all about it!
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