Pokémon, also known as Pokémon the Series to Western audiences since the year 2013, is an anime television series based on the Pokémon video game series. It was originally broadcast on TV Tokyo in 1997. The Pokémon anime, often referred to as just "the anime" by many Pokémon fans, is a collective term referring to currently 1,231 main series episodes, 23 movies, and a number of side stories, all focusing on Pokémon. The Pokémon anime series was largely credited for allowing anime to become more popular and familiar around the world, especially in the United States. Pokemon is an anime rather than a cartoon since it was created in Japan and drawn (and animated) in the Japanese style