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Inuko Inuyama's Pokémon Hour, also known simply as Pokémon Hour, was a radio program produced by Nippon Broadcasting System and broadcast nationwide in Japan, hosted primarily by Inuko Inuyama, the voice actress for Team Rocket's Meowth in Pokémon the Series. It ran from October 12, 1997 through to March 29, 2001.
While the broadcast was popular, and home-made recordings of a number of the broadcasts exist, there has never been an official home media release.
Description[]
Despite being named the "Pokémon Hour", broadcasts were typically contained to 30 minute time-slots outside of special program broadcasts, which range from two to three hours. Throughout the program, Inuyama would present a number of segments focused on the Pokémon games, merchandise, and news. Occasionally, broadcasts would feature a special guest, often a voice actor of the anime, such as Rica Matsumoto (Ash Ketchum), and Megumi Hayashibara (Jessie).
Between segments, pieces of music from the anime would play (for example, Together With the Wind from Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back), as well as promotional advertisements for upcoming or recently released Pokémon CDs, TCG sets, merchandise, and events.
Structure[]
- Latest Pokémon Information - News on upcoming video games, TCG sets and events, and other Pokémon media.
- Pokémon World Satellite - Discussing Pokémon news from outside of Japan. Later versions of this segment would play snippets of dubbed Pokémon anime audio.
- Ask Professor Yoshikawa - A Q&A segment hosted by Professor Yoshikawa, played by Chōji Yoshikawa, an associate producer of the Pokémon anime.
- National Pokémon Cry Quiz - A call-in quiz segment where a participant was played a number of Pokémon cries and must correctly guess which Pokémon the cry belongs to, with a cash prize depending on number of correct answers, up to a maximum of 10. The participant had 1 minute in total.
- New Pokémon Merchandise Development Research Institute - A segment which encouraged listeners to submit concepts for new and interesting Pokémon merchandise. The segment was retired in 1999.
- Can you sing a Pokémon parody song? - A call-in segment where a caller would sing a Pokémon related song, this could be either a parody of another song, or a rendition of a pre-existing Pokémon song. Additionally, Inuyama would sing a Pokémon-ized parody of a popular, pre-existing song.
- 150 Pokémon Poems - Listener-submitted poems relating to specific Pokémon.
- I'm proud of my Pokémon - A segment where listeners could boast about their achievements in the Pokémon games, including completing the Pokédex, and high-scores in Pokémon Pinball.
- Latest Pokémon Goods - A segment discussing the latest official 'Pokémon merchandise releases.
- Radio Drama - An infrequent segment which played the radio dramas The Birth of Mewtwo and It's a White Tomorrow, Team Rocket!
- Pokémon Gold and Silver Popularity Vote - A popularity poll for the first 251 Pokémon.