Nobody expects much from a side series that aired in time slots between reruns. Pokémon Chronicles is exactly what it looks like on paper, and that's the whole point. These are stories about trainers who aren't Ash, adventures that don't need to save the world, just a kid with a Pokémon and somewhere to go. The show breathes room to be small. You watch because you want to sit with these characters for twenty minutes, not because you're waiting for the next major arc to land. It's the closest the anime gets to just letting Pokémon be a reason to wander.

Away from Ash's journey, other trainers carve their own paths through the Pokémon world. Each of these side stories runs alongside his travels and gives a chapter to someone else: researchers, professors, Gym Leaders, Team Rocket members, trainers, and even Pokémon themselves. Some episodes check in on Ash's old Pokémon at Professor Oak's lab, others reveal the origins and secrets of Team Rocket, and still others follow trainers he met in the past, such as Brock, Misty, Tracey, Richie and Gary. Mixing action, adventure, comedy and fantasy, these 16 specials first aired in Japan between 2002 and 2004, running alongside Pocket Monsters Advanced. Western audiences saw them in a dubbed collection called Pokémon Chronicles.