Quick answer: Pokémon Anime Version is a free FireRed ROM hack by HeavenAngle and TekCafe.vn. You play as Ash through anime Season 1, Episodes 1–80, plus the specials and Mewtwo Strikes Back, with every episode turned into a playable cutscene. The current build is v2.0.2 (test). It also adds Orange Islands Episodes 81–90. You apply it as a
.bpspatch to your own Pokémon FireRed (USA) v1.0 ROM.
Every kid who rented Pokémon Yellow got the same letdown. Pikachu follows you around and Jessie and James show up, but within an hour it's plain Red again. Brock never travels with you, Misty never shouts about her bike, and Charizard happily obeys a ten-year-old with eight badges. Pokémon Anime Version is a FireRed hack built to fix that. Its first post on r/pokemon summed it up: "all 82 episodes of Season 1... alongside the Mewtwo Strikes Back movie."
That count has since been redone to match the show. The developer now numbers Kanto as Episodes 1–80, and the homecoming party after the League opens Episode 81, the first Orange Islands episode. The project moves fast. The Kanto part went through more than a dozen 1.x builds before the 2.x line started taking Ash across the sea.
The v2.0.2 title screen. All screenshots in this post are from the developer's release pages on TekCafe.vn. They are not Rebit playtest captures.
Who makes it, and what it's built on
The credits list HeavenAngle & TekCafe.vn for the anime script, graphics and programming. TekCafe.vn is a Vietnamese tech site, so the game launched in Vietnamese and has English and Portuguese builds next to it. The developer names two older hacks as inspiration for the Kanto part: Jaizu's Pokémon Recharged Yellow and metapod23's Pokémon Ash Gray. The Orange Islands borrow maps, base scripts and material from Pokémon Orange Islands (Beta 5.7) by Kalarie and the Orange Islands Staff, credited by name.
The base ROM is the plain US FireRed. The patched game is a 32 MB ROM, which is the GBA's full cartridge address space. You won't fit that on a cheap 16 MB repro cart.
Every episode is a cutscene you play through
Most "anime" hacks put a Pikachu sprite on Red and stop there. Here the core unit is the episode. When you reach the spot where an episode starts, a card slides in with "Episode N" and its English title. When you finish it, an "Achievement unlocked!" box pops up, followed by "To be continued…". Each card plays once and is stored in your save.
Episode 1: Ash oversleeps and finds three empty Poké Balls, so Oak hands over Pikachu.
The script follows one rule, which the walkthrough states outright: if it happens in the anime, it plays out like the anime; if it doesn't, the original game takes over. That leads to some nice touches:
- Ash oversleeps, and Oak gives you no Poké Balls. Your first ones come from Misty in Viridian Forest.
- Ho-Oh flies past the rainbow at the end of Episode 1.
- You catch the Krabby on Bill's lighthouse steps yourself. With a full party it goes to Oak, and you get a video call about it.
- Sabrina's dollhouse, Gringey City's Muk, the P1 Grand Prix with Meowth's bomb, Blastoise Shell Island and the League torch relay are all playable scenes.
- The banned episodes and the two North Pole specials ("Holiday Hi-Jynx" and "Snow Way Out!") are in, along with Mewtwo Strikes Back on New Island.
Episode 24, Sabrina's dollhouse. Haunter stays with Sabrina, as in the show.
There are 87 Kanto achievements in all, one per episode, special and movie, under START → Chievos. The menu has room for 254, which hints at how much of the anime the developer plans to cover.
A Kanto redrawn from the anime map
The overworld has been rebuilt twice. v1.3.0 redrew Kanto from the anime. v1.3.1 redrew it again so the ten classic towns sit where FireRed players expect them. The anime-only places are fitted in between:
- Gringey City sits on an island in the bay. You reach it through an Underground Path house on Route 6.
- Snorlax Village, Pikachu Forest and Stone Town (home of the Eevee brothers) are reached through a cave on Route 11 near Dark City. That way Episodes 36 to 46 play in order.
- Neon Town takes Route 13's spot, and Melvin's circus is on Route 15.
- Porta Vista, Maiden's Peak and Giant Pokémon Island are linked by ferries.
- Grampa Canyon leads on to the mansion and then League Boulevard, all in anime order. A ferry runs from League Boulevard to Cinnabar after Episode 57.
- Cycling Road is L-shaped as in FireRed, and Chopper's gang blocks both ends.
The whole Kanto map: the classic layout with anime-only towns placed where they belong.
Officer Jenny keeps you from getting ahead of the story. She blocks roads until the right episode has played, for example Dark City until Episode 41 is done and Grampa Canyon until 45. That sounds limiting, but a hack this scripted needs it. You can't skip an episode and break the next twenty.
Episode 30, Gringey City. This Muk battle is the only way to get a Muk.
The mechanics that make it feel like the show
The details are where this hack shines:
- Charizard really is disobedient. From the moment Charmeleon evolves in Episode 46 until the end of the League, Charizard obeys only about half the time. The rest of the time it loafs around, turns away or ignores you, and badges don't help. You will lose fights to it, just as Ash did.
- Pikachu refuses the Thunderstone. Use one on him and he swats it away. The stone isn't used up.
- Losses Ash took in the show don't black you out. Lose Brock's first battle and Ash carries Pikachu to the Pewter Pokémon Center with no money lost. Flint then takes you to the hydroelectric plant to charge Pikachu, and the rematch has the sprinklers. Losing to AJ just makes it his 99th win, and losing to Ritchie in Episode 79 goes straight to the lobby scene.
- Tag battles. In five scenes Brock or Misty fights next to you against Jessie and James, with the game controlling your partner's own team. They are at Mt. Moon, Maiden's Peak, Celadon, the Cinnabar volcano and Mt. Hideaway.
- Anime teams. Misty uses Staryu and Starmie. At the Viridian Gym, Team Rocket stands in for Giovanni with Machamp, Kingler and Rhydon. No trainer uses one-hit KO moves, and Team Rocket no longer uses Self-Destruct.
Episode 46: Charizard against Aerodactyl. From here on, your Charizard listens only half the time.
HMs replaced by tools
Field obstacles use key items instead of HM moves. The Axe comes from the S.S. Anne captain, the Pickaxe from Gary in Grampa Canyon, the Raft from an old man on Cinnabar, and the Bicycle from a voucher you start with. Trees need the Axe and boulders need the Pickaxe, even if your Pokémon knows Cut or Rock Smash. HMs 01–07 still exist as discs that teach the moves, so you don't need an HM slave in your party.
There's also a story beat around the Pickaxe. After the seventh badge, a Clefairy steals it on Route 4. You get it back from Seymour in Mt. Moon's Moon Stone chamber, which is a nod to the Clefairy rocket episode.
Quality-of-life features
- Overworld encounters in the style of Let's Go. Wild Pokémon walk around the grass, and Options → Encounters switches back to random encounters. This only works in Kanto.
- Day and night. From 20:00 to 5:59, Pidgey turn into Zubat, Caterpie into Venonat, Jigglypuff into Clefairy, and so on.
- A Linking Cord for ₽2,100 at the Celadon Department Store evolves Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler and Haunter without a trade.
- All 151 Kanto Pokémon can be obtained in one save. Lapras, the last one, joins in Episode 84. Wild and trainer teams use Kanto species only.
- Gift and legendary Pokémon come with strong stats. Legendaries, Ash's Pikachu and the Charmander line have perfect IVs (31 in all six stats), and every gift has a planned EV spread and a Nature that fits it. There are no shinies.
- Each legendary appears once per location. Catch Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mewtwo or Mew, knock it out or run away, and it's gone from that spot.
Portraits, sprites and Ash on the battle screen
From v1.3.3, 26 characters have hand-drawn portraits that show in the corner of the text box while they talk. The list covers Ash, Misty, Brock, the Team Rocket trio, Jenny, Joy, Oak, Gary, Tracey, Ritchie, Bill, Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, and Butch and Cassidy. When the trio or Butch and Cassidy speak together, you get a group portrait.
The overworld sprites were redone to look like the show: Officer Jenny with her blue cap, Nurse Joy, Ash's mom and Giovanni in his orange suit. Ash has a hand-drawn back sprite in every battle, and Brock and Misty get their own in tag battles.
The League, the Hall of Fame and the post-game
Season 1 ends where it should. Ash loses to Ritchie because Charizard won't fight.
After that comes Mewtwo Strikes Back, then the homecoming at Ash's house, which records your team in the Hall of Fame. The post-game is a real one:
- Elite Four: Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, Lance and then the Champion, back to back at Lv57–65 with no way out.
- Indigo Championship: a four-round tournament against Assunta, Melissa, Gideon and then Champion Slate. The winner can defend the title again for Rare Candies.
- Gary rematches at Oak's ranch, where his team gets stronger each time.
v2.0.x: on to the Orange Islands
The 2.x line takes you to Season 2. You get there the way Ash did. After the party, you go into Viridian Forest to save the Pidgey flock (Pidgeotto evolves, and you decide whether Pidgeot stays). Then you Surf to Old Shore Wharf, take a boat to Orange Port, win the lottery, and ride a balloon that turns out to be run by Team Rocket.
v2.0.1 added Episodes 81–85: Professor Ivy and the GS Ball on Valencia, the baby Lapras and Tracey joining on Tangelo, and Cissy's Mikan Gym for the Coral-Eye Badge. Tracey takes Brock's place, and companions now walk behind Ash. You can turn that off under Options → Companions.
v2.0.2 (released November 6, 2026) adds Episodes 86–90:
- Mandarin North's psychic riot (Episode 86), which gives you the Climb Kit.
- The Crystal Onix on Sunburst (Episode 87).
- The pink Nidoking on Pinkan (Episode 88).
- The Kabuto colony under the red moon on Fukuhara (Episode 89).
- Kay's Raichu on the Showboat at Kinnow (Episode 90).
A November 13 update fixed the missing music after the Hall of Fame.
v2.0.2: companions following Ash, and the Crystal Onix on Sunburst Island.
The developer's roadmap opens the rest one island group at a time. Episodes 91–98 bring the Sea Ruby Badge, 99–103 the Spike Shell Badge, and 104–108 add the 2000 movie and the Jade Star Badge. Episodes 109–116 finish with the Orange League. Kanto is complete; the Orange Islands are a test that stops after Episode 90. Sailing past that point shows a message and pushes you back.
Plan for levels around 50 before you leave Kanto. Orange Islands wild Pokémon are Lv42–48 and Cissy's team reaches Lv51–53. Charizard is still disobedient there.
Known rough edges
It's a fan project in active testing, and the developer lists its known issues openly:
- Characters with no drawing yet, such as Ivy and Cissy, have no portrait.
- Some lines call you "Ash" even if you chose a different name.
- The following Pikachu vanishes after a fade to black until you take a step or two.
- The Axe shows a parcel icon in the Bag.
- Saves from v1.1.0 and earlier won't load. Saves from v1.3.2 onward carry over.
- When you update, save indoors or in a Pokémon Center. The outdoor maps have moved between versions, and a save made outside can put you somewhere wrong.
Playing it on Rebit
Rebit doesn't distribute FireRed or pre-patched games. Get the patch from the developer's release page and apply it to a backup of your own cartridge. The guide to playing ROM hacks legally covers dumping a cartridge you own.
- Check that your base ROM is FireRed (USA) v1.0, CRC32
DD88761C. Rev 1 or a European ROM will not work. - Apply
Pokemon Anime Version v2.0.2 (TEST) English (FireRed).bpswith Rom Patcher JS or Floating IPS. Keep your original file. - The patched English ROM should have CRC32
017E6B26, and the title screen should read v2.0.2. (The Portuguese build is683E16FF.) - Open Upload in Rebit, choose Game Boy Advance or Auto, and upload the patched
.gba. - Save in game once, then use Export In-Game Save before you go far. Read GBA save safety before applying any future update.
Rebit runs FireRed-based hacks on its mGBA core in the browser and on phones. This post hasn't verified a full playthrough of this build, so test booting, saving and Continue before committing to an 80-episode run. The upload docs and save controls explain the rest.
FAQ
Is Pokémon Anime Version complete?
Kanto is. Episodes 1–80, the specials, the first movie, the Hall of Fame and the post-game are all playable. The Orange Islands are in testing and stop after Episode 90.
Is it in English?
Yes. It has full English and Portuguese builds next to the original Vietnamese.
Can I get all 151 Pokémon?
Yes. All 151 are available in one save, including Lapras from Episode 84. You can't skip the episodes, and some events, such as the fossil cave in Episode 46, are missable for good.
Is it free?
Yes, and selling it is forbidden. If you want to fund the push to Johto, the developer takes tips at ko-fi.com/heavenangle.
If Ash Gray or Recharged Yellow ever left you wishing it went further, try this one. Start a new save, let Ash oversleep, and see how long it takes before Charizard ignores you in a fight that matters.
Sources: HeavenAngle's r/pokemon announcement, the developer's v2.0.2 release notes, Kanto walkthrough and Orange Islands walkthrough. Features are as the developer describes them, and screenshots are the developer's own.
