The mega evolution Charizard was a nod from the director to the upcoming games. The show was broadcast on TV Tokyo on October 2, 2013, ten days before the release of the video games of Pokémon X (2013) and Pokémon Y (2013).
The rival is named Green in the original Japanese release, but is called Blue in the English dub. This is because the first Pokémon games in Japan were called Red and Green, while the first localized releases were called Red and Blue, due to them being a combination of the Japanese Red, Green, and Blue games. Despite having his name changed in the English dub, however, "Blue" still wears a green shirt.
This is the first Pokemon English dub to not be dubbed in New York.
The anime mini-series this based on the classic video games of generation 1 of Pokémon: Versione rossa (1996), Poketto monsutâ midori (1996) and Pokémon: Versione blu (1996), including in his remakes of generation 3 of Poketto monsutâ faiareddo (2004) and Pokémon Versione Verde Foglia (2004).
Leaf the main female character of Poketto monsutâ faiareddo (2004) and Pokémon Versione Verde Foglia (2004) never appears in this anime mini-series.