Pokémon: Black & White is the fourteenth season of the Pokémon anime series and the first and titular season of Pokémon the Series: Black & White, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! (ポケットモンスター ベストウイッシュ, Poketto Monsutā Besuto Uisshu!). It originally aired in Japan from September 23, 2010, to September 15, 2011, on TV Tokyo channel 7, and in the United States from February 12, 2011, to January 7, 2012, on Cartoon Network.
The season follows Ash Ketchum as he travels across the Unova region to challenge its Pokémon League while joined by Iris, an aspiring Dragon Master, and Cilan, one of the Striaton City Gym Leaders and a Pokémon Connoisseur.
To promote the series and the episode where Ash obtains an egg, Pokémon Black and White players were able to obtain an egg containing either an Axew, a Pansage or a Pidove toy, exclusively at US Toys "R" Us stores between April 27, 2011, and May 31, 2011. Each one contained their moves like anime counterparts (Ash's Pidove, Cilan's Pansage and Iris' Axew). Players were only able to get one egg and which of the Pokémon the egg hatched into was random.
Music
The Japanese opening song is "Best Wishes!" (ベストウイッシュ!, Besuto Uisshu!) by Rica Matsumoto. The first 2 episodes in Japan did not have the ending song, instead, the instrumental songs from Pokémon: Black & White Japanese Anime Sound Collection serve as ending songs during the original broadcast. The ending songs are "Fanfare of the Heart" (心のファンファーレ, Kokoro no Fanfāre) by Aki Okui starting in episode 3 during the original broadcast, and starting in episode 1 on DVD, "Can You Name All the Pokémon? BW" (ポケモン言えるかな? BW ビーダブリュー, Pokémon Ierukana? BW) by Takeshi Tsuruno, and the English opening song is "Black and White" by Erin Bowman and Joe Philips. Its instrumental version serves as the ending theme.
Viz Media and Warner Home Video have released the series on DVD in the United States on four two-disc volume sets that contain 12 episodes each.
The first volume was released on November 20, 2012, The second was released on January 22, 2013, The third was released on March 19, 2013, and the fourth was released on May 14, 2013.
Viz Media and Warner Home Video released Pokémon: Black & White – The Complete Season on DVD on July 27, 2021.