Pokémon is one of the most profitable multimedia franchises of all time, yet few have endeavored to examine how it has reached such a status. The story of Pokémon is not only the story of its many media ventures and the people who create them, but the story of its fans as well. Through a comprehensive analysis of developer interviews, contemporary news articles, fan blogs and forums, and existing scholarly work, this thesis presents the history of the Pokémon franchise and its fandom as never before, emphasizing four main themes of technology, nostalgia, community, and capitalism as key to understanding how Pokémon has become the titan of popular culture that it is today and how its fandom has developed alongside it.