Popular Pokémon YouTuber announces channel shutdown over Nintendo copyright issues.

PokéNational Geographic is a YouTube series that creatively presents the Pokémon universe in the style of a nature documentary. Launched in 2023, the series quickly gained popularity for its unique clay-like visuals and in-depth explorations of how Pokémon might thrive in their natural habitats. However, animator Elios has announced that due to a barrage of copyright strikes from Nintendo, he may have to shut down the channel entirely.

In a video posted on April 26, Elios shared his struggles. YouTube allows channels with fewer than three strikes to remain operational if creators complete a copyright infringement course. Unfortunately, PokéNational Geographic has received more than three strikes in a short period, all reportedly from Nintendo of America.

Neither YouTube nor Nintendo of America has responded to requests for comment. Elios expressed a willingness to remove the videos in question but hasn’t been given that chance.

“I can’t really fight this,” he stated in the video.

The copyright claims focus on Elios’ use of “works, characters, and imagery” from the Pokémon video games. Aside from the in-game cries used when Pokémon enter battle, nearly all content in the documentaries was created by Elios himself. He believes that the audio snippets he samples, all under three seconds, qualify as fair use. Currently, he is downloading all his videos for preservation, but he won’t be able to re-upload them.

“I’ve gotten internships, I’ve gotten jobs because of PokéNational, because I showed people my animation skills through that,” Elios shared.

He also mentioned that he has dedicated the last few years to making his animations more educational and translating them into various languages for classroom use. The channel was so successful that it helped popularize a new genre of Pokémon documentary videos, many of which are generated using AI trained on copyrighted material.

“I don’t know how to save the channel, I don’t know if I can,” Elios admitted.

While he plans to continue creating art on a different channel, it will no longer focus on Pokémon.

“PokéNational is dead,” Elios concluded.