What is Pokémon Sun and Moon?

They are the Generation VII Pokémon role-playing games from Nintendo and Game Freak, released for the Nintendo 3DS in November 2016 and set in the Alola region.

Where did Pokémon Sun and Moon come from?

Nintendo revealed the games on February 26, 2016 during a Nintendo Direct held for the 20th anniversary of Pokémon Red and Green.

What does Pokémon Sun and Moon mean?

The pair refers to the two versions of the seventh-generation Pokémon games, named for the day and night motifs that drive the version-exclusive Pokémon and story beats.

How do you use Pokémon Sun and Moon?

As memes, fans reuse trailer clips of the starters and Team Skull grunts as reaction edits, and pair Alolan-form designs with their Kanto originals for side-by-side jokes.

Is Pokémon Sun and Moon still popular?

The games are treated as classics of the 3DS Pokémon era, with the Alola setting still referenced through Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon content and ongoing fan edits.

Pokémon Sun and Moon

2016video gameclassic

Published September 22, 2026

Pokémon Sun and Moon are the seventh-generation Pokémon games from Nintendo and Game Freak, released worldwide in November 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS1. Set in the tropical Alola region, they scrapped the Gym system and introduced Alolan variants of Generation I monsters2. The reveal trailers, Team Skull villains and shocked-face fan edits made the games one of the big Pokémon meme cycles of 2016.

pokemon nintendo memes gaming fandom discourse memes 2016 memes

Overview

Pokémon Sun and Moon are the paired Generation VII titles for the Nintendo 3DS, set in the Hawaii-inspired Alola region1. Instead of the eight-Gym progression the series had used since 1996, players work through island trials run by local Trial Captains, and encounter Alolan forms that redesign familiar Kanto Pokémon like Vulpix, Exeggutor and Raichu2.

The meme layer around the games grew out of Nintendo's staggered reveal campaign on YouTube. Each trailer drop, from the starter reveal to Team Skull's introduction, spawned reaction videos, animation edits and screaming-face reaction images on Tumblr, Twitter and Reddit3. Team Skull grunts, with their finger-guns and hip-hop poses, became especially popular templates for meme edits and fan comics4.

Beyond the trailers, in-game moments like Lusamine's boss fight and the Ultra Beast reveals kept the fandom producing reaction content well into 2017, when Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon extended the same Alola setting5.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Nintendo 3DS (game) / YouTube and Tumblr (meme spread)

Date

2016

Nintendo announced Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon on February 26, 2016 during a Nintendo Direct held for the twentieth anniversary of Pokémon Red and Green1. The debut trailer, published on the official Pokémon YouTube channel, teased the new region without showing gameplay and immediately became the anchor for fan speculation threads on Reddit and Serebii4.

A second trailer on May 10, 2016 revealed the three starters, Rowlet, Litten and Popplio, which drew instant fan-art responses and starter-choice debate memes2. On August 11, 2016 Nintendo dropped a trailer introducing Team Skull, the games' villains, whose exaggerated dance moves became one of the most-edited clips from the entire pre-release cycle3. The games shipped worldwide on November 18, 2016, with the European release following on November 214.

How It Spread

Each Nintendo trailer functioned as a scheduled meme drop. The February 2016 announcement video pushed fan communities on r/pokemon and Tumblr into weeks of leak-speculation and joke fake-leaks1. The May starter reveal set off the recurring "which starter are you picking" discourse, with Popplio getting a wave of defensive fan-art after being widely mocked at reveal2.

Team Skull's August 2016 trailer was the clearest viral moment of the pre-launch cycle, with the grunts' finger-gun poses cut into reaction edits and dance loops across YouTube3. After the November 18 launch, playthrough reaction videos and Lusamine boss-fight commentary carried the meme energy into the post-release period, and the Urban Dictionary entry for the games leaned into the Lusamine reaction joke6.

The Alola setting kept generating content through 2017, when Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon reused the region with new story beats and a fresh trailer cycle that drew a second round of fandom edits5.

Timeline

2016-02-26

Nintendo announces Pokémon Sun and Moon in a Nintendo Direct marking the franchise's 20th anniversary.

2016-05-10

Starter Pokémon Rowlet, Litten and Popplio revealed in a dedicated trailer.

2016-08-11

Team Skull villains debut in a trailer that becomes a heavy source of reaction edits.

2016-11-18

Pokémon Sun and Moon released worldwide for Nintendo 3DS.

2016-11-21

European Union release follows three days after the worldwide launch.

2017-11-17

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon reuse the Alola setting and trigger a second wave of fandom edits.

How to Use This Meme

Fans typically pull short clips from the official trailers, especially the Team Skull grunt animations and the starter reveals, then loop, redub or caption them for reaction jokes. Alolan-form redesigns are often used in side-by-side edits against their original Kanto counterparts, and Lusamine's fight is a common source for horror-style fan edits.