Pokémon Origins, known in Japan as Pocket Monsters: The Origin (ポケットモンスター THE ORIGIN, Poketto Monsutā Ji Orijin), is a Japanese anime television special based on Nintendo's Pokémon franchise which follows the plot of Pokemon Red and Blue. Like the television series, it was not owned by Media Factory (brand company of Kadokawa Corporation). Animation is handled by Production I.G, Xebec, and OLM, Inc., and the series is split into four parts, each directed by a different director from these studios. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo on October 2, 2013, ten days before the release of the X and Y video games, and began streaming internationally on Nintendo's Pokémon TV service from November 15, 2013 to December 2, 2013. On September 14, 2016, the first episode of the series was released for free on the official Pokémon YouTube channel and was later removed in 2017.