Pokémon Origins was produced as part of TV Tokyo's 50th anniversary special project, created to commemorate the release of Pokémon X and Y for Nintendo 3DS.

Unlike the main Pokémon anime series starring Ash Ketchum, this special has no connection to it; it is a completely new adaptation closely following the original Pokémon Red and Green Game Boy games, reproducing in-game dialogue and featuring a game-style digest narrated by Red at the start of each episode.

The story deliberately excludes moves, abilities, and concepts introduced from Pokémon Gold and Silver onward, with the exception of Mega Evolution.

The special was split into four episodes, each helmed by a different director from a different studio: Itsuro Kawasaki (Production I.G) for episode 1, Yukio Kuroda (Xebec) for episode 2, Hideya Takahashi (Xebec) for episode 3, and Hiroki Tomiyasu (OLM) for episode 4.

Some of the music was arranged by Shota Kageyama based on original themes from the Red and Green games, and these arrangements were included as bonus tracks on the Pokémon X and Y soundtrack.

Legendary Pokémon such as Xerneas, Yveltal, Reshiram, Zekrom, Dialga, Palkia, Groudon, Kyogre, Ho-Oh, and Lugia do not appear in the story itself, only featuring in the opening as cover art from various Pokémon game generations.

The special aired on TV Tokyo on October 2, 2013, just ten days before the release of Pokémon X and Y, and later streamed internationally via Nintendo's Pokémon TV service from November 15 to December 2, 2013.

On September 14, 2016, the first episode was released for free on the official Pokémon YouTube channel, though it was later removed in 2017.

During the original broadcast, a special commercial for Pokémon X and Y featuring comedy duo Hamakan revealed then-unannounced information about the games in a comedic sketch format.

In this adaptation, Professor Fuji from Lavender Town's Pokémon House is confirmed to be the same person as the scientist who created Mewtwo, resolving an ambiguity left unclear in the original Red and Green games.