The name is a blast from the past, but Pocket Monsters ranging from the very first species to brand-new additions will show up.
Like the franchise’s video games, there’s a cyclical nature to the Pokémon anime. When Game Freaks (the company that actually makes the Pokémon games, not Nintendo) brings out a new mainline game in the series, it usually creates a new setting and stocks it with new species of Pocket Monsters, and so it’s not long before the Pokémon anime series follows suit by having protagonist Ash/Satoshi wander into that new region of the Pokémon World.
For example, the anime’s current arc, Pokémon Sun and Moon, takes place in the Hawaii-like Alola region, just like the 2016 Sun and Moon video games do. With the Sun and Moon anime scheduled to wrap up this fall, just around the time of the release of the upcoming Pokémon Sword and Shield games for the Nintendo Switch, many fans were assuming that the anime would also transition into a Sword and Shield arc, set in the British-inspired Galar region. But while it’s true that Galar will be featured in the new Pokémon anime, it won’t be the sole geographical focus, as a teaser video promises that the new anime is “A story that heads out into the entire Pokémon world.”
The video proudly features the starter Pokémon for all eight regions of the currently established Pokémon world: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Galar.
▼ The presence of Alola species shows that even though Sun and Moon’s time in the sole spotlight is ending, it’s tropical creatures will still have roles to play.
The teaser video also reveals the title for the anime’s new arc, which is actually a throwback. The new anime will be titled simply Pocket Monsters, the exact same title for the very first Pokémon anime arc from 1997.
The teaser promises more details to come at the end of September, and while no premier date for Pocket Monsters has been announced, considering that the Pokémon anime franchise as a whole has been airing without any significant breaks for 22 years, odds are we’ll be seeing the first episodes of the new arc sometime around Sword and Shield’s November 15 launch.
Source, images: YouTube/ポケモン公式YouTubeチャンネル
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