The latest PokéToon animated short has been released online.
The new short, which is available to watch for free with English subtitles on the official Pokémon Kids YouTube channel, tells the story of Shoko, a timid young girl who accidentally volunteers to explore her grade school's supposedly haunted "Seven Mysteries." After a bizarre occurrence at one of the mystery spots, Shoko finds herself transformed into a Gengar. After meeting a group of other ghost-type Pokémon, including another Gengar and mischievous Misdreavus, Shoko spends the night accidentally scaring her classmates. The kids learn that ghost Pokémon aren't all bad however, when the monsters team up to save them from one of the school's more dangerous mysteries.
Shoko and Gengar's story is the latest PokéToon to be released for free on line. Previous shorts in the series featured Mimikyu in a Looney Tunes-inspired adventure, and the story of a shy Slugma.
The PokéToon shorts are produced by Studio Colorido, the animation studio behind the 2020 movie A Whisker Away. In addition to their work with Nintendo on Pokémon, Colorido is also collaborating with Lucasfilm for the upcoming Star Wars: Visions anthology series. The studio will create the episode Tattoine Rhapsody, a rock opera set on the Star Wars galaxy's most famous desert planet. The short will star Joseph Gordon-Levitt and will feature an appearance from the partially-digested bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Pokémon, meanwhile, continues the year-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of the release of the original game in the series, Pocket Monsters Red and Green versions. The Pokémon Company has marked the occasion with a number of new releases, including the new anime series Pokémon Evolutions, which like the PokéToon shorts, were released for free online to the official Pokémon YouTube channel. The new series can also be seen on the Pokémon TV app, which was recently released for the Nintendo Switch and is also available on iOS and Android devices.
Video games continue to be the main focus of the Pokémon franchise, however, and Nintendo and original developer Game Freak are celebrating the franchise's anniversary with multiple new releases: Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, HD remakes of the 2006 Gen 4 Pokémon games, will be released for the Switch in November. Those games will be followed up with the release of Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which fans are hoping will modernize the series with new battle mechanics and a brand new open-world structure.
Source: YouTube
