New Pokemon Anime Teases Pikachu’s Origin Story

Pokemon‘s new anime series will be shaking things up in a pretty significant way now that Ash has won his first Pokemon League Championship. Teased that he was looking for new things to do now that he’s achieved a major goal, the new Pokemon anime will see the famous trainer go back to his roots and begin his and Pikachu’s journey from the Kanto region once more. But while things will be brand new, there’s also going to be a tie to the original series that goes back to before Ash and Pikachu met.

The newest trailer for the upcoming Pokemon anime features a lot of footage from the first episode of the new series. One of the major teases from this first episode is that fans will get more of Pikachu’s origin story before he ended up as one of the choices in Professor Oak’s lab.

With the trailer confirming that Ash will be returning to Kanto, there are a few shout outs to the past of the series along with teases of its future. Alongside a good look at the new protagonist, Gou, there are a few scenes that recreate many of the anime’s very first episode in which Ash wakes up late when he first began his journey.

This includes a new look at when he first met the wily Pikachu, and it’s here that it’s teased that we’ll be seeing this meeting from Pikachu’s point of view for the first time. It’s implied that the shots of Pichu throughout are the Pikachu we’ve come to love, and with one shot of it crying seems to also further imply that Pikachu went through some rough circumstances before meeting Ash.

It might be way Pikachu was unwilling to work with Ash at first. Maybe that’s why it was so angry? Maybe something tramatic happened in Pikachu’s time as a Pichu that soured it on the world overall? We’ll know one way or the other for sure when the next season premieres. Good thing it won’t be too long as Pokemon: The Series is currently scheduled to premiere November 17th in Japan.

Along with every region in the franchise, the new anime will have two protagonists. The new series will introduce Gou, designed by Pokemon character designer Ken Sugimori, who has a Scorbunny as his partner Pokemon and is also out to catch ’em all.

Daiki Yamashita has been confirmed as the voice of Gou, and the additional confirmed cast members include Yuichi Nakamura as Professor Sakuragi, Kana Hanazawa as Koharu, Megumi Hayashibara as Jessie, Shinichiro Miki as James, and Inuko Inuyama as Meowth.

Staff confirmed for the new series include Daiki Tomiyasu serving as chief director for OLM, Maki Odaira as series director, Kunihiko Yuyama as creative supervisor, Shoji Yonemura overseeing series construction, Shuhei Yasuda serving as character designer, Masafumi Mima as sound director, Yuki Hayashi as series composer.