Pokemon Anime Trailer Teases Lugia Raid Battle

Pokemon’s Sun and Moon anime has officially ended its run, but there’s a bit of time before the new anime kicks in. So to celebrate the new upcoming series, TV Tokyo aired a special dedicated to the next era of the Pokemon anime that gives fans a taste of what’s to come. Although the new series will be revisiting many of the Pokemon and regions of the franchise’s past, it will incorporate new elements from the Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon Go video games. One of which is the new Raid Battles, which the anime will debut in an early episode.

The TV Tokyo special is 24 minutes long in total, and five of those minutes are dedicated to a preview of a raid battle in which a bunch of trainers take on the Legendary Pokemon, Lugia. Pokemon shared the TV Tokyo special to their official YouTube channel, and you can watch the preview starting at around the 10:30 mark.

The special preview for the series is entirely in Japanese, as the new Pokemon anime has yet to be officially licensed for an English language release, but there’s plenty of action teasing how Raid Battles will work in the new series. Along with a countdown, Lugia arrives in a storm cloud in a random area. It’s here that various trainers try their best against it, and here when Ash and new protagonist Gou will seemingly meet for the first time.

This new Pokemon series will be the first in the franchise to feature a second protagonist who will be journeying alongside Ash from the very start. It’s not quite clear just yet how this will differ from Ash’s companions in the past, but Gou will be getting a lot of focus as he begins his journey for the very first time compared to the veteran Ash.

There’s a major interest to see what kind of other elements will be included from the new games as well, as this preview briefly sees one of the new additions, Corviknight, in action as well. But this will definitely be explored as the series continues. Pokemon: The Series will be officially making its debut November 17th in Japan, and the first episode of the new series is titled “Birth of Pikachu,” and the synopsis for it reads as such, “In a forest somewhere in Kanto, there once was a lonely Pichu. This Pichu – who was still quite young – had a certain encounter and farewell. This took place shortly before Ash and his partner Pikachu started travelling together. This is the beginning of the anime ‘Pocket Monster.’”