Pokemon Debuts New Short From Jujutsu Kaisen OP Director

Pokemon has debuted a cute new animated short from the same director behind one of Jujutsu Kaisen's killer opening theme sequences! The Pokemon Company has been branching out with a number of fun animations in recent years helping to celebrate the monumental 25th Anniversary of the franchise, and this included not only a short web series exploring the Galar region of Pokemon Sword and Shield with Pokemon: Twilight Wings, but a special animated music video and a wackier Looney Tunes inspired short. Now Pokemon has debuted yet another fun web animation with fans.

The Pokemon Company International debuted a brand new Poketoon animated short, "Dreaming Tsubomi," to its YouTube page in Japan. Directed by Shingo Yamashita, who directed the second opening theme sequence for Jujutsu Kaisen's first season, this newest short is unfortunately all in Japanese but follows a young girl named Tsubomi as she struggles with getting her own Pokemon Trainer journey started. Check it out in the video above!

Yamashita, who also directed the Pokemon: Twilight Wings miniseries, reunites with that staff for this newest short for Studio Colorido. It also features Kureha Matsuzawa as scriptwriter, Yo Watanabe as storyboarder, Akiko Watanabe as character designer and chief animation director, and Yuri Habuka composed the music. The cast for the short includes Inori Minase as Tsubomi, Manami Numakura as Mama, Takashi Onozuka as Papa, Tsuguo Mogami as Chorobi, Rikako Aikawa as Nidoran, and Ikue Otani as Pikachu.

These additional animations have allowed the Pokemon franchise to expand in new ways that Ash Ketchum and Goh's journeys in Pokemon Journeys: The Series can't quite cover. Although the newest iteration of the anime has expanded to include every previous region of the franchise, these two protagonists can't quite fully explore such a wide world. That's why these extra windows into this franchise offer a fun alternative.

Although the short is in Japanese without subtitles in other languages, it still provides a fun experience as Tsubomi grows into a trainer of her own through some unique struggles (especially when compared to her Pokemon Trainer parents, something unique to this short). But what do you think? What did you think of this newest Poketoon? What kind of stories do you want to see from the Pokemon world next? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!