The winds of Paldea blow... (From left to right: Aliquis, Hohma, and Ohara.)
Pokémon: Paldean Winds is a four-episode mini-series produced by Wit Studio and released on YouTube, premiering on September 6th, 2023, based on Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.
The webseries is set before a "certain transfer student" arrives at the academy. It follows the lives of three students: the flutist Ohara and her Fuecoco, the battler Aliquis and his Meowscarada, and geeky Hohma and his Quaxly. The three of them are tasked by Director Clavell to produce a video for incoming new students about why the academy is an exemplary place to learn all about Pokémon. However, much to Ohara's dismay, all three of them can't seem to work together on account of their personal quirks.
Episodes:
Tropes in this series include:
- The Ace: According to Ohara, Aliquis is her class's strongest trainer, more so explained when he decided to quickly evolve his Sprigatito to Meowscarada (on top of having a team of fully evolved Pokémon). Unfortunately for Aliquis, Nemona is the whole school's strongest trainer.
- Achilles in His Tent: Meowscarada returns to help Aliquis in his rematch against Nemona after he shouts its name in remorse.
- Always Second Best: Aliquis is immensely frustrated that he's never been able to beat Nemona in a Pokémon battle.
- Aloof Older Brother: Aliquis's brother comes off as this during his video call with him, having nonchalantly instructed Aliquis to simply toss aside Meowscarada to be able to win in his next battle despite being aware of his younger brother's bond with the Pokémon.
- Artistic License – Music: At the end of episode one, Ohara is able to play some music on her flute with just the head to calm an angry Cetitan, even though it's not actually possible for a dismantled flute to make any sound when attempting to play it.
- Bolivian Army Ending: Episode 2 ends with Aliquis and his Meowscarada giving their all against Nemona in battle, even though she has three Pokémon while Aliquis only has one left. Episode 3 reveals that he got defeated for a third time, but he looks forward to doing better in their next battle.
- Call-Forward:
- Arven inquires about Ohara's relationship with her parents, foreshadowing his own parental issues in Scarlet and Violet.
- The introductory scene in the games shows Nemona having a Paldean Tauros, but ultimately you never battle it in the game proper, suggesting that she benches the Tauros after deciding to build another team from scratch. Here, she actually fields a Paldean Tauros against Aliquis.
- The Cameo: The last episode features several students watching the video the trio made. Penny (though not seeing it with the rest) shows up in a Galar train looking outside, and both Kieran and Carmine are watching it together while at Blueberry Academy set before they go home to Kitakami.
- Chekhov's Classroom: Hohma's Info Dump about Cetitan ends up crucial for Ohara when she uses her disposed flute to calm down the Cetitan trying to eat Arven.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Due to the look of the uniforms taking after Naranja Academy in particular, it can be assumed that the series takes place before Scarlet.
- Deus ex Machina: Eri's Starmobile starts making trouble not because she's forced to fight, but because a random Squawkabilly entered the tent and used Swagger on Revavroom.
- The Faceless: Aliquis's brother is only seen from the back in Episode 2.
- Fitness Nut: To Hohma's dismay, Eri likes to subject new members to a workout routine around the base's valley, though she doesn't mind if they can't keep up with her.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- As Nemona mentions in the games that she's been unbeaten up until the player challenges her, Aliquis' battles are doomed to end in failure.
- Hohma winds up getting photographic evidence of Team Star's Starmobiles (though he rather thinks finding about Eri's ride is going to make for a good article first and good video content second instead), but after seeing Eri's camaraderie with her squad, he gets disillusioned about the article potential and "accidentally" erases all the photos, effectively keeping the school staff from finding out until the player character arrives.
- Geek Physiques: Hohma is the nerdiest member of the main trio, and also the chubbiest. He can't keep up with Team Star's exercises.
- Inelegant Blubbering: When Meowscarada returns to help Aliquis in his rematch against Nemona, Aliquis has a silly face as he tearfully apologizes to it.
- Innocently Insensitive: Hohma reports to the entire school how Aliquis's battle against Nemona went with his defeat, though Aliquis can't help thinking that Hohma's wording makes it look a bit insensitive. Then Hohma decides to interview Aliquis when the latter is still in the dumps anyway. In the last episode, Hohma does apologize to Aliquis for gaining clout interviewing people's reactions first rather than consulting Aliquis first, so he'll interview Aliquis first and foremost.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Aliquis is obsessed with beating Nemona, and his frustration towards not being able to do so has made him rather short-tempered and even violent at times towards others, mainly Hohma, and not even his Meowscarada is immune to such a reaction. That said, he does truly care about his partner Pokémon and immediately realizes when he's gone too far with his lashing out at it, and tearfully apologizes during the battle for removing it from his team so harshly.
- Mons as Characterization:
- Ohara is a flutist and has a naturally musical Fuecoco as a partner.
- Aliquis is the most into battling out of the three, and as such is introduced with a fully evolved Meowscarada, as opposed to Ohara and Hohma's starters still being in their base stages at first.
- A Mother to Her Men: To Hohma's surprise, he learns that Eri is not the scary bully captain he thought she was due to her and her team being very close to each other, and the fact that she healed her confused Revavroom rather than beating it down. All the more surprising is how her Annihilape fully listens to her and is as kind as she is.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Aliquis immediately feels horrible when he angrily tells Ohara that Meowscarada is to blame for his loss against Nemona.
- Mythology Gag: Meowscarada endures what would otherwise be a fight ending Close Combat barrage, prompting Hohma to say that Meowscarada toughed it out so Aliquis wouldn't feel sad.
- Prequel: Is set prior to the events of Scarlet in particular, as our main characters are all students at Naranja Academy.
- Pun:
- Ohara is a student of Naranja Academy, which is found in Pokémon Scarlet. That makes her Scarlet Ohara.
- Aliquis' name is Latin for "somebody", in contrast to Nemona whose Japanese name Nemo is Latin for "nobody".
- No Name Given: Carmen, Eri's Number Two, appears in episode 3 as a secondary character when Hohma visits the Caph Squad, but she goes unnamed outside of the credits.
- The Power of Friendship: Despite getting pummeled by Tauros's Close Combat, Meowscarada toughs it out from fainting because of its close bond with Aliquis, just like raising bonds through food in the games.
- Production Throwback: Wit Studio starts the first episode with a Gimmighoul awkwardly trying to avoid "huge" people, and then there's the fact Arven runs away from a Cetitan wanting to eat him. These points echo their work on Attack on Titan.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Ohara realizes that her little group is screwed on making the video because Aliquis is too busy thinking about battling Nemona and Hohma is too deep into researching Dex data.
- Red Herring: After Hohma's Quaxly evolves into Quaxwell, it looks like it's going to fight Eri's Starmobile to stop it, until Eri and her Annihilape rather take a more pacifist approach by handing the frenzied Revavroom a Lum Berry to cure it from its confusion.
- Shown Their Work:
- The series fully utilizes information on dex entries for Pokémon:
- The moment a Corviknight flies by a Tinkaton, she excitedly runs off to smack the steel bird down.
- The flutist Ohara has a Fuecoco as her partner, who is a perfect fit for her due to being a natural singer.
- Though no official info about music is related to Cetitan, Cetitan are still related to whales, which studies have found to have a thing for music.
- The series fully utilizes information on dex entries for Pokémon:
- Skewed Priorities: Hohma goes to the Caph Squad's base in order to secure content for the school's articles to gain fame for it, on the excuse that it's also for the trio's school promotional video. He deletes his photos after seeing Eri's camaraderie with her squad causes him to become disillusioned with the article potential, though.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Aliquis and his Meowscarada are quite fond of chocolate balls filled with candy, even though they sometimes contain disgusting Scovillain duds. He describes it as being like a pre-battle ritual, with duds being bad luck and good candy meaning good luck. He winds up getting a good one during his third battle against Nemona but ends up losing a third time against a number disadvantage anyway. On the other hand, he did get Meowscarada back to his side.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The rift between Aliquis and his Meowscarada in Episode 2 was started by the former's brother suggesting he not use Meowscarada anymore.
- You Are Not Alone: The crux of Hohma's character is how he believes no one understands where he's coming from with the articles he comes up with, making him believe that he doesn't get support from others, until he realizes his Quaxly/Quaxwell has been trying to cheer him up. It's also this realization that makes him come up with the idea to get all the school staff and Gym Leaders to appear in the video the trio are making, because at the end of the day, the school's Treasure Hunt is not grounded entirely to school but the whole region and its people.
