Pokétoon is an animated web series of shorts based on the Pokémon games. Unlike Pokémon's other animated series such as Pokémon Generations and Pokémon: Twilight Wings, Pokétoon is not an adaptation of any of the games; instead, it opts to tell original stories that focus more on the average resident of the Pokémon world.
The series can be viewed here
on the Japanese official YouTube channel.
In 2022, it was announced that the shorts would finally be released in the West starting on June 17 on the Pokémon TV app and website and all 8 episodes would be released on the service weekly throughout Summer. They can be watched on the official English Pokémon YouTube channel here.
Pokétoon provides examples of:
- Animal Talk: While to humans it still sounds like they're saying their own names, the various species of ghost Pokémon in "I've Become a Gengar" all speak the same language.
- Animesque: Inverted by the "Scraggy and Mimikyu" shorts, which are modeled after American cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s.
- Brown Note Being: The Scraggy's face turns blue after seeing Mimikyu's true form.
- Circling Birdies: Tiny Poké Beans circle Scraggy's head after it rolls head-first into a tree.
- Contrived Coincidence: In "The Pancham Who Wants to be a Hero", Pancham catches a boulder that would have crushed an Impidimp. However, Impidimp can't get out from under the boulder's shadow because of a sprained ankle, and Pancham can't hold up the boulder for much longer. Then a geyser erupts on the cliff above them and the water from it pours down.
- Daddy's Girl: Blossom is shown to have a stronger relationship with her dad than her mom, with the former being her main inspiration in regards to wanting to become a Trainer just like him.
- Failure Montage: After Blossom attempts catching a Pikachu, there's a sequence of her failing to catch various other Pokémon. It ends with her throwing a Poké Ball at a lounging Slowpoke and missing completely.
- Face of a Thug: Pancham wants to be a hero, and is worried that if it evolves into Pangoro, people will be scared of it. It wears an Everstone on a necklace to prevent this. It throws away the Everstone to evolve and gain enough strength to save Impidimp and the trapped miners, but they all recognize Pangoro as a hero anyway.
- Fantasy-Forbidding Mother: Downplayed. While not to the level of Bianca's dad, Blossom's mother doesn't let her daughter become a Trainer, and her reason for doing so is more reasonable: Blossom has a bad habit of being so wrapped up in her own world that she often ignores her surroundings, which is proven right when Blossom hastily finishes washing the dishes but one falls off the rack and breaks due to not being placed more carefully.
- Forced Transformation: A girl named Hilary turns into a Gengar in "I've Become a Gengar".
- Foreshadowing: Blossom's father's Charizard is shown to have been defeated by a Dragapult during the Galar League. Later on, Blossom's mother is seen clutching a pillow with a Dragapult print. She's the Trainer who defeated Blossom's father, and she still owns the Dragapult.
- Friendly Ghost: The worst thing the Ghost Pokémon inhabiting the school do is play pranks on kids wandering about after hours; their ranks include species with lore that paints them as being malevolent towards humans, like Drifloon and Jellicent, but they're content with the pranks. They also happily welcome Hilary in as one of their own and praise her whenever she (accidentally) scares the kids. It's also implied Gengar orchestrated the events of the episode after the staircase so Hilary could become more confident.
- Good Parents: While Blossom does butt heads with her parents in regards to not letting her become a Trainer, they do genuinely love and care about their daughter.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Scraggy gets so frightened by Mimikyu, it runs through several train cars and off the back of the train. It doesn't fall until it slows down enough and realizes it's walking in midair.
- Homage: "Scraggy and Mimikyu" pays tribute to Western cartoons from The Golden Age of Animation, featuring heavy usage of Mickey Mousing and a small, mischievous creature getting one over on a larger one that's single-mindedly focused on a goal.
- Idiot Hair: Blossom has a curly hair that sticks up from the top of her head (which she gets from her father) and is shown to be very naive about catching and training Pokémon. She decides to go out on her own to find a Pokémon and subsequently wastes all the Poké Balls she bought save one blindly throwing them at wild Pokémon.
- Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: "Scraggy and Mimikyu" and "Please Wait, Magikarp!" lack dialogue and narration. Both shorts rely on their visuals and music to tell their stories, with the former short also using wacky sound effects where appropriate.
- Mundane Utility: The Pokémon Anna's grandparents own are seen helping out with various tasks around the house:
- Their Slugma (which has a body made of magma) keeps their house warm in cold weather, in addition to heating up the stove so they can cook.
- A Minccino is seen using its broomlike tail to sweep stairs clean, which is in line with its natural behavior.
- A Spinarak, Ariados, and Joltik use String Shot to provide material for the grandmother's knitting.
- A Haxorus chops wood using its axelike tusks.
- Mythology Gag:
- The fight between Nidorino and Gengar from the opening sequence of Pokémon Red and Blue is referenced during the ending of "A Budding Dream", complete with a new chiptune rendition of its music. It taking place in a forest further references the GBA remakes.
- "I've Become a Gengar" uses two different piano arrangements of Lavender Town's theme as background music. In the original games, Lavender Town is the only place to find wild Gastly and Haunter... which evolve into Gengar.
- This is not the first time a human was turned to a Gengar. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team introduced us to Team Meanies' leader Gengar.
- During one of Hilary's unintended scares, the moonlight through a window causes her to resemble the sprite for unidentified ghosts in the original games.
- One-Steve Limit: Momo's the name of one of the side characters in "I've Become a Gengar," and that of the main character in "Jigglypuff's Song."
- Pokémon Speak:
- The Mimikyu in "Scraggy and Mimikyu" makes squeaky "kyu" noises.
- The speech of the Pokémon in "A Budding Dream" follows similar logic to the anime; most of them say their own names, but Charizard, Nidoking, and Nidoqueen have growls that sound vaguely like their names.
- When Gengar speak around humans in "I've Become a Gengar", they're heard saying parts of their names. The rest of the short has Translation Convention in effect.
- "Jigglypuff's Song" has Jigglypuff singing the iconic Jigglypuff song from the anime.
- The Seven Mysteries: "I've Become a Gengar" has a band of students investigating their school's Seven Mysteries after dark. Six of them are caused by Ghost-type Pokémon that love playing pranks; the seventh is an unexplained phenomena that traps anyone who's still on school grounds by sunrise.
- Shrinking Violet: Hilary is very shy and timid, though the adventures she has with Gengar and its friends help her come out of her shell and become more confident.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: Peaches’ Jigglypuff in "Jigglypuff's Song" has a bassier voice than others of its species.
- Spot the Imposter: "Please Wait, Magikarp" has an inversion when a girl runs up to a group of Bulbasaur. After looking around at them for a moment, she makes a beeline for the one that's second from the right; the other Bulbasaur promptly reveal themselves to be Ditto.
- Translation Convention: While Hilary is a Gengar, all the Pokémon she meets speak the same language she does. A brief cut to her friends' perspective shows that Hilary is engaging in Pokémon Speak.
- Twisted Ankle: An Impidimp that had been trapped in a mine runs out once Pancham clears away some of the rocks blocking the entrance, but trips and sprains its ankle when it sees a boulder falling from above. Although Pancham catches the boulder in time, Impidimp is left unable to get to safety on its own.
- Unreveal Angle: The first time footage of Blossom's father battling in the Galar League is shown, the camera cuts away before the pan up to the trainer who defeated him gets past their neck.
- Vacuum Mouth: Scraggy sucks in a trail of Poké Beans that fell off a truck carrying luggage.
- Wheel o' Feet: Scraggy's feet become a blur when it's running through the train cars to get away from Mimikyu.
- Wingding Eyes:
- Scraggy's eyes turn into hearts whenever it sees a trail of Poké Beans. They also briefly become hearts when it spots the bag of Poké Beans near the end, only for them to quickly go back to normal when it turns out to be Mimikyu again. When it slams into a tree, the eye closer to the tree turns into a star.
- Momo, one of the kids from "I've Become a Gengar," has permanent starry eyes as part of her overall design.
