Today, The Pokémon Company group unveiled a new character named Friede and his partner Pokémon, Captain Pikachu, who will star in the recently revealed Pokémon animated series debuting around the world beginning in 2023.
Friede, a Pokémon Professor, and Captain Pikachu will assist and battle alongside the new series’ dual protagonists — Liko from the Paldea region and Roy from the Kanto region in the U.S. version of the show — on thrilling adventures across the Pokémon world while unraveling the mysteries of Liko’s pendant and Roy’s Poké Ball.
“As the Pokémon world expands and evolves, fans will be able to embark on a new journey of action, adventure and friendship through the eyes of unique characters like Friede and Captain Pikachu when the next animated series begins premiering later this year. For 27 years, Pikachu has been synonymous with the Pokémon franchise, and we look forward to seeing this beloved Pokémon continue to have a significant presence in the animated series and remain an icon for the brand.”
- Taito Okiura, vice president of marketing for The Pokémon Company International.
More details regarding the upcoming Pokémon animated series will be announced in the future. In the meantime, fans can watch a new batch of episodes from “Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series” that premiered today exclusively on Netflix in the U.S. and feature some of the final moments of Ash and his Pikachu’s journey. The latest “Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series” trailer can be found on the official Pokémon YouTube channel.
Source: The Pokemon Company
The concept art for Friede look’s decent they have alot of details in his character models artwork, kinda cool that Friede and Captain Pikachu assist and battle alongside the 2 new protagonist. I’d say Pikachu certainly has a significant presence and is definitely an icon.
While I personally don’t care for pikachu whatsoever, he is recognised around the world, glad ash Ketchum is gone. He should have left after either diamond and Pearl anime, or xy anime. He was on much too long, and we finally are seeing some fresh faces, much welcomed too. This new professor guy looks great, I wish he wasn’t stuck with pikachu to be honest. But I guess pikachu is still some sort of an icon. It will be nice to see what fresh ideas come into the anime over time, I hope it’s better then the games for sure.
Why don’t you tell that to Goku as well cuz he’s been on as long if not longer than Ash.
Goku has been around longer than Ash for sure and has more in common with Pikachu in terms of iconic status.
Your both wrong, dragon ball, dragon ball z and dragon ball gt only make up 11 years, and dragon ball super makes up 3 years, so only 14 years in total. The Pokemon anime has done about 25 years, 10 years longer, get your facts right before you start sprouting nonsense.
You do realize that I’m talking about the character Goku, the face of the entire DB franchise, both of which have been around since the 80’s and not just the anime series right?
Also, one could arguably count the web anime series Super Dragon Ball Heroes (despite it being a non-canonical promo show based on the card games) which is still ongoing and then the whole DB anime series is catching up to the Pokemon anime series in terms of ongoing years.
Goku actually won most of his fights at the end of a saga. Ash almost always got his ass kicked by someone at a Pokémon League.
Friede and Captain Pikachu look tough as nails lol! It’s a bit of a change of pace considering the original series (I grew up watching the original series, im old lol). I wonder what kind of direction the new series will have , I haven’t watched Pokemon in like 20 years or maybe even longer but I’m now starting to look forward to watching this with my kids. duel protagonists with a bad ass sidekick should be pretty great!
Why does he look like he can be cilan cousin?
@felix he looks like the guy from Pokemon Ruby and sapphire, the main guy character you controlled in the games.
You know, he almost reminds me of him honestly because of his height.
Prof Oak could kick his ass. And Captain Pikachu’s.
Captain Pikachu? Not saying its a nice touch, but I find it really cool.
Ash was long overdue to retire but Pikachu is the Mario of the Pokemon franchise, of course the new anime would continue having a Pikachu.😉
But that’s like saying you should put Mickey Mouse in every Disney series and all Disney films, yes Mickey Mouse is the mascot, but there’s plenty more for Mickey to do then just promote cartoons. You can find Mickey on plenty more Disney products then just the cartoons, and pikachu doesn’t need to be in all the anime’s, he’s already in all the games, and he’s on 99% of all Pokemon products and promotions. The anime needs to be more it’s own thing, pikachu got it off to a good start, now they should let it grow into its own thing. It doesn’t need to be a promotion for the company anymore. Pokemon sells itself anyway, and as long as they do a great job, then pikachu doesn’t need to be on every single episode.
Shoulda given Eevee a chance to be the anime’s mascot for awhile. If most people hated it, THEN they coulda brought Pikachu back.