Pokemon

The Pokémon Company recently started selling official replicas of the Luxury Balls that appear in many of Nintendo’s games.

But for those looking to get their hands on an even pricier, more luxurious, harder-to-find piece of spherical Poké-merch that screams “I’m about to wreck the Elite Four,” Tiffany’s new collaboration with artist Daniel Arsham might be just what you’re looking for.

In the early days of Pokémon games, Pikachu used to be downright rotund by design, but the electric mouse gradually became skinner because that design was easier to animate.

Over the years, Nintendo’s alluded to Pikachu’s chunky past in a couple of clever ways, but none of them have been as delightful as the way the new Detective Pikachu animated short just says “screw it” and leans into that classic shunky Pikachu aesthetic.

The Pokémon franchise has always emphasized how, in addition to being powerful brawlers, pocket monsters are intelligent beings with complex feelings. In the past, the Pokémon anime has framed trainers who don’t understand that as villains incapable of becoming true champions.

But Pokémon: Paldean Winds’ latest episode is all about how even the best battlers sometimes have to be reminded that pokémon — especially their starters — are friends first, and fighters second.

It was already bad enough how rabid scalpers ruined the launch of the Van Gogh Museum’s collaboration with The Pokémon Company. But now, the museum’s announced that — in response to the “undesirable situation” — it will no longer be passing out promo cards to visitors in order to keep them safe.

That said, the cards will still be available via the Pokémon Center.

Scalpers might have ruined everyone’s chances at grabbing a piece of merch from the Pokémon Company’s collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum, collectors hoping to get their hands on one of the coveted “Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat” promo cards are in luck.

The Pokémon Company tried to make the perks (read: promo cards and merch) from its collaboration with the Van Gogh museum to be accessible to everyone. But it seems like scalpers have been swarming the exhibit in Amsterdam to snatch up cards, and forcing the museum to change its sales policy for the exclusive goodies. Good job, folks.

The Pokémon Company’s art-focused collaborations have gradually become one of the niftiest parts of the franchise over the past few years, and it seems as if there’s another one on the horizon that’ll bring trainers to Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum beginning September 28th.

Ash and Pikachu hung up their pokéballs in the Japanese version of the show earlier this year. But if you want to watch the sweet sendoff in English, the last batch of dubbed Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series episodes drops today on Netflix.

To mark the end of the era, there’s also a newly remixed version of the iconic theme song. Shut up, I’m not crying, you’re crying. They were the very best.

That’s the name of the new live-action Pokémon series, which centers around the video game franchise itself. It tells the story of Madoka Akagi (played by Nanase Nishino) who revisits the original Pokémon Red for the first time since her childhood. The series comes out on October 19th in Japan, but there’s no word on a subtitled version just yet.

Pokémon Go might not have the best track record with keeping pace with Nintendo’s mainline games in terms of being filled with monsters from every generation, but just in time for Scarlet and Violet’s upcoming DLC drop, pokémon from the Paldea region are slated to start popping up in the mobile game as part of the Adventures Abound event on September 1st.

As part of the reveal for the latest pokémon — which will debut in the upcoming Scarlet and Violet expansion next month — we have this charming little ghost story that makes tea surprisingly spooky.

Usually, the Pokémon Company sticks to flashy set name reveals to advertise the Pokémon Trading Card Game. That’s probably not changing any time soon, but with Pokémon: Path to the Peak — a new animated web series about a young girl learning to play the game for the first time — the company seems to be trying out something a little different that’s almost certain to get kids and nostalgic adults itching to pick up a deck.

Following in the footsteps of previous Pokémon games like Sword and Shield, and Arceus, a new digital-first, animated series inspired by Scarlet and Violet is in the works.

Similar to Pokémon: Twilight Wings and Pokémon: Hisuian Snow, Pokémon: Paldean Winds introduces new trainers whose adventures are similar to those featured in the games, and the trailer makes it seem like the four-episode-long series will follow them all across Paldea when it hits the Pokémon Youtube channel on September 6th.

The Pokémon-obsessed corners of the internet have been buzzing about the possibility of a new livestream full of updates for some time now, and The Pokémon Company has just confirmed that it’s on the way.

The August 8th presentation could touch on any number of things like the upcoming Scarlet / Violet DLC or Detective Pikachu Returns. But the creepy, purple teaser video the company’s just released definitely has a certain Mewtwo vibe to it, which could be a sign of incoming Pokémon Unite news.

Routes could be an interesting way to get a custom tour of a neighborhood or a city while giving you a chance to catch some pokémon along the way. Niantic’s website says the company will review the routes, so you should be able to trust that a route won’t lead you astray. (If you do run into any bad routes, let me know.)

The terastallized pocket monsters being introduced in the Pokémon Trading Card Game’s upcoming Obsidian Flames expansion are almost guaranteed to become chase cards when the set is released on August 11th. But Obsidian Flames’ true star is obviously the Minaminami Take-illustrated Charmander promo card tucked into the set’s elite trainer boxes.