Pokémon: Twilight Wings is another among a slow-building catalog of spin-off series’ set in the Pokémon universe. Alongside Pokémon Origins and Pokémon: Generations its’ a spin-off of their video game canon instead of their established anime staring Ash Ketchum.
Fans can currently view Pokémon: Twilight Wings on YouTube, or the Pokémon TV app. However before they go off and watch Pokémon: Twilight Wings, here are five differences and similarities from the main anime.
10 Game Canon
This anime is connected to the game canon but doesn’t include Ash (Despite the apparent cameo appearance) as the main protagonist. Pokémon: Twilight Wings takes place in Galar, and currently doesn’t feature the player trainers, but does highlight some of the characters they’ve met in the game (Including rival Hop). The series will be connected through the Galar Taxi Driver who are trainers of the famed Pokémon Corviknight that ferry people to different locations.
The other character apparently highlighted in the series is John and his friend Tommy, as they are featured on the cover/promotional artwork for the series. It currently remains to be seen how these characters will involve themselves in the remaining episodes.
9 Leads Into Sword and Shield
The second episode of Pokémon: Twilight Wings features the gym leader Bea and if gamers played Pokémon Sword she was the Fighting Gym Leader of Stow-On-Side. Without spoilers, she spars with her Machamp (Which is a bad-ass thing to do) and injures her arm. It is speculated that this injury seen in the anime, translates over to the game.
Bea is reflected nicely between Pokemon Sword and Pokémon: Twilight Wings, which differs from characters that are both seen in the game and in the traditional anime. Over the years the bridge between personalities in the anime and the games has gotten closer, but nothing that makes someone say “yeah, just like the game”. Misty from the anime, for example, doesn’t reflect any of her in-game appearances in personality or look. This is made even more apparent when her in-game persona debuted briefly in Pokémon Origins.
8 The Animation
If fans already started watching Pokémon: Twilight Wings they’d have noticed the stunning animation. The Pokémon series is no stranger to quality, and their hires reflect this. The Pokemon company put Studio Colorido on the project, and they have not disappointed. If they haven’t heard of Studio Colorido, the studio’s latest project is Penguin Highway, which has received universal acclaim in no small part due to the stunning animation.
Over the past few years, people have complained about the animation stylings of Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, though that could be attributed to people disliking change in beloved franchises. It makes the animation created by Studio Colorido all the more alluring to traditional fans while creating something visually unique for the series.
7 The Length
If they’ve watched the other spin-off series of Pokémon they already know that this isn’t going to be a full-length production, they’ve already stated that the series will run for a short seven episodes approximately five to six minutes apiece. However, the quality of production is still there, if it’s like it’s predecessors it will be an informative, entertaining, and lore enforcing group of webisodes.
On the flip side, the run time of the main anime roughly sits around 48, 000 minutes. That would be a month of continuous watching, not including the movies of course. That’s a whole other monster.
6 The First In Galar?
For those who wait for the dub, this is the first “anime” look we are getting for the region of Galar as a western audience. However, in the titled Pocket Monsters anime, Ash and his new companion Go travel to Galar in the fourth episode that predates Pokémon: Twilight Wings by roughly a month. What Pokémon: Twilight Wings can say is that it’s the first anime that solely focuses on Galar as a region.
The main anime follows Ash and we see things through his eyes. What we learn about the world of Pokémon is always filtered through his ears by the mouths of others. In Pokémon: Twilight Wings players aren’t told things through exposition, we get a five-minute peek into the lives of the people of Galar and learn through these stories. There isn’t a perpetually incompetent ten-year-old for people to explain things to.
But if all of this is what’s different about Pokémon: Twilight Wings, what’s the same?
5 The Heart
Pokémon will almost always target young children as a demographic. Sure, adults might get something like Pokémon: Detective Pikachu in the form of a live-action movie but even then the target is still to entertain the minds of the young.
That isn’t always a bad thing either, the heart of Pokémon is what has kept it going for so long and the way everything falls in place Pokémon: Twilight Wings is no exception.
4 Pokémon
People tend to see a new property of Pokémon and expect something new in the roster. As of yet, there doesn’t seem to be any solid plans to showcase anything beyond the Galar regional dex. That being said if gamers aren’t familiar with Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield, they might be excited when Corviknight first appears on the screen.
The games during initial promotion definitely highlighted Corviknight, as not only does it have an excellent design, it’s utility is recognized as a staple with both the game and within the world itself.
3 Impact
The impact of the anime is far-reaching, Pokémon: Twilight Wings also carries a similar impact. The mainstream anime is one of the flagship properties for the Pokémon company, and with it, we see the continuous journey of one Ash Ketchum.
The way Pokémon: Twilight Wings is framed leads the viewer to believe we are getting a deeper story involving the in-game NPCs, already we have a gym leader being featured in an episode that we get to know a little more. In Pokémon Origins we get a more intimate view of the world of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue, Pokémon: Twilight Wings is looking to achieve that in a different way.
2 To Be The Very Best
A line uttered by Ash Ketchum over and over again through the mainstream anime, yet here we are three episodes in from the perspective of three different characters and they also want to be the very best. John, a boy who simply wants to watch his hero in action but clearly wants to be a Pokémon trainer, Bea who suffered from the defeat at the hands of the reigning champ Leon and goes into the Wild Area to train, and Hop/Wooloo who witness said fight and enforce their bond with their desires of fighting in the Pokémon League.
Regardless of the series, Pokémon often shares parallels to “be the very best”. If its the best trainer, the best ranger, or even the best Pokémon rescue team, it’s hard to deny that the message they all have in common is be the best players that fans can be. Speaking of themes…
1 Underlining Themes
It’s hard to deny that Pokémon tries to impart valuable lessons onto the young viewers it incapsulates (pun intended), the obvious one is the power of friendship. The most impactful one is not the most obvious, and that’s the negative connotations of defeatism. The constant failure of Ash Ketchum doesn’t breed pessimism, he strives to learn from his mistakes and seeks to overcome them.
John is a hospitalized bedridden boy, yet he is adamant to deliver his letter to Chairman Rose, and Bea regardless of her public defeat by the reigning champion Leon immediately sets out to train. It’s clear that this beloved property is still trying to impart the same valuable lessons onto the youth of today. And that is one of the contributing factors to its longevity.
NEXT: The 10 Best Legendary Pokemon Designs & Looks, Ranked
