The staff of the Pokémon: Horizons anime announced on Friday that CUTIE STREET, who perform the current ending theme song “Cute na Kyūtai,” will guest star as members of the Cutie Pika Pika idol group in the 147th episode. Cutie Pika Pika first appeared in the CD jacket visual for the ending theme song.
Image via Pokémon anime’s X/Twitter account
© Nintendo・Creatures・GAME FREAK・TV Tokyo・ShoPro・JR Kikaku ©Pokémon
The staff is also streaming a music video of the current opening theme song “Sekai Tsunagare,” produced by HoneyWorks and performed by the protagonists’ voice actresses Minori Suzuki (as Liko) and Yuka Terasaki (as Roy).
Image via Pokémon anime’s X/Twitter account
© Nintendo・Creatures・GAME FREAK・TV Tokyo・ShoPro・JR Kikaku ©Pokémon
The new “Wonder Voyage” arc premiered on May 22. The visual (pictured right) teases images based on Pokémon spinoff games Pokémon Go, Pokémon Unite, and Pokémon Sleep. Yū Serizawa voices Navi, a girl from Lumiose City who meets a Ditto from an airship.
The anime premiered in Japan in April 2023 with a one-hour first-episode special. The show airs on Fridays at 6:55 p.m. JST. The anime started its second arc, “Terapagos no Kagayaki” (The Brilliance of Terapagos), with its 29th episode in October 2023 in Japan. The “Terastal Debut” arc for the anime debuted in April 2024. The fourth arc started in Japan in October 2024, and it featured characters from Kitakami, a location in “The Teal Mask” expansion for the Pokémon Scarlet/Violet games.
The anime follows completely new dual protagonists, who are named Liko and Roy. The anime features Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly from the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet video games, and also the Legendary Pokémon Rayquaza in its Shiny form. The anime also introduces the new characters Friede and Captain Pikachu, who are a Pokémon professor and Pokémon partner duo who battle alongside Liko and Roy.
Saori Den (Mirage Queen Prefers Circus) is directing the anime, and Daiki Tomiyasu (Pokémon Sun & Moon, Pocket Monster Mezase Pokémon Master) is serving as creative director. Dai Satō (Eureka Seven, Wolf’s Rain, Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop) is overseeing the series scripts. Tetsuo Yajima is the action director, Rei Yamazaki is the character designer, and Kyōko Itō is the sub-character designer. Masafumi Mima is the sound director and Conisch is composing the music.
The Pokémon Company had originally announced that the anime would debut on Netflix in the U.S. in February 2024, but the series debuted instead in March 2024. Netflix premiered Pokémon Horizons: The Series—The Search for Laqua, the anime’s second season, in February 2025. Netflix added Pokémon Horizons: Season 3—Rising Hope on January 6.
The Pokémon Scarlet/Violet games launched on Nintendo Switch worldwide in November 2022. “The Indigo Disk,” the second part of the DLC, launched in December 2023. “The Teal Mask,” the first DLC, launched in September 2023.
Pokémon Legends Z-A launched for Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 last October.
Sources: Pokémon anime’s X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
