Pokémon anime teaser spotlights Sleep, GO, and Masters EX characters
Ditto and a new girl lead the Wonder Voyage poster, but the bigger story is the mobile-game imagery around the edges, from GO and Sleep to Masters EX.
Pokémon’s next anime chapter is putting mobile in the spotlight in a way that feels bigger than a passing easter egg. The new Wonder Voyage key visual, teased on April 17, centers on Ditto and a new girl character, but the border art pulls in imagery that calls back to Pokémon GO, Pokémon UNITE, Pokémon Sleep, and even Pokémon Masters EX, making the apps look like part of the same promotional universe as the main anime.
The arc will begin airing in Japan on May 22, 2026, as part of Pokémon Horizons: The Series on TV Tokyo every Friday at 6:55 p.m. PocketMonsters.net also reported that the visual includes Legendary Pokémon such as Koraidon, Miraidon, and Ogerpon. The teaser continues the story of the battle over Rakua, with Spinel and the Rakulium Core still in play, so this is not just a palette swap for the poster. It is a full new chapter with stakes carried over from Rising Again.
What stands out for mobile players is how openly the poster folds game brands into the anime’s identity. Pokémon GO launched on July 6, 2016. Pokémon UNITE was announced on June 24, 2020, arrived on Nintendo Switch on July 21, 2021, and reached mobile on September 22, 2021. Pokémon Sleep launched on July 17, 2023 in multiple regions, while Pokémon Masters EX remains a free-to-start strategy and battling game for iOS and Android. The official July 2025 Pokémon Presents wrap-up also singled out updates for GO, Masters EX, UNITE, Sleep, and Pokémon Café ReMix, a strong sign that these apps are not sitting on the sidelines of the brand.
That matters because Pokémon Horizons itself is still the franchise’s first new mainline animated series in more than 25 years, debuting in Japan on April 14, 2023 under Saori Den at OLM. It later reached the United Kingdom in December 2023 through BBC iPlayer and North America on Netflix on March 7, 2024. The Pokémon Company International has also said additional episodes for Pokémon Horizons: Season 3, Rising Hope, will release in the future. Put together, Wonder Voyage looks less like a simple anime refresh and more like another example of The Pokémon Company threading its mobile catalog into the center of the brand’s current era.
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