The new POKETOON short is about a boy who lost his memory
Murkrow and the Nighttime Adventure is the latest film in Pokemon's official animated short series. It went up on the official channel on August 20.
Murkrow and the Nighttime Adventure is the newest POKETOON short, and it is free to watch on the official Pokemon channel. It went up on August 20.
The setup: a boy named Hiro comes home with no memory of his own life. A Cyndaquil and an Aipom run up to greet him, clearly delighted to see him, and he has no idea who they are. He is carrying a badge he made himself. Outside his bedroom window there is a Murkrow waiting, wearing a badge of the same kind.
That is as much as we will give away. The short is a few minutes long and the whole point of it is watching the pieces fall into place.
What POKETOON is
POKETOON is Pokemon's series of standalone animated shorts. Each one is its own film. There is no ongoing story, no characters carried over, and no order you need to watch them in.
The interesting part is the animation. Every short is made in a different style, so one looks like a moving picture book and the next looks like a hand-drawn cartoon from decades ago. That freedom is the reason the series is worth your time even if you have never watched the main Pokemon cartoon.
They are short enough to watch on a break and they need no setup, which makes them the easiest thing to hand to someone who does not follow Pokemon at all.
Why a memory story fits this format
The main animated series has to keep a long story running for an audience that tunes in every week. A POKETOON short has one idea and about five minutes to land it.
A character who has lost his memory is a neat fit for that. The audience learns everything at the same speed Hiro does, so there is no need to explain who anyone is. The badges do the work that a scene of dialogue would normally do.
It also puts the Pokemon in charge of the story. Hiro cannot remember his friends, so his friends have to remind him. Cyndaquil, Aipom and Murkrow are all Pokemon from the Johto games, and Murkrow in particular has a long reputation in the franchise as a bird that takes an interest in small shiny objects. A badge is exactly the sort of thing it would notice.
There is a Short version too
The official channel also posted a vertical Short about the same film. It is a teaser, not a second story, and it points at the full version.
That is worth knowing because the two can look like separate uploads in a feed. If you only have a minute, watch the Short. If you have five, watch the film. It is the same thing.
Where the rest of them are
POKETOON shorts arrive with no schedule and almost no announcement, which is why people who would enjoy them never hear about them. There is no season, no release day and no trailer campaign. One appears, and that is the announcement.
Earlier this month the channel put up The Legend of Capsakid, another standalone in the same series. We keep the newest official uploads collected on our videos page so you do not have to keep refreshing a channel.