Pokémon Concierge Will Be Netflix’s New Pocket Monster Show
Netflix is bringing us back to a softer and more vacation-minded part of the Pocket Monster world with Pokémon Concierge.
This week celebrated Pokémon day, where we all spent a little time appreciating that even as adults we’re all still emotionally invested in our favorite pocket-sized animated animals designed for kid-friendly fighting rings. Mine was and still is Jigglypuff. And it looks like Netflix got right in on the celebrations when they announced their own addition to the Pokémon universe with Pokemon Concierge.
Pokémon Concierge
One era may have come to an end and Ash Ketchum finally wrapped up his Pokémon Master journey, but we’re all happy to see that the series isn’t going anywhere. And this teaser trailer gives me hope that the future of Pokémon may be pretty nostalgic for those of us who grew up with the show but weren’t the target audience anymore.
The whole thing feels a lot like Pikachu’s Vacation. If you don’t remember, the 1998 movie, Pokemon: The First Movie, had a Pikachu-focused short play before the actual movie. Sort of like Pixar has before all of their movies, but with less experimental styles and injured emotions. Pikachu and his Pokémon friends were on a vacation on a tropical beach and shenanigans ensued. It was funny, cute, and probably only had six or seven words that weren’t Pokémon saying their own names.
And especially if we’re looking at a bunch of short episodes, I would love to see more of that content with different themes and characters. It doesn’t have to be challenging or important, it hardly needs words spoken in human language, we can understand these animated beasts with context clues and body language well enough. It just has to be nostalgic and fun.
Those two things were the crux of Detective Pikachu, and that movie was almost universally loved. And conveniently, the Mewtwo from Pokemon: The First Movie went on to be the antagonist in Detective Pikachu; it all comes full circle.
Netflix and Pokémon
Supposedly, following the success of Detective Pikachu, Netflix had a live-action Pokémon show in the works way back in 2021. And while that could be a lot of fun, it doesn’t look like that is this. In fact, I’m not sure if that’s still necessarily on the queue.
Instead, Pokémon Concierge seems to be its own, entirely original show.
So far we’ve seen a stop-animation-style Psyduck having one of his signature migraines. But luckily, he seems to be on some sort of all-inclusive resort that caters especially to Pokémon and their trainers. According to Netflix, the series will follow Haru, a concierge at the Pokéresort, and Psyduck as they meet and presumably assist a variety of resort guests.
This show looks like it will be shying away from the battle aspect of the world that the franchise is so well known for, and instead focus on more mundane adventures in a hotel setting.
The series is being animated by Dwarf Studio (Monster’s Inc.: Monsters At Work), Pokémon Concierge looks like it will have a really refreshing and unique art style. And I for one am really excited to see something entirely new come out of the Pokémon universe.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of details on this project just yet. So there’s no cast information or even a vague release window. But we will be keeping our eyes and ears open for news out of the Pokécamp.
Are you excited about Pokémon Concierge? Do you think the series is due for something new and fresh? If you were a Pokémon trainer what would be the six Pokémon on your belt? Let us know in the comments!
Ja Ne, Adventurers!
