Pokémon Releases New Summer Themed Anime Short Starring Wartortle

Pokémon has released a new official animated short that turns the final days of summer into a story about childhood, family, and a friendship stretching back three decades.

Released on August 12, “Wartortle and the Continuation of Summer ” is the latest entry in the POKÉTOON series and places the rarely spotlighted middle evolution of Squirtle at the center of its story.

POKÉTOON began with “Scraggy and Mimikyu” in 2020 and has since grown into an anthology of original shorts that explore individual Pokémon through different stories and animation styles, with its 20 YouTube releases collectively surpassing 300 million views worldwide.

The latest story follows a young boy named Rikuto as he travels to an island to visit his grandmother near the end of summer, where he encounters an unusually old Wartortle with moss growing across its shell and a tail that differs in color from the one shown in his Pokédex.

Rather than simply being another wild Pokémon living on the island, Wartortle has a connection to Rikuto’s family that reaches back 30 years, when it was already friends with his father during his own childhood.

That history draws upon Pokédex lore surrounding Wartortle’s long lifespan, with the Pokémon’s tail said to change color as it grows older and its shell developing algae as a sign of its age.

Rikuto spends his summer days playing in the water with Wartortle and the island’s wild Pokémon until nightfall, gradually creating his own memories with the same Pokémon that accompanied his father decades earlier.

Wartortle is joined by several other Pokémon throughout the short, including Leafeon and Bellsprout, while the story uses the island and its late-summer setting to connect two generations through their shared experiences with Pokémon.

Animation production was handled jointly by Studio Chromato and Studio Colorido, with Shingo Yamashita directing the short following his work on several previous POKÉTOON projects released in 2021.

Yamashita and the two studios also recently worked on the Netflix anime film Cosmic Princess Kaguya!, making Wartortle and the Summer That Continues their latest animated project together.

The production team also includes So Glens on storyboards and episode direction, Aya Satsuki as scriptwriter, Riki Miura as character designer and chief animation director, Yoshifumi Hagano as prop designer and animation director, and Kyosuke Kagayama handling the music.

Ayaka Senbongi voices Rikuto, with Tasuku Hatanaka as Gaku and Akiko Hiramatsu as Shuri, while Kana Hanazawa provides the voice of Wartortle alongside Natsumi Haruse as Leafeon and Michiyo Murase as Bellsprout.

”Wartortle and the Continuation of Summer” is available to watch now through Pokémon’s official Japanese YouTube channel.