When Pikachu isn’t perfecting his Thunderbolt on unsuspecting Pokémon, he’s actually practicing guitar. The beloved Pokémon absolutely killed a guitar solo – and other performances – at Japan’s Pokémon Music Festival on Friday. The Pokémon Company organized the music festival with music from the new Pokémon Horizons: The Journey and other series, leading up to the Japanese debut of the new anime in April.
Pikachu lent his guitar skills to “Mazase Pokémon Master”, the opening track of the Japanese version of Pokemon: Indigo League, the very first Pokémon anime. It’s a great tribute to Ash and Pikachu, sung to by Ash voice actor Rica Matsumoto as they retire as Pokémon masters. Never mind that the first half of his solo sounds like a saxophone. Ash, Goh, Piplup, and Eevee, of course, appear as backup dancers.
Pikachu also performed “Pikachu’s Song”. There isn’t a huge bottle of ketchup for Pikachu to climb into, but there are plenty of nods to his favorite condiment. And lots of dancing Pikachus! You may remember the number of the Japanese version of Pokémon the Series: XY. The chorus of Pikachus also appeared during Dokimeki Diary, the new opening track by Japanese singer Asmi. Pokémon Horizons: The Series. Paldean Pokémon Fuecoco, Sprigatito, and Quaxly hopped along on stage.
Not one to be outdone by Pikachu, Meowth performed on a moonlit stage in ‘Meowth’s Ballad’, also from the pokemon XY era. The touching ballad is a bit rough around the edges – it has that Meowth growl – but Meowth clearly rivals Pikachu in guitar skills. Just as Team Rocket quit Pokémon Journeys: The Series with a final hurrah, Meowth took to the stage for one final song.
All in all, about 14 songs were performed from the entire series of Pokémon anime seasons – and it was a smashing success. Finally, Pokémon Journeys: The Series marks the end of an era as Ash steps aside for a new generation of Pokémon trainers, Liko and Roy. Even Ash’s friend Goh came on stage to help sing the Pokémon journeys opening track “After the Rain” with Ash voice actor Matsumoto.
The Pokémon Music Festival is just the first of two special shows ahead of The Pokémon Company Pokémon Horizons: The Series. The second is called Pokémon Investigation Team and is expected to reveal new details about the new anime, which will debut in Japan in April.
No word yet on when Pokémon Horizons: The Journeys will be released in the United States – the English version of Pokémon Journeys: The Series is still unraveling on Netflix.
Most of the appearances are posted on Twitter via Pokémon’s Russian social media persona, if you want to see them all.