Pokemon: Twilight Wings animated series debuts on YouTube

Fans of the Pokemon anime may be pleased to know that The Pokemon Company kicked off a new side series today. Dubbed Pokemon: Twilight Wings, this side series is set in the Galar region, the main setting for the latest Pokemon games, Sword and Shield. While the main characters from the anime don't seem to be present in this side series, there are some familiar faces for those who have already played through the Galar-based games.

The Pokemon Company explains today that Twilight Wings will be comprised of seven episodes in all, with a new episode being published to YouTube each month until the series wraps up this summer. Each episode will only run around five minutes, so with all the episodes accounted for, Twilight Wings should have a total running time of around 35 minutes.

The first episode, "Letter," introduces us to John, a boy who has been "hospital-bound from an early age." John is a fan of Leon, the Galar region's Pokemon Champion and one of those familiar faces from Sword and Shield. When John learns that Chairman Rose, who runs Galar's Pokemon League, is coming to visit the kids in his hospital, he writes Rose a letter asking him for an invitation to see one of Leon's matches in person.

We'll hold off on spoiling the rest of the episode, which you can watch via the video embedded above. Despite the fact that this is a Pokemon series, we don't see very much from the titular monsters. Instead, this first episode introduces us to the human characters that will be central to Twilight Wings.

This isn't the first time The Pokemon Company has launched these internet side series, as it did something similar with Pokemon Origins and Pokemon Generations. We'll let you know when The Pokemon Company publishes new episodes of Twilight Wings, so stay tuned for that.