Challenge the World!

Challenge the World! (Japanese: キミに会えた！ I Met You!) is an animated commercial promoting the 2023 Pokémon World Championships, taking place in Yokohama, Japan.

The commercial was released on the Japanese Pokémon YouTube channel on July 22, 2023, on the Western Pokémon YouTube channels a day later on July 23, 2023, on the Asian Pokémon YouTube channels on July 28, 2023, and on the Korean Pokémon YouTube channel on August 4, 2023.

Plot

A girl holding a Pikachu plush toy flies into Yokohama, Japan to compete in the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. After making a video call to her friends and fellow players who are also attending the event, she enters the Pacifico Yokohama convention center with her friends awaiting her near the entrance. As they head inside, Pokémon begin to appear around the venue.

Each of the girl's friends are competing in a different event at the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. The first to play is competing in the 2023 Pokémon GO World Championships. As he steps onto the stage, the area appears to transition into a grassy meadow. The boy begins the match with his Sky Forme Shaymin and has it use a Grass-type attack against his opponent's Gholdengo. Gholdengo retaliates with a Charged Attack, launching coins at the boy's Melmetal, who uses a Protect Shield to negate the attack. The opponent then has his Salamence use its Charged Attack Draco Meteor against Melmetal just as it readies a Double Iron Bash.

The scene then cuts to the 2023 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships, where another one of the girl's friends is competing. After a Chansey coin is flipped to determine the players' turn order, she reveals her Lugia V card. The competitors' surroundings transition once again, this time to a jungle flooded with water, and the Pokémon cards appear as tangible Pokémon. Lugia appears behind the girl while her Archeops flies out to confront the opponent's Flaaffy. The opponent commands her Miraidon to attack, and it unleashes a blast of purple energy. Lugia retaliates with an equivalent blue blast, and their powerful moves collide before the scene cuts away again.

At the 2023 Pokémon UNITE World Championships, a 5-on-5 match is played on Theia Sky Ruins with Mew, Comfey, Tsareena, Dodrio and Greninja against Hoopa, Sableye, Cinderace, Aegislash and Lucario. The girl's next friend is commanding Greninja. The Greninja is wearing Wanderer Style Holowear as it faces the Lucario wearing Costume Party Style, but both sets of clothes dematerialize before the battle starts. Mew charges up a green ball of energy that's then kicked by Tsareena, launching it into the opposing Aegislash. The opposing team's Cinderace and Lucario retaliate, working together to fire off a Pyro Ball and Aura Cannon at Greninja, who dispels both attacks. Comfey attaches itself to Greninja, and the two ride Greninja's Waterburst Shuriken to the opposing team's goal zone. Greninja grabs a bundle of Aeos energy while traveling, then scores in the goal zone.

The scene cuts a final time to the 2023 Video Game World Championships, played in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The girl runs onto the stage, and the background transitions to the academy's schoolyard. She sends out her Dragonite and Meowscarada, housed in a Friend Ball and Poké Ball respectively. Her opponent sends out his Iron Bundle from its Dusk Ball and Dondozo from its Dive Ball, and the battle begins. Dondozo fires an attack at Meowscarada that it avoids, and the latter retaliates by using Flower Trick. Iron Bundle then uses Icy Wind, but the girl Terastallizes her Dragonite into a Normal-type, removing its weakness to Ice-type moves. The Dragonite responds in turn with Hyper Beam.

The girl wins the match and her friends arrive to congratulate her on the victory as she throws her Pikachu plush into the air in celebration. Some time later, the group heads outside the convention center, just as a Pikachu falls from the sky in the same manner that her plush did. She reaches out to grab it, with her friends by her side.

Pokémon

Staff

• The layout for the TCG section of this animation was drawn by Ryū Nakayama.^[1]

Cast

This article is missing information on this character's English voice actor. Please feel free to edit this article to add this information.

Videos

English

Japanese

Korean

Staff Artwork

This is a collection of unofficial Pokémon artwork drawn by staff.

Fan artwork drawn by Maho Takagi[2]

Trivia

• This commercial marks the debut of Tatsugiri, Gholdengo, Meowscarada, Iron Bundle, and Dondozo in animation.
  • Additionally, it marks the first time that the move Flower Trick and the Unite Moves Aura Cannon and Waterburst Shuriken were depicted in animation.
• Tatsugiri appearing as one of the first Pokémon shown in the commercial may be a reference to the real-world distribution of a Tatsugiri at the 2023 Pokémon World Championships, though the Tatsugiri distributed is a Stretchy Form Tatsugiri while the one in the commercial is a Curly Form Tatsugiri.

Errors

• The Pokémon UNITE segment of this animation has two inaccuracies to the game that it is depicting.
  • Mew does not have any attack that uses a green ball of energy. It can use Electro Ball and Solar Beam, but neither of those are a match for the animation.
  • Lucario's Holowear and Greninja's Holowear disappear before the battle, when this is not the case in the game. Holowear can start to display selectively based on the user's level, but it does not dissapear under any circumstance.

In other languages

External links

• Official website
• Japanese official website

References

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.