Pokémon to Get Live-Action TV Show

The Pokémon Company has released the first trailer for Pokétsume, an upcoming live-action TV show exploring the cultural impact of Pokémon.

The show follows university graduate Madoka Agaki (Nanase Nishino, former member of Japanese idol group Nogizaka46), who quits her small-town job and moves to Tokyo. She starts to regret her decision, until one day when she opens a mysterious package from her mother containing her old Game Boy Pocket and a copy of Pokémon Red.

The creature-collecting adventure game gives her a new perspective, and she starts to see life through the lens of Pokémon. For instance, interactions with work colleagues are compared to Pokémon battles. At one point she envisions herself as a struggling Magikarp, flopping around like a fish out of water.

Pokémon Red becomes a framework to deal with the stresses and challenges of her Tokyo experience.

The show is billed as a ‘Pokémon human drama’, so while you won’t see people interacting with full-sized starring CGI creatures like in Detective Pikachu, it looks to be just as heartfelt and nostalgic. Pokétsume’s official Twitter account tweeted the show’s first trailer, which you can watch below.

It's certainly an unexpected spinoff, just like the James Bond reality show teased by Amazon Prime Video recently.

Pokétsume is set for an October 19 debut in Japan, but there’s no word yet on whether it’ll get a global release.