The Pokemon Company announced a new anime film titled Pokemon: Wildcard during the Pokemon World Championships 2026 in San Francisco on Monday, revealing the main staff, announcement visual, and promotional video. The first new film in the Pokemon franchise in seven years is scheduled to premiere in 2027.

Katsuhiko Kitada (The First Slam Dunk episode director) is directing the film at CloverWorks. Akemi Hayashi (Lazarus) is designing the characters. STORY inc. is handling the planning and production.

The film will incorporate the Pokemon Trading Card Game with the Pokemon Mimikyu playing an important role.

The Pokemon franchise began to release movies in 1998 with Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu (Pokémon: The First Movie – Mewtwo Strikes Back), while its latest movie, Pokemon Movie 23: Koko (Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle) premiered in December 2020. The most recent television anime Pokemon (2023) (Pokémon Horizons: The Series) premiered in April 2023.

Announcement

Source: Oricon News

Official site: https://www.pokemon.co.jp/ex/wildcard/
Official X: @pokemoncard_mov

News Submitted by NokkiMal

The official X account for Ikkado Itou‘s 8-gatsu 31-nichi no Long Summer (The Long Summer of August 31) manga announced a television anime adaptation and live-action television drama on Monday, revealing an ultra teaser visual (pictured).

Shaft, the animation studio known for Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) and Monogatari series, is producing the anime series.

Itou began serializing the sci-fi comedy manga in Morning magazine in March 2023. Kodansha published the 13th volume on August 21.

Kodansha began publishing the manga digitally in English in September 2024 on its K Manga service under the title The Long Summer of August 31st. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the manga for physical release in October 2024 and published the sixth volume on August 25. The seventh volume is scheduled for a November 10 release.

Synopsis

Caught in an endlessly repeating August 31st, high schoolers Suzuki Takaya and Takagi Kana are the only ones who remember each loop. The likely cause? Suzuki’s unfinished summer mission to secure a girlfriend and lose his virginity—the ultimate teenage goal. A hilarious yet heartfelt time-loop comedy! (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Official manga site: https://morning.kodansha.co.jp/c/831longsummer.html

Official manga X: @831longsummer

Source: Denfaminico Gamer

Kadokawa revealed on Monday all three episodes of the anime special for the television anime based on Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka‘s My Happy Marriage (Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon) light novel series will air and stream on October 25. The company also revealed a new teaser trailer, a new cast member, and the ending theme song artist.

The below teaser previews the ending theme song “Prelude no Temae ni: ~for me&you~” (Right Before the Prelude: for me&you”) by Kashitarō Itō.

M.A.O plays the new character Kimio Nagaba.

The special will air on TV Tokyo and other stations starting on October 25 at 7:00 p.m. JST, and will stream on Netflix and other services starting on the same day at 8:30 p.m. JST. 

Reina Ueda and Kaito Ishikawa return from previous anime seasons as Miyo and Kudo, respectively.

Takehiro Kubota — who directed the first anime season, the 2024 OVA, and co-directed the second season with Masayuki Kojima — is returning to direct the three-episode special at Kinema Citrus. Kubota is also in charge of series composition for the special. Mika Tanaka, who worked on production advancement for the first season, will pen the script alongside Ikuho Negi. Shōko Yasuda returns as character designer alongside Hikaru Sato and Kuniyuki Itō (Itō was previously credited for sub-character design for the second season). Evan Call returns to compose the music.

Anna Okamatsu returns as color designer from previous seasons. Omi Noda, who previously worked on background art in the second season, is now the background art director. Yoshinori Hishinuma returns for art setting and is additionally credited for art supervision alongside Yoshihiro Sono. Mikio, Ryō Hirata, and Takeshi Takakura return for prop design. Tsunetaka Ema returns as compositing director of photography. Yūji Koshida returns as the 3D director. HALKA returns for kimono design. Hydekick returns as 2D artist. Masayuki Kurosawa returns as editor. Takahiro Ikeda is once again the music director. MIRACLE BUS is credited for music production. Kisuke Koizumi returns as sound director. Glovision is credited for sound production.

The second season premiered in January 2025 on Tokyo MX, BS11, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, TV Aichi, and on AT-X. Netflix and other services also began streaming the season at the same time it premiered on broadcast television.

The first season premiered in July 2023 with 12 episodes. Netflix also began streaming the anime worldwide in July 2023. The eighth novel volume bundled an original anime titled “Shiawase no Katachi” (The Shape of Happiness) on Blu-ray Disc when it shipped in March 2024. The OVA also streamed simultaneously worldwide on Netflix and other streaming services in November 2024, on “Good Couples Day” in Japan.

Agitogi and Tsukioka launched the novel series in January 2019. Yen Press licensed the light novels, and it describes the story:

Born to a noble family, Miyo is raised by her abusive stepmother and married off to Kiyoka, a soldier so heartless his prior fiancées fled within three days into their engagement. With no home to return to, Miyo slowly starts to open her heart to her cold and pale husband-to-be, despite their rocky introduction… This might just be her chance at finding true love and happiness.

Rito Kohsaka‘s manga adaptation debuted on Square Enix‘s Gangan Online website in December 2018. Square Enix Manga & Books is releasing the manga physically and digitally in English.

A live-action film adaptation of the novels opened in Japan in March 2023. The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend, and sold 479,700 tickets to earn 654 million yen (about US$4.97 million) in its first three days.

Source: Press release

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.