A short film titled "Wartortle and the Continuation of Summer" from the POKÉTOON animated anthology has been released on the official Pokémon YouTube channel. The director was Shingo Yamashita, who recently made his feature film debut with the anime "Princess Kaguya".
The main character of the story is a boy named Rikuto, who comes to his grandmother's island at the end of summer. There, he meets an unusual Wartortle: its tail differs from the image in the Pokédex, and its shell has become covered in moss over the years. Rikuto spends the rest of his vacation playing with Wartortle and other inhabitants of the island, and then learns that the Pokémon is connected to his family's past. 30 years ago, this same Wartortle was friends with his father when he was a child.
Studio Chromato and Studio Colorido were responsible for the production of the short film. Yamashita has previously worked with Pokémon: he directed the mini-series "Pokémon: Twilight Wings" and the short film "Dream Bloom" for POKÉTOON. The director is also known for the opening sequences of the first season of "Jujutsu Kaisen", "Chainsaw Man", and "Urusei Yatsura".