Serebii Picture: A new piece of key art has been released for the coming part of the Pokémon anime saga featuring the Pokémon World Coronation Series https://t.co/gDbXkHSvkT pic.twitter.com/5Gfwq3uTPl
— Serebii.net (@SerebiiNet) May 6, 2022
Pokemon Journeys has been trying its best to not just “break the mold” in terms of the Pokemon anime formula, but to embrace all that has happened in the journey of Ash Ketchum up to now. As such, the anime has endeavored to venture across the 8 regions in order to expand his horizons, tell fun stories, and reconnect with old friends and rivals. BUT, his true arc was to win the World Coronation Series, and in Japan, that arc is reaching its climax as the final 8 trainers of the “Master Class” have been revealed.
These are the ones who have beat all others and worked their way up the rankings to be in the top 8. They include: Lance (Champion of Kanto), Alain (Ash’s former rival from Kalos and star of the Mega Evolution saga), Diantha (champion of Kalos), Ash (obviously, but he’s the first champ of Alola!), Leon (the reigning and defending champ of the series), Cynthia (champion of Sinnoh), Steven (champion of Hoenn), and Iris (champion of Unova).
So yeah, that’s a stacked deck, and there are a lot of ways this can go. Especially with Ash having interacted with all of these trainers in one form or another at one point in time. Plus, he actually beat Iris in a previous episode of Pokemon Journeys.
Not to mention, there’s going to be a lot of potential power twists here. As between these trainers we have Z-Moves, Mega Evolution, and Dynamax/Gigantamax versions of Pokemon that we’ll be able to witness fighting one another.
The fans are certainly going to love it as they have a lot of fan-favorites within this final 8.
To be clear, only the Japanese episodes are showcasing the Master Class right now, so if you don’t want to get spoiled, make sure you don’t look for them! The English dubs will arrive on Netflix soon enough.
Source: Twitter
