For all the fantastical creatures the Pokemon franchise has shown throughout its 25 years, Jigglypuff has become one of the franchise's most popular creatures, thanks in part to its animated portion. The anime frequently featured Jigglypuff as a mischievous recurring character, causing hijinx and chaos by using its signature songs to put everyone around it, both people and Pokemon, to sleep. Now, a recent animated short from the Japanese Pokemon Kids TV YouTube channel showcases the pink puffball in a different light.
The Pokemon Kids TV boasts a wide variety of kid-themed content for fans of the long-running monster-catching franchise, featuring everything from nursery rhymes and arts and crafts content to educational videos for younger audiences. While many of the videos on the channel are live-action, often featuring people dressed in Pokemon costumes, the "PokeToon" series on the channel also features animated shorts starring some of the franchise's most well-known creatures. The most recent animated short from Pokemon Kids TV features the Jigglypuff, albeit vastly different from the one longtime fans of the Pokemon anime are familiar with.
The short, titled "Purin no Uta" which roughly translates to "Jigglypuff's Song," features a young girl named Momo meeting a peculiar-looking spiky-haired Jigglypuff. The Jigglypuff is markedly different from the original anime's version of Jigglypuff with this particular Pokemon being much more skittish and shy than other Jigglypuffs, as well as being unable to sing the same kind of lilting lullabies as others like it. Instead, this Jigglypuff's song rings with an unnatural distortion that unnerves not only other people but other Jigglypuffs as well. However, the main characters soon come to accept this difference.
The newest Jigglypuff-centric short is just the most recent of an extensive series of animations the Pokemon franchise has been releasing through its various YouTube channels. Throughout the end of 2021, the Pokemon Youtube Channel released a series of shorts called Pokemon Evolutions with each of its eight episodes focusing on the different regions featured in each generation of Pokemon games. Pokemon has also previously produced several animated series exclusive to YouTube, including Pokemon: Twilight Wings focused on Sword and Shield and Generations covering several iterations of Pokemon.
As Pokemon's 25th anniversary is drawing to its conclusion, the franchise has seen plenty of new announcements and releases to celebrate its two-and-a-half decades as one of the juggernauts of the gaming world. The franchise has produced multiple games this year with the Gen 4 remakes Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl most recently releasing in November and Pokemon Legends: Arceus set to debut next month. Pokemon will conclude a year of celebration with plenty to look back on and lots more to come for the franchise on the horizon.
