For those who may be unaware, Pokemon recently announced it would soon be bringing Ash and Pikachu’s journey to an end after 25 years. A video posted from the official Pokemon Twitter account stated there will be 11 new episodes featuring Ash and Pikachu to wrap up their journey, while an all-new protagonist will reportedly begin theirs sometime later this year.
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While there hasn’t really been much media regarding the new character taking the Pokemon anime series torch, save for the widely-publicized still shot, a vigilant fan has already noticed something peculiar. On one of the major Pokemon subreddits, user u/Rique1100mm points out that the new protagonist - named Liko - has a feature that perfectly matches up to Orbeetle. In the image, fans will notice what looks like a green hair clip of some sort. u/Rique1100mm points out that this hair clip is the exact same shape as Orbeetle’s eyebrow-like antennae, only reoriented.
See the original full post here.
While the person who originally made the post doesn’t give any theories as to what - if anything - that similarity could mean, fans filled the comment section with plenty of their own theories, including Orbeetle being one of the protagonist’s main Pokemon, or that it will play some sort of integral role to Liko’s journey. Others find the similarity too obscure to be anything but coincidence, but the leading theory is that the clip actually pays homage to Ash’s original hat - and therefore potentially reveals that the new character is really Ash’s daughter.
While quite the obscure similarity to notice, other fans have recently pointed out much more overt similarities, namely the similarities between Bellibolt and Chansey. The former is part of the ninth generation introduced in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, although many fans were quick to point out Bellibolt essentially looks like a re-skinned Chansey, sporting an extremely similar body type and face. While the Bellibolt and Chansey similarity comparison is much more warranted than the one between the Pokemon protagonist and Orbeetle, Pokemon should be wary of reusing design elements.
While details of newcomers Liko (and other protagonist Roy) remain a mystery, the journey of the Pokemon anime series’ new main characters will almost certainly take place in Paldea, creating an exciting prospect full of new Pokemon adventures.
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