Pokémon Missed Out On The Chance To Create Its Own Multiverse

The Pokémon anime has left a number of video game storylines unadapted, but there’s one which would’ve opened the door to the Pokémon multiverse. An anime adaptation of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon‘s Rainbow Rocket story arc would’ve been amazing, both for continuity and its capacity for epic battles.

The Rainbow Rocket storyline sees an alternate universe version of Giovanni, who was successful in controlling Mewtwo, travel from universe to universe gathering up the leaders of other successful villainous teams, putting together a Pokémon villain supergroup who threaten the Alola region. These villains working together pose a grave threat, and, of course, in the games it’s up to the player to stop them.

An anime adaptation of this arc could’ve put Ash in those shoes, making for an even more compelling story than that presented by the games.

Rainbow Rocket is the Pokémon Anime’s Biggest Missed Opportunity

In the games, the Rainbow Rocket storyline is clearly intended for long-time fans of the franchise, bringing back the leaders of every past villainous team, including Teams Aqua, Magma, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare. Each leader comes from a world in which they were victorious, controlling the Legendary Pokémon of their respective regions and making for powerful and difficult opponents, who must be battled back to back before taking on the leader of them all, Giovanni. Unfortunately, the Ultra Sun/Moon player character has no connection to these villains the way the player does.

Ash, however, has stared down all of these evil teams by the time of the Sun & Moon anime, so seeing him face off against them again would’ve been far more interesting, giving the series a chance to relish in continuity for a change. It would’ve made for an incredible challenge following Ash’s Alola League victory, pitting him against the incredibly dangerous villains who may remember alternate versions of him as well.

This would’ve also given some of Ash’s Alola team a chance to shine more, especially those who barely got any screen time, like Melmetal and Naganadel. The arc could’ve even had other characters like Gladion and Kukui help out, who didn’t play much role in Rainbow Rocket in the games. Alas, this simply wasn’t to be, as the anime quickly moved on from Sun & Moon and straight into Journeys, without ever so much as hinting at Rainbow Rocket.

There are some possible reasons why the series decided not to tackle this fan-favorite storyline. It’s inherently dark, since these villains come from worlds where they won, and it might have been a bit of a damper on the celebration of Ash’s victory. However, the series did have a Guzzlord attack following Ash’s victory, which had much the same effect. The need to move to a new anime series to align with Sword and Shield‘s release also surely forced the anime’s hand, not leaving an opportunity for any such adaptation to take place.

Similarly, the movies had moved on to the alternate Pokémon “I Choose You!” continuity at this point, so the idea of a Rainbow Rocket movie was out of the question. It’s a shame that the Rainbow Rocket arc will never receive the anime treatment, as it could’ve been an epic conclusion to the relatively light-hearted Pokémon Sun & Moon anime.

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