Pokémon’s Hisuian Snow Anime Is Now Streaming for Free

The new Pokémon anime Hisuian Snow is now available for free streaming.

The premiere episode of the new miniseries, entitled “Onto the Icy Blue,” was released through the official Pokémon YouTube channel. Set in the distant of past of the Pokémon world, when humans and Pokémon still see each other as enemies, the three-episode anime tells the story of Alec, a young man who returns to the Hisui region years after he developed an unexpected connection with a shiny Hisuian Zorua. The next episode of the series will premiere on June 8 and will also be released for free through YouTube.

The new series is being produced by Wit Studio, the animation company behind 2021’s critically lauded Ranking of Kings, as well as one of the current anime season’s biggest breakout hits, the anime adaptation of Spy x Family. The anime is directed by Fate/Grand Order’s Ken Yamamoto, and features a story written by Taku Kishimoto, who previously penned the Sword and Shield miniseries Pokémon: Twilight Wings.

Hisuian Snow is set in Hisui, a region of the Pokémon world that would later become known as Sinnoh. The time period and the region were first explored in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, a semi-open world RPG that was released for the Nintendo Switch earlier this year. The game cast players in the role of one of the world’s first pioneering Pokémon trainers, who uses the newly invented Pokéballs to catch monsters and unravel a mystery surrounding a massive portal that has appeared over the skies of the rugged, wintery region. While the game was criticized for its muddy visuals, it was praised for its changes to the traditional Pokémon gameplay formula and was an immediate hit, selling 12 million copies and becoming the second best-selling game of 2022 so far, behind only Bandai Namco’s hit Elden Ring.

While Legends: Arceus and Hisuian Snow look back at the series’ past, developer Game Freak recently unveiled a first look at the franchise’s future with the first trailer for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The two titles will be the first games in the long-running series’ ninth generation and will build upon the open world structure from Legends: Arceus. The games are scheduled to be released exclusively for the Switch sometime later this year.

Fans looking for more of the Pokémon anime should turn to Netflix, which announced earlier this month that it will stream Pokémon Ultimate Journeys, the latest season of the on-going Pokémon Journeys anime. The show’s latest arc sees Ash becoming one of eight trainers who has the potential to become the anime’s first World Champion. New episodes are scheduled to begin streaming on Netflix sometime before the end of 2022.