Shonen Jumphas just dropped a massive collaboration withPokemon. While it is rare for Shueisha and The Pokemon Company to join forces like this, especially considering thatPokemonmanga are typically published by Shogakukan, the magazine unveiled an unprecedented collaboration that even paired Luffy and Pikachu.
Since the 25th anniversary of the franchise, celebrated in 2021,Pokemonhas expanded its partnerships with brands in Japan and internationally, including clothing brands like PUMA, gaming accessory brands like Razer, and singers like Hatsune Miku and Katy Perry.
Pokemon Collab With Shonen Jump Includes Luffy, Roboco, and More
Shonen Jumphas announced that its next issue, scheduled to be released on July 18, 2025, will feature illustrations by many renowned mangaka working in the magazine,mixingPokemonand their own works. The most notable one will be an illustration of Luffy and Pikachudrawn by Eiichiro Oda, but the magazine also previewed crossover illustrations withMe & Roboco(by Shuhei Miyazaki) andBlue Box(by Koji Miura).
Next week, we might see illustrations made by other authors, such as Yuto Suzuki (Sakamoto Days) and Takeru Hokazono (Kagurabachi). Unfortunately, since Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia concluded last year, it is unlikely that Gege Akutami and Kohei Horikoshi will join the collaboration. The illustrations will later be turned into stickers, and there are also plans for giveaways.
Pokemon Fans Have Lots to Look Forward to
Recently, there has been a lot of great news forPokemonfans. Not only has the franchise made many exciting collaborations with games, brands, and so on, but many different anime exploring the universe of the series are either set to be released soon or are at least in the works.
For instance, the second season of Netflix’sPokemon Conciergeis scheduled to be releasedon June 01, 2025. Since the latest batch ofPokemon Horizons Season 2episodes hit Netflix in June, there is a fair chance that Part 4 will also debut around September. Finally, last year,Pokemonconfirmed that the franchise is teaming up with the renowned studio Aardman to create a special project. While no new details have been released since this announcement, Aardman is known for delivering fun, top-notch quality series in a unique style, mixing clay animation and stop-motion techniques, so fans surely have great expectations for whatever The Pokemon Company and Aardman are planning to build together.
Pokemonmanga are generally licensed in the US by VIZ Media, which is owned by ShoPro, a company related to both Shueisha and Shogakukan.
