Man, Pokemon's really been going all out on the animation front in the past few years, hasn't it? We've got Pokemon Twilight Wings, the PokeToon shorts, Pokemon Evolutions, and now, a recently finished web series from Wit Studio called Pokemon: Hisuian Snow, based on the video game Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Hisuian Snow was first announced in a Pokemon Presents video released in February 2022, alongside the reveal of Legends Arceus DLC and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Needless to say, considering how good Twilight Wings and the various PokeToon shorts turned out, many fans were hyped for this, me included. Plus, unlike what happened with Yoru no Kuni, TPCi made it clear that Hisuian Snow was going to only have three episodes straight up and not be a full-on adaptation of the game, which was about what I expected. I mean, considering the pattern the Pokemon animated shorts have been going with, I had a feeling Hisuian Snow was going to do something similar to what Twilight Wings and the PokeToon shorts did, i.e. be more low-key, atmospheric character focused pieces. I'm glad to say that Hisuian Snow met my expectations and is still pretty amazing on its own.

Hisuian Snow focuses on a young man named Akio (named Alec in English, but I'm going with his Japanese name so as to be more accurate to the setting) visiting the Hisui region to see his father. He hears rumors of violent Pokemon wreaking havoc in the nearby forest, which makes him reminisce on an encounter he had when he was a child. As a kid, he wandered into a snowy forest and met a shiny Hisuian Zorua against his father's warnings. After some mishaps, Akio winds up hurt, but the Zorua helps him out. But humans are wary of Pokemon, seeing them as hostile monsters, and Akio has been told that there's no way Pokemon and humans can ever really coexist. Years later, Akio wanders how that Zorua is doing, hoping to see it again.

Much like with what Colorido did for Twilight Wings and their PokeToon shorts, Wit Studio really went all out in the animation department here, not just with the character motion and the little details, but the beauty of the environments as well. From the white snowy peaks to the setting sun bathing everything in its light, the whole short is just brimming with warm colors, from gentle yellows to harsh oranges. That contrast empathizes the story's main theme, that Pokemon are both beautiful and dangerous in this world's era, and Pokemon and humans haven't learned to coexist yet. The fact that there are characters who outright say that Pokemon are dangerous and shouldn't be messed with isn't exactly a sentiment you normally get in a franchise like this, and we, the audience, already know it's going to be disproven based on the story beats and...well, the franchise itself. It makes sense, as the time period both Legends Arceus and Hisuian Snow take place in is during a time when Pokemon were still alien to humans rather than the constant companions they are in the main series proper, but it is refreshing to see a different take on the idea of befriending Pokemon, and even the source game leans heavily into this mindset and disproving it. Granted, the animation isn't as dynamic as, say, Yume no Tsubomi or I Became a Gengar, but what the series lacks in kinetic motion, it makes up for with its usage of colors, light, and shadows, and keeping true to the visual style of the game its based on, along with some stark, trippy visuals at the beginning of episode one. I don't have as much to say on the soundtrack, but it's pretty nice and gets the job done.

Based on what the various Pokemon short animations have done with their previous shorts, Hisuian Snow is very much a character study at heart, with a fairly small cast to follow. Most of the development goes to Akio, and we get to see first hand how his experiences with the Hisuian Zorua change his view on Pokemon and himself as a person, along with how this experience inspires him to convince others to do the same. The side characters don't get much to do, especially the ones who appear in the final episode, but they all serve their roles nicely and their beliefs towards Pokemon are presented as understandable without coming across as antagonistic, nor does the series try to portray Akio as being wholly in the right. You're not exactly going to find much in the way of complexity or grandeur in Hisuian Snow in terms of its plot or characters, but the things it is able to offer are not too much, not too little, just the right amount needed to do what the show wanted to do. Even the Hisuian Zorua has a surprising amount of personality and depth to it, and it's literally an animal. Basically, Hisuian Snow wonderfully succeeds in being a character study and for being entirely dedicated to its lead character learning new things and changing significantly because of his experience with Zorua.

If I had to name any flaws Hisuian Snow has, it's mainly in the minor details. For one, the short intro bit at the very beginning of episode one, showing a Zoroark going berserk after seeing its dead child, doesn't really get followed up on. We never find out the context behind it, what happened, or if the Zorua or Zoroark in the story is the same one Akio encountered. I don't know if that scene is just there to establish the fact that humans view Pokemon as dangerous or not, but I kind of wish more had been done with it. The final episode has some characters from the game make cameos and even help Akio out in the conflict for that, but one of them doesn't talk, and the rest of them just feel like plot devices. While Hisuian Snow does make an admirable effort, I think Twilight Wings did better in terms of fleshing out the rest of its ensemble cast, along with various episodes of PokeToon. But that absolutely does not mean Hisuian Snow doesn't have anything to offer by itself, as it's still a great, wholesome little character piece that really excels in what it set out to do.

So yeah, whether you're a Pokemon fan or not, don't sleep on Pokemon: Hisuian Snow. While not without the occasional stumble, it's still an excellent web series that's full of just as much passion and heart as its contemporaries.