It might not feel like it right now considering the issues Scarlet & Violet has had during its first week, but Pokemon is a well-oiled and cohesive machine. So much so that just a week after the new games launched, officially ushering in gen nine, the first Pokemon from the new group of monsters has made its debut in the anime.As highlighted by Joe Merrick on Twitter, gen nine grass starter Sprigatito has the honor of being the first Pokemon introduced by Scarlet & Violet to appear in the anime. While its role in the show hasn't been made entirely clear just yet, the cat Pokemon can be seen eyeing up a berry in a field, and apparently its appearance came during a special Rocket segment.While Fuecoco and Quaxley will likely appear in upcoming episodes of the show, Pokemon has lucked out making Sprigatito the first of them to show up elsewhere. It has already been reported that the grass starter is the most popular of the three introductory gen nine Pokemon. However, trainers have expressed their disappointment with its fully evolved form, Meowscarada.
Sprigatito showing up days after Scarlet & Violet's launch is no accident, of course. The hope will be that anyone who watches the show but doesn't yet have a copy of the games will have their interest piqued by a new Pokemon showing up. They question who Sprogatito is, find out it's from the new games, and perhaps they pick up a copy. A synergy that The Pokemon Company might not be able to pull from for much longer.
That's because, while there hasn't been anything in the form of an official confirmation thus far, some fans suspect the anime might be coming to an end. Ash finally winning a world championship after two and a half decades being the leading reason behind that suspicion. Meanwhile, despite its various bugs, Scarlet & Violet managed to sell a mammoth ten million copies in its first three days.