One of the new Mega Pokémon set to appear in the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A has made its anime debut, months in advance of the game’s launch.
The unexpected arrival occurred in the latest episode of the Pokémon Horizons series, “The Two Of Us, As Friends”, which aired last Friday in Japan.
In it, one of the new Mega Pokémon set to make their first appearance in Switch and Switch 2 game Pokémon Legends: Z-A makes a surprising appearance — and its heroic debut is winning over fans initially unsure about the creature’s design.
ULT’S MEGA DRAGONITE IN THE POKEMON ANIME WOW IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED.
ANIMATION GOING CRAZY TOO WOOO
Man this so crazyyy what witnessed Early Mega Before the game even Dropped #アニポケ #anipoke pic.twitter.com/Z8x9MhsV0W
— BryBry |⚡️🤟🏾💙 (@xAuraZora) August 22, 2025
The episode sees anime hero Roy and ally Uruto all but defeated in battle until Uruto’s Dragonite shows signs that it is able to Mega Evolve. The sudden and unexpected appearance of Mega Dragonite then galvanises the rest of the Pokémon, including Roy’s Mega Lucario, who then rally to save the day.
And after a mixed response to Mega Dragonite’s in-game design, its anime appearance now seems to be getting a warmer welcome. “Mega Dragonite haters better apologize,” wrote one fan. “It’s flapping the little tiny wings! Omg I love it hahaha,” wrote a second. “Awwww. Okay okay, I’m won over,” said a third.
It’s unusual — though not unheard of — for a Pokémon to make its anime debut before they’re available in a Pokémon game. The practice was far more common during the franchise’s early years, when various species from both the Johto and Hoenn regions were glimpsed in anime form before their corresponding games arrived. (Remember Misty carrying around that Togepi egg for what felt like forever?)
More recently, the practice of debuting Pokémon via the franchise’s anime has become less common, however, with just a handful of species (Magearna, Terapagos) getting the same treatment over the last three generations.
Pokémon Legends Z-A is set to arrive on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 on October 16. Fans are expecting dozens of new Mega Pokémon to uncover, though only one other species has been officially revealed so far: Mega Victreebell.
“Overall, Legends: Z-A didn’t feel like a full action game to me,” IGN wrote in our first hands-on impressions of Pokémon Legends Z-A’s battle systems, “but kind of more like an MMO, with its casting times, cooldowns, and behind-the-scenes math happening. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do hope Legends: Z-A gets challenging enough to make me more intentionally dish out commands and think about switching Pokémon at just the right moment.”
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
