Pokémon season 21: Sun & Moon—Ultra Adventures — when the Pokémon School becomes an emergency squad

Season 21 is where Alola stops being a postcard. Ash is still a student at the Pokémon School, but a small, nebulous creature picked up on the way to class is about to tear rifts in the sky and turn a classroom of teenagers into a response team. The second installment of cycle 6, Ultra Adventures strings together creatures from another world, a mother to rescue and a god of light driven mad — while quietly letting the League project that will shape the entire next season ripen behind the scenes.

Contents

• Where season 21 fits in the series
• Broadcast: three schedules not to mix up
• Nebby, the Aether Foundation and the season's main thread
• The Ultra Guardians: the school becomes a rescue squad
• Ash, his classmates and the adults of Alola
• The season's standout Pokémon
• Necrozma, Team Rocket and the Matori Matrix
• Trials, Z-Moves and the League still to come
• The French broadcast and the episode no one ever saw
• What season 21 leaves behind
• Season 21 at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Where season 21 fits in the series

Known in English as Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures, season 21 carries the French title Pokémon, la série: Soleil et Lune - Ultra-Aventures. It holds the second slot in cycle 6, the Sun & Moon cycle, which spans three seasons: season 20 sets the Alolan stage, season 21 tips the story into the fantastic, and season 22 wraps it all up. It therefore picks up directly after Ash's first school year and paves the way for the League.

The key thing to keep in mind is that the split into seasons is a Western invention. In Japan, the series airs continuously, episode after episode, and the Japanese blocks don't line up with the seasons known in the West. So when we talk about "season 21," we mean a batch of episodes defined for international broadcast, not a Japanese production cycle.

In practical terms, the season covers the episodes numbered SM044 to SM092 in the series' numbering. Poképédia counts 49 of them, which matches every Japanese episode in that range. The dubbed version, however, has only 48, for a reason we explain below, involving an episode that is unique in the series' recent history.

This season follows in the wake of the seventh-generation games without adapting them. The show borrows Alola's locations, creatures and mechanics, then freely reshapes them. If you want to understand where Alola, Z-Moves and the creatures that pour in here by the dozen come from, the feature on Pokémon Sun and Moon lays the groundwork, and the one on Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon explains how Necrozma became the central figure of an entire strand of the mythology.

Broadcast: three schedules not to mix up

You need to carefully tell apart three different start dates, because they are months apart, sometimes more than a year. The episodes that make up season 21 first aired in Japan between October 5, 2017, with episode SM044, and October 14, 2018, with episode SM092. These are the original air dates of the episodes themselves, not the dates of a "Japanese season," since no such thing exists there.

In the United States, the season premiered on March 24, 2018 on Disney XD and ended on February 23, 2019. It mostly aired on Saturday mornings, with a seven-episode detour to Monday evenings during the summer of 2018. Canada got it as early as March 10, 2018 on Teletoon, and New Zealand slightly earlier still, on March 1, 2018, via video on demand.

In France, the season began on May 1, 2018 on Canal J and ended on February 7, 2019. The French schedule was highly irregular: several episodes sometimes aired on the same day, then the programming went on hiatus over the summer before resuming in September. Belgium followed from September 9, 2018, and Quebec as early as April 7, 2018.

The season's French opening theme is titled Sous la lune d'Alola (the French version of Under the Alolan Moon). It serves as both the opening and the closing theme, with the instrumental version playing over the end credits, set to the footage from the cycle's first Japanese ending. The season's music is by Ed Goldfarb, the dub's go-to composer for years.

Nebby, the Aether Foundation and the season's main thread

It all starts with an ordinary encounter. On their way to school, Ash and Pikachu stumble upon a small gaseous creature, a Cosmog, which Lillie nicknames Nebby. This clumsy, teleporting little cloud becomes the engine of the whole season: it is coveted, kidnapped, found again, and eventually grows into a Legendary creature.

🍱 Ash meets this Cosmog, the one Lillie nicknames Nebby, on the way to the Pokémon School, not at the far end of some Trainer's route. You head off to class in the morning too, and your lunch fits better in a Pokémon lunch bag than in a plastic bag.

The encounter also leads to the discovery of the Aether Foundation, run by Lusamine, Lillie's mother. The organization presents itself as a sanctuary for injured Pokémon, but above all it houses research on Ultra Wormholes, the rifts that connect Alola to another world teeming with strange creatures. That's where Ash learns about Ultra Beasts, one of the most memorable motifs in the entire series.

Along the way, the season solves a mystery carried over from season 20: Lillie can't touch a Pokémon, and we learn that this phobia goes back to a traumatic encounter with a Nihilego. The show takes its time with her healing, including a relapse after contact with Gladion's Pokémon, before her memory fully returns and the fear finally gives way.

The main thread peaks when Lusamine is dragged through an Ultra Wormhole, fused with a Nihilego. Ash, his classmates and Gladion cross through the rift to bring her back, carried by Nebby, who has meanwhile evolved into Cosmoem and then into Solgaleo. Once Lillie's mother is freed, Solgaleo returns to life in the wild, and the story's first major arc comes full circle.

The Ultra Guardians: the school becomes a rescue squad

It's the season's most striking invention. Once Lusamine is rescued, she asks Ash and his classmates to form a response team called the Ultra Guardians. Their mission is simple to state and spectacular to carry out: whenever an Ultra Beast appears in Alola, they take off, subdue it without roughing it up, and send it back home.

The season runs through five missions. The first is to catch a Buzzwole and send it back to Ultra Space. The second frees a Celesteela stranded in Alola and returns it to the sky. The third rounds up, back to back, a Blacephalon and a Xurkitree, the fourth a Stakataka. Each mission plays out like an episode of a rescue show, complete with a transformation sequence, a vehicle and a briefing.

This setup changes the very nature of the season. Where the previous cycle told the story of a journey from region to region, Alola depicts a group that stays put: you live somewhere, you go to class, and adventure comes knocking at the door. The approach also makes the most of a roster of creatures that the games had only sketched out.

The fifth mission is on another scale entirely: it takes the Ultra Guardians all the way to Poipole's home world, through the Altar of the Sunne. Gladion officially joins them there, having earned his own ring as well. This final journey is no longer a police operation but a repair effort on the scale of an entire world.

Ash, his classmates and the adults of Alola

Season 21's cast is exactly the same as season 20's, which is an exception in the series: instead of setting off again with one or two new companions, Ash keeps the same class from start to finish of cycle 6. Around him are Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Lana and Sophocles, his five classmates at the Pokémon School.

Each of them grows at their own pace. Lillie's journey is the most visible: from a phobia of touching Pokémon to being completely at ease with them, by way of a new outfit and an Icium Z. Mallow sees her Steenee evolve into Tsareena to free the whole group from a Team Rocket trap. Kiawe remains the fighter of the bunch, with his Alolan Marowak and the Charizard he rides.

Gladion, Lillie's brother, holds a special place: long a distant rival, he becomes a full-fledged ally over the course of the season, to the point of joining the Ultra Guardians. During the season, his Type: Null breaks its mask and reveals its true form, Silvally, one of the moments players had been waiting for most.

On the adult side, Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet act as mentors. The season has them tie the knot, which is extremely rare in a series where adults usually serve as background. Ash, for his part, continues a journey that the feature Ash and the Pokémon anime traces in full, from Kanto all the way to the world title.

The season's standout Pokémon

Ash's team stays deliberately small. He starts the season with four partners: Pikachu, Rowlet, a Lycanroc in its Dusk Form, and Litten. This restraint contrasts with previous cycles, where catches piled up route after route.

The season's big evolution belongs to Litten, which becomes Torracat. The evolution happens mid-battle, during a showdown at the Battle Royal Dome against the Masked Royal, Alola's masked wrestler. Ash still loses the battle, which says a lot about how the season handles its victories: they never come easy.

The most moving catch is Poipole, an Ultra Beast that grows attached to Pikachu and that Ash decides to keep on Lusamine's advice. Poipole is no ordinary Pokémon: it carries a mission, and the season eventually reveals what it is. Ash releases it in its home world so it can rejoin its own kind and a Naganadel that watches over them.

That leaves the Legendaries. Nebby grows into Solgaleo right before the viewer's eyes, a fairly unique way to introduce a Pokémon of that stature. Lunala joins it for the final showdown, and Necrozma plays the threat. If the topic interests you beyond Alola, the feature on Legendary and Mythical Pokémon places these creatures within the series as a whole.

Necrozma, Team Rocket and the Matori Matrix

The season's main adversary isn't an organization but a creature starved for light. Necrozma tears open a rift above the Altar of the Sunne and drains Alola of its energy: the sky darkens, the adults lose their drive, and Z-Moves stop working. It's one of the rare moments when the series suspends its own rules to establish a threat.

Inside the Aether Foundation, the antagonist is Faba. He's the one who kidnaps Nebby, forces its evolution into Cosmoem and triggers the appearance of the Nihilego that carries off Lusamine. The character is too cowardly to be terrifying, but his blunders cause just about all the damage in the first half of the season.

The Team Rocket trio stays true to its comic role, with a new recruit: an Alolan Meowth, which joins the organization and becomes Matori's assistant at the Kanto headquarters. The original trio also gets a Z-Power Ring, a gift from the kahuna of Ula'ula Island, and Jessie receives a Z-Crystal for her Mimikyu — enough to put the villains on par with the rest of the cast.

📿 The kahuna of Ula'ula Island goes so far as to give the original trio a Z-Power Ring, and Jessie walks away with a Z-Crystal for her Mimikyu. Our Pokémon bracelets dress up your wrist without making you join a criminal organization.

Above all, the season introduces a far more serious squad: the Matori Matrix, an elite unit sent by Giovanni to capture Necrozma. It fails across the board and retreats, but its sudden appearance is a reminder that behind the bumbling trio stands a genuine criminal organization. The special forms seen here, like that Meowth or Lillie's Vulpix, are covered in detail in the feature on regional forms.

Trials, Z-Moves and the League still to come

Despite the Legendary storyline, the season doesn't forget the Trainer's journey. Ash clears two stages of the island challenge: the abandoned supermarket trial, then the grand trial of Ula'ula Island, won against Kahuna Nanu. That victory earns him the Z-Crystal that lets his Lycanroc unleash Splintered Stormshards.

Z-Moves are the season's real toy. The guardian Pokémon upgrade Ash's Z-Ring to give him access to more powerful moves, and one moment stands out: in Ultra Space, facing Lusamine fused with Nihilego, Ash's Electrium Z transforms and Pikachu unleashes 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, a move exclusive to cap-wearing Pikachu.

🧢 In Ultra Space, Pikachu unleashes 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, a move exclusive to cap-wearing Pikachu. You won't get the Electrium Z, but a Pokémon cap sits on your head as easily as it sits on his.

You shouldn't overstate what these wins mean. Ash loses several important battles this season, starting with his showdown against the Masked Royal, and at this point he still hasn't won a single regional League. Season 21 prepares him; it doesn't crown him.

The decisive news, however, doesn't belong to this season: Professor Kukui doesn't announce the creation of Alola's first Pokémon League until season 22, at a press conference where he unveils Manalo Stadium. The idea comes to him at the very end of season 20, during the school trip to Kanto, and it stays a personal dream throughout season 21 — which explains why the end of cycle 6 weighs so heavily in Ash's journey. To see how this system compares with other regions, the feature on Gym Leaders and the Elite Four provides the point of comparison.

The French broadcast and the episode no one ever saw

Season 21 aired in France on Canal J starting May 1, 2018. The first French episode is titled Une rencontre de rêve!, and the last one, aired on February 7, 2019, Derrière le masque!. In between, the schedule alternated between tight blocks of three or four episodes a week and long breaks.

The French titles are never a literal translation of the English ones, let alone the Japanese. Each version has its own wordplay logic, which is why the same episode can be called Une giga raison de combattre! in French while explicitly referencing the ten million volts in its Japanese title.

One episode is missing from every Western version: episode SM064 never aired, not in France, Belgium, Quebec or the United States. Bulbapedia notes that it is the first main-series episode left undubbed, excluding compilation episodes, since episode 250 of the very first cycle. That explains the gap between the 49 episodes listed on the Japanese side and the 48 in the dubbed version.

Finally, a word about the movie released alongside the season, because the movies are never season episodes. The twenty-first feature film, The Power of Us, was released in Japan on July 13, 2018 and didn't reach France until December 2018, on video on demand. It tells a standalone story with its own characters, and the feature on the Pokémon movies details how they connect to the series.

What season 21 leaves behind

Season 21 is the most serialized season of cycle 6. Where season 20 worked through largely standalone episodes, this one builds a continuous plot, with rising stakes, characters who change and a world-scale resolution. It's one of the rare moments in the series where you can truly speak of a story arc.

It also pulls off a difficult feat: bringing an abstract roster of creatures to life. In the games, the Ultra Beasts were baffling silhouettes, halfway between insect and object; the series gives them behaviors, needs and a homeland. Poipole in particular moves beyond curiosity status to become a full-fledged character.

In terms of characters, the main legacy is Lillie. Her arc is one of the most complete ever given to one of Ash's companions: an explicit fear, an origin, a relapse, a recovery. Few supporting characters in the series have received that treatment, and it still carries the reputation of the Sun & Moon series today.

Then there's the promise. The season closes on a League still to be built, and that's exactly what season 22 will cover. To understand where all of this fits geographically, the feature on the regions of the Pokémon world places Alola among the franchise's other archipelagos and continents.

Season 21 at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the exact French title of season 21?
  The French title is Pokémon, la série: Soleil et Lune - Ultra-Aventures, known in English as Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Adventures. It is the second of the three seasons of cycle 6, sitting between season 20, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon, and season 22, Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon – Ultra Legends.
• How many episodes are in season 21?
  It covers episodes SM044 to SM092, or 49 episodes on the Japanese side. The dubbed version has only 48, because episode SM064 was never dubbed or aired, whether in France, Belgium, Quebec or the United States.
• When did season 21 air in France?
  It aired on Canal J from May 1, 2018 to February 7, 2019. Those dates have nothing to do with the Japanese broadcast of the same episodes, which ran from October 5, 2017 to October 14, 2018, or with the American broadcast on Disney XD, from March 24, 2018 to February 23, 2019.
• Who are Ash's companions in season 21?
  Ash is still surrounded by the same five Pokémon School classmates as in season 20: Lillie, Mallow, Kiawe, Lana and Sophocles. Gladion, Lillie's brother, takes on a bigger and bigger role as the season goes on and ends up joining the Ultra Guardians. Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet look after the group.
• Who are the Ultra Guardians?
  They're the response team created by Lusamine, the head of the Aether Foundation, after Ash and his classmates rescue her. Their mission is to recover the Ultra Beasts that appear in Alola and send them back to their home dimension. The season features five missions, involving among others a Buzzwole, a Celesteela, a Blacephalon, a Xurkitree and a Stakataka.
• Does Ash win a League in season 21?
  No. No League takes place this season, and Professor Kukui doesn't announce anything in it: his plan to give Alola its first League comes to him at the very end of season 20, during the trip to Kanto, and he only makes it public in season 22, the only season to actually stage the tournament. Ash also loses several important battles in season 21, including the one against the Masked Royal at the Battle Royal Dome.
• What becomes of Nebby, the season's Cosmog?
  Nebby is a Cosmog found by Ash and nicknamed by Lillie. Kidnapped by Faba, it evolves into Cosmoem, then into Solgaleo, which lets the group cross an Ultra Wormhole to rescue Lusamine. It then returns to life in the wild, before coming back at the end of the season, alongside Lunala, to face Necrozma.

In short