Ed Sheeran becomes Pokemon anime character for new music video

Back in August, the Pokemon World Championships were held in the UK for the first time, and none other than Ed Sheeran welcomed fans and Trainers to the competition in a special video greeting.

That wasn’t the end of the collaboration between the Sheeran and the Pokemon franchise, though, as the video for the British pop star’s new song “Celestial” is filled with Pocket Monster guest stars, and before it’s done, Sheeran himself gets turned into a Pokemon anime character.

Things start off low-key, with a sleepy Sheeran getting an electric-powered morning wakeup call from Pikachu. He then heads to the kitchen and whips up a lavish-looking breakfast with the help of some high-heat Charmander cooking flames.

As he sits down to eat with a group of Poke-pals, though, it’s a little hard to tell how much of this is taking place in Sheeran’s imagination, and imagination is very much a theme of the video. After breakfast Sheeran heads out into town while trying to work out the lyrics for a new song, with various Pokémon species like Snorlax and Lapras looking out for him and helping how they can.

Inspiration finally does strike, though, while Sheeran is (maybe) sitting in a field surrounded by Bulbasaurs. He races home and heads into his studio, where more Pokemon show up to listen and help, and then it’s time for Sheeran to go into the Pocket Monsters’ world.

Mewtwo is on a rampage, and Sheeran joins up with the team of brave underdog Pokemon standing against the sinister Psychic-type.

▼ In a special bit of personalized fan service, the animators go all out on this sequence of Squirtle, who Sheeran is on record as saying is his personal favorite Pokemon.

As the battle reaches its climax, there’s a massive energy explosion…and then we cut back to Sheeran, asleep on his couch with Pikachu scurrying away just as he wakes up. We’re left to wonder if the dramatic adventure we just saw was real or not, but maybe the point is that the answer doesn’t matter. Works of pure fiction can still create very real emotion and inspiration for fans, which is just what this video does.

Source, images: YouTube/Ed Sheeran