All Nippon Airways (NH) unveiled the livery designs for two of three specially commissioned aircraft — Pokémon Jet Red and Pokémon Jet Green — as part of a landmark collaboration celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. The announcement was made in Tokyo, and the aircraft designs draw directly from the aesthetic grammar of the original 1996 Nintendo Game Boy titles, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green. The Boeing 787-8 Pokémon Jet Red (registration JA819A) is scheduled to enter domestic service in Japan at the end of July 2026, while the Boeing 787-9 Pokémon Jet Green (registration JA923A) will serve international routes on a launch date yet to be confirmed.
The collaboration is doubly significant in 2026: it marks not only three decades since Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green were released in Japan on February 27, 1996, but also the 40th anniversary of ANA’s first international scheduled flight, which departed from Narita on the Narita-Guam route on March 3, 1986, aboard a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. The convergence of these two milestones provided the conceptual engine for a project that ANA describes as centered on “experience the excitement and fun of the journey with Pokémon” — a sentiment that extends, by design, from the aircraft exterior deep into the onboard passenger experience.
Why 2026 Is A Historic Year for Both ANA And The Pokémon Franchise
To understand the weight of this collaboration, one must first appreciate what the Pokémon franchise represents commercially and culturally. The franchise has been identified by Guinness World Records as the best-selling media franchise in history, having grossed an estimated $147 billion as of April 2024 — a figure that surpasses Star Wars, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Harry Potter. Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green, the games that initiated this empire, were released in Japan on February 27, 1996, created by Satoshi Tajiri and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. The Red version favored Fire-type Pokémon encounters, while the Green version leaned toward Grass and Poison types — a mechanical distinction that now finds its echo in ANA’s aircraft livery design.
ANA is also the launch customer and largest operator of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a fact germane to this specific collaboration, as both the Pokémon Jet Red and Pokémon Jet Green are 787-series aircraft.
Pokémon Jet Red And Pokémon Jet Green: Livery Designs and Aircraft Details
The two revealed aircraft share a design philosophy rooted in the visual vocabulary of the original games, but each has been given a distinct chromatic and thematic identity. Both liveries prominently feature Pikachu — the franchise’s mascot — alongside generation-spanning “first partner” Pokémon: the creatures that players have selected as their starting companion throughout the franchise’s history.
Pokémon Jet Red — Boeing 787-8, registration JA819A:
- Features Pikachu alongside Fire-type first partner Pokémon from across every generation of the video game series.
- Will operate on domestic routes within Japan from the end of July 2026.
- Domestic routes will connect Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) with Sapporo New Chitose, Hakodate, Osaka Itami, Takamatsu, Matsuyama, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa Naha, Miyako, and Ishigaki, as well as Osaka Itami connections to Sapporo New Chitose, Okinawa Naha, Miyako, and Ishigaki.
Pokémon Jet Green — Boeing 787-9, registration JA923A:
- Features Pikachu alongside Grass-type first partner Pokémon from the game series.
- Also features the newly revealed starter Pokémon from the upcoming Pokémon Winds and Pokémon Waves titles, currently scheduled for release in 2027, making this the first ANA livery to introduce franchise characters yet to appear in a commercial game release.
- Will operate on international routes; the launch date has not yet been confirmed.
- Ten Grass-type Pokémon in total are depicted on the fuselage, including Bulbasaur.
A third aircraft, the Pokémon Jet Blue — a Boeing 737-800 operating on domestic routes — has been announced but not yet designed, with its livery reveal and launch timeline to follow at a later date.
ANA And Pokémon Has A 28-Year Partnership
The 2026 Pokémon Jet series does not emerge from a vacuum — it is the latest expression of what has become one of the most distinctive and enduring brand partnerships in commercial aviation. ANA and The Pokémon Company launched the world’s first Pokémon-themed aircraft on July 1, 1998, timed to coincide with the Japanese theatrical release of Pokémon: The First Movie. The inaugural aircraft were a Boeing 747-400D (registration JA8965) and two Boeing 767-300s (registrations JA8569 and JA8578), each decorated with the then-complete roster of 151 Pokémon characters. All three served exclusively on domestic routes within Japan.
The partnership expanded internationally in 1999. The ANA Pokémon Jet International — a Boeing 747-400 registered as JA8962 — debuted that year carrying passengers from Tokyo to New York City, becoming the first Pokémon-themed aircraft to operate transatlantic routes. Successive iterations appeared throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. The final aircraft from that original era, a 777-300, was retired in 2016 after a pattern of involvement that stretched across more than a decade of the franchise’s global ascent.
The concept was revived in 2023, when ANA returned to Pokémon-themed liveries after a seven-year absence with the Pikachu Jet NH — a Boeing 787-9 registered JA894A — followed by the Eevee Jet NH, a 777-300ER registered JA784A, both operating as part of the Pokémon Air Adventures initiative. ANA has now operated a total of eight Pokémon-themed aircraft across the full span of this partnership. The 2026 series, if all three aircraft enter service as planned, will bring the cumulative total to eleven.
What ANA’s Executives Said About the Pokémon 30th Anniversary Project
ANA’s executive statements on the collaboration make clear that the airline views the project as something considerably more substantive than a marketing exercise. In a press release issued by the ANA Group in February 2026, Keiji Omae, Executive Vice President of Customer Experience at ANA, was quoted:
“This project goes beyond just a livery; it’s about creating an immersive world that sparks imagination, inspires curiosity and brings the joy of discovery to our passengers throughout their journey. Whether you first began your journey on a Game Boy screen decades ago, or are currently exploring new regions through your mobile apps, we invite you to take your next ‘adventure’ into the real world with ANA. Many of our passengers flying with us today were the kids who marveled at our first Pokémon Jet in 1998. We are honored to be the wings that carry not just passengers, but also their cherished memories and future adventures.”
Omae’s reference to the 1998 Pokémon Jet is deliberate: it frames the 2026 series as a generational closing of the loop, positioning ANA as the airline that introduced international travelers to Pokémon-branded aviation and is now offering those same travelers — now in their thirties and forties — the opportunity to revisit that experience with their own children aboard a modern fleet.
