Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon - Story Trailer Analysis

Today, during the Japanese variety show Oha Suta, a brand new trailer was shown with never-before seen footage for Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. There were no big reveals in terms of a new Pokémon, but there was some interesting footage, and I'll be covering it all right here! The official trailer has been uploaded onto Pokemon's Japanese YouTube page, with an English one hopefully coming soon.



We start the trailer with an image of the moon being shadowed by something, followed by some dynamic shots of Necrozma's hand. Afterwards, we get a scene between the player, Lillie, and Professor Kukui, outside of Professor Kukui's laboratory on the beach of Route 1. Note that Lillie is wearing her first outfit, which is the outfit she first wore in Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Up until this point, we've only seen Lillie in her second outfit in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, including all official art of her. Kukui says the following lines of dialogue;
「ああ！その昔アローラが闇に覆われたとき... アローラのポケモンと人々が光で闇を打ち消したという」,
which roughly translates to,
"Yeah! It's said that long ago, when Alola was covered in darkness... The people and Pokémon of Alola vanquished the darkness with light."

We're then given another dynamic shot of Necrozma's body, with the following text;
「闇の予兆は」,
which roughly translates to,
"The sign of darkness".

Following that, we have the second gameplay shot of the trailer, with the player, Hau, Lillie in her first outfit, and Professor Kukui meeting up with Burnet in the Dimensional Research Lab, as she says the following line of dialogue;
「アローラではごくごくまれに空に穴が闇くとされてます」,
which roughly translates to,
"In Alola, it is rare for cracks to open up in the sky."

After this, we're given another shot of Necrozma, with more text that seems to follow on from the previous shot of Necrozma. The screen shows the following text;
「確かにあった」,
which roughly translates to,
"surely there was".

The next scene shows the mysterious characters revealed on the Japanese Poster art for Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, who look a lot like a more advanced version of the Aether Foundation, but still with many noticeable differences. For the purpose of this discussion, they will be referred to as "Neo-Aether", but note that this is not their official name. The character shown, however, does have a name, 「シオニラ」, which could be both "Shionira" (direct reading) or "Zionira" (Google translate + Serebii suggested reading, the one I'll be using). Zionira says the following line of dialogue twice;
「光を操るネクロズマ......アローラの光を奪うのか！」,
which roughly translates to,
"Necrozma, the Pokémon that controls light...... does it plan to steal Alola's light?!".

This is followed by a brief glimpse of what appears to be a lunar eclipse, if it's following from the shot of the moon from earlier, or it could possibly be a solar eclipse, as it appears that something has gone in front of the sun in this image rather than the moon. As the scene fades black and the music dies down, a sudden burst of colour and sound as the cutscene where the player and Lillie, in her second outfit, confront Necrozma at the Altar of the Moone (scene shown at night) as it appears out of an Ultra Wormhole. We then see Lunala fly directly towards Necrozma, as an extended version of the fight scene between the beam of light and beam of darkness from the Nintendo Direct trailer plays out.

The next scene shows familiar footage of UB Burst and UB Assembly/Lay, followed by a shot of Xurkitree appearing from an Ultra Wormhole, and the Ula'ula Island Kahuna, Nanu, confronting a Guzzlord in what appears to be the entrance to Tapu Bulu's shrine on Ula'ula Island. Following this, the following text is shown on screen;
「もはやここは」,
which roughly translates to,
"no longer here".

We are then shown footage of Lillie, in her second outfit, reaching out to something as the camera swaps to show Dusk Mane Necrozma emitting a large pulse of dark energy, before it swaps again to an unfamiliar area with Dusk Name Necrozma enveloped in a half-sphere of light, seemingly charging something up. There is a brief shot of the Melemele Island Kahuna, Hala, which we've seen in Pokémon Sun and Moon already, followed by the following text flashing up on the screen;
「キミの知っている」,
which roughly translates to,
"the (thing) you know".

The next scene shows the player and Lillie surrounded by small orbs of light near an Ultra Wormhole, before cutting to a quick scene of Xurkitree summoning a huge thunderbolt down onto itself, before the following text appears on screen;
「アローラではない」,
which roughly translates to,
"it is not Alola.".

The video then cuts to a very unfamiliar scene of the player running through a darkly-coloured laboratory-looking area, with Zionira and another member of "Neo-Aether" in the foreground, before cutting to a show of Guzma. This is the first time we've seen Guzma in any Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon footage before, and he says the following line of dialogue;
「相手を活かすことが自分も活かすこと...かよ」,
which roughly translates to,
"It's keep the enemy alive, so we stay alive too, huh?",
which can be better read as,
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, huh?"

We're then shown footage of Gladion, who says the following line of dialogue;
「かあさんまで消えたら......！」,
which roughly translates to,
"If mother dies as well......!".

This is followed by footage of a struggling Lusamine, rendered as an in-game cutscene instead of gameplay footage, where she says the following lines of dialogue;
「お逃げなさい。あいつは......化け物よッ！！」,
which roughly translates to,
"Get out of here. He's... He's a monster!!"

Following this is footage of the player wearing an outfit similar to those worn by the members of "Neo-Aether" as he rides Solgaleo through what appears to be an Ultra Wormhole, before we see the player riding on Lunala, and actually being able to control it in this segment. This means that we will most likely be able to ride on Solgaleo and Lunala as if they were ride Pokémon, but possibly only once to reach Ultra Space/return from Ultra Space in the game's main story. We then see the player walking up some steps to the scene of Dusk Mane Necrozma enveloped in light as discussed above, before a small orb of light appears in space, before Necrozma absorbs it and flies away (the image seen at the beginning of this analysis), leaving the titles of Pokémon Sun and Moon on the screen, before a wisp of darkness changes them into the titles of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

Now, reading this, you're probably confused with some of the translations, as they aren't all full sentences. This is because they were shown separately, but it is actually meant to be read as two separate sentences. When combined into the following sentence;
「闇の予兆は確かにあった。もはやここはキミの知っているアローラではない。」,
the full text roughly translates to,
"There was indeed a sign of the darkness. The Alola that you know is no longer here."

And with that, my analysis for this trailer comes to an end! Overall, it seems that the initial preconception that the story of Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon will be too similar to that of Pokémon Sun and Moon is slowly being faded out, especially with the final line of "The Alola that you know is no longer here.", where the "Alola that we know" is the one from Pokémon Sun and Moon.

So, what were your thoughts on the trailer and its contents? Feel free to discuss below! As always, this has been Pixel, bringing you the latest in Pokémon news. I'll see you all next time~ ☆​

 

But it could also imply nothing, as the player wears the suit designed by Team Magma/Aqua in ORAS when riding on Groudon/Kyogre and Rayquaza, and those were definitely the game's evil teams.

I think that these "Neo-Aether" people are good, but only because we already have 2 evil teams in Alola (well, technically 1, since Team Skull works as a subsidiary of the Aether Foundation), but I feel like the story would get too confusing if all the teams were evil. Then again, there haven't really been any "good teams" in Pokémon games, excluding how ex-Plasma members decided to become good citizens in BW2 because they aren't really a "good team", just a bunch of people trying to atone for their misdeeds.

 

If you're talking about the quote "Get out of here. He's... He's a monster!!", note that the "he" used doesn't specify that they're talking about a man. It's better translated as "Get out of here. That guy... That guy's a monster!!", but the use of "guy" isn't indicative of a male either, kinda like when you address a group of people with more than one gender with something like "hey, guys"