Pokemon Fan Art, Orphaned Devil Fruits, and Free Anime on YouTube

Heartchill

Mar 28, 2026 • 6 min read

This one's a grab bag. A few things caught my attention this week that don't warrant full posts but are worth talking about.

Pokemon Winds and Waves Fan Art Is Getting Ridiculous (Positive)

A Mega Magnetic Duo!
by u/Wiinterfang in stunfisk

Pokemon announced Gen 10 back in February. Pokemon Winds and Waves won't release until 2027, which means we've got over a year of speculation, theories, and fan content ahead of us.

The community is already going feral. And I love it.

The three new starters are:

Browt: Grass-type bird inspired by a sprouting bean. Officially the "Bean Chick Pokemon." Has little leaf eyebrows.
Pombon: Fire-type Pomeranian. Officially the "Puppy Pokemon." Aggressively cute.
Gecqua: Water-type gecko with a prominent third eye marking. Officially the "Water Gecko Pokemon." Probably psychic.

All three designs have been well-received, but Gecqua in particular has spawned an explosion of fan-made evolution concepts.

A Reddit user named Serbero posted their take on Gecqua's evolution line this week, imagining it as a Water-Psychic type. The design leans hard into mystical vibes: the middle evolution is a floating meditation pose, and the final form holds a mysterious orb with a prominent third eye. It looks like something that should be official.

What makes these fan designs interesting is how they're pulling from the game's setting. Winds and Waves takes place in a region inspired by Southeast Asia, and fans are theorizing that starter evolutions will be based on regional mythology.

Popular theories have Browt evolving into something inspired by Garuda (the divine bird from Hindu/Buddhist mythology), Pombon becoming a Barong-like creature (a lion spirit from Balinese tradition), and Gecqua taking on Naga influences (serpent deities from across Southeast Asian cultures).

Another artist, KosukeSukeP, designed all three final evolutions explicitly based on these mythological figures. The results are stunning enough that I genuinely wonder if the official designs will match them.

Which brings up the eternal fan-design problem: what happens when the real evolutions don't meet community expectations?

We've seen this before. Fan hype builds around speculation, elaborate designs get praised for months, then the official reveal disappoints because it went a different direction. Or worse, the official design gets compared unfavorably to fan art and never gets a fair evaluation on its own merits.

Hopefully the wait until 2027 gives everyone time to temper expectations. But honestly, part of the fun is seeing what the community comes up with. These artists are talented as hell, and their creativity keeps the hype alive during the long wait.

One Piece's Orphaned Devil Fruits

This is the deep-cut nerd content I exist for.

Someone compiled a list of all known Devil Fruits in One Piece that currently don't have users. When a Devil Fruit user dies, their power doesn't disappear; it regenerates somewhere in the world as a new fruit, waiting for the next person to eat it.

Which means there are a bunch of confirmed, powerful abilities just floating around with nobody wielding them:

Sara Sara no Mi, Model: Axolotl (Smiley's fruit) The giant blob monster from Punk Hazard had this Zoan fruit that let it transform into an axolotl. When Smiley died during Caesar's gas attack, the fruit presumably regenerated somewhere. An axolotl Zoan isn't the most powerful ability, but it's out there.

Yuki Yuki no Mi (Monet's fruit) Monet's Snow Logia is legitimately scary. Logia fruits were borderline invincible before Haki became common knowledge. She could create and become snow, manipulate blizzards, and would have been a major threat if she wasn't matched against Zoro and Law. After she died on Punk Hazard (Law gave her heart to Caesar, who stabbed it thinking it was Smoker's), this fruit is back in circulation.

Fude Fude no Mi (Kanjuro's fruit) This is the one that terrifies me. Kanjuro's brush fruit could bring anything he drew to life. He created clones, dragons, fire demons, you name it. The only limitation was his own (deliberately terrible) art skills. In the hands of someone who can actually draw, this fruit is absurdly powerful. After Kin'emon finally killed him during the Onigashima raid, the Fude Fude no Mi is waiting for some other scheming bastard to find it.

Hebi Hebi no Mi, Model: Yamata no Orochi (Orochi's fruit) Orochi's eight-headed snake Mythical Zoan is one of the most hax fruits in the series. You can survive anything as long as one head remains attached. Orochi got beheaded multiple times throughout Wano and kept coming back until Denjiro finally finished the job. Now that fruit is out there, waiting for another villain with too much self-preservation instinct.

There are more: Absalom's Clear-Clear fruit (taken by Shiryu), various SMILE users who died during the raid, etc. But those four are the big ones that feel like they're being set up to return in the final saga.

Kanjuro's brush fruit in particular seems too powerful to never show up again. Oda rarely introduces abilities that broken without eventual payoff.

Also, side thought: there's theoretically a Water-Water fruit out there somewhere. A Logia that lets you become and control water. The ultimate pirate ability.

But Devil Fruit users can't swim. So anyone who eats it immediately loses the ability to enter the very element they now control. The irony is too perfect for Oda not to have considered it.

Akane-banashi Is Going Free on YouTube

Akane-banashi, the rakugo manga that's been quietly dominating Shonen Jump for years, is finally getting an anime adaptation starting April 4th.

The interesting part isn't the adaptation itself (though I'm excited). It's the distribution strategy.

Instead of going to Crunchyroll or being locked behind Netflix, TV Asahi is releasing full episodes for free on YouTube for North American and Latin American audiences. Netflix will have it in Asia at launch, and other regions get it in May with dubbed versions, but the primary Western release is just... free.

For a series this acclaimed (ranked second in Manga Taisho, endorsed by Hideaki Anno and Eiichiro Oda, over 3 million copies in circulation), that's a wild choice.

The production committee's logic seems to be: rakugo is niche. It's a 400-year-old Japanese storytelling art form that Western audiences aren't familiar with. If you gate it behind a subscription, most people won't bother. But if it's free and accessible, curious viewers might give it a shot.

For those unfamiliar: rakugo is solo comedic storytelling. One performer sits on a cushion with just a paper fan and a hand towel, using voice and gesture to play every character in a story. No props. No costumes. Just performance.

It's hypnotic when done well, but it requires attention in a way that battle shonen doesn't. You can't half-watch rakugo while scrolling your phone.

The anime will air on TV Asahi's "IMAnimation" block, then get uploaded to the official Akane-banashi Global YouTube channel. The world premiere is happening at the Japan Society in New York on April 1st, which will include an actual rakugo performance by Canadian-born performer Katsura Sunshine.

ZEXCS is handling animation with Ayumu Watanabe (Children of the Sea, Witch Hat Atelier) directing. Production quality should be solid.

If this experiment works, we might see more anime going the free YouTube route for niche genres. It's a smart bet: trade immediate revenue for wider reach, build an audience organically, and monetize later through manga sales and merch.

I'm cautiously optimistic. Akane-banashi deserves an audience, and removing every barrier to entry is probably the best way to find one.

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