ANA’s Green Pokémon Jet has begun flying with a fully themed cabin, including headrest covers, paper cups, napkins, music, and Pokémon in-flight entertainment.
Image: awardfares.com
ANA’s new Pokemon plane is built for the seat-back photo
All Nippon Airways’ Green Pokémon Jet has now entered service, and the detail drawing the most fan attention is inside the cabin: ANA says the aircraft carries Pokémon-branded headrest covers, paper cups, and napkins, with Pokémon-themed entertainment onboard as part of the flight experience.
The airline revealed the full aircraft design at an unveiling event on September 18, according to ANA’s official English and Japanese social posts, before the plane’s first reported flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport to Honolulu. GameSpot reported that the new Pokemon airplane was created to celebrate the franchise’s 30th anniversary, and that the aircraft goes beyond an exterior wrap by carrying the theme into the passenger experience.
That is the small but important distinction here. A themed aircraft can easily become a runway spectacle, impressive for a few photos and then invisible once passengers board. ANA’s Green Pokémon Jet is being pitched as a full cabin treatment, where the headrest in front of you, the cup in your hand, the cocktail napkin on the tray table, and the entertainment screen all reinforce the same idea. For Pokemon fan travel, that is exactly the kind of tactile detail that turns a flight into a collectible memory.
The cabin items are doing the quiet work of the design
ANA’s own posts confirm the cabin includes headrest covers, paper cups, and napkins with special Pokémon designs. Checkpoint also reported that plushies and Pokémon music are part of the onboard welcome, while GameSpot noted that passengers can watch and listen to Pokémon-themed in-flight entertainment, including Pokémon: The First Movie and Pokémon TV Anime Theme Songs BEST OF BEST OF BEST 1997-2023 Disc 1.
Those Pokemon themed cups and Pokemon in flight items are modest objects, but they are also why the reveal has traveled well across fan feeds. The exterior livery is the obvious headline, especially when a wide-body aircraft is covered in familiar characters. The cabin pieces are more personal. They are the things passengers photograph from their assigned seats, share with friends, and remember after the flight has landed.
There is also a craft reason the smaller touches stand out. Good themed spaces work through repetition at different scales. A giant character illustration on the fuselage tells you the plane is special from the outside. A headrest cover tells you the theme survived the boarding door. A napkin tells you someone thought about the tiny, disposable part of the trip too. That is the kind of design language Pokémon has long understood in games and merchandise: a world feels richer when the incidental details agree with the main image.
Green means Grass-types, with Pikachu still on duty
The Green Pokémon Jet’s livery centers on Grass-type Pokémon, according to Checkpoint, which identified Bulbasaur, Rowlet, Chespin, and Browt from Pokémon Winds and Waves among the featured characters. GameSpot also reported that Bulbasaur and Pikachu appear on the aircraft, and noted Browt as a newer Pokémon coming in Winds and Waves. Pikachu’s presence is unsurprising, but it does create a useful read on how ANA and The Pokémon Company are balancing theme and recognition.
A Grass-type aircraft gives this particular plane a clearer identity than a broad all-star collage. Bulbasaur has nostalgia pull, Rowlet and Chespin widen the generational spread, and the reported inclusion of Browt ties the jet to the franchise’s current era. Pikachu, meanwhile, remains the universal signpost. Even if the plane’s concept is green, the mascot still helps casual travelers immediately read it as Pokémon.
Checkpoint reported that this Green Pokémon Jet follows ANA’s Red Pokémon Jet, which featured Fire-type Pokémon and began flying at the end of July. The same outlet, citing ANA announcements, said a Water-type plane is scheduled for December 2026 or later. Read together, these themed aircraft look less like one-off novelty liveries and more like a set, built around elemental identity in a way Pokémon fans instantly understand.
Where the Green Pokémon Jet is flying, based on current reports
GameSpot reported that the Green Pokémon Jet made its inaugural flight from Haneda to Honolulu after the unveiling event. The outlet also said the aircraft will make stops at airports in Okinawa, Kyushu, and Shikoku, in addition to Haneda.
Aviation-focused outlets have reported a wider international plan. Aviation A2Z said ANA will deploy the Boeing 787-9 Green Pokémon Jet from September 18, serving Seattle, Honolulu, Vancouver, and other international destinations through March 2027. Aviation Analysis similarly reported that the Green Pokémon Jet, registered as JA923A, is scheduled for international service beginning September 18, with destinations including the United States, Canada, Asia, and the Pacific.
For readers hoping to book around it, the practical caveat is that aircraft assignments can change in normal airline operations. The sources provided confirm the launch timing, reported aircraft type, reported registration, and planned destination set, but they do not guarantee that every listed route will always use the themed jet on a given day. If the Pokemon plane is the reason for booking, fans should check ANA’s current schedule and aircraft information close to departure rather than relying only on the launch announcement.
Pokémon Jets have history, but the revived version is more experiential
The Green Pokémon Jet sits inside a long aviation promotion history. Wikipedia’s Pokémon Jet entry summarizes the concept as special promotional liveries operated by multiple airlines, with Pokémon painted on aircraft exteriors and interiors decorated in a Pokémon theme. The same entry notes that ANA unveiled the first Pokémon Jets on July 1, 1998, after the release of the original Game Boy games and during the franchise’s early boom, timed around Pokémon: The First Movie.
That history matters because it frames the current fan response. Pokémon aircraft are not new as a category, and GameSpot points back to Japan Airlines announcing Pokémon characters on domestic jets in 2000. ANA also returned to Pokémon aviation branding before this latest aircraft: GameSpot and Checkpoint both note that ANA produced a Pokémon-themed safety video in 2024, with Checkpoint also pointing to a disembarkation video.
The difference in 2026 is how easily the in-cabin pieces become the story. Earlier Pokémon Jets were iconic because of the rare spectacle of seeing Pikachu and friends on a commercial aircraft. The Green Pokémon Jet is landing in a travel culture where passengers document tray tables, amenity kits, meals, and seat details. A limited-design cup or napkin can spread almost as effectively as a fuselage shot because it feels attainable and intimate, even to people who will never see the plane parked at a gate.
The appeal is part nostalgia, part scavenger hunt
The fan interest around the new Pokemon airplane is easy to understand if you think of it like a well-designed platformer collectible. The main path is the flight itself. The fun is in noticing the optional pieces: the branded headrest cover, the themed cup, the napkin art, the music cue, the movie selection. None of those elements changes the function of air travel, but together they create a sense of discovery inside a controlled, ordinary environment.
That is also where ANA’s choice of in-flight entertainment becomes smart franchise curation. Pokémon: The First Movie connects the aircraft to the late-1990s moment that helped make Pokémon Jets feel culturally huge in the first place. The reported best-of anime soundtrack spans 1997 to 2023, giving passengers a broader memory lane rather than a single promotional clip.
There are still open questions the available sources do not answer. They do not specify whether passengers can keep any of the branded cabin items, whether designs vary by class or route, how long the exact cups and napkins will remain stocked, or whether ANA will sell related merchandise separately. Those are the details collectors will care about next. For now, what is confirmed is enough to explain the attention: ANA has put Pokémon branding into the passenger’s immediate space, and the smallest pieces may end up being the most photographed parts of the trip.