Pikachu washes up in a frozen world with no trainer in sight and has to figure out how to survive. The special treats this like an actual problem worth solving instead of a setup for a joke. By the time Pikachu reunites with Ash, you've watched a Pokémon act like an animal instead of a mascot, and that shift changes everything about how you see the franchise.

A day of splashing in the sea near a tropical resort goes wrong when Pikachu and its companions get into a tussle with Team Rocket's Pokémon. The clash leaves them stranded far from where they started, in a paradise blanketed with ice. Soon after arriving they lose track of one another, and they learn that some of the Pokémon living there need their help. The question is whether they can find their friends again while lending a hand to the locals. This short special mixes adventure, comedy and fantasy, and it first screened on All Nippon Airways flights in August 2008.