The Pokémon Coco Soundtrack and the J-Pop Artist Behind It

Pokémon the Movie Coco Theme Song Album CD by Okazaki Taiiku

What This CD Is and How It Was Made

This is the official theme song album for Pocket Monsters the Movie: Coco — the 23rd theatrical Pokémon film, released in Japan on December 25, 2020. The album collects the movie’s theme songs as performed by Okazaki Taiiku, a Kyoto-born singer-songwriter who broke through in Japan in 2016 when his track “MUSIC VIDEO” went viral on YouTube. He is known for a self-aware, melodically inventive take on J-pop, and his work on this soundtrack fits neatly into a growing list of anime and film tie-ups on his resume. The exact release label has not been confirmed from available documentation, though the CD’s release appears to have been timed to the film’s theatrical premiere.

The packaging is a two-layer construction: a printed outer sleeve featuring character artwork, with a die-cut window that reveals part of the inner CD case beneath it. This kind of decorative, windowed sleeve is a recognized feature of special Japanese anime music releases — it marks the product as distinct from a standard edition and places it within a long tradition of limited tie-in discs produced for the domestic market.

The Film: A Boy Raised by Pokémon, and the Mythical Creature Who Raised Him

The Pokémon franchise launched in 1996 as a Game Boy title and has expanded continuously across games, anime, and cards to become one of the largest media franchises in the world. The theatrical film series began in 1998 and has released a new entry nearly every year since. Coco stands out within the series for its premise: the film follows Koko, a human child who was raised in the jungle entirely by Pokémon and has grown up believing he is one himself. The Pokémon who raised him — a Zarude the film calls “Dada” — is a mythical eighth-generation creature from the Galar region, officially classified as a Rogue Monkey Pokémon and distinguished by its vine-like fur. A Shiny Celebi, a rare pink-colored variant of the usually green mythical Pokémon, also appears. Both Zarude and Shiny Celebi were made available as distribution events in Pokémon Sword and Shield timed to the movie’s release, linking the film directly to the games. The series regulars, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, appear as well — Ash remained the anime’s lead from 1997 until 2023, when the series transitioned to new protagonists.

The film had a complicated path to release. Originally scheduled for July 10, 2020, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually opened on December 25 of that year. It later reached international audiences on Netflix under the English title Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle, which made it one of the more globally distributed entries in the theatrical series.

The Appeal of Japanese-Only Pokémon Music

Outside Japan, Okazaki Taiiku remains a niche figure, which means this CD is one of the few ways international listeners can engage with his work in a physical format. More broadly, Japanese-language merchandise tied to the theatrical Pokémon series has historically circulated only within Japan. The theatrical releases are associated with limited goods — items that do not typically appear in standard retail channels abroad — and this album, printed entirely in Japanese and built around a decorative special-edition sleeve, was designed for the domestic market. For Pokémon fans who discovered the movie through its English-language Netflix release, this disc represents the Japanese-original version of the music that accompanied it.