Ed Sheeran unveils surprise collaboration with Pokemon

Ed Sheeran has announced a collaboration with the popular video game series Pokemon.

The track, called Celestial, will be released on Thursday next week and arrive with an animated music video created by the studio behind the games.

Sheeran, 31, said he had met Pokemon bosses while he was travelling in Japan and they had jokingly discussed him writing a song for them.

In a post on Instagram, he shared a sketch showing him with a Pikachu, one of the game’s most recognisable creatures, perched on his shoulder.

A short video also showed him lounging with a number of Pokemon stuffed toys.

He wrote: “I started off with Pokemon cards when the craze hit primary school when I was about 7, then the tv show was on tv so I used to try and record it over the same VHS every week.

“After this me and my brother shared a game boy and Pokemon blue. I got a game boy colour with Pokemon yellow for my 8th birthday, obsessed was an understatement.

“Flash forward to me at 31 I still have the same game boy colour and still I play Pokemon silver on long haul flights.

“I really really love it. It gave me a proper escape as a kid into a fantasy world that seemed to go on and on, and in adult life it’s nostalgia that makes me feel like a kid again.

“I met the people from Pokemon when I was travelling in Japan, and we joked about me writing a song for them. But now here we are.

“Celestial comes out next Thursday, and the video is insanely amazing, animated by the incredible people at Pokemon. I love it, you’re gonna love it. And we all gotta catch ’em all.”

The Japanese-created series, an abbreviation of Pocket Monsters, was created in 1996 but has since expanded to include numerous TV series, films and card games.

It centres around trainers living in a fictional world who catch and train hundreds of different species of Pokemon before using them to battle against each other.

Sheeran is currently in the midst of a mammoth world tour in support of his latest album, =, also know as Equals.