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FROM TWITTER:
Looked through Pokemon's Twitter for anything notable.
The Nintendo Power Podcast talks with two Pokemon fans & staff members from Nintendo of America, Camille & Jayson, about the past 25 years experience with Pokemon. It's 49 minutes long. I haven't listened to it yet so don't know if there's anything interesting, though from the breakdown probably not.
If you got a young kid, Pokemon are releasing some "Primer" books. Out now is an alphabet book and number book with a color book and shape book soon to follow. Here's their Amazon page.
(That's good and all, but when you're going to teach them valuable life skills like cooking, doing laundry, and balancing a budget?)
Those who been to a Toy or Game store may know Pokemon has made a deal with Mega Construx (if you're wondering, yes, these are Mega Bloks, they just rebranded in 2017 after being acquired by Mattel; apparently Pokemon was their first licensed property after the rebranding) and already have a few Pokemon building sets. Now a new one has been added: Celebration Pikachu (which surprisingly isn't a recycled version of their normal Pikachu; I'll give it an A for the extra effort). You can also click here to see their other Pokemon products (though I call shenanigans having Starters coming with other types of Poke Balls... also feels like the Poke Balls they pair with Pokemon feel random, especially the Nest Ball and Quick Ball).
(BTW these are showing two different sets; an old smaller Pikachu that comes in a normal Poke Ball and the new bigger Celebration Pikachu. Would of been cute if the Celebration Pikachu came with a Cherish Ball but I guess a party hat and gift box was more important...)
When I say "Funko" you say "Pop": Funko!... I said FUNKO!... it's Funko Pop. There's of course been a whole batch of Pokemon Funko Pop figures before, but they're adding more including a Silver Pikachu (because the 25th Anniversary is the "silver" anniversary)... that I can't find anywhere on the Funko Pop store. However you can find it and many more on Amazon so pick your poison if you want one.
(See Lusamine, you didn't need to freeze Pokemon in a neverending sleep, Funko Pop does it for you!)
(500 Pokedollars says its leftover merch they didn't sell before and now putting back up for full price cause "25 Anniversary"... oh my Arceus, THAT'S why we're doing the world tour thing!)
PowerA is selling Pokemon-themed Switch controllers, carrying cases, and other accessories. They all look nice... though I can't help but notice that they have 16 Pikachu-themed controllers! Like you think that's enough guys? How about using some of the other 800+ Pokemon on some of them.
(Guess they quickly forgot/ditched Eevee being the secondary mascot)
The Wand Company has made die cast replicas of Poke Balls and Master Balls. The Poke Ball they'll make as many as ordered meanwhile the Master Ball they're only making 5,000 of so if you want one... well hopefully they still have them (though I couldn't find any). It has a neat feature where, if it sense your hand near it, the button on the ball will glow brighter the closer your hand is to it! One downside: it doesn't open... hey, it's a display piece, you're supposed to look at it and not touch it.
(According to what I can find it costs the reasonable price of an arm and a leg... BUT since it doesn't open they let you keep a few toes (but no fingers because of the light-up feature))
Not mentioned on the site but it's still merch so I'll add it here: learning nothing from McDonalds, General Mills is also giving away Pokemon cards! Each box has a pack of 3 cards of a 14 card set. Now 8 of them are reprints from recent TCG sets, but 6 of them are holographic promos (though only the Pikachu one is stamped with the 25th Anniversary logo... Pokemon Company that's not going to stop scalpers). I'm going to guess each pack comes with 1 holo promo and 2 reprints? Eitherway, you can either purchase one of their existing cereals or buy the new Pokemon Berry Bolt cereal (basically ball-shaped Trix with Pikachu head-shaped marshmallows).
(Well, being you got to buy the whole box, maybe this time it won't be as... ARCEUS DARN IT!)
REGIONS:
So the Regions thing has actually been open for two months. Galar and Alola are open to see and, surprise surprise:
It tells you such bare bone features that it would have been less insulting if they just directed you towards the official site for the games.
That's all for now. Still no date for when J Balvin is supposed to perform, maybe hope he's writing something original for Pokemon instead of rehashing one of his songs like Post Malone.
As much as the 25th anniversary has been largely disappointing (and I’m sure would have been far less so if not for COVID; I was always sad as a kid that I never got to see the touring live orchestra and I think they would have brought it back) I just need to stand in and defend Post Malone for a minute. He didn’t rehash an old song of his, but rather combined Pokémon with a Hootie and the Blowfish song that he then did in his own style. It’s not wholly original, but it’s fairly original both for Pokémon and Post’s avenue in music, especially for Pokémon since there are only very niche cases of Pokémon being used in non-video game music before. So I actually think Post Malone did pretty well, albeit it definitely would’ve been cooler had it been an entirely novel track. But then on the flip side, considering Post Malone has a very young fanbase and Hootie and the Blowfish has a much older fanbase, doing a cover of one of their songs creates a pretty inter-generational appeal, and I enjoy it for the fact that it’s another way to dissuade the whole “Pokémon is a kid’s game” reputation.
This post is approved by the doesn’t really like Post Malone’s music but appreciates his presence in pop culture gang.
As much as the 25th anniversary has been largely disappointing (and I’m sure would have been far less so if not for COVID; I was always sad as a kid that I never got to see the touring live orchestra and I think they would have brought it back) I just need to stand in and defend Post Malone for a minute. He didn’t rehash an old song of his, but rather combined Pokémon with a Hootie and the Blowfish song that he then did in his own style. It’s not wholly original, but it’s fairly original both for him and his avenue in music, and for Pokémon since there are only very niche cases of Pokémon being used in non-video game music before. So I actually think Post Malone did pretty well, albeit it definitely would’ve been cooler had it been an entirely novel track. But then on the flip side, considering Post Malone has a very young fanbase and Hootie and the Blowfish has a much older fanbase, doing a cover of one of their songs creates a pretty inter-generational appeal, and I enjoy it for the fact that it’s another way to dissuade the whole “Pokémon is a kid’s game” reputation.
This post is approved by the doesn’t really like Post Malone’s music but appreciates his presence in pop culture gang.
Huh?... OH, right, okay, forgot he did that. My comment was more about the virtual concert he did where he just sang portions of his songs (and I made a mistake saying it was one, he sang portions from three of his songs).
So a quick update, Katy Perry has revealed her music contribution to the 25th Anniversary:
They're calling the collab "Electric" and the "movie" poster reveals additional people involved (only going to post the ones which have anything noteworthy to say):
Carlos Lopez Estrada is writer & director and would be best known for his movie credits: Director of Blindspotting, had a role as "Creative Leadership" for Frozen 2, and the writer & director for Raya and the Last Dragon.
So in the 25th anniversary thing where they showed off their products, they had the cards in it. Being curious, and also lazy enough to not do this until now, i looked through the card pictures, and saw what was there. A Retrospective of the TCG, from Pokemon; (see cause the video in general was made by pokemon, and it’s a retrospective of pokemons tcg hahaha)
Gen 1;
heeeeey gguys, you remember charizard? well here’s one because we don’t show him enough! (to be fair it is a really iconic card, so i can understand why they showed it)
Gen 2;
shining cards, valuable for collectors. surprised they didn’t feature shiny charizard
Gen Three; they showed a team magma groudon ex, along with some other stuff. Groudon won the 2004 world championships, but most of the other stuff wasn’t used with it.
Gen 4;
palkia lv x, and oh also each photo showed the fancy card type from that era. also love the fantastic damage dice placements
Gen 5;
a trade, with 2 competitive cards of that era. While they were both good at their time, the rayquaza’s more valuable now.
OH and also the binder has a darkrai and mewtwo ex! Darkrai was really good back in its day, and mewtwo was legitimately the best deck in the format.
the sixth gen;
a battle between 2 decks that saw some play, but trevenant has the advantage here. This is probably why the trevenant player’s taking their last prize card, and winning the game.
The Gen of the Sun and Moon;
literally just a photo from a tournament. Both decks were/are competitive, and they’re using fancy full arts imagine if they used rainbow rares
gen 8;
like how they’re using probably zoom to play a match, and not the online client (also they’re both using forms of zacian decks )
So that was the retrospective! It seems they were focused on the collecting side at first, then moved over to competitive, around the time they bought the card game from wotc in 2004.
The song was decent, but there being three different Katy Perrys confused me at first. The singing Katy Perry was unexpected, and I thought she was the present one at first because they were both on the lighthouse. #Pokemon25-wise, I liked that the video had more focus on plot and character development, but it comes at the cost of the dex representation being severely culled compared to Post Malone's concert. Overall this video left me with a lot of questions that will probably never be answered. How does Pikachu's time travel work? When did Pichu evolve? Is this canon? Will future Katy Perry have a regular or Alolan Raichu? I feel like gamefreak should have released the singing Pikachu/Pichu event for this song, but then again Pikachu/Pichu didn't actually sing or play an instrument.
Also they released some merchandise for the song, and there are some comparisons to a certain bootleg being made on social media. Personally the Pikachu reminds me of global link art, except I don't think they had gender differences there.
A new pokemon #25 song was released today, "Take it Home" by Mabel.
I personally don't know much about the singer and this video had slightly less plot than Katy Perry's, so I don't have a lot to say, but I liked how Jigglypuff floats around most of the time. I also noticed that the intro uses part of a TCG advertisement. On the surface I found this pretty similar to Katy Perry's video in that the video is more the pokemon part than the song, and they only feature a couple of pokemon even so. The choice of Jigglypuff does fit thematically at least, as it's a music celebration and the events of the video seem to be occurring within a dream.
Speaking of Katy Perry, they put out a lyric video last month, which has more electric type representation than the music video. Other than that nothing has been announced lately, other than June being the Unova month on social media. Speaking of which, now is the Sinnoh month.
According to the #pokemon 25 website, the events for July include an anime episode on youtube and pokemon on snack boxes. You would think that the GO anniversary and Unite's release would be noteworthy, but I guess this is just for what they're doing for pokemon 25 specifically.
A new pokemon #25 song was released today, "Take it Home" by Mabel.
I personally don't know much about the singer and this video had slightly less plot than Katy Perry's, so I don't have a lot to say, but I liked how Jigglypuff floats around most of the time. I also noticed that the intro uses part of a TCG advertisement. On the surface I found this pretty similar to Katy Perry's video in that the video is more the pokemon part than the song, and they only feature a couple of pokemon even so. The choice of Jigglypuff does fit thematically at least, as it's a music celebration and the events of the video seem to be occurring within a dream.
So, I like the song. Its a pretty typical "empowerment" song, and honestly it does feel like they shoehorned in the word "electric" (the only thing really building up to it is the vague use of "you got the power"). Assuming she wrote this for the collab (for all we know she had this song on the backburner and when Pokemon Company approached her for the collab she went back to it and adjusted it), I would say it hits a nice balance between something you'd imagine before made for Pokemon but the general audience can also understand. To a Pokemon fan it can relate to setting out on the Pokemon journey, the "gotten power" and "not being alone" being the Pokemon friends and partners you catch along the way. For the general audience, as I said, it's typical "self empowerment" with the "not being alone" referring to the support of friends and family or maybe the thought you're not the only one who's making it out in the world.
I also liked the music video. Like, considering we were in a middle of a pandemic I don't blame Post Malone for not having a live concert, but having the actual celebrity singing and acting is much nicer (and in the back of your mind you're not noticing the animation loops or how the character model isn't even reacting to their environment). As doipy hooves noted, the plot certainly seems twisted. There seems to be 3 "Katys": Adult Katy in a striped dress with a Pikachu, Singer Katy in a white dress singing the song (with no Pikachu with her), and Young Katy played by Meili Aspen with a Pichu. The story is that Adult Katy & Pikachu goes back in time (not sure if going to the lighthouse was required; also I'm only noting this as Singer Katy is atop of the lighthouse singing, but I think she's meant to be an omniscient narrator so not part of the story) and helps Young Katy be aware of a talent show which I guess is meant to symbolize the start of her career. Once you understand there are 3 Katys its more coherent, though I got a few questions:
So why did Adult Katy & Pikachu go back in time? As far as Young Katy knew it was circumstance she say the talent show poster, so how did Adult Katy know she needed to go back in time to make her past self see the sign? Did Adult Katy just want to see her young self but going back in time slightly altered events so had to quickly make things right (usually those stories involve the adult character starting to vanish alerting them they messed up or going back to the future realized things have changed so got to go back to fix things)? Or was this just in Katy's mind as the end seems to indicate... which if it was why was Adult Katy hiding and had to show her past self the poster.
Speaking of which, why was Adult Katy hiding? Did she think somehow her young self will recognize her? Like, okay, maybe when Young Katy was practicing on her own it would be awkward for Adult Katy to seen, but when in the clothing store? She even puts on a "disguise" to watch the concert; Katy, what, were you the only blonde haired girl with a member of the Pikachu family on the entire island (I'm assuming she's on an island, at least a coastal town)?
Well first only your heart can travel back in time, second you can only travel back to a point in time you were present, third you can't change what's destined to happen but you can leave a "mark" on your past self's heart so they subconsciously know what they're supposed to do. (This is a Kingdom Heart's joke, though then again the rules of time travel in KH do sort of work here).
Sometime between when Young Katy won the talent show and Adult Katy travelling back in time.
No, when Adult Katy returned to her own time everything was rewound back to the point she arrived in the past. However, since she left the mark on Young Katy's heart about the talent show, now Young Katy will notice the talent show poster on her own thus following her pre-determined destiny.
Well right now Adult Katy is the most "recent" Katy so that's not really something which can be answered. If you want to speculate, well first does Katy/Pikachu want Pikachu/itself to evolve? It could just stay a Pikachu as long as it lives, it just needs to avoid touching a Thunder Stone which should be easy to do. On top of that, if its a Pikachu that can Gigantamax, it can't evolve anyway unless it eats Dynamax Soup to undo it. If it wants to evolve, well, if they want an Alolan Raichu they'd need to fly to Alola or use a possible future method that evolves other region Pokemon into their Alolan evolutions. Otherwise it'll just be a normal Raichu (not taking into account any other regional variants that shows up, we know its possible cause of Meowth and Pikachu is the series mascot so it gets special treatment...).
All joking aside, it's a nice video and even though it only had Pikachu and Pichu, I did like they DID include Pichu. They could have easily had it just be Pikachu throughout, and sure in Pokemon series its a cliché to have the younger version of the character have the prevo of the Pokemon their older self has, but when it comes to Pikachu they sometimes make it feel like if they could they would undo Pichu and Raichu from existing (hence no other Pikaclone having an evolution, hoping to catch that lightning in a bottle every single gen).
While I did like the Music Video, I got to admit, I kind of liked this one better. Like, sure, the Music Video had a story... thought it wasn't really a Pokemon story. Like you could remove Pikachu and Pichu out of it and NOTHING would change aside Adult and Young Katy on occasion looking down & smiling at nothing. So, while this had no story, I did like the showcase of Electric-type Pokemon. Sure, most were background silhouttes, but they had some creative ones such as showing Morpeko when talking about "changng", the few times they had a full image of notable Electric-types throughout the generations just before saying "ELECTRIC", and the neon tubing Electrode & Voltorb which they also used as "O"s.
Only complaints are I don't recall seeing Zekrom (and being its the dragon that represents "Ideals" that's a missed opportunity) and when they sang the part about "fire" it should have been a silhouette of Rotom Heat as it's the only Electric/Fire-type.
TAKE IT HOME:
And so the long awaited next music video by J Balvin Mabel is here. Yes, Mabel, of course, don't you remember them advertising her for like 2 months now she was making a video? Snarkiness aside, even though she puts in as much effort as Katy did for her song, they didn't really say much about her on the main site, not even a quick Q&A about her experience with the franchise. Let's see if her Twitter has anything... well, she made a "if I was a Pokemon I'd be a Fire-type cause I'm hot" joke, but nothing else otherwise. I looked up a few of her top selling and recent songs... and I don't think I've heard anything from her. Now, I'm from the US and she's a UK star so it could just be the casual pop music hasn't picked up any of her stuff, so, hey, maybe this collab could be her break through onto the US pop zeitgeist (I've seen actually a few adverts of her collab song before some videos, and interestingly enough it excludes any of the Pokemon imagery). So, with that said, let's get to "Take It Home".
So, for the song itself, it's alright. However, I have an itching feeling collab or no collab, this song was probably going to be released; either she had it finished or was working on it. If I'm understanding the song right, it's a love jam where she's telling someone if they want to have her they have to give her all their love. Yeah... not really anything that can be drawn from that for Pokemon. But, hey, the music video was certainly interesting and had a lot of work put into it. Though you could REALLY remove the Pokemon from this one and you would not notice, except the one scene where she's looking for Jigglypuff behind a column table plant decoration.
So, going into the music video, guessing she's home from work/clubbing, has classical music playing (I think it's Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major, No. 16, K 454, Allegro... Classical composers did know they could name their songs, right?), watches the Vivid Voltage TCG commercial (if she was going to dream about Jigglypuff why not the Small Bug Might commercial which starts with a giant Igglybuff?) and falls asleep. From then on it's a dream of her chasing and playing with a Jigglypuff while singing a love jam not really directed toward anyone (plus these 4 other girls appear to dance with her). Also in the dream she starts dressed I guess as a (sexy) Jigglypuff? Though then she changes clothes (but not hair, cause that's the important link to Jigglypuff) to a sparkly blue dress. Then after dancing around she goes into an elevator and wakes up probably thinking "that's the last time I watch a Pokemon TCG commercial before going to bed".
WHAT ELSE:
So, let's see... as doipy hooves noted above they're doing a collab with Nabisco to have the Starters appear on their mini cookie grab bag boxes... though it looks like the individual wrapped grab bags will just have Pikachu even though each cookie is supposed to focus on a specific Type. So Water-types like Oreos (have to be in the mood to pick one up), Grass-types like Chips Ahoy (cause they're classic like that), and Fire-types like Nilla (cause sometimes the best choice is the plainest choice). Oh, and don't worry cookie lovers, these don't have TCG cards in them so you may actually be able to find them (would be funny if the plan was to have cards in them but Nabisco saw what happened to the cereal boxes and went "no").
The Regions got to Sinnoh and if you thought it would do anything special with BDSP and Legends coming out soon HAHAHA! Though one funny thing I noticed is that, due to their insistence of using clips and images from the anime (because why would you want to show screenshots from the games...) when they talk about the Distortion World they show a image of the Reverse World (yes, I know the Reverse World is the anime's version of the Distortion World, but the anime writers decided it wanted it to be different so I'm treating it as such). Also it mentions Rotom and that when it changes forms it changes Type... except it didn't do that until Gen V. Also, for some reason the only Rotom form they specifically named was Rotom Mow and I can think the only reason they did it is because the clip they chose had was Rotom Mow chasing after Ash & Pikachu.
(Okay, can we talk about the choices? Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Scorbunny, and Sobble make sense. Mewtwo is an odd one to throw in but sure. And finally Growlithe. No Charmander (or Charizard the way they like plastering it on everything Pikachu and Mewtwo are also on) or Grookey, huh. Also, major missed opportunity not having Poipole, guess it was one gen too late. Also would like to know who decided on this collection numbering. Eevee first before Pikachu? They placed Growlithe and Mewtwo between Squirtle and Bulbasaur? And Bulbasaur is last? and Mewtwo is second to last?)
Still selling their leftover stock on Amazon. I would make a sarcastic comment but I used it all up on the glue sticks.
And that's it! Boy the 25th Anniversary is sure exciting, no way I can think of making it more exciting.
I feel like gamefreak should have released the singing Pikachu/Pichu event for this song, but then again Pikachu/Pichu didn't actually sing or play an instrument.
So, I like the song. Its a pretty typical "empowerment" song, and honestly it does feel like they shoehorned in the word "electric" (the only thing really building up to it is the vague use of "you got the power"). Assuming she wrote this for the collab (for all we know she had this song on the backburner and when Pokemon Company approached her for the collab she went back to it and adjusted it), I would say it hits a nice balance between something you'd imagine before made for Pokemon but the general audience can also understand. To a Pokemon fan it can relate to setting out on the Pokemon journey, the "gotten power" and "not being alone" being the Pokemon friends and partners you catch along the way. For the general audience, as I said, it's typical "self empowerment" with the "not being alone" referring to the support of friends and family or maybe the thought you're not the only one who's making it out in the world.
I also liked the music video. Like, considering we were in a middle of a pandemic I don't blame Post Malone for not having a live concert, but having the actual celebrity singing and acting is much nicer (and in the back of your mind you're not noticing the animation loops or how the character model isn't even reacting to their environment). As doipy hooves noted, the plot certainly seems twisted. There seems to be 3 "Katys": Adult Katy in a striped dress with a Pikachu, Singer Katy in a white dress singing the song (with no Pikachu with her), and Young Katy played by Meili Aspen with a Pichu. The story is that Adult Katy & Pikachu goes back in time (not sure if going to the lighthouse was required; also I'm only noting this as Singer Katy is atop of the lighthouse singing, but I think she's meant to be an omniscient narrator so not part of the story) and helps Young Katy be aware of a talent show which I guess is meant to symbolize the start of her career. Once you understand there are 3 Katys its more coherent, though I got a few questions:
So why did Adult Katy & Pikachu go back in time? As far as Young Katy knew it was circumstance she say the talent show poster, so how did Adult Katy know she needed to go back in time to make her past self see the sign? Did Adult Katy just want to see her young self but going back in time slightly altered events so had to quickly make things right (usually those stories involve the adult character starting to vanish alerting them they messed up or going back to the future realized things have changed so got to go back to fix things)? Or was this just in Katy's mind as the end seems to indicate... which if it was why was Adult Katy hiding and had to show her past self the poster.
Speaking of which, why was Adult Katy hiding? Did she think somehow her young self will recognize her? Like, okay, maybe when Young Katy was practicing on her own it would be awkward for Adult Katy to seen, but when in the clothing store? She even puts on a "disguise" to watch the concert; Katy, what, were you the only blonde haired girl with a member of the Pikachu family on the entire island (I'm assuming she's on an island, at least a coastal town)?
Well first only your heart can travel back in time, second you can only travel back to a point in time you were present, third you can't change what's destined to happen but you can leave a "mark" on your past self's heart so they subconsciously know what they're supposed to do. (This is a Kingdom Heart's joke, though then again the rules of time travel in KH do sort of work here).
Sometime between when Young Katy won the talent show and Adult Katy travelling back in time.
No, when Adult Katy returned to her own time everything was rewound back to the point she arrived in the past. However, since she left the mark on Young Katy's heart about the talent show, now Young Katy will notice the talent show poster on her own thus following her pre-determined destiny.
Well right now Adult Katy is the most "recent" Katy so that's not really something which can be answered. If you want to speculate, well first does Katy/Pikachu want Pikachu/itself to evolve? It could just stay a Pikachu as long as it lives, it just needs to avoid touching a Thunder Stone which should be easy to do. On top of that, if its a Pikachu that can Gigantamax, it can't evolve anyway unless it eats Dynamax Soup to undo it. If it wants to evolve, well, if they want an Alolan Raichu they'd need to fly to Alola or use a possible future method that evolves other region Pokemon into their Alolan evolutions. Otherwise it'll just be a normal Raichu (not taking into account any other regional variants that shows up, we know its possible cause of Meowth and Pikachu is the series mascot so it gets special treatment...).
All joking aside, it's a nice video and even though it only had Pikachu and Pichu, I did like they DID include Pichu. They could have easily had it just be Pikachu throughout, and sure in Pokemon series its a cliché to have the younger version of the character have the prevo of the Pokemon their older self has, but when it comes to Pikachu they sometimes make it feel like if they could they would undo Pichu and Raichu from existing (hence no other Pikaclone having an evolution, hoping to catch that lightning in a bottle every single gen).
While I did like the Music Video, I got to admit, I kind of liked this one better. Like, sure, the Music Video had a story... thought it wasn't really a Pokemon story. Like you could remove Pikachu and Pichu out of it and NOTHING would change aside Adult and Young Katy on occasion looking down & smiling at nothing. So, while this had no story, I did like the showcase of Electric-type Pokemon. Sure, most were background silhouttes, but they had some creative ones such as showing Morpeko when talking about "changng", the few times they had a full image of notable Electric-types throughout the generations just before saying "ELECTRIC", and the neon tubing Electrode & Voltorb which they also used as "O"s.
Only complaints are I don't recall seeing Zekrom (and being its the dragon that represents "Ideals" that's a missed opportunity) and when they sang the part about "fire" it should have been a silhouette of Rotom Heat as it's the only Electric/Fire-type.
TAKE IT HOME:
And so the long awaited next music video by J Balvin Mabel is here. Yes, Mabel, of course, don't you remember them advertising her for like 2 months now she was making a video? Snarkiness aside, even though she puts in as much effort as Katy did for her song, they didn't really say much about her on the main site, not even a quick Q&A about her experience with the franchise. Let's see if her Twitter has anything... well, she made a "if I was a Pokemon I'd be a Fire-type cause I'm hot" joke, but nothing else otherwise. I looked up a few of her top selling and recent songs... and I don't think I've heard anything from her. Now, I'm from the US and she's a UK star so it could just be the casual pop music hasn't picked up any of her stuff, so, hey, maybe this collab could be her break through onto the US pop zeitgeist (I've seen actually a few adverts of her collab song before some videos, and interestingly enough it excludes any of the Pokemon imagery). So, with that said, let's get to "Take It Home".
So, for the song itself, it's alright. However, I have an itching feeling collab or no collab, this song was probably going to be released; either she had it finished or was working on it. If I'm understanding the song right, it's a love jam where she's telling someone if they want to have her they have to give her all their love. Yeah... not really anything that can be drawn from that for Pokemon. But, hey, the music video was certainly interesting and had a lot of work put into it. Though you could REALLY remove the Pokemon from this one and you would not notice, except the one scene where she's looking for Jigglypuff behind a column table plant decoration.
So, going into the music video, guessing she's home from work/clubbing, has classical music playing (I think it's Mozart's Piano Sonata in C Major, No. 16, K 454, Allegro... Classical composers did know they could name their songs, right?), watches the Vivid Voltage TCG commercial (if she was going to dream about Jigglypuff why not the Small Bug Might commercial which starts with a giant Igglybuff?) and falls asleep. From then on it's a dream of her chasing and playing with a Jigglypuff while singing a love jam not really directed toward anyone (plus these 4 other girls appear to dance with her). Also in the dream she starts dressed I guess as a (sexy) Jigglypuff? Though then she changes clothes (but not hair, cause that's the important link to Jigglypuff) to a sparkly blue dress. Then after dancing around she goes into an elevator and wakes up probably thinking "that's the last time I watch a Pokemon TCG commercial before going to bed".
WHAT ELSE:
So, let's see... as doipy hooves noted above they're doing a collab with Nabisco to have the Starters appear on their mini cookie grab bag boxes... though it looks like the individual wrapped grab bags will just have Pikachu even though each cookie is supposed to focus on a specific Type. So Water-types like Oreos (have to be in the mood to pick one up), Grass-types like Chips Ahoy (cause they're classic like that), and Fire-types like Nilla (cause sometimes the best choice is the plainest choice). Oh, and don't worry cookie lovers, these don't have TCG cards in them so you may actually be able to find them (would be funny if the plan was to have cards in them but Nabisco saw what happened to the cereal boxes and went "no").
The Regions got to Sinnoh and if you thought it would do anything special with BDSP and Legends coming out soon HAHAHA! Though one funny thing I noticed is that, due to their insistence of using clips and images from the anime (because why would you want to show screenshots from the games...) when they talk about the Distortion World they show a image of the Reverse World (yes, I know the Reverse World is the anime's version of the Distortion World, but the anime writers decided it wanted it to be different so I'm treating it as such). Also it mentions Rotom and that when it changes forms it changes Type... except it didn't do that until Gen V. Also, for some reason the only Rotom form they specifically named was Rotom Mow and I can think the only reason they did it is because the clip they chose had was Rotom Mow chasing after Ash & Pikachu.
(Okay, can we talk about the choices? Pikachu, Eevee, Bulbasaur, Squirtle, Scorbunny, and Sobble make sense. Mewtwo is an odd one to throw in but sure. And finally Growlithe. No Charmander (or Charizard the way they like plastering it on everything Pikachu and Mewtwo are also on) or Grookey, huh. Also, major missed opportunity not having Poipole, guess it was one gen too late. Also would like to know who decided on this collection numbering. Eevee first before Pikachu? They placed Growlithe and Mewtwo between Squirtle and Bulbasaur? And Bulbasaur is last? and Mewtwo is second to last?)
Still selling their leftover stock on Amazon. I would make a sarcastic comment but I used it all up on the glue sticks.
And that's it! Boy the 25th Anniversary is sure exciting, no way I can think of making it more exciting.
Oh yeah, giveaways like this or the Mythicals. Oh well.
So a two more songs have been released for the 25th Anniversary via a small album called "Pokemon 25: The Red EP" (it also contained Mabel's "Take It Home") which is now on all the digital music stores. When there's a red there's a blue and so it's also been announced another small album called "Pokemon 25: The Blue EP" is coming but says it would just be remixes by Zhu of these same three songs. Strange decision, why not just release 3 other songs?
Anyway, onto the new songs.
First is "Got 'Em" by rapper Vince Staples and, oh my Arceus, IT ACTUALLY CONTAINS POKEMON REFERENCES! Granted, they're more word play/allusions than the song itself being about or relating to Pokemon, but he doesn't seem hesitant to say some Pokemon names like the other artists do.
As for what the song is about, it seems to be about him saying how he's going to live his life to its fullest as well as some stuff about hard life on the streets. It would probably be seen as "lite rap" but what were to expecting from a song for a Pokemon promotion. And his song sounds like he did write it for this occasion as opposed to the other artists who songs, lets be honest, sound like they were probably going to be released anyway so was just attached to the project or song ideas (or lyrics) they had in the closet cause they didn't know what to do with it. Speaking of which...
Second is "Wonderful" by Cyn and, boy, talk about lyrics looking for a song.
The song sounds to be about taking things easy and enjoying the wonders of life around you. Very generalized, maybe could link some lines to Pokemon but, like with "Electric", nothing you can't unlink to Pokemon for a general audience to have something easy to listen to.
It's only been a month since I looked through the slow updating site. Like, the Hoenn section is opened up but by now the Region Exhibit has proven itself to be nothing but a joke. Looking through the Hoenn section my immediate observations:
Talks about new Poke Balls, weather conditions on the overworld, and the Battle Frontier... but no mention of ABILITIES or DOUBLE BATTLES?! Possibly the two BIGGEST features introduced in this gen that changed the course of the games both casually and competitively, no, not important to mention in the region exhibit? Oh, but we gotta mention how there's no Eevee in the Pokedex and mentioning its the only region to do so... if you don't count Unova.
While I guess "Earth vs Water" isn't a wrong way to describe the Team Magma vs Aqua conflict... it's also not quite accurate. It's more "Land vs Ocean". Also, they show Groudon and Kyogre, but they never mention them by name, great exhibit about Hoenn...
Hey, a new update within the month of the previous update!
Actually I could have made an update post before... but I didn't feel it was that update worthy. Remember those Blue EP remixes of the above songs done by ZHU? Well, they were released and they certainly were remixes of those songs; honestly I don't think they really should have bothered as I don't feel they change the songs in anyway (Serebii says it added samples of Pokemon music which I don't hear; and even if it did that's a superfluous way of connecting these songs to the Pokemon franchise as it doesn't change the song). Serebii made things easy by having putting the original and remix on the same page if you want to compare and contrast:
But there was an additional announcement when The Blue EP dropped and that there was another song coming this time by a French artist named Louane called "Game Girl". And I said GAME Girl, not Gamer Girl, note the absence of the "r" at the end, calm down. Well, Game Girl is here! A notable thing about this song is that Louane sings parts of it in French and parts of it in English... and the song on Youtube for some reason doesn't provide captions. I'll include English lyrics for what she's saying in French below (since Serebii didn't bother doing that either!):
Encore une fois (Once again) Tu veux play avec moi (You wanna play with me) Et je ne comprends pas (Je n'comprends pas) (And I don't understand (I don't understand)) Ce que tu veux de moi, ah (What you want from me, ah)
T'as bien joué, j'ai le cœur en l'air (You played well, my heart is in the air) J'ai bien joué, j'aime pas être ton adversaire (I played well, I don't like being your opponent) On a joué, comment te montrer (We played, how to show you) Qu'il n'y a que toi qui comptes pour moi ? (That it's only you who matters to me?)
Just let me be your Game Girl
And I will be like no-one ever was
Please bring me back my Game Boy
I swear that I won't play with your heart
Souviens-toi (Remember) Quand tu jouais à être le roi (When you played to be the king) Quand j'restais à chaque fois (When I stayed every time) Que tu ne me voyais pas, ah (That you didn't see me, ah)
T'as bien joué, j'ai le cœur en l'air (You played well, my heart is in the air) J'ai bien joué, j'aime pas être ton adversaire (I played well, I don't like being your opponent) On a joué, comment te montrer (We played, how to show you) Qu'il n'y a que toi qui comptes pour moi ? (That it's only you who matters to me?)
Just let me be your Game Girl
And I will be like no-one ever was
Please bring me back my Game Boy
I swear that I won't play with your heart
Game Girl, Game Girl
Game Boy, Game Boy
Game Girl, Game Girl
Game Boy, Game Boy
T'as bien joué, j'ai le cœur en l'air (You played well, my heart is in the air) J'ai bien joué, j'aime pas être ton adversaire (I played well, I don't like being your opponent) On a joué, comment te montrer (We played, how to show you) Qu'il n'y a que toi qui comptes pour moi ? (That it's only you who matters to me?)
Just let me be your Game Girl
And I will be like no-one ever was
Please bring me back my Game Boy
I swear that I won't play with your heart
If the lyrics she sang in English didn't already tip you off, yeah, this is yet another song that doesn't really have any connection to Pokemon. Heck, doesn't really have to do anything with "gaming" either, the "Game" here is a metaphor for love/relationships. It's a love jam. Sounds like a guy is into her though she doesn't know exactly what he wants from her because he's a flirt but doesn't seem to notice how she feels which is she's also into him but wants him to be more devoted to the relationship before being with him. Did I read that right? Well, either way sounds like something she was gonna release anyway, she was approached to do this collab, and agreed because now this song was heard by millions instead of the few hundred thousand of her fans and those who generally listen to pop music.
BTW, whenever I sound critical, note it's toward the song and not the artist. I'm sure all these artists are nice people (or would like to think so), but if they're going going to release a song part of a Pokemon collab I'm going to judge the song as such. If it obviously has nothing to do with Pokemon (and I'm not strict, I gave Vince Staples full credit just for mentioning some Pokemon stuff even if it was just for wordplay purposes), I'm calling them out on it. Good to have that cleared up, now back to criticizing people that have way more talent, money, and fans than I do as if my opinions actually matter to them or anyone for that matter.
Pokemon put out some commentary videos with the singers talking about their songs and their experiences.
Personally I've only skimmed through a bit of the Vince Staples and Snorlax one, but I wanted to make this post right now because I noticed something odd about some of the game footage.
For some reason they were showing what looked like Gen 2 sprites, but with a very low level Pikachu and the Gen 1 String Shot animation.
A bit earlier in the video, there's also this Gen 2 Pidgey. But that isn't the Gen 2 trainer backsprite, or Gen 1's exact one. What's going on?
Well, I believe this footage is actually taken from a romhack that adds Gen 2 graphics to Gen 1. I've linked a video showcase that shows the trainer backsprite is pretty much the same as what's shown in this video.
It's nothing huge but I found it amusing they've indirectly shown a romhack on the official Pokemon youtube channel now.
EDIT:
Since they were talking about how Vince grew up with the game boy, I figured out where they probably got this footage from.
My absolute favorite corporate thing is when people putting videos or images together just google for the first result and do no fact checking on things like "is this fan art"
*Doing my own thing, looking through some old Pokemon news, and sees the 25th Anniversary Cards* Oh, right, I knew I forgot to do something...
So, let's get the biggest news out of the way: the P25 album has finally been released! It contains 14 tracks, though 3 of them are remixed versions by Zhu. So, let's give them a listen:
Post Malone - Only Wanna Be With You: And the reward of putting in the least amount of effort (though probably was paid more money then some of the other artists). All I can say is he sings the song good and the animation is nice, but it's just a cover of a random song (I'm sure he had a reason for choosing it but without knowing why...) and the animation is a repeated loop of him walking around singing not even interacting with the Pokemon.
Katy Perry - Electric: An alright song; the lyrics were vague enough where you could relate it to the Pokemon experience but it's not too specific that a general non-Pokemon audience can't listen along (though the music video might confuse them why there's a Pikachu and Pichu in it if they didn't know this was for a collab). Speaking of which, the music video with Katy Perry in it was cute even if took a few watches to figure out the storyline, though I also kind of prefer the lyric video for all the neat little visuals they did and trying to use as many Electric-type Pokemon as they could.
Mabel - Take It Home (+ Zhu Remix): Okay song... though doesn't have much anything to do with Pokemon. Was hoping the "Evolution of a Song" above for Mabel could add in more context... but it didn't really. If anything it made me ask more question. Like at first I thought it was a love jam where the singer tells the lover if they want them to just come & get them. But then she said her favorite lines are in the second verse because they're the true meaning of friendship. Um, okay, but wait, why do you keep calling them "baby" and what was with the "wit' ya love love love" part then if it's not toward a lover? Mabel mentions when she thinks about writing a song she imagines what would she wants to take the listener to, but she never explained what world that was *sigh*. So, the music video was interesting, very dream-like, though I found the funniest part to be the Pokemon TCG commerical at the beginning. As for Zhu Remix, I don't really have anything else more to say, it doesn't add in anything Pokemon like a riff from music in the games (Post Malone at the very least had a riff of Ecruteak/Cianwood City's music).
Vince Staples - Got 'Em (+ Zhu Remix): An alright rap plus I'm giving Vince Staples full credit for actually including Pokemon references in it. Granted, they do seem a bit out of place as the song is about surviving on the streets. Guess it was a bit too optimistic to think he would go more into what certain lines meant in the "Evolution of a Song" above, but even without that I like his first thought was going to his friend and brainstorming what Pokemon stuff to write into a Pokemon song. Also an extra credit to the Zhu Remix which added in the Pokemon Theme at the beginning.
Cyn - Wonderful (+ Zhu Remix):
Thank goodness for those "Evolution of a Song" videos above. So, this is sort of a "train of thought" song, combining Cyn's thoughts of childhood plus the visuals she remembers from the anime, possibly particularly the original Pokemon opening theme. This was VERY much needed as I can now sort of see where certain lines came from. It's a nice chill song, and the Zhu Remix gives it a sort of vaporwave effect with the emphasis on the drums. But that's not the only thing Cyn has done with Pokemon during the 25th Anniversary! Turns out she also did two unique songs for the new Pokemon movie, Secrets of the Jungle: "Always Safe" and "No Matter What". So Cyn bonus round:
Cyn - Always Safe: A nice sentimental song. In context of the movie it's the thoughts of the Dada Zarude assuring a young Koko he's supporting & protecting him. But it's a song that I imagine a parent or guardian will be able to identify with. If I were to compare it to another song from a movie with similar themes as Secrets of the Jungle, it's the Pokemon equivalent to Phil Collin's "You'll Be In My Heart" for Disney's Tarzen.
Cyn - No Matter What: A nice jaunty song. In context of the movie it could be referencing either Zarude, Ash, or even the both of them being friends with Koko and helping him out when he needs it. Outside of that, if it were to be played over another video I'm imagine it would be two best friends going off on a fun adventure, each having the other's back.
Louane - Game Girl: Another fine sounding love jam (at least I think it is) that doesn't sound like it has much to do with Pokemon. They really should have done an "Evolution of a Song" for every singer; at the very least to associate them all with a Pokemon; according to the video Louane's favorite Pokemon is apparently a Poke Ball (and I guess Pikachu).
J Balvin - Ten Cuidado:
FINALLY, the song they kept on teasing. Remember how they revealed J Balvin as the third performer and yet four other artists (five if you count Zhu's remixes) had their songs released before his? Well, here it is. Before we begin, if anyone is wondering, "Ten Cuidado" is Spanish for "Beware". Funny thing, I was gonna do a joke where before "teasing" I was gonna put "threatening" crossed out like that, but apparently I wasn't far off if the title is saying I should "beware" of it. Let's get dangerous.
Well, I watched it, and congrats J Balvin for having the second song that references Pokemon and the first one to be ABOUT Pokemon! Yes, imagine that, in a Pokemon collab with a batch of singers we have a least one song about Pokemon! So, yeah, either you know Spanish or just read the translations Serebii provided, honestly this could be used as a Pokemon GO theme. J Balvin is going out to catch some Pokemon and nothin' ain't stopping him, a Champion like Ash (good thing Ash won the Alola League! But don't worry we still got that weird distorted Pikachu cry to poke fun of). The music video was also fun and nice to see Pokemon from other Gens that Gen I (even though the lyrics of the song don't go past it). So, was this song worth the wait? Honestly, yeah, I enjoyed it. This was the kind of song I'm expecting from a Pokemon Collab. So standing applause to J Balvin for delivering!
Jax Jones & Sinead Harnett - Phases: Love jam. The closest Pokemon thing it has is the line "I fought through the tall grass to see you". Moving on.
Lil Yachty - Believing: Oh, hey, a name I recognize. And hey x2, it has Pokemon in the lyrics, the third song! Why is it only the rappers who are referencing Pokemon? What's wrong conventional singers, worried you'll scare off your general audience if the words "Pokemon" and "Pikachu" are heard? Though, jokes aside, there is something interesting I noticed about Lil Yachty's song. The first half doesn't have anything to do with Pokemon at all and includes the word "believing", and then second half is where ALL the Pokemon references are and "believing" isn't used once. Lil Yachty, were you in the middle of writing this song, got a call from the Pokemon Company, and decided to just fill the rest of it with Pokemon references to submit as your contribution? Well, even if you did, you're still ahead of the conventional singers.
Tierra Whack - Art Show: Well, at least it wasn't another love jam, unless we count Tierra Whack's love for art shows.
Yaffle, Diachi Yamamoto & AAAMYYY - Reconnect: Five, of the 14 songs five reference Pokemon in someway! Oddly Serebii doesn't have the lyrics but the song is in English so was able to understand it even with the sound effects going off. Yes, sound effects, from the games! And though they never (directly) said a Pokemon's name, they used plenty of imagery and names of Moves to make this love jam (I think it's a love jam) actually feel it was made for a Pokemon collab. And if that wasn't evident enough, they did throw in a PokePun with Pikachu's name at 1:28 (Pick & Choo(se) = Pik-a-chu). Very nice, I enjoyed it.
1. J Balvin - Ten Cuidado
2. Yaffle, Diachi Yamamoto & AAAMYYY - Reconnect
3. Vince Staples - Got 'Em
4. Katy Perry - Electric
5. Cyn - Wonderful, Always Safe, & No Matter What
6. Lil Yachty - Believing
7. Mabel - Take It Home
8. Louane - Game Girl
9. Jax Jones & Sinead Harnett - Phases
10. Tierra Whack - Art Show
11. Post Malone - Only Wanna Be With You
To explain some of my choices, even though Lil Yachty directly mentioned Pokemon, as I said it felt like he was writing one song and changed it into it being about Pokemon last second which made it feel a bit sloppy. While Katy Perry and Cyn didn't mention Pokemon directly, I could still see the relation to Pokemon in their songs so that's why they're above Lil Yachty. I was thinking of also putting Mabel above Lil Yachty, but unlike Katy Perry's and Cyn's songs I couldn't hear the Pokemon reference which, on my ranking, does matter.
So, 6 of the 11 songs of a Pokemon collab had to do with Pokemon (what is this, an early 2000 Pokemon movie soundtrack?).
So with that done, how about more Pokemon TCG news?
First, one that directly relates to the P25 album:
Well, you are, but what you're seeing are actual products:
That's right, J Balvin, Katy Perry, and Post Malone are now Pokemon cards. Not Trainer Cards, not "Trainer's (POKEMON)" cards, they themselves are the Pokemon (V Pokemon to be precise). Sure, they have Pokemon behind them, but do you see Charizard, Pikachu, Dragonite, & Butterfree's name anywhere on the cards? Yeah, I thought not.
Now, I'm not a professional TCG player, though they look to be pretty decent. After the first turn J Balvin is always hitting for 250 damage, that along usually enough to knock out most Pokemon. Katy Perry isn't a heavy hitter (I say this for a card that does a base 130 damage, power creep is a son-of-a-...) but 20 damage to each bench Pokemon makes her more of a setter-up to knock them down later. Finally Post Malone in theory has a neat effect but in practice may be the weakest. Like, technically he could hit for (9 * 20 = 180 + 120) 300 damage... but you have to for some reason have one of each available basic energy card (including Fairy which they're no longer making except for some special box sets). Most decks only use 2 types of energy, 3 at the most, so Post Malone is only doing 160-180 damage and no special effect. Also I love the symbol for this collection, a music note that looks like Pikachu's tail.
Anyway, as far as I'm aware, they haven't announced how to get these cards yet. So, if I remember, I'll post on here as soon as the Pokemon Company tells the scalpers what they need to do to get them all.
Second, a sneak peak at a new card Type: VSTAR:
So, what are VSTARS? You know how you're only allowed to use one GX move per game? VSTAR is another GX but since it has a different name you can use it along with your VMAX! Oh, and since you have to "evolve" your VSTAR from a normal V Pokemon that means its normal attack can also be stronger to crush the last resemblance the TCG has to being balanced!
Final TCG news, a new TCG special set was released called Celebrations which contain 25 new cards and 25 older cards from the "Classic Collection".
REGIONS:
All Regions are now available to view. Last one I looked at was Hoenn so let's take a look at the last 2:
Johto: So the major mechanics it covered were the Dark & Steel-types (even mentioning they were specifically introduced to balance Psychic), Baby Pokemon, & indirectly Shiny Pokemon via Ash's Noctowl. No mention of genders, in-game clock, Crystal being the first time you can choose to play as a girl, the new evolutions of older Pokemon (but they just had to mention the babys), & able to visit Kanto in the post game. Heck, didn't even mention the GS Ball.
Kanto: You know we're in trouble where one of the first major features it mentions is Ash. Towns names after colors, SCIENCE like Mewtwo, Lavender Town, first 15 Types, naming all the Gym Leaders and their Type specialty, TECHNOLOGY like Silph Co... and that's it. What, you thought for the first Pokemon region they mat give it a little bit more attention being it setup the backbone for the entire series? Pfft, what a silly notion... Oh, wow, THEY DIDN'T EVEN MENTION TEAM ROCKET!
Like, why did they even bother? They would have been more informative had they just linked to the Bulbapedia's overview page about each generation.
PRODUCTS:
Just two I want to talk about. First, did you hear about the Pokemon Oreos?
If you haven't, oh are you in for a treat; and I don't mean the cookie.
So, first off there's no TCG cards inside so thankfully there should be no reason for anyone to tear open packages... *sigh*
Okay, to be fair, I haven't heard anyone doing that, but would it really surprise you?
"But, if there's no TCG cards inside, what would they be looking inside for?"
Why, the cookies of course! Infact they made a neat special commercial essentially doing black-and-white pixel art with "Oreo" cookies! And while watching this, keep in mind that while they were doing all this the Nabisco employees were on strike for a new labor contract because Nabisco had been pushing for mandatory weekend work, longer shifts with no overtime pay, & a new health insurance plan that increases costs for workers (among other smaller issues). ENJOY!
Noticed the end there? The "15 more to go"? Yup, each Oreo had has a Pokemon pattern on it, one of sixteen.
Now, you'd think that each package would at least have all sixteen patterns.
This is where The Pokemon Company and Nabisco got "cute".
One of those sixteen patterns is Mew.
While you'll easily find the other fifteen patterns in each package, not Mew.
Mew was made rare.
A RARE OREO COOKIE.
There's nothing else special about it aside having a Mew design on it. It tastes like any other Oreo.
Well, presumably it tastes like any other Oreo.
Because people aren't eating the Mew Oreo.
Why would they when they could sell it for THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS.
Alright, enough of the one sentence per line. Now I don't think it's going for thousands anymore, but it is likely going for hundreds still. Oh, and yes, that does indeed mean people are collecting these. COLLECTING OREOS. I have no idea how they're going to preserve them, I don't think even an air-tight box will keep it from eventually breaking down. Also, for it to have any value, wouldn't they need the whole collection? So a collector wouldn't just be preserving the one Mew Oreo, they would be trying to preserve 16 Oreos. Imagine, either one big or several smaller transparent, air-tight boxes hanging on someone's wall with 16 Oreo cookies inside of them all because ONE of them was "rare". Yup, that's the world we're living in.
In other news, MORE Pokemon skateboards.
So, I didn't realize this, apparently the Pokemon skateboard deal that started at the beginning of the 25th Anniversary was just Series 1.
Series 1:
Series 2:
Series 3:
Series 4:
(I think even they're shocked they got to Series 4 because they made another Pikachu!)
VStars function a little differently from GXes, namely that they seem to have once-a-game abilities. Which is a bigger distinction since those dont have energy requirements and can probably have more farther reaching or eclectic effects, can be played from the bench and wont deal damage
)
