The Pokémon Company has taken its time to realize that its target audience, whether they like it or not, isn’t just kids aspiring to become trainers and earn the usual badges. It also includes a significant number of adult fans of the franchise, or at the very least, die-hard nostalgics. Perhaps that’s why the franchise has grown and expanded into places we never thought it could infiltrate. Evidence of this is the fantastic animated series about trading cards or one that is currently premiering in Japan, offering a fresh perspective on the Pokémon world.
Real World, I choose to challenge you!
And it’s because ‘Pokémon: Pack Your Pocket With Adventure’ is not the typical adventure where kids go out to have fun hunting monsters, nor the American version like ‘Detective Pikachu’. Here, Pokémon don’t run around the streets. In fact, they’re not even real: they live in a video game that Madoka Akagi rediscovers the same week she starts a new job. And yes: she blows into the Game Boy. It couldn’t be any other way.
It is, at first glance, an adult series in which she will realize how ‘Pokémon Red’ resembles several situations in her daily life: the fights with bosses, the small joys, or, why not, a companion that looks like Magikarp. Of course, as a good associated product, it will still feature a kid discovering the saga in his own way on the Switch. Nostalgia, yes, of course, but if we can get more people hooked again, that’s what we’re after.
The series will premiere on October 19th on TV Tokyo, marking the first time that ‘Pokémon‘ is trying its hand at live-action, apart from the well-known American movie, for which a sequel is currently in the works. With many of its fans entering the workforce, is this the beginning of a much more mature phase for the saga, or are these just minor changes before bringing us another ‘Let’s Go Pikachu 2’? Only time will tell.
