Pervasive Pokémon

Some three years ago, I created a post that showed a few odd things with Pokémon (two in fact, being preceded by one with Pikachu things as well). This was followed up a year later with a few more odd things. All of those things can be considered to indicate that Pokémon is actually quite pervasive - it reaches far and wide into the lives of people in the modern world. For this post, I'd like to show a few more things that further demonstrate that pervasive nature of Pokémon. They fit into all kinds of things in life, but most importantly, they also fit in Pokémon.

Those who play mobile games will be no stranger to the phenomenon that is Pokémon Go, which was strong years ago and maintains a good bit of loyal following today, including by yours truly. For those who want to express their interest, there are several ways, one of them being a motorcycle seat cover with a Pokémon Go graphic. I actually also mentioned this in a post for itasha years ago, but because I've been able to take a picture of this in actual form, I can bring this up again. It can be considered an example of the pervasiveness of Pokémon (as the Go game) because some people who play might have motorcycles, which then can and do assist in playing the game, particularly by my experience. Considering the seat cover as a form of expression, Pokémon really has pervaded it.

A few days ago, I was looking over my post on the Today View feature for Pokémon Go, and the "card-based design" part caught my mind, so I decided to look into it again. While I was viewing images of examples for such a design, I noticed that one of the example images contained a yellow card with the face of Pikachu with text stylized like the Pokémon logo. The example image can be found, oddly enough, on another blog post, but on an external blog. Though the latter was only a subtle indication, the former was quite obvious with nothing to hide. The text, being "Battery Savers", indicates things related to electricity, for which Pikachu is also obviously so. I have no doubt that the connection was made intentionally and with Pokémon as something really recognizable - perhaps also liked, by whoever made the card. Therefore, there is a sense of pervasiveness of Pokémon that went into this.

These days, YouTube is a popular source of entertainment, and there are loads of Pokémon-related videos on there, which indicates its pervasiveness. For this post, I'd like to point out but two of them. While I was browsing through fan animations for a game I don't play but appreciate, I heard the music popularly used in the context of the farewell to Butterfree episode in one of them. It was quite subtle in the background of the voiceover, but it was distinct. The fact that this is so suggests that Pokémon has pervaded the creator, even if the creator doesn't delve much into it. The relevant video can be found here, and the music can be heard 1 minute and 30 seconds in. Meanwhile, just recently, a cat-focused channel that sometimes uploads videos with certain hijinks, uploaded a Pokémon-related video with full Pokémon hijinks. More interestingly, the creator herself appears to be Korean, and I've already discussed Pokémon and its ties to that land - one year ago, in fact (see below). The video for that is this one. Likewise, it's proof that Pokémon has pervaded the creator as well.

All of these things might be considered odd, but they are very much indicative of the pervasive nature of Pokémon. Lots of people around the world like it whether to a small or big extent, and that shows that Pokémon have reached into their lives. Those people are also not shy to demonstrate it in various ways such as these, fitting into diverse contexts, and that further shows how deep that pervasiveness goes. Considering its immense popularity, that pervasiveness of Pokémon has the potential to continue and go deeper and longer with whatever things I and others may come upon next.

One year ago: Hit in the KOR
Two years ago: Keeping the Demo Versions
Three years ago: Cosplay Laundry