2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise, and while there will likely be a new game and other promotions over the course of the year, The Pokemon Company is leading the celebration with…a music collaboration? With pop megastar Katy Perry? Sure, let’s do it.
Perry will be headlining a music initiative called “P25 Music,” which will be ongoing through all of 2021. While she’s the first name attached to the project, The Pokemon Company says it will be collaborating with several more artists over the year, “from rising artists to award-winning global superstars.”
“In Katy Perry, we see a kindred spirit to Pokémon, whose world is bright, fun and uplifting,” said Colin Palmer, vice president of marketing at The Pokémon Company International in a press release. “Katy is a wonderful ambassador to help us celebrate 25 years of Pokémon, and we can’t wait for music fans everywhere to experience the exciting collaborations we have planned.”
The briefest of clips of Perry’s new song can be heard at the very end of a new video released by The Pokemon Company this morning, which takes a long trip down memory lane through the Pokemon franchise’s history. It includes references to basically every major touchstone of the series, from the video games, anime, trading cards, different toy lines, and even the live action Detective Pikachu movie.
Ugh, don’t look at me I’m feeling nostalgic. I’m a huge Pokemon fan, but I’m also kind of a big Katy Perry fan, too. I’ve had mixed feelings on a few of her albums, but “Teenage Dream” remains one of my favorite pop records of the last decade. So I guess I’m a total mark because this collaboration is actually pretty exciting to me. Perry’s inclusion might seem odd at a glance, the Pokemon series has its history with big pop stars dating back to the original movie’s soundtrack, which included NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera.
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While Perry’s involvement was one of the bigger pieces of news in today’s announcement, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company have more collaborations planned, including merchandise deals with Build-A-Bear Workshop, General Mills, Levi’s, McDonald’s, Jazwares, Scholastic, Mattel, Funko, PowerA, and The Wand Company.
Hopefully we’ll hear more about what will be coming on the video game side sooner rather than later. Nintendo waited until September of last year to roll out Mario’s 35th anniversary announcements, and I’d rather not have to wait another eight months to find out what’s coming for Pokemon in 2021. What could it be? The long-rumored Pokemon Diamond & Pearl remakes? News on the upcoming New Pokemon Snap? Or could Nintendo and The Pokemon Company cater to me, specifically, and announce new details on the Detective Pikachu game coming to the Switch that was confirmed back in 2019 then promptly disappeared into the abyss right after?
