Pokemon Company Creates Fake Cards to Hype Up New Album
The Pokemon Company is continuing its 25th-anniversary parade with new games, special edition Oreos, and even a new music album.
Some weird products have come out over the past year, but one of the funnier ones is this small series of fake Pokemon cards of pop star Katy Perry, rapper Post Malone, and Latin singer J Balvin. The mock-ups were created to promote the upcoming Pokemon 25: The Album, a collection of music tracks celebrating the series.
Celebrity Pokemon Cards
Looking at the cards, the artists are apparently being treated as Pokemon themselves. For example, Katy Perry herself is an Electric-type Pokemon with high stats and an attack called Heartbeat Ray that does a ton of damage.
J Balvin is a Fire-type, probably in reference to his “spicy Latin sound”, and Post Malone is Colorless, standing in between a Dragonite and a Butterfree. It’s unknown whether the Pokemon Company has any plans on releasing these characters in any official capacity like as special collector’s items.
It wouldn’t be the first time a real-life person was made into a Pokemon card. Founder and current president of the Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, had a Pokemon card made of him to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Pokemon 25: Katy Perry, Pikachu, and You
As for why these three artists got the Pokemon card treatment, it’s due to the fact that they made the lead singles of the upcoming Pokemon album. The album’s first lead single is “Electric” by Katy Perry, an anthemic original song about striving for success and becoming the very best. The song’s music video stars Katy Perry and her Pikachu as they reflect back on their past and struggles along the way.
Post Malone’s contribution to the album is “Only Wanna Be With You”, but it’s a weird song. It has absolutely nothing to do with Pokemon at all; in fact, it’s a cover song from this old boomer band. The music video has Pokemon in it, but the connections end there.
J Balvin’s “Ten Cuidado” is a lot better because the song is literally about a Pokemon trainer going on his journey to catch them all. J Balvin includes Pokemon names in the lyrics and makes clever rhymes with them. Not sure what happened with Post Malone, but J Balvin appears to have taken the assignment more seriously.
The New Poke-Rap
The rest of the album includes a variety of different artists, some big and some small. The big names include rappers Vince Staples, Lil Yachty, and Tierra Whack, while the smaller artists include Swedish singer-songwriter Mabel and British DJ Jax Jones.
Join @VinceStaples & Snorlax, @Mabel & Jigglypuff, and @CynthiaLovely & Galarian Ponyta for Evolution of a Song to hear about songs from @Pokemon 25: The Album! #Pokemon25
Then see how @ZHUMusic & Zubat remixed each track! https://t.co/ecvP6CT3L0
pic.twitter.com/DZTia1XFT4— Capitol Music (@capitolmusic) October 13, 2021
The songs are all over the place. Some of the songs sound on-brand and are related to Pokemon, while others are obviously phoning it in with these D-rank songs. It’s obvious they just took the check and gave the Pokemon Company something from the cutting room floor.
Interestingly enough, the Pokemon series consistently had pretty decent music through the years, even way back when the series came out. You can’t tell me “Brother My Brother” didn’t leave you in tears.
