Pikachu Will be Japan's Official Mascot For 2014 Soccer World Cup

[Steven Bogos]

Pikachu Will be Japan's Official Mascot For 2014 Soccer World Cup

Pikachu, along side ten of his poke-pals, will be the official mascots for the Japan National Football team.

Pikachu, Pokemon's most famous Pokemon, is already the unofficial mascot of Japan (alongside Goku, Hello Kitty, and Chopper, that is), so it should come as no surprise that the Japan National Football team uniform designer Adidas has chosen the yellow rat to be Japan's official mascot for the 2014 soccer world cup in Brazil. Check out Pikachu in a soccer uniform bellow:



The iconic Nintendo character will be joined with ten of his poke-pals, including Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Meowth, adorning the uniforms of the "Samurai Blue" in their World Cup quest, following an agreement between Adidas and Nintendo. This isn't the first time Nintendo has done a sports-themed collaboration, with the company releasing an officially licensed Mario golf bag [http://www.joystiq.com/2014/02/22/mario-licensed-golf-bag-is-certainly-a-golf-bag-with-mario-on-it/] earlier in the year.

The 2014 FIFA world cup will take place in Brazil in June, and is one of the most prestigious soccer, or "football" as it's called... pretty much everywhere else in the world, tournaments.

Nice to see Nintendo branching out and allowing people to licence its characters like this. Earlier in the year, the company said it was planning to licence out its characters to new partners [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131808-Nintendo-Planning-to-License-Its-Characters-to-New-Partners], and this could be the first step of that directive.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2014/03/16/japan-chooses-pikachu-for-2014-world-cup-mascot/?ncid=rss_truncated]

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[Fox12]

Team New Zealand is breaking through the defenses, approaching the goal and... and yes, he is now on fire! This will mean a penalty shot for team New Zealand, but there seems little hope of victory after Snorlax ate the referee and fell asleep in front of the goal post...

 

[Roxas1359]

The fact that there is no Eevee on that team at all makes me sad at Japan. Seriously, Eevee is the perfect mascot for Pokemon, and it's so damn cute it just blows Pikachu out of the water. I mean hell, Pikachu wasn't even good until it got an item in Gen III, and even then it's not really the best! >.<

[sub][sub][sub]This message is brought to you by the unofficial "Eevee should be Pokemon's Mascot" coalition.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

OT: Now I must have all the football teams of the world have Pokemon on their teams. I will support the one that has an Eevee or any of the Eeveelutions on it's team of course. :3

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

I'm more surprised this is only happening now. Pikachu has been around for nearly 20 years now, figured if he could be put on an commercial airplane...

 

[tippy2k2]

Team New Zealand is breaking through the defenses, approaching the goal and... and yes, he is now on fire! This will mean a penalty shot for team New Zealand, but there seems little hope of victory after Snorlax ate the referee and fell asleep in front of the goal post...

Snorlax, the ultimate goalie! Sometimes a sensational keeper will be called a wall since nothing gets by...Snorlax IS a wall and so nothing can get by!

It's genius really.

Now the only question is are Pokemon bipedal or quadruped since you can only use your feet...?

 

[Roxas1359]

I'm more surprised this is only happening now. Pikachu has been around for nearly 20 years now, figured if he could be put on an commercial airplane...

Well actually I think it has, I mean Luigi was on a train in Chicago last year. Here are the planes that had Pokemon on them, and upon looking further I see none of them have any Eevee or Eeveelution on them...>.<

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

I'm more surprised this is only happening now. Pikachu has been around for nearly 20 years now, figured if he could be put on an commercial airplane...

Well actually I think it has, I mean Luigi was on a train in Chicago last year. Here are the planes that had Pokemon on them, and upon looking further I see none of them have any Eevee or Eeveelution on them...>.<

I'm just more pissed there is no sign of Treecko or our Lazerlord Totodile on the team, Those two were my Faves in Gen 2 and 3.
Seriously, I'd imagine Treecko would be really good at something like Football, he's Bi-pedal, fast on his feet and he blends in with the grass!

See Brazil top THAT!

 

[Xan Krieger]

Might be a reason to watch soccer, give each player the pokemon of their choice on the back of the jersey. Might end up cheering for them on the off chance I do watch it.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The fact that there is no Eevee on that team at all makes me sad at Japan. Seriously, Eevee is the perfect mascot for Pokemon, and it's so damn cute it just blows Pikachu out of the water. I mean hell, Pikachu wasn't even good until it got an item in Gen III, and even then it's not really the best! >.<

[sub][sub][sub]This message is brought to you by the unofficial "Eevee should be Pokemon's Mascot" coalition.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

Blame these two right here.

The anime taught an entire generation of folks who wouldn't touch a handheld who Pikachu was, (usually via obsessed children) and that is why Eevee will never get the attention you want.

Case in Point: My friggin 65+ year old grandmother knows who Pikachu is, you can't dismiss that sort of societal penetration.

 

[Roxas1359]

Blame these two right here.

The anime taught an entire generation of folks who wouldn't touch a handheld who Pikachu was, (usually via obsessed children) and that is why Eevee will never get the attention you want.

Case in Point: My friggin 65+ year old grandmother knows who Pikachu is, you can't dismiss that sort of societal penetration.

It always comes down to those two! Curse you Ash Ketchum, and you're ability to somehow not age at all! >.<
Not to mention that Ash is a god dang terrible trainer. I mean hell, he lost to a level 5 Snivy...level 5! I don't care of Zekrom was messing with Pikachu's Electricity, at this point Pikachu should be level 100! >.<

*sniff*
Eevee will never get the recognition it deserves and I know it, but I would hope one day...one day something would happen. T^T

 

[Nouw]

Fifa 2014 will save Nintendo. Just you guys watch.

 

[AJey]

Football, not soccer. Stop stealing names.

 

[RJ 17]

It's too bad that Pikachu runs on Anime Power alone. When you break it down, the way Ash was raising Pikachu would have been horrible for his stats...at least according to Death Battle's Blanka vs Pikachu video. According to their research Pikachu would have had average to below-average stats in everything except for speed.

That and the fact that friendship and love be damned, Raichu is better than Pikachu. He just is.

 

[el derpenburgo]

Um no, this is false. Nowhere does it say "official" mascot, it's just a bloody tie in promotion. I know this is ripped from Joystiq (and probably a dozen misinformed articles before that) but please have the sense to verify a primary source before riding on the LOL LOOK AT THIS JAPAN STUFF train.

 

[Lt. Rocky]

Why not. They already have anime girls as mascots for their military forces.

 

[O maestre]

wait Japan isn't the host nation, why do they need mascots. I thought only the hosts of international sporting events were charged with designing kid friendly mascots for commercial breaks. I believe the official Brazilian mascot is a native armadillo.

seems like the Japanese successfully stealing the limelight.


Also I hope the Japanese performs better than in south africa, I seem to remember them getting thrashed, not as much as North Korea but still.

 

[Simalacrum]

You know, it just occurred to me...

How much money does Nintendo actually make from just merchandising their characters? Like, they clearly have far, far more brand recognition when it comes to mascots and memorable characters in comparison to Sony or Microsoft, so they must do stuff like licensed merchandise all the time. What percentage of their profits does that come to, I wonder?

 

[Subatomic]

Also I hope the Japanese performs better than in south africa, I seem to remember them getting thrashed, not as much as North Korea but still.

They finished second in their group behind the Netherlands (ranked 11th in the FIFA world ranking, Japan is 48th), and got knocked out against Paraguay in a penalty shoot-out... not exactly a terrible performance, especially compared to the humiliating defeats North Korea suffered likr the 0-7 against Portugel.

 

[1337mokro]

Not sure if genius marketing strategy or secret attempt to brainwash children into supporting the rise of the glorious Nipon.