Pokémon Finally Get to Watch Humans Fight in New Partnership with Japan Sumo Association

After years of being forced to fight for our entertainment, Pokémon will now get to watch humans engage in combat.

The official Japanese Pokémon Twitter account announced that the perpetually popular monster-catching franchise has entered into a partnership with the Japan Sumo Association, Japan's premiere sumo wrestling league. The collaboration will see Pokémon themed banners, which will feature art of Pikachu and the sumo-inspired fighting-type Makuhita, displayed around the ring during sumo tournaments. Competitors in these tournaments, which will be held during November and January, will also wear Pokémon themed keshomawashi, which are the decorative aprons that wrestlers wear before the match begins. The tournament's referees will also wear Pokémon inspired uniforms. Pokémon mascot characters will also make appearances at tournaments for the league's youth divisions.

Large banners decorated with the box art for the original Pocket Monsters Red and Green Versions will also be displayed at the venues for these tournaments as part of the year-long celebration of the 25th anniversary of those games' original release. The first Pokémon games were created by the independent studio  Game Freak, who at the time was best known for its Sega Genesis/Mega Drive platformer Pulseman, and were released in Japan in 1996 for Nintendo's original black-and-white Game Boy. These games were localized internationally two years later as Pokémon Red and Blue Versions, and instantly became a global phenomenon.

The Pokémon Company is celebrating the multi-billion dollar franchise's big anniversary across all forms of media: a new season of the Pokémon Journeys anime, which sees Ash and Pikachu revisiting old friends and regions from the series' past, recently debuted on Netflix. The company has also started a new anime miniseries based on the stories from the video games, entitled Pokémon Evolutions. Each episode features an animated retelling of one of the key scenes from each generation in the game series. The new series is available to stream for free from the official Pokémon YouTube channel.

Of course, video games are the heart of the Pokémon franchise, and Nintendo has been more than happy to cash in on the series' birthday with multiple new releases this past year, including New Pokémon Snap, the long awaited sequel to the classic N64 game, and Pokémon Unite, a competitive multiplayer game that was released on multiple platforms. The next major release in the series, the DS remakes Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, will be released on Nov. 19. The most anticipated of the upcoming games in the series is the all-new Pokémon Legends: Arceus, which will be released for the Nintendo Switch in January and will feature a new, more open world for players to explore, as well as new battle mechanics and more monsters to catch.

Source: Twitter