Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo has announced a new Pokemon collection to commemorate the franchise’s 30th anniversary. To really dial up the nostalgia factor, the companies have decided to go with graphics from the very first Pokemon games on Nintendo’s Game Boy. The collection is split into two lines, one for men and another for kids. The former is mostly in black and white, as the games were on the original handheld, while the latter gets a sprinkle of colour.
The two lines have one design in common, which is the start screen for Pokemon Red. An obvious choice, since there’s quite a bit of historical baggage with Blue and Green, and Yellow came a couple of years after. As mentioned, the men’s line has this printed on white, while the kids’ version is given a sky-blue base.
Continuing with the men’s line, the second T-shirt primarily features Mewtwo on the front, and a small Mew on the back, in a corner. Then there’s a black T-shirt with a chest pocket, featuring Pikachu on the outside of said pocket and Raichu inside. The last one has the ace Pokemon of all Kanto gym leaders, plus their badges on the left sleeve.
For the kids’ line, the colour here helps since the first unique print features Pikachu in its old 1998 sprite on the back. On the front, where you’d expect the chest pocket to be, you instead see three of the emotes that the mouse makes in Pokemon Yellow. The next design features Gengar in its original Pokemon Red and Green sprite from before the games got localised. The final print features a seemingly random assortment of Pokemon, but the apparel brand says this is “a selection of six popular Pokemon” from the original games. These are Magikarp, Psyduck, Snorlax, Pikachu, Eevee and Dragonite.
All of these T-shirts will be available starting next week, on 27 July. That being said, you can preview them on the official website ahead of time. The T-shirts for men cost RM59.90 each, while the kids’ ones are RM39.90 a pop.
