Pokemon GO with One Piece!

[Crossroads Bulletin]

The next Pokemon GO event has been announced and it is a crossover with pirates!
Pokemon GO will be having a crossover event with popular pirate manga and anime series, One Piece! There are plenty of reasons for this event. The first and main one will be to support the reconstruction of the Kumamoto prefecture from the 2016 earthquake. The other two reasons is to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of Pokemon GO’s release in Japan and One Piece’s 22nd anniversary.
As part of this event and celebration, there will be many things happening in the Kumamoto prefecture and around the world.
Below are what is happening within Kumamoto prefecture regarding the Pokemon GO event.

• Nine new PokeStops will be added to Pokemon GO for the nine statues of each Straw Hat member.
• Each PokeStop will feature art drawn by One Piece creator, Eiichiro Oda.

Around the world

• Special Straw Hat Pikachu will spawn around the world.
• Players will be able to acquire a Straw Hat outfit.

Straw Hat Pikachu will be wearing the famous straw hat that Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece’s main character, wears.
This event will be running from July 22nd to July 29th.

Background Information

Back in 2016, an earthquake had struck the Kumamoto prefecture. This prefecture happens to be the home prefecture for One Piece’s creator, Eiichiro Oda. To help the city and prefecture recover, Oda had donated donated 800 million yen ($7.1 million) in the name of Luffy. He had also provided illustrations for local railway cars.
In honor of Oda’s contributions to the recovery of the prefecture, the city of Kumamoto erected a life size statue of Monkey D. Luffy, One Piece’s main character. This is in hope that the statue will help draw in tourism and assist in the recovery of the city and prefecture. Luffy’s statue was unveiled in November 2018.
Luffy’s statue has become a popular tourist destination that the other members of the Straw Hat pirate crew are also going to get statues as well. This announcement was made in April 2019. Only six months after the reveal of Luffy’s statues. The eight other statues were placed in areas that were hardest hit by the 2016 earthquake. The first four statues of Zoro, Nami, Usopp and Sanji will be installed this year. The other four which include Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook are expected to installed the following year in 2020. Overall, these statues are funded in portions of Oda’s donation and are expected to raise tourism of the prefecture.

In honor of this and part of the event, each location where the Straw Hat statues will become a PokeStop. The special artwork that Oda has provided will be used for the PokeStop.
The One Piece and Pokemon Connection

One Piece and Pokemon share quite a unique connection to each other. That is because Pikachu and One Piece’s Tony Tony Chopper both share the same Japanese voice actress. Ikue ?tani has voiced Pikachu who is the iconic mascot of Pokemon since the debut of the anime. Meanwhile, she has voiced Chopper, One Piece’s reindeer pseudo mascot, since his anime debut in 2001.
About One Piece

One Piece is a pirate adventure story about Monkey D. Luffy who wishes to become the Pirate King. Luffy and his friends travel the world going from island to island in hopes to accomplish their dreams. Along the way they have defeated various villains and pirates who dare get in their way and have helped several people.
These statues in the Kumamoto prefecture are their attempts to help the people of Kumamoto. The backstory is that the Straw Hat Pirates had landed on the shores of the Kumamoto prefecture. Upon learning about the people’s hardships, the Straw Hats have decided to help in the recovery.
One Piece is a popular manga and anime franchise that has reached across the globe. Over 430 million copies of the comic books have been printed in at least 42 countries and regions, according to the prefecture. Weekly chapters are published in Shonen Jump via app and magazine. Meanwhile, the anime airs weekly and can be seen on Crunchyroll.
So make sure to get ready to set sail with Straw Hat Pikachu with this event!
Sources
Kyodo News
One Piece Podcast
The Mainichi
The post Pokemon GO with One Piece! appeared first on Pokémon Crossroads.


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[MC Elesa]

It has been twenty four hours and I still can't believe this is happening.