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The famous Pokémon tagline, “Gotta catch ‘em all,” really only covers half of the franchise’s theme. As any fan will tell you, after catching the adorable combatants, the next step is to train them, making them stronger and stronger until your menagerie is powerful enough that you become a true Pokémon Master, and maybe even the best in the world.

That’s the setup for just about every video game and anime in the series, and Pokémon is now such a cultural phenomenon that there are indeed national and even worldwide tournaments for the game. This raises the question, though: When a mother’s son or daughter says, “Mom, I did it! I become a Pokémon Master,” how should she respond?

Japan’s Pokémon national championships were just held at the Pacifico Yokohama convention center in Kanagawa Prefecture, and the highest finishers in the Junior, Senior, and Master categories will journey to Boston this August to compete with other competitors from around the globe to determine the world’s best Pokémon trainers. The parallels to the in-series storyline add even more drama to the event, and the official video of the Japan championships shows it was an exciting time for all 83 entrants.

Still, we doubt anyone was more excited that Japanese Twitter user Viera, which seems to be the handle of Shoma Honami, the overall winner of the Japanese tournament’s Master Class (in which the oldest entrants compete). After winning the category’s top prize, Viera, who’s currently a college student, snapped a picture of the certificate declaring him an official Pokémon Master.

▼ “I won! I’m this year’s best Pokémon player!!! I’m so happy all my hard work paid off.”

Viera even shared the good news with his mom, sending her the picture in a Line message while informing her “I’m the best in Japan.”

But while fellow fans can no doubt understand Viera’s elation, it’s not surprising that the generational gap prevented his mom from feeling the same intense rush of emotion. Still, she did respond with a stamp of a politely smiling rabbit…which she then followed up with a stark reminder that life isn’t all fun and games.

“Find a job.”

Well, that certainly was a quick trip back to reality. Still, the new Pokémon Master seems to have taken her message to heart, tweeting to his followers that he’ll do his best in hunting for employment.

After all, even if you’re planning to minimize your food budget by eating nothing but budget-priced cups of Pikachu ramen, the money to pay for them still has to come from somewhere.

Sources: Hachima Kikou, Pokémon official website, Twitter/@SHADEviera
Top image: Pokémon official website