Exeggutor fan remembers that he’s not the only one who loves Pokémon.
After a solid month of non-stop anticipation, last weekend Uniqlo finally released its brand-new collection of fan-designed Pokémon T-shirts, to the excitement of both grown-up and little-kid fans. However, while Pokémon fandom may be eternal, the shirts’ availability won’t be.
Uniqlo isn’t producing such a small batch as to call them limited-editions, but the chain regularly rotates T-shirt designs out of its catalog to make room for new items, so realistically we can only expect the Pokémon shirts to be around for a couple of months, at the most. Add in the fact that initial shipments of the most popular designs have been quickly selling out, and it’s enough to make some fans start to feel pretty anxious, including the elementary-school-age son of Japanese Twitter user @tama12tebako, who’s a big fan of palm tree-like Pokémon Exeggutor.
@tama12tebako was startled when his son asked him to buy him not one, not two, but three of the Exeggutor shirts. As to why he wanted three copies of the exact same shirt, @tama12tebako’s son explained:
“One I’m going to wear right away. I’m going to wear the second one next year, so buy it in a kind of big size, and the third one I’m going to wear when I grow up, so get the biggest size they have.”
▼ Uniqlo’s Exeggutor shirt
It’s an impressive display of devotion to his favorite Pokémon, and @tama12tebako didn’t immediately turn down the duplicate wardrobe request, but remember how we said that Uniqlo stores are already selling out of some of the designs? After giving it some more thought, @tama12tebako’s son amended his ambition, saying:
“You know what? I changed my mind. There are a lot of other people who love Exeggutor too, so I’m OK with just one shirt.”
“This shows his otakuism,” murmured @tama12tebako, and the boy wasn’t done displaying the mentality of a hardcore Pokémon fan either. When @tama12tebako returned home from this shopping expedition with the Exeggutor T-shirt for his son, the boy said:
“I want to wear it to school and show it off, but at recess I spin around on the playground bars, and I’d feel bad for Exeggutor and Pikachu if they were upside-down…”
▼ @tama12tebako’s son’s Let’s Go, Pikachu! capture list is further proof of how much he likes Exeggutor.
The story takes on an especially touching tone when you consider that Exeggutor often gets lost in the shuffle of the franchise’s hundreds of Pocket Monster species, and it doesn’t have the steady stream of merchandise being produced that, say, Pikachu or Eevee do (that crazy-tall Exeggutor figure notwithstanding). It’s good to know that even though speculative hoarding and reselling of anime merch is a continuing problem, there are still some fans who’re willing to take less so that others can share in the fun.
Source: Twitter/@tama12tebako via Hachima Kiko
Top image: Uniqlo
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where over the course of his life he’s owned no fewer than three P-chan T-shirts.