Tokyo’s best-selling sweet souvenir charges up with six cute Pikachu designs. 

For a lot of people in Japan, no visit to Tokyo is complete without picking up some Tokyo Banana sweets for friends and colleagues back home. In fact, this Tokyo souvenir is so beloved it recently ranked as the city’s number one souvenir in a 2019 Intage survey, and it’s had hugely successful tie-ups with popular brand KitKat, in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Now, for 2020, Tokyo Banana is gearing up for their first-ever collaboration with Pokémon. The banana-shaped sponge cakes filled with banana custard cream will be branded with six different Pikachu designs for the new series, dubbed “Pokémon Tokyo Banana”. 

▼ The concept behind the new sweets is:  “Fluffy Pokemon is always with you. Exciting snack time”.

The six Pikachu patterns on the little sponge cakes have been given the following cute names: “Cheery Pikachu“; “Wink Pikachu“; “Hello Pikachu“; “Prim Pikachu“; “Goodnight Pikachu“; “Pikachu Tail“.

While they’re all adorable, the Pikachu Tail is said to be extra special, as it occasionally appears with a heart-shaped tail to resemble the back of a female Pikachu!

Each sweet comes individualy wrapped in packaging that resembles a Poké Ball, so you can enjoy the thrill of releasing them into the wild as they come into your posession.

▼ The new sweets will be sold in packs of two for 291 yen (US$2.81).

▼ That means you’ll have to purchase at least three in an attempt to catch ’em all.

Given the huge popularity of Pokémon and Tokyo Banana, catching ’em all won’t be an easy task, as they’ll be initially released on different dates and only in limited quantities, at 7-Eleven stores around Japan. 

Release dates are as follows:

21 November — Tokyo metropolitan area, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama

28 November — Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Miyagi, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui prefectures

5 December — Yamanashi, Nagano, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Okayama, Hiroshima, Tottori, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kochi prefectures

12 December — Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Shiga, Nara, Wakayama, Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Oita, Kumamoto, Miyazaki, Kagoshima prefectures

▼ There should really be a “Crying Pikachu” in the collection because sadly, these will not be available in Okinawa Prefecture.

From 10 December, however, the range will be stocked at Tokyo Banana’s HANAGATAYA Tokyo South Passage store at JR Tokyo Station, where they’re planning to include other tie-up goods like a large gift box.

▼ Fingers crossed this plushie appears as well.

In January 2021, a second Pokemon Tokyo Banana range will become available, with details available in the very near future.

So next time you or someone you know visits Tokyo, this is the must-buy souvenir to purchase or put in a request for. It’ll be sure to put a smile on the face of whoever receives it, much like these new Pokémon doughnuts from Mister Donut, which go on sale in Japan for a limited time from 13 November.

Source, images: PR Times © 2020 Pokémon. © 1995-2020 Nintendo / Creatures Inc. / GAME FREAK inc.
Pokemon, Pokemon, and Pokémon are registered trademarks of Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak.
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