And no, it wasn’t Pikachu on the goodwill mission.
On March 11, Gabriel Boric will be inaugurated as the new president of Chile. Just one day before acquiring the highest authority in the nation, he acquired something else that’s pretty awesome to have.
A Pokémon.
Boric wasn’t out in the woods chucking Poké Balls around the day before the inauguration, though. Instead, he was meeting with diplomats and dignitaries prior to taking office, including Kiyoshi Odawara, Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs. Odawara came bearing a Poké gift, in the form of a plushie of Gen 1 Water-type Squirtle.
That might seem like a surprising choice, since Pikachu is the far more famous face of the franchise, and practically an ambassador for Japanese pop culture himself. The point of a gift, though, is to make the recipient happy, and Odawara had taken note of an offhand comment Boric had previously made that he had been a fan of the Pokémon anime growing up, and that his favorite Pocket Monster was Squirtle.
▼ The moment is even better with the appropriate background music.
“Thank you to Kiyoshi Odawara, Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, for this Squirtle,” Boric tweeted, showing his fan credentials by acknowledging that there are several Squirtles out there in the wild waiting to be paired with a good trainer. On Instagram, Boric (who was 11 years old when the Pokémon anime premiered in Japan) let out some extra enthusiasm with a lyric from the animated series’ theme song, corresponding to “I will travel across the land, searching far and wide” in its English rendition.
In retrospect, it’s sort of surprising that Slowpoke, being the only Pokémon to hold a position of leadership in the Japanese government, wasn’t part of the delegation, but maybe he’ll be part of the welcoming committee if and when Boric makes his state visit to Japan.
Source: Twitter/@gabrielboric via AFP BB News via Livedoor News via Hachima Kiko, AS via Anime News Network/Lynzee Loveridge
Featured image: Instagram/gabrielboric
Insert image: Twitter/@gabrielboric
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