SoraNews24 Reporter Ikuna wants to battle… for friendship!

When it comes to making new friends, it’s important to have at least one thing in common. Whether it’s someone you work with, someone with a shared interest or hobby, or even someone with the same name as you, you have to have something that links you together. Three members of the SoraNews24 team are linked by a mutual love of the cellphone game Pokémon Go; calling themselves the ‘Pokémon Go Club’, the group is made up of P.K. Sanjun, Ikuna Kamezawa and Takashi Harada. 

But while club member Ikuna has made many good friends through Pokémon Go, she recently confessed to fellow club member P.K. Sanjun that she felt that she was lacking a certain type of person in her circle of Poké-pals.

Ikuna: “All the friends I’ve made through Pokémon Go are good people, you know? It’s just… the female trainers that I know are all older than me. I’m the youngest female Pokémon Go trainer that I know. Sometimes I just want to play Pokémon Go with women my age, and have girly chats and do cute things. I want to be friends with a young, cute female Pokémon trainer!”

P.K. thought long and hard. It was certainly true that in their shared circle of Poké-pals, many of them were indeed older than Ikuna, and the younger trainers were all male. But there was one trainer that P.K. had recently met at an event in Sapporo whom he was sure would fit Ikuna’s Poké-pal requirements. She was young, cute and one of Japan’s most famous Pokémon Go players.

Yuri Kitayama is a popular YouTuber and avid Pokémon Go player, and it’s not a stretch to call her the most famous female Pokémon Go player in all of the country. P.K. had only met her once before, but she seemed like a very nice, friendly person, and fit the “young, cute female Pokémon trainer” brief that Ikuna had issued.

As luck would have it, P.K. bumped into Yuri at another Pokémon event in South Korea. Sensing an opportunity too good to waste, P.K. asked Yuri if she’d be interested in working on a project together with Ikuna, and Yuri, as expected of someone with, as P.K. put it, a “nice person aura”, happily agreed to it.

▼ P.K. posing with Yuri, who is exuding a “nice person aura” even in picture form!

So the date was settled and a plan was made. The two would-be Poké-pals would bond not through the power of playing Pokémon Go, however, but through cooking together. The pair decided on making some Pokémon-shaped pancakes, and to make it even more Pokémon-themed, the cooking activity would be a battle, to see who could make the best Poké-pancake!

After a quick trip to the local supermarket, both girls were ready. As well as pancake ingredients, they each picked out some toppings. Yuri bought some whipped cream, sprinkles, chocolate icing pens and strawberry jam, and Ikuna went with chocolate pens, chocolate syrup, some food colouring, and some Pokémon snacks.

As luck would have it, Pokémon Go was not the only thing these two newly acquainted ladies had in common; both Ikuna and Yuri aren’t the greatest when it comes to cooking, so just what kind of pancakes would the girls be making?

Ikuna had decided to go with Psychic type Lunatone, mainly because “the frying pan is already Lunatone-shaped, so making it should be pretty easy.” Yuri also pointed out that shiny Lunatone’s eyes are a similar colour to Ikuna’s hair, which sounded like a comment made between good pals. The petals of friendship were starting to blossom!

Yuri announced she would be making a Pikachu-shaped pancake, but as she lacked confidence in her cooking abilities she’d also settle for “something that looks like Pikachu”.

And with that, the two new friends began their cooking showdown. Both competitors had admitted to lacking confidence in their skills, but Ikuna began the battle with a super effective attack...

▼ … using a rammekin pot to form Lunatone’s crescent shape!

Yuri fought back with her own technique — squeezing the pancake mix from a Ziplock bag to make Pikachu’s tail and face.

And so the time passed, and the Pokémon creations slowly started to take form. Ikuna made a Lunatone eye using her food colouring, and Yuri accidentally made a Victini-shaped head instead of a Pikachu head, but eventually the women were ready to present their works of art.

Yuri’s pancake included Pikachu’s head and tail, with some whipped cream, a squirt of strawberry jam, and chocolate icing for its face. Ikuna’s pancake came with a bonus Chansey, made using leftover pink pancake mix from Lunatone’s eye.

But while both pancakes looked pretty impressive, there could be only one winner. Who would be the esteemed judge to help decide the Pokémon Pancake Champion? Why, none other than our very own Seiji Nakazawa!

After a brief introduction, Seiji was ready to announce the winner after approximately three seconds of inspecting the pancakes, much to both Yuri and Ikuna’s surprise. “I’d decided the winner the moment I set my eyes on both pancakes,” Seiji commented.

The winner was…

▼ Yuri’s Pikachu pancake!

“This one feels like it’s been made by a professional. I made my decision in about a second,” Seiji commented after he announced the win. Ikuna wasn’t ready to accept her defeat though, and prompted Seiji for some comments on her creation.

“Hmm… this one is kind of sloppy,” Seiji remarked.

▼ Watch the whole video here, or skip to 15:35 to see the moment Seiji risks his life by calling his co-worker’s creation ‘sloppy.’

Despite the fierceness of the battle, it really does seem that a beautiful new friendship has formed between Yuri and Ikuna, and the pair sat down to enjoy the fruits of their labour.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Yuri, check out YouTube channel YuriGames, which currently boasts over 100,000 subscribers. Yuri regularly posts Pokémon Go content and her videos involve her out and about, catching Pokémon in the wild.

Alternatively, if all these Pokémon pancake pictures have got you craving one yourself, check out these official Pikachu pancakes from the Pokémon Cafe.

Top image: SoraNews24
Insert images: SoraNews24, YouTube@YuriGames
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