A shot of caffeine to wake you up, and a Poké-place to take a nap once you’re ready for some Zs.

Beverage maker Suntory’s Boss is one of Japan’s most popular brands of canned coffee, and by far the one with the most authoritative-sounding name. But even boss has to realize that it’s really the number two in the relationship with its current giveaway partner, Pokémon.

Coinciding with the launch of its new Semi-sweet Evolution Boss flavor, Suntory is teaming up with the Pokémon franchise in no fewer than three adorably artistic ways. First are the Poké-cans, special Boss cans bearing Pokémon Trading Card Game artwork on their sides.

For each flavor of Boss, three different Pocket Monster species are represented. While you can purchase individual Poké-cans, we instead opted for a six-pack, which guaranteed you two cans of each design.

For Rainbow Mountain Blend Boss (the flavor we bought), that means cans with Mimikyu, Sprigatito, and Tatsugiri. Pulling out our copies of the corresponding actual cards, we were very impressed at how faithfully they’ve been reproduced. For anyone who appreciates the franchise’s visual art, the cans make uniquely cool decorations, and we’ve heard some people have even crafted metallic key holders out of the metalic materials.

There’s one more great reason to grab a six-pack, which is that doing so can get you a Pokémon Card Design Lunch Box!

What’s more, you don’t have to send away for the box and wait weeks for it to ship to your house. While store supplies last, you get your Pokémon card lunch box right there in the store.

As you might expect, what with how popular Pokémon is, especially in its home market, supplies are going quickly, but at the convenience store we stopped by there was still one lunch box left, a Quaxly model, with its top based on the card illustrated by Naoki Saito.

The pieces snap together easily, and while it’s officially a lunch box, you can really use it to store whatever you want…like Pokémon cards.

As we said, though, the lunch boxes are going fast. Even if the store you’re shopping at is already all out, though, you’ve still got a chance for some extra merch, at you could argue that it’s the coolest of all: Pokémon Trading Card Game cushions!

A total of 1,500 of these are being given away, featuring the nine Pokémon species (Pikachu, Eevee, Fuecoco, Miraidon, Charizard, Sprigatito, Quaxly, Koraidon, and Mimikyu). Each has the Pokémon Trading Card Game card back design on its reverse side, and they’ve even got openings at the ends for you to slip your hands inside so you can use it as a 42-centimeter (16.5-inch) long pillow for desk naps, similar to the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Disk pillow we looked at a while back.

So how do you get your hands on/in the Pokémon Card Cushions? By scanning the QR code on the Boss Pokémon cans and entering the lottery for one (you’ll also need either a Line, Twitter, or Suntory account to enter). Entries are being accepted between now and June 1, with winners notified afterwards. We’re hoping we win one, so that we can bring it to work and tell our boss that no, we’re not sleeping on the job, we’re doing important research.

Top image: SoraNews24
Insert images: SoraNews24, PR Times, Suntory
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[ Read in Japanese ]