Pixel art designs have cool Easter eggs for old-school fans to spot.

With 2026 being Pokémon’s 30th anniversary, a lot of fans are looking all the way back to the franchise’s very beginning. While the anime series and trading card game are both part of the holy triumvirate of Pokémon media, it was the Pokémon Red and Green video games that came first. Releasing in 1996 for Nintendo’s original Game Boy handheld system meant that the graphics were all monochrome, but three decades later what was once a limitation is now part of the nostalgic charm of the inaugural Pokémon adventure, and an awesome motif for a new line of Pokémon T-shirts from Uniqlo.

Technically, Uniqlo’s designers have given the pixel art some extra pop by going with a black-and-white color scheme (or at least black-and-gray), which provides a stronger contrast than the gray and muddy brown/green gamers got with the Game Boy’s screen. The artwork itself, though, retains its old-school aesthetics.

There are a total of four designs on offer, starting with the Pokémon Red title screen shirt pictured above. The title screen shirt is actually the only without a little Easter egg for fellow fans to spot. For example, take a look at this shirt, with Onix, Starmie, Raichu, Vileplume, Weezing, Alakazam, Arcanine, and Rhydonacross the front. With their Japanese-version names written in katakana script.

Pokémon Trainers will recognize all of these as evolved-form Pokémon, so over on the left sleeve you’ll find the in-game items needed to trigger their evolutions to those forms.

Similarly, the shirt with Mewtwo’s commanding presence on the front…

…has a little Mew hiding around back.

And while the vast majority of Uniqlo’s UT graphic tees don’t have pockets…

…there’s a good reason why this one does. Pictured on the outside is Pikachu, accompanied by the Japanese game’s text equivalent for “What? Pikachu is evolving!”…

…and inside the pocket is Raichu!

▼ No sign of Gorochu, though.

The shirts are priced at 1,990 yen (US$13) each and scheduled to go on sale in July, at which time online orders will be able to be placed through the Uniqlo website here.

Source: Uniqlo via Nijimen
Top image: Twitter/@UNIQLO_JP
Insert images: Uniqlo (1, 2, 3, 4)
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