There aren’t many pop-culture forces with as much influence asPokémon. This time the beloved franchise of cute and highly collectible monster pets managed to be the nexus for a heartwarming viral music video that brought together the forces of gaming, anime and Japanese pop music.
The J-Pop band Bump of Chicken is responsible forthe latestPokémonmusic videowith their song “Acacia” serving as back drop to what is basically an anime opening for a bunch ofPokémongames. This particular music video, titled “Gotcha!”, came together to celebrate theCrown TundraDLC releasing forPokémonSword and Shieldand struck a nostalgic chord in the way it celebrated past video games.
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Pokémondoes have its very own anime seriesin addition to a stable of video games, of course, but “Gotcha!” honors the latter. Nearly every series from the originalPokémonRedand I on GameBoy toPokemon Sword and Shieldon Switch gets a moment of its own.
Bump of Chicken is responsible for the musical stylings of this music video, lending their catchy song to this video game anthem. They areno stranger to animehaving recorded opening and ending themes to other popular shows in the past. They also frequent the pop-charts in Japan with many of their singles often hitting the top-10 in their country.
The eye-popping animation in this videois the work of some seasoned vets in the anime industry. The animation direction is from Yuki Hayashi who is well known for his work at the studio Bones and the action showMy Hero Academia. One of the producers, Genki Kawamura, worked onthe popular anime moviedirected by Makoto ShinkaiYour Name. Rie Matsumoto, the music video director, is known for the animeBlood Blockade Battlefront
For a music video that is less than five minutes long it is jam packed with references toPokémonvideo games. Finding all of them may prove to be a different kind of challenge than catching them all.
