Today Japanese airline ANA took another step on its traditional collaboration with The Pokémon Company by debuting the first-ever in-flight safety video starring Pokémon.
The video debuted today during an event at Tokyo Haneda Airport, featuring the presence of Pokémon World Championship players. The video was showcased during a flight to Honolulu, Hawaii for the 2024 Pokémon World Championships.
It was jointly created by ANA and The Pokémon Company with the goal of crafting an experience that all passengers would enjoy watching, including both adults and children.
This is certainly a good way to make sure that your passengers will actually pay attention to the video, which are crucial for safety, but are often ignored or considered boring.
You can watch the video below.
During the event, ANA Executive Vice President of Customer Experience Management and Planning Motoaki Ueno shared a comment:
“The partnership with The Pokémon Company brings together two iconic brands to create a unique in-flight safety experience that seamlessly bridges generations, offering both fun and educational information.
At ANA, we are committed to ensuring the safety of our passengers, and this innovative approach allows us to elevate the flight experience by combining essential safety information with engaging entertainment. This unique collaboration ensures travelers of all ages enjoy a memorable and delightful journey with us.”
The video is broadcasted via the in-flight entertainment on ANA’s airliners featuring Pokémon liveries and decor, which you can see in the gallery below. The voiced narration is both in Japanese and in English with subtitles in 18 languages, on top of both Japanese and English Sign Languages to be accessible to a wide audience.
ANA’s collaboration with Pokémon is a long-standing tradition that started all the way back in 1998 with a Boeing 747 and two Boeing 767 featuring the popular characters by Game Freak on their liveries.
Nowadays, ANA flies two Pokémon-themed airliners, Pikachu Jet NH, which is a Boeing 787-9 registered as JA894A, and Evee Jet NH, a Boeing 777-300ER registered as JA784A. If you’re wondering, “NH” is ANA’s IATA code.
The trend of airliners with Pokémon-themed liveries, affectionately called “Pokémon Jets” by fans, has returned under the spotlight fairly recently after a pretty long hiatus via the Pokemon Air Adventures initiative created to promote tourism and travel.
Several airlines in Japan including Skymark, Solaseed Air, and Air Do, and in Asia, including China Airlines, Scoot, Garuda Indonesia, and T’way, fly airliners starring Pokémon characters.
ANA also flew the most popular Pokémon Jet of all time, the beloved “Pikachu Jumbo” JA8957 which debuted in 2004. The beautiful 747-481D was beloved due to its massive size and striking yellow color. It was eventually retired in 2013, but it holds a special place in the hearts of many fans and travelers.
The Pokemon Company is very active in promoting tourism. For instance, it recently lent Growlithe as Okinawa’s official support Pokémon.
Incidentally, we recently saw the release of Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Red Rescue Team via the Nintendo Switch Online service.
If you’d like to fly your own Boeing 777s and 787, you may want to try flight simulation. For that purpose, you can read our introductory guide, alongside the second episode focusing on installing add-ons, and another showcasing the basic instruments.
You can also read more flight simulation news in yesterday’s roundup article.