With today’s MLB Tokyo Series 2025 at Tokyo Dome, Japanese fans expected to see national heroes like Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto come back home for the highly anticipated Dodgers vs. Cubs baseball game. What they perhaps did not expect was a Pokémon invasion.
With the popular teams opening their MLB series in Tokyo, the MLB obviously wanted to appease the local fanbase, especially considering that baseball is basically Japan’s national sport and the best common denominator happened to be Pokèmon.
The opening ceremony started with an army of Pikachu mascots in Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs jerseys sporting the popular electric Pokémon’s 025 Pokédex number 025.
On top of that, we even got a cameo of the various Pokémon games throughout history as aPokéball turned into a baseball to prompt the message “Monster Meet Monster… Tonight!”
As Pokémon music echoed through the massive indoor stadium, players were introduced with a corresponding Pokémon on the massive screen and the organizers decided to pay official homage to a semi-recent meme associating Shohei Ohtani with Garchomp (or more specifically “Gaburias,” Garchomp’s Japanese name)-
Back in 2023, Japanese social media was hit by the viral comparison between the player and Garchomp, as their weight and height were very similar, on top of Ohtani’s association with Hokkaido, which serves as the inspiration for the Sinnoh region, the setting of Garchomp’s debut game Diamond and Pearl.
Other players had their own Pokémon: Tommy Edman was associated with Mega Sharpedo while Yoshinobu Yamamoto had Mega Charizard X. Shota Imanaga was Mega Alakazam.
With the game ending with the Dodgers’ 4-1 win over the Cubs and all the Pokémon fanfare, Japanese fans will certainly remember this game for a while.
You can take a look for yourself with the official video of the game’s intro, provided by the MLB itself.
If you’re interested in the latest Pokémon news, you can check out our recap of the latest Pokémon Presents. You can also check out the latest Pokémon esports news.
The series is obviously incredibly popular in Japan, and it often affects other aspects of media and popular culture. For instance, Honda recently revealed a Koraidon bike, while even local airlines are happy to get involved.
