In what seems like a flash, Pokémon is celebrating the franchise’s 25th anniversary (of the original Japanese release) in 2021. With that, The Pokémon Company has announced a plethora of things that they will be doing across the year to celebrate this huge milestone for the biggest media franchise. The biggest announcement so far is that they are teaming up with Universal Music Group to bring in artists for a year-long music celebration called P25 Music with the first artist (of many) being megastar Katy Perry.

Photo Credit: Christine Hahn

In regards to being brought on to celebrate Pokémon Perry said, “Pokémon has been a constant in my life from playing the original video games on my Game Boy to trading Pokémon TCG cards at lunch to the adventures of catching Pokémon on the street with Pokémon GO. I’ve even visited the Pokémon Café in Japan while on tour! It is an honor to be chosen to help celebrate a franchise that has given me so much joy in the last 25 years, and to be able to watch it evolve in the ways it’s provided that kind of electric joy for the kids in my life and around the world.”

The Pokémon Company also announced that later this year special oversized TCG cards based the artwork from the cards in the first set of the TCG featuring Pikachu and the original games’ starter Pokémon Charmander, Bulbasaur, and Squirtle will be released for fans to collect. Then, the official Pokémon Center will be selling special merchandise all throughout the year at official locations including a special 25th anniversary-themed skateboard designed by Bear Walker.

There are also plans for celebrations to happen in the anime and games including in the mobile titles Pokémon GO and Pokémon Masters EX.  Then, they also guaranteed some big announcements are still to come in regards to the franchise later this year. It will be interesting to see if they announce a new mainline game with the most recent entries Pokémon Sword and Shield releasing in 2019. Then, New Pokémon Snap is just a few short months away from its release in April.You can check out the 25 years of Memories video that released to celebrate the anniversary of the franchise below: