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Yokohama's Summer Nights Are Filled with Parading Pikachu

This year's annual Pikachu Outbreak event in Yokohama is ready to launch this summer with a few tweaks. Last year's event was huge, to say the least. A city official reported that 2.3 million people attended, compared to the previous year's 1.79 million. The estimated number of visitors is now said to be closer to 3 million. The growth was in part due to the popularity of the Pokémon GO mobile game. The Pikachu Outbreak event collaborated with the game to create in-game events for visitors in the Yokohama area.

This year, visitors will have to enjoy the events taking place in front of them because Yokohama's mayor Fumiko Hayashi said on Wednesday that the collaboration will not take place this year to avoid the congestion problems and complaints that arose last year. I guess an event can be too popular.

This year marks the fifth Pikachu Outbreak event and organizers are honing in on a science theme. The event is titled "SCIENCEISAMAZING: Kagaku no Chikaratte Sugee!" (Science is Amazing: The Power of Science is Amazing!) . More than 1,500 Pikachu will appear in the Yokohama area, this time in all new kinds of places with the help of digital technology.

The Pikachu Parade will take place in both the daytime and nighttime this year. The promotional image for the event show the peppy Pokémon wearing light-up costumes.

A watershow, like the Fate/Grand Order one shown at Odaiba, will have showings during the day and night for the first time.

An additional Pikachu show will take place at the inner harbor of Minato Mirai. The show will utilize technology by Rhizomatiks and WOW with cooperation from Panasonic Corporation.

The Pikachu Parade will kick off on August 10 and run until August 16.

Source: Animate Times, Nihon Keizai Shimbun