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Oct 03, 2023

Pokémon Concierge Trailer: Pokémon Concierge: Netflix teaser trailer to release date, what we know about new anime

Twenty-five years after Pokemon first began delighting children and adults

Twenty-five years after Pokemon first began delighting children and adults alike, the phenomenon is still capturing hearts, with smartphone craze Pokemon Go enjoying record success in virus-hit 2020. The augmented-reality game raked in $1 billion in just the first 10 months of last year - its most lucrative yet - according to market tracker Sensor Tower, and experts see no sign that interest is flagging as the world's highest-grossing media franchise evolves.

Pokemon is inspired by the childhood tradition of collecting bugs - popular during Japan's hot and humid summer holidays and part of its enduring appeal is its simple goal: to catch them all. Hundreds of round-eyed "pocket monsters" inspired by everything from mice to dragons can be caught and trained to full strength in battles.

The winning concept has sold countless toys, film tickets and more than 30 billion Pokemon cards since the first black-and-white Game Boy titles were released in Japan in 1996. The character's signature pronouncement "pika-pika" - meaning shiny and sparkly in Japanese only added to the bright yellow creature's powers of attraction.

While real-life 25th-anniversary celebrations are off the cards due to the coronavirus pandemic, a virtual concert featuring US rapper Post Malone - described as a lifelong Pokemon fan is planned.

The game allows players to roam the outside world throwing Pokeballs to capture monsters that pop up on their phone screens. It has caused real-life mishaps from car crashes to clifftop falls, but it's still easy to find players on Tokyo's streets waiting for "wild" Pokemon to appear.

"It feels like you are catching the Pokemon, for real," said Tsuyoshi Aihori, 22, who was on the hunt in Tokyo's Akihabara gaming district on a weekday afternoon. He plays around five hours a week and at a recent promotional event, "I played from dawn to dusk and caught 400 or 500 Pokemon," he told AFP.

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More than a year after the ₹25,938 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for India's auto sector came into effect, qualified manufacturers await clarity on whether they will receive sops for the first year of the programme.

Byju's has sued its lender Redwood, an American investment management firm, and its related entities in the New York Supreme Court for accelerating the repayment of a $1.2 billion Term Loan B (TLB). This marks a new twist in the long-drawn saga playing out between the Indian edtech major and its lenders even as Byju's missed its quarterly interest payment of about $40 million for the TLB that was due on June 5.

Sequoia Capital, the marquee Silicon Valley investor in early-stage companies, has broken away from its India and China partnerships, signalling a retreat from Asia for the fund that had backed technology giants Apple and Google in its early days.

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