There aren’t many pop-culture forces with as much influence as Pokémon. This time the beloved franchise of cute and highly collectible monster pets managed to be the nexus for a heartwarming viral music video that brought together the forces of gaming, anime and Japanese pop music.
The J-Pop band Bump of Chicken is responsible for the latest Pokémon music video with their song “Acacia” serving as back drop to what is basically an anime opening for a bunch of Pokémon games. This particular music video, titled “Gotcha!”, came together to celebrate the Crown Tundra DLC releasing for Pokémon Sword and Shield and struck a nostalgic chord in the way it celebrated past video games.
Pokémon does have its very own anime series in addition to a stable of video games, of course, but "Gotcha!" honors the latter. Nearly every series from the original Pokémon Red and I on GameBoy to Pokemon Sword and Shield on Switch gets a moment of its own.
Bump of Chicken is responsible for the musical stylings of this music video, lending their catchy song to this video game anthem. They are no stranger to anime having recorded opening and ending themes to other popular shows in the past. They also frequent the pop-charts in Japan with many of their singles often hitting the top-10 in their country.
The eye-popping animation in this video is the work of some seasoned vets in the anime industry. The animation direction is from Yuki Hayashi who is well known for his work at the studio Bones and the action show My Hero Academia. One of the producers, Genki Kawamura, worked on the popular anime movie directed by Makoto Shinkai Your Name. Rie Matsumoto, the music video director, is known for the anime Blood Blockade Battlefront
For a music video that is less than five minutes long it is jam packed with references to Pokémon video games. Finding all of them may prove to be a different kind of challenge than catching them all.
Source: Bump of Chicken/YouTube