Pokemon, one of the biggest media franchises in the world, has had a great year in 2020, with a new movie being released soon, a resurgence in the popularity of Pokemon cards, and a plethora of new events and features in Pokemon GO. The franchise has brought loads of surprises for fans this year as well, including the announcement of a new Pokemon Snap game and even a Pokemon MOBA for Nintendo Switch and mobile devices.
While Pokemon has appeared at a variety of events in the real world over the years, such as Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, perhaps the franchise's biggest invasion into the real world has been with the AR mobile game Pokemon GO. And though Pokemon have a widespread presence on Earth, it seems that The Pokemon Company is interested in bringing the lovable pocket monsters to places quite literally out of this world as well.
Back in November, the Japanese Pokemon Company Twitter account announced that some Pokemon would appear during a special broadcast made to ring in the new year from the International Space Station. Now, the official Pokemon Twitter account has made the announcement worldwide, stating that trainers everywhere can tune in to the special New Year's livestream to find out which Pokemon will be making appearances from space.
Some Pokemon will be appearing during the Japanese Kibo Space Module's THE SPACE SUNRISE LIVE 2021 event on Thursday, December 31, coming directly from the International Space Station. While the event will be livestreamed just 15 minutes before the start of the new year in Japan, it will take place at 6:45am PST on December 31. Not much else is known about the event, but it is said to include AR featuring Pokemon mixed with real-time video directly from the International Space Station. When roughly translated, the original Japanese announcement mentions achieving the goal of a "new form of entertainment" from outer space.
Those interested in tuning in to this special event can set a reminder via the official THE SPACE SUNRISE LIVE 2021 event page on Twitter. Although this is certainly a big way to ring in the new year and kick off Pokemon's 25th anniversary, it is currently unknown whether viewers will be able to interact with the livestream in any way or if any announcements will be made during the event.
Since the livestream is being broadcast from space, some fans could not help but speculate whether this could imply anything for remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, which carry a heavy time and space theme. But for now, The Pokemon Company has at least made it clear that it has lot in store for the franchise in 2021.