“Pokémon fans pissed off” is trending on the Japanese side of X on this fine morning, and the culprit seems to be an exhibitor at Expo 2025, which officially launched last week in Osaka, Japan. While Osaka Expo has been popular for attractions like its Monster Hunter AR experience and elaborate Gundam pavilion, it has also been receiving all manner of criticism, ranging in severity from “the venue has dangerous levels of methane gas” to “this bench made of stuffed animals bodies mashed together is kind of morbid and upsetting.”
The latter also happens to be what Japanese Pokémon fans – and as a result, Nintendo – are responding to. Since this year’s Expo is big on sustainability, one of its exhibits features a large bench that “upcycles” old stuffed animals. More precisely put, it’s a bunch of stuffed animals crammed into clear plastic and shaped to resemble something you can sit on. The exhibitor’s concept behind it was to “bring new value to stuffed toys no one’s playing with anymore,” but it seems like the execution didn’t really manage to convey the message, as the bench has been dragged online for being “soulless” and criticized as something “no kid would ever want to sit on” (it was placed in a kids’ play spot).
To make matters worse, despite the stuffed toys in the bench all having their backs turned, people were able to recognize some popular characters among them, including Pokémon like Dragonair and Dedenne. This caused the matter to escalate to Pokémon fans raising concerns about infringement and Nintendo’s image being tarnished (while this may seem a tad over-protective given the situation, Japanese consumers are generally quite loyal to businesses that have earned their trust, Nintendo being a major example).
Japanese news outlet Pinzuba actually reached out to Nintendo to ask them for their opinion about the bench, and Nintendo responded by emphasizing that “the exhibit it not something our company has given permission for,” thus refusing to give further comment on the matter.
