{"id":47395,"date":"2025-04-24T13:46:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=47395"},"modified":"2025-04-24T13:48:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:48:51","slug":"nintendo-says-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-cursed-pokemon-stuffed-toy-benches-exhibited-at-expo-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-says-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-cursed-pokemon-stuffed-toy-benches-exhibited-at-expo-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo says it has nothing to do with cursed Pok\u00e9mon stuffed toy bench exhibited at Expo 2025\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201cPok\u00e9mon fans pissed off\u201d is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/search?q=%E3%83%9D%E3%82%B1%E3%83%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E6%BF%80%E6%80%92&amp;src=trend_click&amp;vertical=trends\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">trending<\/a> on the Japanese side of X on this fine morning, and the culprit seems to be an exhibitor at&nbsp;Expo 2025, which&nbsp;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 \u201cthe venue has dangerous levels of methane gas\u201d to&nbsp;\u201cthis bench made of stuffed animals bodies mashed together is kind of morbid and upsetting.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latter also happens to be what Japanese Pok\u00e9mon fans \u2013 and as a result, Nintendo \u2013 are responding to. Since this year\u2019s Expo is big on sustainability, one of its exhibits features a large bench that \u201cupcycles\u201d old stuffed animals. More precisely put, it\u2019s a bunch of stuffed animals crammed into clear plastic and shaped to resemble something you can sit on. The exhibitor\u2019s concept behind it was to \u201cbring new value to stuffed toys no one\u2019s playing with anymore,\u201d but it seems like the execution didn\u2019t really manage to convey the message, as the bench has been dragged online for being \u201csoulless\u201d and criticized as something \u201cno kid would ever want to sit on\u201d (it was placed in a kids\u2019 play spot).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u4e07\u535a\u306b\u904a\u3070\u306a\u304f\u306a\u3063\u305f\u306c\u3044\u3067\u30ea\u30b5\u30a4\u30af\u30eb\u3057\u3066\u4f5c\u308a\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3063\u3066\u30d9\u30f3\u30c1\u3042\u3063\u305f\u3051\u3069\u2026\u30c7\u30c7\u30f3\u30cd\u3055\u3093\u2026\ud83d\ude2d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KzTMdn9RYV\">pic.twitter.com\/KzTMdn9RYV<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30a4\u30c8\u30fc (@ito072495234909) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ito072495234909\/status\/1913935199689457975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>I saw a bench made by recycling old stuffed toys at Expo, but&#8230; Dedenne&#8230;.<\/em>\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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 Pok\u00e9mon like Dragonair&nbsp;and&nbsp;Dedenne. This caused the matter to escalate to&nbsp;Pok\u00e9mon fans <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/periodkotobuki\/status\/1914430276685717857\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raising concerns about infringement<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sumi_kuroi\/status\/1914483460716314921\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nintendo\u2019s image being tarnished<\/a> (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).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Japanese news outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/pinzuba.news\/articles\/-\/10541?page=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Pinzuba<\/a> actually reached out to Nintendo to ask them for their opinion about the bench, and Nintendo responded by emphasizing that \u201cthe exhibit it not something our company has given permission for,\u201d thus refusing to give further comment on the matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nintendo has made it clear it didn&#8217;t give permission for Pokemon characters to be used in a controversial exhibit at Osaka Expo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":47398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,70],"class_list":["post-47395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-pokemon-series"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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