Is Pokemon's 25th anniversary a big deal?

General
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Hi all,

For the last few months people have been reminding us that Pokemon’s 25th anniversary is coming in 2021 and will be a huge boost for the popularity of the franchise, and as a result, the TCG. I’ve gone along with this without much thought because it makes sense and goes without saying, right? Until I actually started thinking about it and piecing it apart. I’m now of the belief that Pokemon’s 25th anniversary isn’t actually a big deal.

2020 was obviously a huge year for Pokemon, with a lot of huge factors contributing to the boom:-

Covid keeping people inside and returning to nostalgic, isolation friendly hobbies.

The release of a lot of nostalgia friendly sets heavily featuring Charizard and Pikachu as chase cards. Hidden Fates hype way higher than it was in 2019.

Huge explosion of social media popularity with Logan Paul, Steve Aoki, Logic, pretty much all of the biggest names on Twitch.

Mainstream media coverage of the franchise (BBC covering Logic’s 'zard purchase etc)

Backlog at PSA creating scarcity and hype.

(This last one is more of an opinion rather than a fact) I think there is a certain degree of financial speculation in the cards because of the idea that the 25th anniversary is coming.

So now let’s look at 2021, the 25th anniversary:-

Covid clears and people can return to other hobbies.

Whilst there will be more media coverage, I struggle to see someone managing to avoid all the media hype of this year then being reminded about it next year. For example, I don’t see a prime target age 30 year old missing all of the social media hype this year and then being brought back in next year by a television commercial.

Shining Fates looks to be lacklustre as a 25th anniversary set. No nostalgic throwbacks and crucially, not many Gen 1/2 Pokemon, the set is very Gen 8 heavy.

I’m not sure about the 10th and 15th anniversaries as they were before my return, but the 20th anniversary wasn’t a big deal. I don’t know anyone else who came back thanks to Generations.

The Japanese Olympics are often touted as a big deal but how much of an impact will a Pikachu appearance during the opening ceremony really have?

For what it’s worth, I’m not saying that the franchise won’t continue its growth. Just that if growth happens, it will be a product of the crazy year of 2020, not the 25th anniversary. I’d love to have a discussion about this. If you disagree, what am I missing? What do you think the Pokemon Company will pull out of the bag for their 25th anniversary to take the franchise to the next level?

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Yes

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Evolutions was kinda the real 20th anniversary set tbh. Hopefully we get something awesome like the Giovanni Japanese promo and the Mario/Luigi Pikachu, but only time will tell.

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I feel like I might be in the minority here but Shining Fates isn’t a 25th anniversary set just like Steam Siege and BreakPoint weren’t 20th anniversary sets. CP6 was the “official” 20th anniversary set but there were also a lot of special promo cards scattered around. It’s a set that is releasing during the year of the 25th anniversary but afaik it hasn’t been associated with the actual 25th event by Pokemon company at all. There were plenty of special unique 20th anniversary products and there will certainly be specific 25th anniversary products too, but it’s not fair to say that Shining Fates is bringing down the anniversary. I think it’s jus straight up dumb to call every single set released for the entire year an anniversary set

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idk if covid will clear anytime soon realistically

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They got a full year, I think they’ll do some fun stuff

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That’s true, hopefully there’s something better around the corner.

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There is a CHARIZARD in Shining Fates, a CHARIZARD and it is SHINY. The hype is gonna be there for CHARIZARD

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@explorer, Discussion like this belongs in the Giant Market Thread!

www.elitefourum.com/t/before-you-post-a-thread-in-price-and-market-discussion/29138/1