Every City Should Have a Pokemon Center

Author

Stephanie Liu
February 14, 2025

Welcome to “Siliconera Speaks Up,” our newsletter for the site! This’ll be a summary of the past week’s anime or gaming news, a little reminder of things to come, and our insight on what games you should pick up next. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

Speak Up Sesh

Hello from the future! I’m actually in Taiwan for a month, and so am writing this from a different timezone than I usually do. Unfortunately, I just so happened to miss an anime event that was going on near my area, so that was a bit of an unlucky turn of events.

Something new in Taipei that didn’t exist the last time I visited is a Pokemon Center! It takes up half a floor in one of the department stores near the Taipei City Hall, and the foot traffic was surprisingly light when I went, thanks to most people being in school or work at the time. So everyone I saw either was a fellow tourist or visitor, or a child who can’t even attend school yet. Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything exclusive, but it was still really cool seeing and buying some items that I thought were only in Japan! For example, one of the first things I got, without any hesitation, was a little stationery set of the Kitakami siblings.

I’m only thinking about it now, but when I went to the Nintendo store in New York, I noticed them selling plushes and toys of Pokemon that aren’t conventionally cute. Like, I remember seeing dolls of Passimian and Solgaleo on the shelves, alongside more classic creatures like Jigglypuff or Rowlet. Meanwhile, the one in Taipei only sold the “cute” Pokemon like the starters, Pachirisu, and Whimsicott. Taiwan is similar to Japan in that we do have a kawaii culture, but I never imagined that meant taking opportunities away from people who might like unconventional or more unpopular species. When did “kawaii” become so authoritarian…?

Real talk, though, they had to carve out half the store just for the TCG so I’m sure it was more a logistics issue. I’m guessing that they can’t stock as many plushes and similar merchandise as before if they want a space where people can comfortably shop for booster packs and the like.

The Pokemon Center really was so exciting, though! People living in cities with one of them are so lucky, especially since I hear you can also get something special for your birthday. Considering the global appeal and popularity of Pokemon, I’m a little surprised that they’re not so common that you can find one in at least every major city. Maybe it’s another logistics issue, since each store takes up a lot of space. If the DISNEY STORE couldn’t keep on going in one of the major malls in my city in Canada, then I don’t think the Pokemon Center can survive, either, especially as more and more people prefer online shopping.

In any case, before I go, I need to visit it again! Despite my shock that my precious Mimikyu didn’t have any merchandise featuring it (HOW?! IT’S SO CUTE!), they still had plenty of dolls that I’d love to bring home if my suitcase allows for it.

Top 10 Stories From the Past Week

  1. Hatsune Miku Being Used to Sell Apples - Any limited edition otaku good will sell well thanks to collectors, so this was really an ingenious collaboration if the end goal was to promote healthier eating.

  2. Atlus Celebrates Persona 3 Reload First Anniversary - Feels like it came out longer than a year ago… Time is fake.

  3. Kingdom Hearts 4 Should Return to Its Final Fantasy Roots - One of the main selling points of Kingdom Hearts back in the day was that it’s a “Final Fantasy and Disney characters crossover” since that premise only was ridiculous enough. So regardless of intent, I’m sure everyone was upset at seeing them cut from the main KH3 story.

  4. Gundam GQuuuuuuX Model Kits and Action Figures Revealed - Some of the merchandise contain spoilers for the movie, which is a compilation of the first few episodes.

  5. Mr Mega Man Manga Gets Introspective - Mega Man looking like an ikemen is something I never knew I wanted this badly.

  6. New P3R and P5R Merchandise Is SEES Suitcase, Joker Kokeshi Doll - As someone whose favorite suitcase got smashed and scratched after a single trip to NYC (a little ridiculous considering it survived two international flights perfectly fine), I’m really curious as to how people have the heart to use fancy collaboration suitcases. Maybe they only use them to store items for cons.

  7. New Final Fantasy XIV Koikeya Chips Collab Coming - With a teaser image of a Moogle wearing a sombrero hat and holding maracas.

  8. See Domon, Rain, and God Gundam 12 Years After G Gundam - We can also see Domon and Rain’s kid.

Upcoming Releases

  • The King of Fighter XIII: Global Match - February 20 (PC)

  • Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii - February 21 (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC)

  • Yu-Gi-Oh Early Days - February 27 (Switch, PC)

  • Danmachi Fulland of Water and Light- February 27 (Switch, PC)

  • Monster Hunter Wilds - February 28 (PS5, Xbox Series X, PC