Many are familiar with the annual Pikachu Outbreak event where roughly 1,500 Pikachu mascots invade the streets of Yokohama and run wild with a different theme each August. This year, a new Pokemon will be making their appearance.
Along with the usual Pikachu Outbreak parade which will be taking place from Queen’s Square Yokohama to the Grand Mall park area, the event will be having “the world’s first big Eevee march.” As the name implies, there will be a bunch of giant Eevee costumes marching about around the Shinko Central Plaza.
It is unsure on how many Eevee there will be but the parade is most likely in preparation for the upcoming “Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!” and “Pokémon: Let’s Go, Eevee!” games. While the Eevee march will only be available for daytime activity, the Pikachu parade will be making a first by having nighttime hours.
The Pikachu Outbreak is set from August 10 to August 16 and for this year, has a theme of "Science is Amazing.” For the night time event, a parade of Pikachu mascots in costumes with flashing lights will be featured. Along with this, there will also be a Pikachu parade on the sea, complete with a digital splash show.
It was in 2014 that the Pikachu Outbreak, which was then known as “Pikachu Tairyou Hassei Chu!”/ “An outbreak of Pikachus” first made its appearance. There were up to 1,000 Pikachus in 14 different locations in the City of Yokohama for tourists and Pokémon fans to photograph. At the time, the event was held in celebration of the latest Pokémon movie, Pikachū, kore nan no kagi? a.k.a. “Pikachu, What’s This Key For?”, which was released in Japanese cinemas in July.
With the first outbreak, it featured a Pikachu Beach House Café is open in Yokohama’s Akarenga Red Brick Warehouses. It held a variety of Pokémon-themed food and drink. Also featured were special decorations that adorned the local sea bus and Ferris wheel. As for the Pikachu parade, there were 20 Pikachus and they paraded four times through the city with staff escorting matching bright yellow T-shirts with padded tails attached to the back.
Source: Crunchyroll News