In one of the most novel ideas we've seen from The Pokémon Company, the media giant has revealed Pokécology, an official book that focuses on the behaviours of the fictional creatures.
Reported on my Automaton Media, Pokécology will be released in Japan on 18th June 2025 by publisher Shogakukan, with no official Western release confirmed yet. But the big draw here is that the book has been put together by two veterinary behaviorism and ecology PHD graduates from the University of Tokyo. So it's essentially a real science book about fictional creatures.
The book has been penned by Yoshinari Yonehara — who has worked with the company on Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Scarlet & Violet — with illustrations form Chihiro Kinoshita, who is known for drawing a wide range of children's illustrations focusing on animal ecology.
We've got no official images besides the logo, which is pretty charming, but pre-orders from Amazon Japan, Rakuten, and HMV (among other retailers) price the book at around ¥1,430 — just over USD $10.
Instead of focusing on Pokémon stats and battle techniques, Pokécology will instead look at things such as sleeping habits, preferred foods, migration patterns, and other likewise topics. Sounds like the perfect New Pokémon Snap companion to us.
Plus, it'll apparently be presented in an easy-to-understand way, meaning this might be how you get your kids excited about animal sciences, ecology, and biology.
We know translating the book could be a lot of work, but we'd love to see this get the official treatment here in the West. For now, we'll have our fingers crossed as we prepare to become Pokémon experts. It'd be a great thing to announce in the run-up to the next Pokémon game's release, Legends: Z-A.
What do you think of a official Pokémon ecology book? Let us know in the comments.
[source shogakukan.co.jp, via automaton-media.com]
Comments 22
How big...or how many generations will it cover, though? lol
And why can't we have it in ENGLISH?
Looks almost like it says Poke'colonoscopy... :/
Localize it and takeMyMoney.gif
So they gonna comment on all the murder, kidnappings, curses and rampages?
(I may get this however. )
I like the look of the illustrator's work. Some of it reminds me of what you might see in a school textbook. Seeing pokemon drawn in a similar style should be interesting.
No, no, "we" aren't getting it, Japan is getting it.
Very sad this will likely never be localized
Now do this, but Monster Hunter! This is really neat though.
I could definitely see myself enjoying this...even if I have to employ the Google Translate app.
WANT
@hypercoyote I'll get it even if I had to go to Japan myself lol (unless you are talking about translation, in which case, as people in movies say all the time - shikatanai)
@Princess_Lilly Yeah, translated. I thought it was Shikata ga nai......
@hypercoyote I think both are correct
shikata is a "means/way"
https://jisho.org/search/shikatanai
https://jisho.org/search/shikata%20ga%20nai
@Spider-Kev No? It literally says "ecology". Also, not funny.
@Chocobo_Shepherd https://imgflip.com/gif/9rihrd
I made it a gif for you idk how to format a gif into comments.
@TheColorRed
!!!!
thanks!!!
Sounds stupid but for ten bucks oh well. Maybe a kid will read it and get into science, like a zoobooks set.
Launching in June? Yeahhh... gonna get overshadowed.
@Chocobo_Shepherd 👍
So many coffee table gaming books release! They do know that 1. A lot of people don't even have a coffee table anymore 2. The trend is actually to NOT have a house full of clutter 3. The target audience for this already has a dozen big Pokemon books that sit awkwardly on a shelf they don't fit on and 4. And perhaps most pertinent of all... why a book again?! Make an interactive digital experience using AR/VR instead. This sort of project is crying out for something interactive.
As I've said before, and I'm only half joking... I'm one coffee table book away from a divorce!!
Pretty cool idea, will definitely consider getting it myself (even by importing if it never gets released outside of Japan - luckily it most certainly will be available also on Japanese Amazon which is the easiest way for me to do that)!
@hypercoyote @Princess_Lilly Both expressions are indeed correct, it's just that one implies the subject particle ga.
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