From July 22 through July 29, a special version of Pikachu will be available in the wild. This new costume is called Straw Hat Pikachu and it’s a tie-in with the popular One Piece anime. Pikachu wearing Luffy’s signature straw hat will be appearing around the world starting July 22.
If it sounds strange, consider this background information (via Serebii): In Japan, a ONE PIECE statue will be placed in Kumamoto, Japan with special PokéStop featuring art from Eiichiro Oda of ONE PIECE. This is being held to help support the Kumamoto city in Japan rebuild after an earthquake in 2019 and to celebrate both Pokémon GO’s third anniversary and ONE PIECE’s 22nd
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Pikachu’s new straw hat is actually an iconic hat worn by One Piece’s protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy. Luffy is also known as the Straw Hat Luffy and commonly as Straw Hat.
One Piece is a super successful Japanese series that started in 1997 as a manga and in 1999 as an anime. One Piece has received praise for its storytelling, art, characterization, and humor. One Piece is also the best-selling manga series in history, with more than 450 million copies sold worldwide.
One Piece is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, estimated to have generated more than $21 billion in total franchise revenue, from the manga, anime, films, games and merchandise.
