If you haven't heard about it then you’re missing out. First displayed in 2021 in the Mikasa City Museum and since having travelled around a bunch of other places in Japan. Fortunately for those of us who can’t justify taking a trip to Japan just for a really cool museum you can take a virtual tour around the exhibit here.
If you’ve somehow managed to never come across literally the world's biggest media franchise Pokémon is about the now over 1000 different creatures that are largely based on real world animals (think electric mouse, or turtle but with jet cannons on its back). A subset of these are based on dinosaurs and other now extinct forms of life.
In one of those genius moves that is really obvious once somebody has thought of it, the Mikasa City Museum teamed up with the Pokémon company to produce an exhibition that included models of both Pokémon and the real life creatures they are based on.
Poster for the original exhibition showing a variety of Pokémon [Left] and the real creatures they’re based on [Right] (Image from Pokemon Fossil Museum)
The appeal and use of this is immediately obvious. Draw in a broad range of children who are excited to see the Pokémon they love from the games whilst slipping in an education about real life dinosaurs drawing on their enthusiasm. And perhaps whilst they’re at it selling a ludicrous amount of merchandise.
To me this is a near perfect setup for something like this. Much of my work in science communication is focused on reaching audiences that wouldn’t typically engage with things like museums. And bringing them in with something they love like Pokémon is definitely a great way to do this.
A Theme Park Not A Museum
When the exhibition hit the various online news sites I saw a number of people scoffing at such an idea. That a serious museum would use a children’s cartoon, and such a highly commercial one at that, to talk about a scientific topic seemed to them ludicrous. One comment I saw stuck with me ‘this makes it more of a theme park than a museum’.
To this I have only one thing to say… Yes! Absolutely!
I love museums (that much should be obvious) and I love the old creaking cases with their obscure labels and their vestiges of late Victorian sensibilities. But I also recognise that it is quite an intimidating environment. And if we want to reach the broadest possible audience then we need to adapt the spaces and content.
Model Skeletons of a Tyrantrum [Left] and T-Rex [Right] (Image from Screenrant)
We’ve seen much of this happen with the development of things like Children’s Museums, Science discovery centres, and Pop-Up Museums but I think there’s a lot of elements we could continue to bring in to boost wider engagement whilst still being able to offer some of the same outcomes.
Now I'm not suggesting that every museum turn into something like a day out at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach but the fact that despite the fact it’s in Blackpool (I grew up near there, I know how bad it is) it sees over five million visitors each year is something we can learn from.
I’m a big fan of theming, dressing a space to give it some atmosphere. Or including something a bit more out there in order to bring people in. Museums have been using Flight simulators for decades, and VR experiences for the last few years for exactly this purpose.
Don’t be Afraid to Get Corporate
I’d like to say that I have a bigger point to this, but I don’t really. I just think that a Pokémon themed museum is really cool. I would want to go, I’m sure lots of children who wouldn’t normally want to go to a museum would want to go to this one. And I think it’s an idea that we could replicate elsewhere in other ways.
Model and Shell of a Nautilus [Left] and Model of Omastar [Right] (Image from Pokemon Museum Tour)
One barrier to this seems to be that it’s a bit crass and corporate. But to this I have two main responses. In an industry where exhibitions can regularly be sponsored by banks and other financial institutions with shady records, arms companies, and there remain a number of ‘Sackler’ galleries then involving a bit of popular culture and media license sponsorship is really of only minor consequence. Secondly, the videogame Fortnite has become one of the single biggest entertainment properties in the entire world (much to the consternation of every mildly confused parent and grandparent) thanks largely to its myriad cross collaborations with popular franchises.
Whilst I don’t think this should be every museum, or even the norm. I think there’s a lot of space for the National Emergency Services Museum to run a Paw Patrol exhibit, for there to be a Naruto themed Japanese History Exhibition, or even for some aquarium to run a Spongebob Squarepants gallery. (On which note I'm desperate to try and get to the Animal Crossing Sea Life Centre exhibit, but I'm not sure I'll manage it)
