A funny thing happened on the way to Pokopia. Among the truly vast Japanese Pokemon community, some intrepid fans took a quick trailer scene and ran with it, envisioning Kanto's beloved Slowpoke as a "gyaru." Now, if you're not sure what a gyaru is, well, allow me to redirect you to its Wikipedia page, because it will do a more thorough job of explaining than this article can conceivably take the time to cover.
Specifically, this "Slowpoke gyaru" took off in the meme scene as a sleepy schoolgirl. Sleepy, because Slowpoke. Schoolgirl, because... well, because it's funny. Alas, now that Pokemon Pokopia is upon the world, these dreams have been sundered. Game Freak, Omega Force, The Pokemon Company, Nintendo, Slowpoke himself—they've all had a hand in this ruthless and decisive obliteration.
Japanese Twitter user @sinnop10 turned a growing joke into a full-fledged meme for the ages back in late November, when a single line was all we had from Slowpoke in Pokopia's pre-release phase. In English, the line reads: "Oh, but hold on... The ground's really bumpy around here, right? It's hard to walk..."
As Automaton notes in their own coverage of Pokopia's death-dealing ways, the pink-haired...
