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The Pokémon Fossil Museum is a travelling exhibition based on the Pokémon media franchise, displaying illustrations and "life-size" sculpted renditions of the skeletons of Fossil Pokémon, along with the actual fossils of the real-life prehistoric animals and other organisms on which they were based. The exhibit was created by the National Museum of Nature and Science and The Pokémon Company.

In July 2022, a virtual tour of the exhibit was made available online, with virtual reality (VR) headset compatibility.

History[]

Pokemon exhibition at National Museum of Nature and Science

The exhibit in the National Museum of Nature and Science in 2022.

The Pokémon Fossil Museum was proposed by Daisuke Aiba, a senior researcher for the Mikasa City Museum. In an interview with Oricon, Aiba stated, "Since I was a child, I have loved Pokémon and paleontology," and explained that he and the other organizers of the exhibit wanted to introduce paleontology to children through the use of fossil Pokémon. Biological illustrator Genya Masukawa and artist Hitoshi Ariga provided the illustrations for the exhibition.

The exhibition first opened at the Mikasa City Museum in Mikasa, Hokkaido, on 4 July 2021, and remained there until 20 September. It then moved to the Shimane Nature Museum of Mt. Sanbe in Ōda, Shimane, from 9 October 2021 to 30 January 2022, before travelling to the Toyohashi Museum of Natural History in Toyohashi, where it opened on 16 July 2022. Due to rain, the opening ceremony was held inside the building, and featured a ribbon cutting attended by Toyohashi mayor Koichi Sahara, representative students from Futagawa Elementary School, and a costumed mascot of excavator Pikachu. Additionally, four Pokéfuta (manhole covers decorated with drawings of Pokémon) were unveiled, with intentions to place them around the city.

That same month, a virtual tour of the Pokémon Fossil Museum was made available online. As well as being able to virtually explore the exhibition using a smartphone or computer, there is an option to navigate it using a virtual reality (VR) headset, with the website recommending the use of the Oculus Quest 2.

Attendance and reception[]

On 10 October 2022, the total number of visitors to the Pokémon Fossil Museum at the Toyohashi Museum of Natural History surpassed 100,000, with the 100,000th family to attend being given a commemorative gift. Toyohashi-born model Nashiko Momotsuki is among those who have attended the exhibition there.

Melissa T. Miller of Nerdist, in an article about the virtual tour of the exhibit, wrote that it successfully demonstrates the influence of zoology on the design of Pokémon, and that, though the displays throughout the exhibit feature Japanese text, "they include enough pictures and obvious comparisons between the real-life animals and Pokémon to make it universally interesting."

Museum shows[]

The Pokémon Fossil Museum opened at the Mikasa City Museum in Mikasa, Hokkaido, Japan, on 4 July 2021, and remained there until 20 September. It has since travelled to other museums, and is on display at the Toyohashi Museum of Natural History in Toyohashi from 16 July to 6 November 2022. It is scheduled to be hosted by the Ōita Prefectural Art Museum from 10 December 2022 to 24 January 2023.

See also[]

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