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The story
A thread on 5ch’s “Hardware/Industry” (Geha) board claimed that Chiikawa’s popularity has now completely eclipsed Pokémon at its peak. The evidence cited was the box-office run of “Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island,” reportedly sitting at ¥18.1 billion in revenue and 12.42 million admissions as of day 87 (October 18, 2026). That set off a wave of pushback in the thread: even granting that the movie alone outperforms every Pokémon film ever made, Chiikawa still doesn’t come close to matching a true social-phenomenon-scale spread like Pokémon GO, or the overall brand heft once you count games and trading cards. The thread also got into how many more years the Chiikawa brand can realistically keep this up.
What people said
"Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island" has passed ¥18.1 billion in box office revenue and 12.42 million admissions as of day 87 (October 18, 2026).
Obviously it's way bigger, no contest
Plus it's been running a market on a completely different scale for decades now
With Pokémon GO you'd see people of every age out there playing
THAT's what a real social phenomenon looks like
These days people slap the "social phenomenon" label on any half-baked hit
What are the actual numbers for Chiikawa and Pokémon, respectively?
• 2nd: Pokémon the Movie: Revelation Lugia (1999) – ¥6.2 billion
• 3rd: Pokémon the Movie: Diamond & Pearl – Dialga vs. Palkia vs. Darkrai (2007) – ¥5.02 billion
I wonder why the anime never really took off
Well, simply because it's aimed at kids, probably
Honestly the anime's quality just isn't great
It's not "because it's for kids"
There are plenty of shows aimed at kids or even preschoolers that are good enough to get adults saying they're great
Because they looked down on kids as just "kiddie stuff"
THAT'S IT!!!"
You think people are seriously thinking like this all day long? Scary, right?
that's Chiikawa for you
to match creator Nagano's own tastes
like a collab with ramen chain Yamaokaya or tonkatsu chain Katsuya — scan your receipt's QR code and get fed the same meal in-game
My kid's seen it 6 times already because of it
Please just stop with the bonus-merch gimmick, reserving theater seats alone is already a nightmare
You don't have to do whatever your kid says
Just stop taking them
but they all lost steam within 5 years and fell back below Pokémon
Nobody beats them on annual revenue (it's literally in the trillions to begin with)
but there have been plenty of cases of someone briefly overtaking them in one specific category
Heck, even Yu-Gi-Oh! was beating the Pokémon TCG up until about 10 years ago
Man, it's already been 10 years since the "Link Shock" too (the 2017 rule change that upended Yu-Gi-Oh!)…
5 years from Scarlet/Violet to WW
T-that's bad
Starting from Pokémon's 11th generation, it'll go back to a 3-year cycle
Both the Chiikawa and Pokémon planes are flying
ANA's really spoiling us
Digimon, Yo-kai Watch, whatever — every rival that threatened to challenge Pokémon ended up imploding on its own somewhere along the way
The risk factor is that it all hinges way too much on creator Nagano
A lot gets accepted just because "it's Nagano's call"
and there's a ton of things only Nagano is able to decide
It's gonna be so over-the-top gross, how many people are gonna throw up
If they add attendee-exclusive cards on top of that, it'll be swarming with hardcore scalpers for real
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Since Pokémon’s game debut in 1996, its market — once you factor in cards, merchandise, and Pokémon GO — is estimated at several trillion yen annually, and the thread itself noted it’s “a true social phenomenon that reaches people of every age and gender.” Chiikawa, by contrast, is a character born on social media in 2020, and its history as a movie franchise spans only a few years so far. The ¥18.1 billion figure that sparked this discussion does top the best-performing Pokémon film of all time on a single-movie basis (the record holder, Mewtwo Strikes Back, made ¥7.24 billion), but most posters in the thread felt Pokémon still leads once you compare the full brand picture, including games and trading cards. In other words, what’s easy to miss is that the two sides were arguing past each other: one comparing a single movie’s box-office run, the other comparing the cumulative strength of a decades-old brand — different yardsticks entirely. The two franchises also have a collaborative relationship, including a Pokémon Card x Chiikawa crossover, so it isn’t really a simple matter of one ranking above the other.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “[Great News] Chiikawa’s Popularity Completely Surpasses Pokémon at Its Peak lol lol lol lol lol lol“.
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