New Merchandise – Pokemon Kana?
This post will cover a brand new stationary x every day use item mini promotion that just came out, called “Pokemon Kana?”
The name of the series can have two meanings. In Japanese, “ka na?” can be used at the end of a sentence to signify uncertainty, with a rough translation being “maybe?” The Pokemon pattern created for this series when viewed from afar doesn’t automatically look like Pokemon, so the casual observer might do a double take and think, “Wait, was that Pokemon?!”
Kana is also how we refer to the characters used in written Japanese. There are three forms of kana: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. The designs used in this series uses a combination of Pokemon and objects to form the first hiragana character of that specific Pokemon’s name. In the example here, if you look closely, Pikachu, combined with the electric cord, form a ぴ (pi) for Pikachu. (Isn’t that cool!)
It’s a very unique and interesting addition to the Pokemon family of merchandise, and that the items are handy and useful only makes the line-up better.
The majority of items in this series come in both black and white versions. I prefer the white background because I find the designs easier to read and recognize against white. With that said, the Pokemon kana have a more neon feel on the black background, which is kind of neat and probably unintentional.
The exception to this rule would be the postcards and stickers which have a rainbow effect, making them look especially nice on the black backgrounds!
What do you think? Which Pokemon design is your favorite?