It's okay to take a break from a stressful day at work. You could make a cup if tea or snack. Stand up and stretch. You could even watch an eight-minute ASMR YouTube video of the Pokémon Chespin crunching on colorful cookies?
ASMR, which stands for “autonomous sensation meridian response,” is a fancy term that describes a way of classifying certain sounds that make your mind feel good. ASMR can cause a pleasant sensation in the neck, spine and back. ASMR has become a popular YouTube video genre. It features sounds such as tapping objects, whispering into special microphones and cooking. There are also crinkly sounds made from paper or plastic. There are many ASMR videos, from intimate roleplays and performances to long-running videos of people organizing their make-up boxes or raking small zen gardens.
ASMR does not trigger the same sensation in everyone. Also, each person will experience different sounds. It's clear that ASMR videos are enjoyable and can even make you feel relaxed. So, why not combine them with adorable Pokémon characters to make them even more enjoyable?
That's what The Pokémon Company Video Team in Japan has been up to over the last two years. It began back in January of 2020, with a 30-minute video posted to The Pokémon Company's Japan YouTube of Charmander sleeping next to a fireHe only wakes up every now and again to keep his tail burning. That's it! The entire video is Charmander taking a half-hour rest while the flames crackle, pop and crackle.
The next video didn't arrive until August the following year, and it is a little more active. This video shows Squirtle enjoying a 15-minute beach romp. He can be heard relaxing on the ocean waves and his little feet slipping in the sand. There are also occasional splashes in the water. Wingull occasionally makes an appearance.
Since then, The Pokémon Company has released a small handful of others, spaced out over several months each time. One is currently available. A whole hour spent by Bulbasaur just wandering through a small forestThe following is a brief description. Playtime session in the living room with Pikachu, and 30 minutes of Piplup rolling about in a bedroomBefore getting sleepy and falling asleep. Most recently, there was a three-part series called Sweet Winter With Pokémon produced by Chinese creator Lao Dao, who runs a YouTube cooking channel called Cat's Kitchen. Though the series isn't labeled explicitly as ASMR, it features the detailed gentle sounds characteristic of those videos, paired with some adorable Pokémon-themed recipes.
While ASMR videos are a common genre on YouTube, what's fascinating about The Pokémon Company's versions is seeing them interspersed on the official channel with game trailers, announcements, Music videosTCG announcements, anime promotions and other content that focuses on informing and hypeng up an audience. This is the type of content brand channels are usually up to. It is quite remarkable that such a large amount of effort was required to produce something that appears only to be cute or relaxing in the midst all this.
We were able to get in touch with The Pokémon Company in Japan to answer a couple of questions about the videos, with a spokesperson saying that the Pokémon and activities were chosen “based on seasonality and the Pokémon’s ecology.”
But why make Pokémon ASMR videos in the first place?
“The Pokémon Company’s channels didn’t have any long length videos when the demand for them were high for people to watch while they did something else (or were working),” the spokesperson said. “In addition, one of Pokémon’s strengths is that people can feel their existence closely, as you can see in the popular Pokémon GO game in which you can catch Pokémon in real life. We felt there was a need for something you could feel near to in videos.
“Considering all of this, we concluded that these videos would be made using the ASMR format that is already very popular on YouTube. We felt there was potential for videos in which sound is the star and can be heard.
A spokesperson said that the team was thankful for positive reactions and would continue to make the series even though there is no set time. Look at the content that's been already covered. We've seen cooking and lots of nature sounds. If we want to eventually cover all major ASMR types, it means that we have thirty minutes of Psyduck whispering inside our ears. However, personally, I will be looking out for Alolan Raichu making an ASMR pancake-making demonstration.
Rebekah Valentine works as a news reporter at IGN. You can find her on twitter @duckvalentine.
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