Despite the entire premise of the franchise essentially boiling down to kidnapping animals and making them beat each other unconscious for personal gain, the world of Pokemon is not an inherently violent one.
Instead, we’re taught that battling with our cuddly Pokemon friends is a way of forging strong connections, and that the monsters we capture and train should be treated with respect and love. Yes, even that Zubat you’ve had stashed away in your PC box for the last twenty years.
Given this, and the fact that the majority of Pokemon designs are absolutely adorable, it makes sense that when a small child is faced with an edible recreation of one of their favourite critters, they might actually be a little bit hesitant about consuming it.
Such was the case recently, when a family in Japan picked up a delicious looking Eevee cake for their small boy’s Birthday. Naturally, they assumed that he’d be delighted to have a cake adorned with the face of his favourite Pokemon – but things quickly took a turn when they picked up a knife and sliced into the squishy, sugary treat right in front of the boy.
As you can see in the tweet below from nyannyannyai, the poor kid was actually deeply distressed when his beloved new Eevee was suddenly cut in half with a giant knife. You know what? I totally get it. Eevee is one of my favourite Pokemon too, and if I were that age and had to consume the face of one of the cutest ‘mon of all, I probably would have had a little cry.
Hell, I’d probably have a little cry if I had to do something that today.
nyannyannyai wrote in a follow up post that they were “very happy to read the comments that there are many people who are worried about my son, who are cute, and who are kind.” Fortunately, it looks like our young Pokemon trainer did eventually settle down and realise that the Eevee cake was in fact not a living Eevee, but an incredibly tasty ice cream treat.
He swiftly recovered from his trauma and decided to grab a spoon, because cake is the solution to all of life’s ills. I don’t think I’ve ever related to a kid more than this one. Here’s hoping he had an amazing Birthday, and that next year he can butcher a Pikachu himself.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.