Nintendo’s popular pocket monsters take us on a whirlwind tour of what Osaka is capable of.

The race for the city which will host the 2025 World Expo is currently underway and the governing body, the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) has shortlisted the candidates to Baku, Azerbaijan; Yekaterinburg, Russia; and Osaka, Japan.

As such, each city, backed by its nation, is stumping hard to earn the coveted hosting duties and Osaka is hoping its previous experience of hosting the 1970 Expo will help its chances.

But that alone isn’t enough to ensure victory, so they’ve enlisted the support of everyone’s favorite Pokémon, including Charizard and Eevee, in the following promotional video.

The video shows how Yumeshima (Dream Island) is the ideal spot for the massive festival. This is true since this area of reclaimed land has been a bit of a nightmare for land developers. Seems people don’t like to live on ocean-side low-lying landfills in an earthquake-and-tsunami-prone country (go figure). But it’s still an excellent location for large-scale temporary events such as the Expo to be held.

The venue plan looks pretty neat too, with an organic and decentralized layout that meanders around the various unique looking pavilions lined with trees and geometric brooks. Best of all, there appear to be augmented reality Pokémon acting as personal tour guides.

▼ Squirtle! I choose you to show me to the restroom!

There’s also a section showing how Osaka is already making preparations for the event, which is a nice little passive-aggressive move. It’s like saying, “Hey BIE, look at all these kids excited about preparing for Expo 2025! You’re not going to break their little hearts…are you?”

And finally, we are treated to a special message from Shinzo Abe which leaves me conflicted. I always like to encourage anyone making an effort to speak a foreign language, but I just don’t know what to make of…this.

I mean, it’s really cool he’s making the effort to send a message to the world in its lingua franca and all, but didn’t he attend the University of Southern California before becoming one of the longest serving Prime Ministers – a post involving numerous critical international negotiations – in the history of the county?

I’ve got to think he would have picked up a little better English than that along the way, or at least a better ability to fake it. And although they seemed incapable of editing out the third-trimester pauses between the words of his clearly phoned-in read off a teleprompter, the producers spared no expense adding a little CGI Pikachu pal to climb up on his shoulder.

Pokémon and politics aside, it does look like it’d be a cool event in a part of Osaka that desperately needs a shot in the arm. So please BIE, consider Osaka for Expo 2025! Otherwise, they’re just going to fill that entire place up with casinos.

Source: Twitter/@expo2025_japan, Netlab

Images: YouTube/metichannel