Eco-friendly Pikachu lookalike officially retired

[Jeff]

Source: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/27432

As a followup to our previous report on a character who bears a "shocking" resemblance to Pikachu, it turns out that the Japanese city of Ube, Yamaguchi has decided to pull the plug on the costume for "Eco-chan", their environmental mascot.

Due to the reports of possible copyright infringement, the costume will no longer be used, however, the character will still appear in image form on promotional material. When questioned about the incident, Eco-chan's creator claimed to have never heard of Pikachu.

[mr_pikachu]

The creator "never heard of Pikachu." Sure. I'll buy that. After all, Pokemon has never even been seen in Japan. Right?

*sighs* Well, at least they're not going head-to-head with Pokemon, even if they're having to tell obvious lies just to avoid provoking the Pokemon Company into a lawsuit.