As a woman who will probably some day have to wear an engagement ring, I have spent some amount of time thinking about what designs I actually like. Unfortunately, it turns out that most of them are designed to tear up any kind of knitted sweater as soon as you put your arms into the sleeves, and I cannot for the life of me understand how this is still a thing. I like wearing knitted sweaters!
The reason I bring this up is because this 1-carat solitaire ring, which comes in all gold, all platinum, and a mix of platinum and gold accents, looks like it was precision-engineered to ruin every single piece of knitwear known to man. However, it is also Pikachu-themed. I am torn.
The ring, which is sold on U-Treasure (who make a lot of Pokémon jewellery), features a male and female Pikachu sitting either side of a 1-carat diamond, although you can't choose to have the Pikachus be the same gender, so that's a little limiting.
You can order the rings from the website — each one costs 1,825,000 yen (around $13,760 / £11.410), no matter the material.
Do you like your potential fiancé(e) enough to buy them this ring? Tell us in the comments.
Comments 40
Can't wait for the sequels, Pokémon Divorce and Pokémon Tragedy.
Yeah nooo. Bad idea.
@HotGoomba Will a hatterene be embossed on the divorce papers?
Yes the ring is £11,000.... bet you the thing would be worth less than half that if you had to sell it on.
Those Pikachu look derpy
@HotGoomba laughed harder than I should
@johnvboy but that is kinda how jewelery does work, you pay for the work on it too
Terrible for a proposal, but not a bad investment. If this is a limited merchandise release, the value of the item could go up significantly in a few years.
Removed - unconstructive feedback
Will she get a thundershock every time she takes it off?
Soooo did they make it out of the movie iron tail, therefore the ring is just pikachu’s tail?
I 💕 Pokemon but a Zelda theme is better I think...
Good thing I’m already married.
My ring cost $12 on amazon and came from somewhere in china. So far 9 years together. Not bad.
although you can't choose to have the Pikachus be the same gender, so that's a little limiting.
well now I don't like it anymore ☹
I don't know about the whole knitted sweater thing, but I am relatively disappointed that it seems no one has yet attempted to propose to you here in the comment section. I mean that was a pretty fierce 'throwing yourself out there' with this whole article. But then again, these are gamers, and that ring has a high price tag. Is there a pichu option ?
hehe jk, fun ring and article. And best of luck with those sweaters 👍😎
.. I just have one last thing to say though, will you .... AHEM uh ... will you .. [message truncated due to length]
"although you can't choose to have the Pikachus be the same gender, so that's a little limiting"
The overlap of people who are able and willing to spend £11,000 on a single engagement ring and people who would want a Pikachu themed engagement ring is already incredibly niche as is. This is the kind of product that exists only for people with more money than sense. If that's you, you could probably afford to get something unique made to your exact specifications.
I can't for the life of me expect a product like this to come with gendering options. You really think the manufacturer is going to go through the time and expense of creating and producing different models of this ring which is only going to sell a a small handful of units? The lack of gendering not a problem. Sometimes markets are just too small for products to exist.
@CharlieGirl life was much easier when all Pikachu (and other Pokémon) looked the same I guess.
@Axecon this reminds me of the Sonic chains that came out last year.
Sailor Moon rings are much more tasteful imo.
Honestly, from afar, you can't even tell it's Pokemon themed. Kinda just looking like an elaborate design holding up the diamond.
That price is ridiculous however. There is no where close to $11k worth of gold on that tiny thing.
But the real question is, does it include a TM or an HM?
I feel like proposing marriage to a partner would get you kicked out of the firm...
Most women I know including my wife only wear the wedding band on the regular. The spiny engagement ring spends 99% of its days in a jewelry box despite all the money spent on it. But that's still much more play than the wedding dress gets. Marriage is a weird ritual. But so is dressing up dead bodies, putting them in a box and having people stand around said box.
No. I don't like Pokémon.
@Coalescence times change even as we enshrine ritual. Aside from being a gimmick of the diamond industry the engagement ring functioned as collateral/pseudo dowery when women weren’t allowed to earn a living. Being discarded in a marriage could be life or death back in the day. But at least selling the ring could buy some distance from the street. Still is life or death in more traditional cultures. And for those that had money it was a status symbol to compare with other women. Now that is impractical, still expensive and better served by an airtight prenup.
And then she says "No!"
@KateGray Are you low-key dropping hints for your partner?
But seriously, if you're concerned about your future engagement ring snagging your knit sweaters, you can wear it on a chain around your neck. I have a friend who does that because she's allergic to rings on her fingers.
@nukatha There had to be a more respectful way you could have voiced your frustration here.
I don't read every article this writer posts, so I can't comment on whether or not their articles have an agenda or not. The ones I recall do not, but that could just be a coincidence.
The writer didn't put their opinion into the gender of the two Pikachus, they stated a general fact. A same sex couple would most likely be turned off by the fact the Pikachus wouldn't match their relationship. This is an economic comment about a product not reaching target customers, couples, primarily Pokemon fans, ready to be engaged. That's a limited portion of the engagement ring market. Having 3 different variants for the ring (different tail notches) might have been decided to be too expensive and not worth it, especially with the Pokemon Company most likely not approving of that in the first place, but the comment is valid entirely. Same sex couples make up more than 0% of the market, and with the product already targeting a niche group compared to a stereotypical engagement ring, limiting the buyer pool by excluding customers is a valid comment.
Maybe I'm just wrong entirely, but I saw Kate's comment as pointing out a "limitation" of the product, and excluding potential buyers instead of pushing an agenda. Most companies don't care who you marry, they just want your money, and for your monthly payments not to bounce.
Pikachu or no Pikachu, who in their right mind buys a diamond ring online?!
@CharlieGirl,
Damn those none inclusive Pokemon.
@CharlieGirl Female pikachus from Johto have the same tails as males so nothing is lost.
Found myself a ring, now I need to find myself a finger to put it on. (With the rest of the person of course)
Or I'll just buy it for myself. (On a huge sale)
@Rayquaza2510,
Without a doubt, but it still stings a little when you have to re sell.
Not having an option to get the Pikachus to be the same gender is pretty dumb. Being that expensive and with how small an alteration it is that should have barely any impact on the production cost.
@Nua,
The article does point out a limitation that's hardly going to make or break the items sales, as the market for this type of product is so niche in the first place, and same gender options would be even less of a priority for the makers.
I think it's more of an expectation that this will be brought up in the current climate to appease, rather than it serving any real purpose.
@Lizuka Right? Especially since these are seemingly each custom made, they could just offer the option.
@CharlieGirl,
They just go where the money is, if they thought it was viable from a sales perspective, they would offer the option. unless you are suggesting it's something more sinister.
@Lizuka @CharlieGirl My guess is that the figurines and stone casing are pre-sculpted to be fixed on to the band of choice. And if that's not the case because the bands and figures are one solid piece made entirely to order... I'd like to know how the figures are made in the first place. Moulds, perhaps? Again, I'm 100% just guessing because I legitimately have no idea about jewellery manufacturing. I don't know how the moulds would be made, if they're reusable etc etc. I can't assume that it would be easy or viable to go to the effort of creating the options.
And on a different note, let's look at the situation here. These are niche products made for the Japanese market. They're aren't officially available internationally. Japan has no legal recognition of same-sex partnerships and has lower numbers of openly gay/bi/etc people than the Western world. This product is appealing to biggest possible demographic and I'd wager that its unlikely to sell more than double-digits in terms of units. Hell, I'd not surprised if it only sold a single-digit number of units.
There is virtually no viable market in Japan for a same-sex Pikachu diamond engagement ring costing ¥1,825,000. There's barely a market for a mixed-sex equivalent. It's there any reason for the company to bother creating a luxury item that potentially won't ever sell?
Ultimately, I just think that on so many different levels it does not matter that this product lacks any gendering options. It's not even it's worth remarking on. It will either come down to the fact that the same-sex market will always be smaller than the mixed-sex one and this is a niche product to the nth degree, or that we're looking at different cultures to our own.
Folks, if you're reading a throwaway line about the existence of gay Pokémon fans and running to the comments to tell me that gay gamers in love are too niche of an audience, I promise that it is not that deep.
Also like 80% of Pokémon fans that I know fall under the LGBTQ+ umbrella so let's agree to disagree
I'll leave it at this this: this isn't about of gay Pokémon fans, it's about the market that exists to actually buy this product. How many LGBTQ+ Pokémon fans you know isn't exactly relevant. I'm categorically not saying that "gay gamers in love is too niche an audience" for any products to exist at all. It's a bit unfair to turn my argument that into that. This is a niche product by its price point, by the operating region of the company that makes it and by its potential audience. That's all.
Not that you said otherwise, but just to be clear I want to say that there's no hate here. At least not from me (can't speak for anyone else). This situation strikes me as purely logistical, or one that's potentially not even on the radar of the manufacture for a number of reasons.
Re-reading my first comment, I can see it being interpreted as antagonist towards you @KateGray, particularly because I directly quote what you only put in as a throwaway line. It wasn't supposed to be antagonistic, but I'm going to apologise for the fact that it was. Sorry. My comments were supposed to be read as general, not directed. I do have more to say surrounding this entire topic, but let's just go back to the subject at hand. This has spiralled way too far from the point.
£11k is way too much to spend on an engagement ring, especially when it looks so tacky. I'll keep my theoretical £11k and buy something I'm not in constant fear of damaging or losing.
@KateGray,
No need to defend anything, you said that the rings options were not all that inclusive, which is pretty much the norm these days with most articles like this, stand by it.
I don't have a fiance, but if it was half the price I would have bought one for my Pokemon collection, its a cute item. As is its far over my budget.
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