About

Rymesona (a portmanteau of "Ryme City" and "persona") refers to fan art of imagined duos of humans, usually the artist or others, and a partner Pokémon who live in Ryme City, the setting of the 2019 film Pokemon: Detective Pikachu. Functioning in a similar vein to Spidersonas, the subgenre of fan art gained popularity after the release of the film.

Origin

On May 10th, 2019, the live action-CGI film Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was released. The film is mainly set in Ryme City, a city where humans and Pokemon live and work together in unity rather than battling. On May 18th, the earliest instance of a Rymesona was posted by Twitter user @liliuhms depicting the artist and an Emolga.^[1]

Spread

On May 19th, Twitter user @luna_moonie^[2] tweeted an artistic rendering of her and a Vulpix (shown below, left). On May 20th, the official Pokemon Twitter^[3] account acknowledged the trend by retweeting @luna_moonie's art with the caption "Imagine living in Ryme City, a bustling urban city where Pokémon and Trainers live and work together. Which Pokémon would be your partner? 🤔 Check out Trainer @luna_mooniee’s #Rymesona! Have you drawn one too? Share your Rymesona below, and we’ll retweet our favorites!"

The same day, many Twitter users posted their Rymesona art. Popular examples include art by @ayedahh^[3] showing him and a Luxray, gaining over 4,400 retweets and 16,000 likes (shown below, left). Another by @minekasato^[4] which showed the artist working as a barista with a Meowth gained over 90 retweets and 470 likes (shown below, right). The art was covered by Polygon.^[5]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References