These Pokémon McFlurries sound mostly terrible (update)

McDonald’s Japan is gearing up for the release of the next Pokémon movie with a pretty delicious campaign — well, potentially delicious. One of six Pokémon-inspired flavors is heading to stores next week, and they each prove that McDonald’s has an ... interesting culinary palate.

The way this campaign works is that fans in Japan had until midnight today, July 10, to retweet their support for their preferred flavor. Those who picked the winning McFlurry heading to stores will be eligible for a discount coupon, which is a nice enough prize.

But you’d be remiss to vote for any flavor other than Pikachu’s. Here’s the rundown:

Pikachu’s McFlurry, if chosen, will be chocolate-covered banana-flavored, which sounds delicious:

McDonald’s Japan/The Pokémon Company

Jigglypuff’s McFlurry will taste like white peach; that could be ... OK:

McDonald’s Japan/The Pokémon Company

Now we’re getting to the oddball flavors. Ramune is a soda for an acquired taste. Apparently, so is Squirtle:

McDonald’s Japan/The Pokémon Company

Gengar’s takes inspiration from a “purple” (or maybe sweet?) potato. I mean, sure:

McDonald’s Japan/The Pokémon Company

These last two are clearly the joke options. Bulbasaur totally looks like he’d taste like broccoli. I never want to eat a broccoli-flavored McFlurry, so I’m out on this one:

McDonald’s Japan/The Pokémon Company

But Charmander deserves better than the hand that McDonald’s has dealt it. Habanero pepper-flavored McFlurry sounds ... not good. Yes, Charmander is fiery, but it’s also a precious, precious Pokémon. Too bad the Japanese public would even rather eat broccoli McFlurries before this Charmander one:

The Pokémon Company/McDonald’s Japan

Right now, Pikachu’s racked up the most retweets by far. This isn’t an indication that Japan’s getting the chocolate-banana McFlurry for sure ... but I’d be surprised if McDonald’s went with anything else.

Charmander never stood a chance, and neither did any of these other guys, really. Japan’s the only country that’s getting this special treat at the moment, and maybe we’re OK with that, depending on how this goes. Meanwhile, the 20th Pokémon movie is out on July 15.

Update: Turns out the results are already in, and McDonald’s Japan went with the obvious choice. If you’re in Japan, you can dig into a chocolate-covered banana-flavored McFlurry, based off Pikachu.

Maybe one day someone else will get to win over Pikachu ... one day. At least the cup is cute.

McDonald’s Japan via Entabe