The extent to which Pokemon is branded in Japan and abroad never ceases to amaze. Neither does the extent to which my family buys that Pokemon branded crap! Here's a bottle of "Shan Meri—," short for "champagne" and "merry." During the holidays, adults in Japan like to knock back bottles of champagne. And not to make the kids feel left out, alcohol-free soda pop that is packaged in beer, wine, champagne-type bottles. We picked this up at the neighborhood liquor store, marked down after Cmas. Hit the jump for the exciting unwrapping as well as my taste test! Brian Ashcraft

Ah, it's Pokemon Diamond & Pearl Shan Meri—. New software tie-in. Clever!

That's the other side. Can you feel the excitement?

The back. Nothing to see here, move along.

Ooooooh, the top. With packaging this shiny and a top like that, this soda pop should have a killer label.

Nope. Nothing. And the drink tastes like green grapes.

Non-sequitur, but here is what I had for lunch, I shit thee not.

Mission #4: Speaking of counting, we had a shin dig. With booze. And retro games. How many cone hats were in appearance? Count carefully. (Tip, this pic pops up in two places. Find the one that is NOT in an embedded slide picture player.)