After being banned for ugliness, the Pikachu Donuts are back, but are they cute this time?

Is the final-version Pikachu Donut cuter before or after we cut its face in half?

The release of Japanese donut chain Mister Donut’s new Pikachu Donuts have had a lot of parallels with modern video game launches. First there was essentially a trial version, as the sweets were offered in select stores starting November 9. Then came unsatisfied reviews of the beta version-donuts, which looked less like the beloved Pokémon mascot in the franchise’s games and more like a garbled image caused by corrupted save data. Finally, the donuts were pulled from the market for a patch-like fix, and officially released nationwide on Friday.

Being the early dessert adopters that we are, we headed out on the morning of November 16 to see if the final-version Pikachu Donuts could restore our faith in Poké-desserts. The first Mister Donut branch we went to said their batch wouldn’t be ready for an hour, and they weren’t quite ready at the second location we tried either. At the third shop we went to, though, even though it was still well before noon, the staff had put up a sign saying they were already sold out of their day’s supply of both Pikachu and Poké Ball donuts.

But it turned out we were in luck! We walked up to the counter, giving the cashier our best puppy-dog eyes, and asked if they really were entirely sold out. She checked again, and informed us “Actually, we have exactly two Pikachu Donuts left,” so we immediately bought both of them, making the sold-out sign 100-percent accurate.

So, do the final-version Pikachu Donuts have the misshapen heads, oddly angled ears, and unsettling stares of the trial-version ones?

Nope! They’re absolutely adorable. As a matter of fact, they’re even cuter than the specially made members-of-the-press donut that we got to sample prior to the start of the trial period.

Awwwww, just look at that face! Is there any way we could eat it?

Well, yeah, sure. We just ate a Pikachu head full of rice last month, and we like Pikachu burgers so much that we’ve even made our own at home (and if you want to too, here’s the recipe). So yeah, we were totally going to eat our Pikachu Donuts. The bigger problem was that there were so many members of the SoraNews24 team who were down to eat the Pikachu Donuts that we were going to have to share, and there’s only one way to make sure the pieces are evenly sized.

▼ SORANEWS24 used IGNORE PIKACHU’S CRIES OF PAIN!

Inside, the Pikachu Donuts are filled with whipped cream. Sweet and delicious, they’re well worth the 216 yen (US$1.90) Mister Donut charges for them, although we sort of worry that the dual temptation of how they look and how they taste will have us eating so many that our own physiques start to resemble that of the round, soft Pokémon they’re inspired by.

But on the other hand, as popular as the Pikachu Donuts are, you might end up having to go to multiple Mister Donut branches to find one, so at least all the walking from one location to the next should burn off some calories.

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