The Invisible to Normals thing is really only present in Bloom, with the premise that the app lets you (yes, you!) see and interact with them via your smart device.
I'd be surprised if that got canonized, admittedly. They never really needed to handwave it before, seeing as how the Pikmin series otherwise takes place on a planet that comes off as Earth after being abandoned by humans.
🏳️⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse AlberiaWhile Pikmin 4 was a reboot Pikmin has always been weird when it comes to time. Especially in 4 where the house is very pristine and feels like it was just recently used, like to the point that for humanity to have died off it would have happened a month before Olimar got stranded on Earth.
edit: At 1:40 in the video you can see a red pikmin running in the back ground.
Edited by Mega_zxa on Oct 7th 2025 at 2:40:52 AM
Around the release of 4, there was some stuff on the Japanese website that elaborated more on Pikmin lore: the Earth in Pikmin is implicitly abandoned by humanity long ago and the various diminuitive spacefaring races like Hocotatians and Koppaites are all distant descendants of humanity.
The reason the planet is a little bit different each game (and implicitly the reason why humanmade structures like houses can sometimes appear despite it being hundreds of millions of years later) is speculated to be because some kind of psychic entity (the Plasm Wraith) rearranges the planet every time someone gets shipwrecked down there.
Anyway, this is definitely Pikmin-related going by the central Pikmin leitmotif playing, and as others said probably just a Bloom advertisement. There's no reason to believe the Pikmin co-exist with present-day human babies in mainline canon.
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Oh! And here I thought it was another Splatoon situation where humans extincted themselves and you were stumbling across their long-dead remains.
Shows how much more misanthropic and world-weary writers have gotten in the time between the two series, I guess.
Edited by KnownUnknown on Oct 7th 2025 at 3:19:48 AM
I didn't want to exclude the idea of humans leaving Earth (hence my wording of just "abandoning Earth") but I didn't expect that to be the case, much less that the Koppaites/Hocatians are direct descendants of humanity. Huh.
But, yeah. Splatoon has more of a cynical bent to it- its views on trend-chasing and vanity are pretty scathing- so its flavor of After the End being bleaker tracks. Pikmin is more focused on the beauty of nature and the world around you at a small scale, so it makes sense that its version of post-humanity is a lot more optimistic.
I'm reminded of how one of the leads for Kirby & the Forgotten Land had a similar idea for that game's post-Earth, wanting players to (if I recall the quote right) "see the beauty of what was there once, instead of lament what's missing." Fittingly enough, the New World's inhabitants ALSO willingly abandoned it to explore the universe, instead of dying from their hubris.
Edited by NesClassic on Oct 7th 2025 at 6:50:25 AM
🏳️⚧️she/her | Vio Rhyse Alberia![]()
...weird how Splatoon's shtick is the new guys making more beautiful things out of their passion considering how dark the background lore is.
Someone making a page for the Close to You short made me realize we didn't have a page for the Pikmin Short Movies. So I made one.
Edited by RacattackForce on Oct 8th 2025 at 3:25:25 PM
So, Nintendo just uploaded another Close to You video to Nintendo today.
This time the Pikmin are visible.
My musician pageIt’s interesting, I think the first video must be how the people see it. The second is how it really is.
My musician pageSNES NSO update!
Bubsy, Fatal Fury Special, and Mario & Wario, its first release outside of Japan!
Edited by Eisner on Oct 8th 2025 at 6:04:26 AM
Welcome, my little friend! Or should I say...friends?WHAT FUTURE INCIDENTS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO RESULT IN A NEGATIVE OUTCOME
...Interesting choice to add Bubsy when the new collection only just came out.
Your melody still remains in this room and it rings

Yeah, I think “invisible to the naked eye” was just because they’re that small.
My musician page