Why I loved Pokemon and why I still do
16 July 2007
This post is tagged ’emotional detachment issues’, because well, it’s my emotional detachment issues!
If you asked me what I remembered most from my childhood, I’d give you this memory: crowded bedroom, my cousins and I sitting around an old television. My first cousin, a tall, lanky girl, two pigtails tied with cheap rubber bands that snapped easily sat on the bed. Her brother, my other cousin, sat next to her, a boy of moderate height who had a knack for playing brass instruments. My third cousin, a chubby and cheeky, bespectacled girl sat at her table. Silence settled over the room as the clock struck a new hour and the television screen darkened. And that familiar theme song started to play…
There was a recent 33-hour Pokemon marathon on Cartoon Network and had it not been for some prior engagement which required that I leave my house, I would’ve stayed for 33 hours to watch the entire thing. To call Pocket Monsters a cultural, world wide phenomenon would be an understatement. The fact that I, along with my friends, armed with our Gameboys and DS Lites, a decade or so later, still ‘gotta catch’em all’ is an exemplification of the power and influence Pokemon had. There is not a person out there who has not heard of Pokemon, even my grandmother knows what a pikachu is.
Ash Ketchum wasn’t much of a looker, in fact, he was quite plain, the hair, the cap, the cloth, that cocky attitude made him the perfect pedestrian protagonist of this epic shonen adventure. Misty, the voice of reason, was one of the few admirable female leads, that while annoying, managed to win me over anyways. Lastly, of the original trio, Brock, Brock the woman chasing, crazy, good natured guy essential was to any good adventure. (Come to think about it, Ash, Misty and Brock set the mold for a lot of other series, in particular Inu Yasha. Ash – Inu Yasha, Kagome – Misty and Brock – Miroku.) I just can’t bring myself to hate these people, not even Gary, who was a jerk. The best part of it all was Team Rocket. There is no Pokemon without Team Rocket. Meowth, Jessie and James are as equally important as Ash, Misty and Brock to the Pokemon franchise.
There is no single reason as to why I loved Pokemon, it was a whole combination of things melded together that formed the basis of my love for this show. Pokemon, technically, was nothing truly exceptional. The animation was plain, the concept was borrowed, even the main character was based on the hero of another, unknown and unheard of manga. Perhaps the reason that Pokemon stayed with me all these years is because it was one of the few shows that honestly had heart. It preached everything morally ethical, about saving the day, self sacrifice, doing the right thing and most of all, friendship. The foundation upon which the entirety of Pokemon is based on, to this day, is friendship. What’s so perfectly timeless is the bound between Ash and Pikachu, ever since that very first episode. The whole reason there was even Pokemon was because Ash made friends with everyone. I’m telling you, he made friends with everyone. There is not an episode where, by the end of those thirty minutes, Ash did not make friends someone he met in that episode. That’s what was so charming, so idealistic and so profound about Pokemon, the world goes around because you have friends. It’s as if everyone Ash met was connected because they were all friends.
My favorite movie, out of the dozens that spawned from the series, was Pokemon: 2000. It was monumental. I wanted so desperately to see it in theaters. I wanted a ticket stub for that show, I wanted a stub to document it’s premier. My mother never understands me. Nonetheless, I saw the movie and I was amazed. Half a dozen movies and specials later, I still can’t shake 2000 from my mind.
I’ve seen all of the movies, I’ve seen at least a dozen episodes of all of the new seasons, I’ve played the games, I’ve collected the cards, and yes, I’m in high school and yes, I’ve been doing this since I was seven, and no, I’m not tired of it yet. I’m never going to grow out of Pokemon. Every time I hear that theme, every time I see pikachu, every time I so much as even talk about the series, I’d become incredibly nostalgic.
I miss the old Pokemon, that’s the whole point of this. With the release of Diamond and Pearl and my inability to get my hands on either versions of the game, since I have no DS, made me feel left out. I haven’t felt left out since third grade. What bothered me even more was the new season of Pokemon of the same title, Pokemon: Diamond & Pearl. The main reason I stopped watching Pokemon, aside from the fact that there’s over 500 episodes and I don’t have the mind to keep up with all of it, was the declining quality with which the episodes were produced. I’m under the impression that after the first couple hundred, the animators developed a Ford assembly line, a mass production system that just churns out, episode after episode, of the same thing.
The dubbed versions of Diamond & Pearl scared me. Ash was no longer voiced by Veronica Taylor but instead by some other girl. I wanted to hear good ol’ Ash Ketchum, I wanted to see him turn back his cap and in good ol’ 1997 style send his Pikachu out to battle. What have they done with my Pokemon? What have they done with my childhood?!
Pokemon, for what it’s worth, did not make it on my list of memorable anime was because, well, it can’t really compare to Cowboy Bebop, but Pokemon is special. It will forever have a place in my heart as one of the fondest memories I have of my unfortunate childhood. Better yet, it probably was my childhood.
I loved Pokemon. Yes, I did.
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title . Thanks for informative article
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Why I loved Pokemon and why I still do, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.