The Never-Ending Rant

Too Much Pokemania?!?!

by Ira Goldberg
Issue I - December 14th, 1999

It had been racking my brain as to what the first article of this column would address. As I sat there, I couldn't think of anything that would be a truly big issue that would give some sign of potential to this column. I had a pad of paper with tons of great ideas scratched out and for a moment it appeared as though before even starting I had suffered writer's block. Then, upon the airing of a commercial for Burger King and their kids meal, clarity befell me.

One thing that has been on the anime spectrum that has truly been disturbing is the flux of Pokemon into mainstream American society. Dispelling all the myths of Pokemon, it is nothing more than a very genious ad campaign by the people at Nintendo. Pokemon, the series, was created for the reason of selling more hame cartridges, working in Japan and now here. The series itself has spawned trading cards, bean bag dolls, books, stickers, and countless other products, all revolving around the odd named fictional creatures.

In an attempt to understand this "Pokemania," I downloaded the emulator of Pokemon Blue. To be honest, the game was intriguing at first and seemed like a pretty neat rpg; however, after reaching the midway point of the game, it grew tiresome and it seemed too repetitive due to the lack of user-interface. The game itself does have its bright sides in that it gives you a huge variety in the creatures you can control at your will, though most of them require you to go farther a few too many hours into the game. For about the first hour alone, the most you'll encounter is "Pidgey" and "Rattata." Seeing how creating a cutsey cartoon show could help advertise the game and manipulate what has become millions of kids into "catching them all," explains how the game and its counterpart, Pokemon Red, have experienced such immense success on such a fickle and risky video game market.

Quite frankly, I don't understand its appeal to children. The pull of it baffles me along with everyone from the age of fourteen and up. From watching a few of the "best episodes" on a marathon on the Warner Brothers Network, I think the show is truly awful and what draws some kids to want a "Pikachu" that is bigger, in some cases, than themselves is beyond me. Perhaps it will fade in time, though the success of the show has shown no signs of succeeding any time soon. To coin a line from General Sherman himself, "The only good Pokemon is a dead Pokemon."