Pokémon (series)

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Pokémon<sup>(JPJapanese: ポケモン

Romaji: Pokemon)</sup>, also known as Pocket Monsters<sup>(JPJapanese: ポケットモンスター

Romaji: Poketto Monsutā)</sup> in Japan, is a media franchise jointly owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures through The Pokémon Company. The franchise started from a set of video games created by Satoshi Tajiri. The original Game Boy video games have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books and other media. The game’s catchphrase and slogan, in the English language versions of the franchise, used to be "Gotta catch ’em all!", although it is now no longer officially used (except by Hasbro and in the title sequence to Pokémon Chronicles).

Pokémon is also the collective name for all of the fictional species within the Pokémon universe. To date, the franchise has a grand total of 809 Pokémon that lie at the heart of the series, a figure which has grown substantially from the 150 monsters in the original Pokémon Red and Blue games. The word Pokémon remains unchanged whether referring to the singular or plural (as is the case with deer or sheep), and the same applies to each species name.

Pokémon games

The Video Games

Main articles: Pokémon games and List of Pokémon games

The Pokémon games have always been released in pairs, along with a third game released later. Each Pair released as well as its third game (fourth including Yellow Version) are considered on Generation. Currently there are 6 generations each having approximately 100 -150 new pokemon released each new generation. The main series paired games generally differ with Pokemon Available and minor storyline changes such as Legendary Focus, Villians, etc. Third Versions have changed the storyline slightly to give the game a new feel. Since Platinum the no. of pokemon in the regional dex has expanded. Since Emerald major changes to the storyline have occured.

Side Series Pokemon games generally come under three categories, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and Pokemon Ranger. There are other Side Series pokemon games such as Pokemon Pinball, Pokemon Dash, Pokepark and Pokemon Mini. Pokemon Stadium had 3 games released with them mirroring Generations I, II and IV. The games were titled Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2 and Pokemon Battle Revolution with the main focus being around battling with little to no storyline. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games were exploration games where the player must explore dungeons to find treasure, pokemon in need of rescue and villians. Generally the Player of Pokemon Mystery dungeon was previously a human turned into a Pokemon for unknown reasons to be discovered at the end of the game. Thirdly is Pokemon Range which is a game based around The Capture Style instead of the Pokeball. It uses the Touch Screen to befriend pokemon as well as use powers of pokemon. So far three generations of games have been released two centered around Generation IV. Other series singles such as Pokemon Snap! and Pokemon Hey You Pikachu have been released to expand on the genres it covers.

Currently, the publishing of the mainline titles is being handled by The Pokémon Company, while distribution is handled by Nintendo in Japan. Publishing and distribution of mainline titles outside of Japan is handled solely by Nintendo.

The Trading Card Game

Main article: Pokémon Trading Card Game

The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a collectible card game based on the Pokémon video game series. It made its debut in Japan on October 20, 1996. Cards were initially distributed by Media Factory in Japan and Wizards of the Coast in North America. Distribution is currently being handled globally by The Pokémon Company.

Pokémon Media

Animated TV series

The Pokémon TV series' has been on the air since April 1, 1997. It is being produced by ShoPro, Medianet (formerly known as SoftX), and its broadcaster, TV Tokyo. The series follows Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum and his quest to become a Pokémon Master. He has traveled through the Kanto Region, Orange Islands, Johto Region, Hoenn Region, Kanto Region (Battle Frontier), Sinnoh Region, Unova Region, Decolore Islands, Kalos Region and right now the Alola Region. Ash has had lots of traveling companions over the seasons. In order of Appearance they are: Misty, Brock, Tracey, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Clemont, Bonnie, Serena, Lana, Kiawe, Lillie, Sophocles and Mallow. There has also been many spin of episodes, a Series about Ash's friends and a Series called Pokémon Origins which is a group of episodes following Red on his journey in Kanto like the original games.

Manga

A variety of Pokémon manga series have been published, primarily by Shogakukan. The best known Pokémon manga series is the Pokémon Adventures series, which is being. With more than 40 volumes following the Dexholders on their journeys around the Pokémon world. The main characters are named after the main games (e.g. Red, Gold, Sapphire, Black) The stories are set around all of the main series regions and areas.

Controversies

Main article: Pokémon controversy

The Pokémon series has been subject to controversy since its creation. Various religious (Christian, Jewish, Muslim) and activist (animal rights) groups have expressed concerns over the franchise due to prominent themes found in the games. These controversies have even caused the series to be banned in some countries.

• The Pokémon Jynx was highly controversial due to its resemblance to characters from The Little Black Sambo. Critics insisted that the species enforced a negative stereotype against African Americans due to its pitch-black skin. Because of this, Jynx's skin was changed to purple.
• One episode, Electric Soldier Porygon, was removed from television after it caused seizures to many children. After the incident, Japanese TV broadcasters voluntarily added on-screen warnings to shows targeted at young children encouraging viewers to watch them in a well-lit room and to sit far away from the television set. Another episode was postponed, and two were never released to the public.
• All products related to Pokémon have been banned from Saudi Arabia due to supposedly supporting other religions, which is strictly against Muslim doctrine.^[1]
• Kadabra had a slight controversy in that his Japanese name as well as some of his features referenced Uri Geller which caused Uri Geller to sue Nintendo. The case never got anywhere but, The Pokémon Company has since never featured Kadabra in the anime or official merchandise since the mid 2000s.

History

Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri first came up with the concept of what would become Pokémon around the time of the Game Boy's release. The concept stemmed from bug collecting, a hobby Tajiri enjoyed as a child.^[2] Tajiri thought the Game Boy was perfect for his idea especially because of the link cable; he envisioned that it would allow players to trade Pokémon with each other. The concept of trading information was new to the video gaming industry because connection cables were only being used for competition at that time.^[3]

Originally called Capsule Monsters, the franchise's title went through several transitions due to trademark issues, becoming CapuMon and KapuMon before eventually settling upon Pocket Monsters.^[4] The first Pocket Monsters trademark was filed on September 11, 1995^[5] and development of the first two games finished the following October.

Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green were released in Japan on February 27, 1996. Nintendo's idea of producing two versions of the same game instead of a single title prompted consumers to buy both, which led to higher sales. Blue was released in October that same year as a mail-order-only special title.

U.S. launch

The localization for the first two games was done by a team led by Hiro Nakamura. When altering the games' text from Japanese to English ended up being impossible; the games had to be entirely reprogrammed from scratch due to the fragile state of their source code. The games ended up being based on the mail-order-only Blue; modeling its programming and artwork, but keeping the same distribution of Pokémon found in the Japanese Red and Green cartridges, respectively.

As the finished Red and Blue versions were being prepared for release in the U.S., Nintendo allegedly spent over 50 million dollars to promote the games, fearing the series would not be appealing to American children.^[6] The localization team warned that the "cute monsters" may not be accepted by American audiences, and recommended they be redesigned and "beefed-up". Then-president of Nintendo Hiroshi Yamauchi refused and instead viewed the games' possible reception in America as a challenge to face.^[7] In addition to this, the Pocket Monsters name could not be used in the U.S. due to trademark issues. Despite the setbacks, the reprogrammed Red and Blue versions with their original creature designs were eventually released in North America in 1998. The games ended up being a success in North America.

Pokémon's first stop in the U.S. was Topeka, Kansas. The city changed the name of the city to ToPikachu in celebration of the Pokémon species. In March of 2010, Topeka, Kansas mayor Bill Bunten proclaimed that they city's name would be changed to Google, Kansas for that month in hopes that Google would experiment their fiber optics experiment there. Local TV station WIBW Jim Ogle stated that "if Topeka could change its name for a small doll that sounds like I sneezed, it could certainly do the same for Google."

Pokémon-Related Articles

• List of Pokémon

Trivia

• The first Pokémon designed and created was Rhydon.

References