The Time Machine to 5th Grade: A Pocket Monster Refresher

Hello, friend.
If you don't know who this is, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Rachel, also known as Rushelle (a nickname I inherited in grade school that's become an able pseudonym for me), and I'm a graduate student, studying in Rhetoric and Composition as well as focusing in Visual Rhetoric. While collegiate academia is my calling career-wise, I still take great value in examining Secondary Education (high school) and how our students are being rhetorically inclined into the college atmosphere and job force. It was my nostalgia for grade and high school that sparked inspiration for this blog you're currently reading.

I've wanted to blog about something for a couple of months now, but I couldn't place my finger on what, since I created a blog for my Visual Rhetoric English 350 course last year. It wasn't until I started thinking about more recreative activities (such as what my Halloween costume would be this year) that I realized perhaps focusing on something nostalgic would give me motivation. And this is where Pokemon comes onto the scene.

For those that did not spend hours in on the playground pretending to battle with imaginary dinosaur-like pets, sat on rainy days in the gymnasium tapping away on their Gameboy Colors', or secretly bartered holographic trading cards in the lunch line, then consider this first post a refresher on what Pokemon are, their significance then and now, and what this blog is doing.

Pokémon (ポケモン, English pronunciation: /ˈpoʊkeɪmɑːn/, POH-kay-mahn (Sora Ltd. 2008) began its revolution in the gaming industry in 1996, when the video game company Nintendo coordinated with creator Satoshi Tajiri the dispersement of a role playing game, or RPG, involving travel with, collecting of, and battling against creatures known as Pocket Monsters or Pokémon. The objective of the game is to defeat the leaders of areas within the game, often battling in gymnasiums located within that areas village or city in order to collect "gym badges" or proof of your success. The game reaches a climax when all the gym leaders are conquered, but can continue until you have battled all the residents within the game and collected all the Pokémon present as well.

The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター, Poketto Monsutā) and refers to the creatures you collect and battle with as a collective, though each has its own individual name. (Swider 2007)In the first four games released in Japan (three in the United States),
Pokémon Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow, there were 151 different Pokémon that could be collected and used in battle.

The versatility of Pokémon and the "collecting" aspects intrigued a young pack-rat audience and became instantly popular in both Japan and the United states, becoming Nintendo's highest grossing video game franchise, second only to the Mario Brothers (Boyes 2007). As of May 2010, nearly fifteen years after its first realization, the Pokémon franchise has sold more than 200 Million title copies of its video games, not including the sale of Manga, Anime, Clothing and other Accessory Merchandise (Nintendo 2010). This year, Nintendo is releasing a new set of games in the Pokémon collective: Black and White (usually games are released in pairs, allowing gamers to "choose" which they want to play or collect both. Each game has some Pokémon the other does not.).

Clearly, the role Pokémon play in the economy of the video game industry has become exponential, but what of its role in the culture of Japan and the United States?
While Pokémon have created controversy over religious groups for claims against zionism, evolution, and even materialism in children; other groups have claimed contrary. For instance, The Vatican, however, has countered that the Pokémon trading card game and video games are "full of inventive imagination" and have no "harmful moral side effects" (Silverman).

Arguably though, as a child I wasn't so much affected by the materialistic aspects, nor was the fact that evolution was involved (Pokémon start as a base creature and then "evolve" into two or three different forms as they are trained with) really a concern or motivation for play. I played because it was fun to find these mythical creatures and compare with other friends who had the "better" or more developed "pet". It was a fantasy world where you were on your own, adventuring and being self-relient, and more than one time my friends and I wished Pokémon were real in the world, so we'd have that opportunity for self-reliance and travel.

Regardless of world views of the game and merchandise surrounding it, as a visual scholar I want to explore Pokémon: specifically what makes them fascinating, cultural and symbolic ties for each one, and how that has shaped me and possibly other children into the visual rhetoricians we are today. There are a significant number of rhetorical tropes tied in with Pokémon that I want to uncover through this blog.

So, after that long refresher on Pokémon:

What is this blog?
An analysis of Pokémon and the entrails of the Franchise's use of Visual Rhetoric.

What am I examining?
The original 150 Pokémon, one by one, and their symbolic visual representation, and tropes surrounding them.

How long is this going to take me?
However long it takes!

Thank you for reading this. Any input is welcome of course, but I'll have my first entry coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

Cheers,
Rachel


Works Cited:

Sora Ltd.. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. (Nintendo). Wii. (March 9, 2008) "(Announcer's dialog after the character Pokémon Trainer is selected (voice acted))"

Swider, Matt. "The Pokemon Series Pokedex @ Gaming Target". Gaming Target. Gaming Target. http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=6531. Retrieved February 28, 2007.

Boyes, Emma (January 10, 2007). "UK paper names top game franchises". GameSpot. GameSpot UK. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164012.html. Retrieved February 26, 2007.

Nintendo (May 29, 2010). "Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version for Nintendo DS coming to Europe in Spring 2011". Press release.

Silverman, Stephen M. Pokemon Gets Religion, People Magazine