July 2010-- One day after the release of the newest Pokémon movie "Phantom Champion Zoroark" in Japan - one day - English-language message boards were already littered with posts claiming that it "sucked". After months of previews, spoilers, and anticipation, a movie that most of the world won't even see until later in the year has already been written off as a failure. Initially hailed as so awesome and so epic, suddenly, the discussions just stopped. The same thing happened with the last Pokémon movie....and the one before that...and the one before that...and the one before that...
Disappointment doesn't even begin to describe what so many 'fans' feel in regards to the Pokémon animé these days, but the even greater disappointment was learning just how long this has been going on and just how many to whom those feelings of dissatisfaction belong.
But before going any further, I want to make it clear that I have no problem with fans who have good memories of the earliest Pokémon episodes - I have them too (and if you're lucky enough to also have those same episodes uncut, uncensored in Japanese with English subs, more power to you - I know I don't!). But the difference is that my memories don't end there, or at any of the other "cut-off points" that seem to be the standard replies to the commonly-asked forum thread/poll: "When did you stop watching the animé?"
"...After first season..." (actually mid-second, after the Kanto Indigo League)
"...When Misty left..." (end of fifth season/end of Johto League)
"...When the voices changed..." (beginning of ninth season/Kanto Battle Frontier)
And that's when I started to realize that I was suddenly very much in the minority as my answer is "never".
Like many fans, the animé was my introduction to the world of Pokémon, although, I will admit that as a teacher rather than a student, my experience with Pokémon then was quite different.
When I first went looking for answers in 1999 as to what Pokémon was really all about, I wasn't sure where to start. Still images on trading cards were beautiful but didn't tell me much; the manga always was and still is rather hard to find, and as far as the games, I wasn't quite ready to spend so much money on something I still knew so little about. So the televised animé was my window to the Pokémon world. And even as that world expanded for me when I began to experience the role-playing games and other aspects of Pokémon, I was pleased to see that the messages that I was first introduced to in the animé carried over throughout everything else.
And while the morals and values of Pokémon may have been there from the beginning - to raise them with kindness and to protect them from harm - at no time were these messages more prevalent in story and personified in character than in the recent Diamond & Pearl series (2007-2010). But by then, unfortunately much of the animé's original audience was gone and these ideals went either unseen or unappreciated. The sad reality is that so many viewers had already given up on the animé years ago.
Rooted so deeply in the past, so many have long since abandoned the continuing journeys of our hero Ash and his partner Pikachu, and sadly, stubbornly choose to still only see him as the child he once was rather than the young man he's become. "It's said that we build our heroes up only to tear them down"¹; reaching far beyond this one character, it's those of us who are still loyal who ultimately feel the effects of such betrayal.
I admit, it came as a shock to me. I spent most of my time as a Pokémon fan advocating the values and truths about Pokémon to the parents and teachers of young fans who only wanted others to understand and accept something that meant so much to them. Over the years, I didn't notice that those same fans were getting older and that their expectations were changing, shaped by a society that loses its innocence far too soon and equates maturity with violence².
How quickly some have forgotten what it was like to be on the receiving end of discrimination.
Over the years, the Pokémon powers-that-be have often been accused of marketing to a younger, newer audience rather than the older, longtime fans, with much of that blame falling upon (surprise) the animé. And while I believe that there are still enough of us who will continue to faithfully play, watch, read, and collect all that the world of Pokémon offers, with so many having turned, the desire and need to attract the next generation of fans who will welcome Pokémon with the same wonder and enthusiasm as Kanto-era fans once did is something for which I cannot blame them. New fans, after all, are the future.
As I said, this has all been going a for while now, and I admit that it's taken me quite some time to piece together my thoughts on the subject because whenever I'd sit down to write, all I'd feel was anger - anger toward so many others for having betrayed something to which they were once so loyal. But perhaps part of that anger was for allowing myself to become so upset over the opinions of strangers. And that's when I realized that as a long-time Pokémon fan, I am rather fortunate. The cynicism and negativity that consume so many others now have never once influenced how I look upon or enjoy Pokémon today...all of the energy that once came so naturally as anticipation and excitement that's now wasted on frustration and resentment make me so glad that I am not one of them.
Every Saturday morning, my husband and I still look forward to sharing another day-in-the-life of our heroes...we still get up
no matter how the schedule changes or how early the show airs. We've stood by Pokémon with each new season through both character and cast changes. And in all these years, we have never once missed a new episode; even during the roughest, most uncertain times in our personal lives, Pokémon was a constant.
I hope I've explained why the Pokémon animé means so much to me...and even more so why it pains me so much to have to post an article like this. Originally conceived as a shared safe haven, these days, online Pokémon communities and forums are little more than dumping grounds where members go to air their grievances about anything and everything that's since gone wrong. And while the games and other aspects of Pokémon get their fair amount of criticism and ingratitude from those who always seem to want something more than what they're given, it's the animé that bears the full brunt of that criticism; criticism so harsh that it often turns posts into flames and pits fan against fan.
Animé hate hurts. It hurts fans. It hurts the franchise. I hope that in sharing my thoughts, I have helped to bring some peace to those Pokémon fans to whom this still matters in the same way my site always has.
[URL]
Thank you for your support.
¹Murphy Brown episode #2 of season 7 ("Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?")
²ESRB video game ratings system that (too-literally) labels games containing content such as graphic and gratuitous violence as "M for Mature".
Text and artwork copyright © 2000-2010 by Kimberly (RageOfInnocence)
Pokémon © Satoshi Tajiri, Nintendo/Creatures, Inc./Game Freak, The Pokémon Company International
The beautiful screenshots of Ash and Pikachu are from the premiere episode "Pokémon! I Choose You!"
and the Diamond & Pearl ending "Kaze no Message" |
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