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The Evils of Pokémon By: Aradia on 3/20/2002; 1:43 AM "Pikachu, I choose you!" "Pikachu!" Alright...so how many of you have been forced to listen to that silly dialog generally found on Pokémon? I know I sure have. In fact, I got forced to go to the movie with my eight year old brother. Now that is what we call absolutely idiotic. But the damned movie isn't the only thing wrong with Pokémon. 1) If Ash and Misty and Brock were any more stupid where Jesse and James are concerned... 2) Why does Ash have a last name, but Misty and Brock don't? 3) Are the writers not creative enough to give the villains real names? We have Jesse and James (Jesse James), and in a recent episode I had to watch, there was Cassidy and Butch (Butch Cassidy). If the youngest Pokémon trainers are ten years old...how old are Ash and Misty and Brock? Surely their parents wouldn't let them run off by themselves at ten. 5) Ash and Misty and Brock are such goody-goodies and denounce fights. And yet, they carry around Pokémon that are designed for fighting. Can we say hypocrite? 6) Why is every single policewoman named Jenny? 7) Why is every single Pokémon nurse named Joy? 8) Why is it that when Ash's Charmander evolved into Charmeleon, it suddenly stopped listening to him? 9) If the Pokémon language consists of the individual name (ie: Bulbasaur's language is simply "Bulbasaur" or variations), then how in the world does a Pikachu communicate with a Zubat ("Pikachu!" "Zubat!")? Also, does a Raichu forget how to speak with a Pikachu? Ok, for those of you who absolutely adore Pokémon, quit having coronaries. Yes, I too will admit that Pikachu is kinda cute. But that's it. It's a hypocritical show. It's supposed to teach kids the value of friendship and responsibility and healthy competitiveness. What does it do, though? It promotes violence with all of those "friendly battles." It promotes slavery with "capturing" the Pokémon. The only real friendship we see is between Misty and Ash and Brock. Well, and between Ash and Pikachu. The healthy competitiveness factor is canceled by the appearance of Jesse and James and Meowth, aka the bungling fools. And the responsibility factor...well, I'm not sure how responsible it is to dump the extra Pokémon in a computer. So why is this a topic I chose, rather than the multiple others I could have written? Yesterday, I got into an argument with a 7th grade student on whether Pokémon should be considered educational or not. Needless to say, he couldn't summon any argument. Except for one, that is. "It's fun."
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Mandy on 4/13/2000; 5:31 PM Alright. First things first. I would like to say to Aradia Bravo. Job well done. Nice article on The Evils Of Pokémon. Nice job. And I have answers to all the points you made, and I must live by my job on "the Puppet Ruling Council" as "Chief Defender Of Overmarketed Children's Television" by making my own points. Feel free to write a rebuttal article back.:) I'll start with the points Aradia made, and end with how I think Pokémon is educational.Thanks to anyone who hasn't already pushed the back button. 1:To the first point about the movie: Pokémon is highly censored by the freaks in censoring that think while it's a children's program in Japan, it's too violent for American kids; so while you think the movie was highly dumb it was 100% more violent in Japan(Look, Ma, blood!) and some things are changed when they go through translation/American adaption for dubbing. Although that varies from show to show whether it's changed or not. It sucks, which is why most people prefer fansubs of stuff like this. This point is only guessing for the dubbing part. I find it highly bad that some people think Pokémon is violent when you consider how much more violent it was in Japan.0_o. If they just brought them over like they were in Japan as the original Pocket Monsters Pokémon would have less of a bad reputation. 2: I have no clue why Misty and Brock have no last names.You've got me there. Tracy *may* have a last name but I have no clue. (Tracy=the new guy that replaces the person that leaves. Eeek almost said who leaves this week or next.0_o) 3:As for non-original names, this goes by translation and however they come up with the Americanized names, so blame the translation people.:) The names in Japan were: Jessie) Musashi James) Kojiro Ash) Satoshi [Named after the creator] Gary)Shigeru[Named after the creator's mentor.] Misty) Kasumi Brock) Takeshi Also, names of Pokémon were different.I, myself, like the Japanese name of Squirtle-Zenigame! Enough for useless names crap....On with the article. 4:As for ages, in the comics by Toshihiro Ono, in the second graphic novel it lists this: Ash: A 10 year-old boy striving to be the best Pokémon trainer in the world! Misty:A 12-year-old gym leader from Cerulean City, and an expert with water Pokémon. (I had a hard time believing she was 12 until her looks went to a bit more like the shows later on. Lets just say she wasn't exactly atomically correct for a 12 year old. o_0) For Brock it lists no age, but when Ash visits the Gym Leader Sabrina (In the comic she's the sweetest you'd ever see) he finds Brock visiting her (They're old friends) and Ash is thinking"Adults sure have weird problems" after Brock bursts into tears("Don't rub it in") when Ash comments about Brock and Sabrina's friend status. Tracy has yet to appear in the comic. Brock and Misty have been quite missing lately too. Though that isn't exactly show canon. I think in the show Brock's a bit older than the other two, Tracy I have no clue his age, Misty is probably about Ash's age and Ash was 10 in the beginning. I think that the parents let them run off by themselves at ten because this is a different world-and parents have had time to get used to this since at least when Professor Oak was a boy, I'm sure. 5)I have no rebuttal for the fifth point in the "Evils of Pokémon" article. Good point. I think it's just the way the world works in their universe. 6: The reasons for every policewoman being Jenny and every being Joy is: They're identical.*cough choke cough* The only one that can tell the apart is Brock-chan. I wonder what chaos would reign if there was a policewoman Joy.. Hey, maybe they're all clones! 7: The reason that when Ash's Charmander evolved it stopped listening to him is best explained by the comic by Mr. Ono: Sometimes when Pokémon evolve their personalities change. Sometimes it depends on how you evolve it, sometimes not. I think it has to do with genetics. Charmander's nature when it evolved changed, so it thought of Ash differently. 8:You know, I always wondered that about the language too! Someone I knew commented it may be just the tones of their voices (Whether it's angry or what) but then how would they have serious, involved conversation or conversation they had like in "Island of Giant Pokémon"(AKA "The Episode With Pokémon Speak Subtitled In English"©) Aradia may be right about how responsible it is to dump Pokémon in a computer that you aren't using. For some it's turned into a "Who's caught the most" contest, and those people should not be allowed to have Pokémon. But for people like the characters in the show (Yes, *even* Gary/Shigeru in his own unique way. I won't go into all that, I'll leave it to this website to do that. Look, Ma, I'm a proud member!:) ) Pokémon are special.You can argue that they do not love their Pokémon if they battle them, but that is part of what Pokémon live for. Friendly battle. You can argue that it's cruel to make Pokémon battle that way. But I think all that was covered by the first movie. [FIRST movie?! All you Pokémon haters cry out. Yes, first movie. There is at least 1 more still to come over here, and I'm sure they're making more. In July, Hello Revelations Lugia! (And maybe Pikachu Tankentai [Pikachu Explorers) Each of the characters are special in their own ways. In what they do; Tracy, as a Pokémon Watcher, Ash and Gary as trainers, Misty as a trainer and "Mother" of Togepi, and Brock as a breeder.Todd/Snap as a person who takes great pictures of Pokémon. Even Team Rocket is special in their own ways. Then there is their personalities. Tracy I've heard absolutely idolizes Professor Oak ("I can't believe I know people that know Professor Oak!"). Ash has the determination and strive to get through any tough situation and make his dream come true. Misty may have mean comments sometimes but she is a good person and absolutely cares for those close to her. Brock has his quirky girls situation(Awwe it's so cuuuttee) and he has the same determination and strive as Ash, as does all the good guys. And Gary may even be the most complicated character of them all. He hides a good heart behind mean comments, maybe he's afraid of getting hurt by someone. He loves and he is a good person deep down underneath all the snideness.The interaction between the characters, and how they react and tough through the good and the bad, is the true education. So I end this now, with a salute, and a thanks to all that listened.
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Aradia on 12/21/2000; 11:03 PM Since Mandy issued the challenge...who am I to resist? I applaud your knowledge of Pokémon, Mandy, both American and Japanese. And I'd have bopped you with my Scepter if you hadn't written as well as you did. My right as Queen of "the Puppet Ruling Council" and all. On to the rebutting...then I'll add in points I neglected to mention the first time around. 1) Ain't censorship fun? I kinda guessed such a thing was taking place, since I've as yet to see blood drawn from the battles. But I still say that the movie was stupid! The thing that got me was Mewtwo's statements at the end: "I'm going to learn what you have always known. I see now that fighting is not the answer." Gag me. And if fighting isn't the answer, then what's the purpose of the "friendly" battles? The one where the loser pays the winner with Poké money. 2) I asked my brother about the name thing. My eighteen year old brother, that is. He didn't know, and suggested (with a snicker) that Brock's last name is Gotta and Misty's is All. To go with Ash's name. 3) I personally prefer the Japanese names. But then, Americans have this habit of butchering Japanese names (I know this first hand, as my middle name is Japanese. Since my mother's Japanese, of course). 4) I don't read the comics. In fact, I broke my own rule about Pokémon and bought my eight year old brother a bunch of Pokémon stuff for Winter Solstice. In the cartoon, I'd have placed Brock at about seventeen, Misty at thirteen, and Ash at fourteen. And it must be quite a complacent (and boring) world if the only danger to people are Giovanni's goons and wild Pokémon. No worries about highwaymen. Or murder. Or rape. Or theft. No shootings. No gangs. Talk about Utopia. Wonder what happens if someone loses all their Pokémon for whatever reason. 5) Thank you, thank you. ;) 6) Clones? Probably. But it's interesting to note that if you know one policewoman, you know 'em all. Same with the nurses. Wonder how identical their personalities are... 7) But is it a personality change, or a memory loss? Surely the Charmeleon remembered back to its Charmander days and how it trusted Ash then. I mean, when my two best friends got boyfriends, I didn't stop trusting them for that (even if I wondered at their sanity ;)) 8) The tone of voice would only convey how the Pokémon feels. If I said "Aradia!" in a nasty way, probably I'm in a vicious mood. If I said "Aradia!" in a kind way, probably I'm feeling generous. But the question is, What am I saying? I won't argue about personality quirks, since I admittedly don't know too much about them. But I have trouble with the show teaching responsibility by stowing all extra Pokémon in computers (unless they all wind up at Professor Oak's...does he have a Poké zoo? Hmmm...). That's like me neglecting my herb garden until I need the herbs. What good does it do me then? I won't say it's cruel to force Pokémon to battle, since Charmeleon's demonstrated that it won't fight when Ash wants it to fight. It may be a friendly battle between Pokémon (although I don't know that electrocuting an opponent is friendly), but it's a nasty fight between the trainers. In my opinion, of course. Okay...now that I've responded to Mandy's points to my points. I'd also like to add a couple points in that continue to bother me. 9) Exactly how do Pokémon procreate? The Nidorans is easy, since there's a queen and king. When do they procreate? Do they lay eggs? Go into labor? Spawn from the surrounding habitat? Does the evolved version start off having a litter of the basic ones? Can they crossbreed, if they wanted? What's the difference between a male and female Pikachu? 10) What about death? 11) And diseases? 12) It's said that the ancient Magikarp was much tougher than it's modern day contemporary. What happened? Did the Mewtwo scientists screw around with Magikarp too much? No, people, I'm not morbid. I'm curious. Anyway, I'm sure I'll think of more questions. Later, though. Mandy, I look forward to your rebuttal to my rebuttal of your rebuttal of my essay (try saying that five times fast). Until then... Live long and prosper.
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Mandy on 4/13/2000; 5:49 PM It's another rebuttal! Yup.J Sorry I took so long for this one. You made some very good points, Aradia, and a job well done yet again. Thanks for the nice words in the beginning to your rebuttal.J You know the drill, people Ö. Each point of mine refers to one Aradia made in the last rebuttal unless otherwise noted. 1. I'm not sure if they pay them in the show--In the game, they didn't have the whole "Fighting is not the answer" thing going, they just had the "love your Pokémon" thing going. Do they pay them in the show? If they do, that is kind of weird. It does sound hypocritical, but that could be the way the foundations of the rules of their society was raised and they could be used to not questioning it. 2. ::grin:: That would be pretty funny if their last names were that. I found out that Tracy's last name in the English version, found out from the great Togepi at the Nitcentral board, is Sketchit. So if the people who name the English versions keep this up, I'm thinking Brock's last name has something to do with breeding. Misty's last name is probably just Cerulean. 3. I prefer the Japanese names also. I think that they changed them because little kids probably would have a hard time pronouncing Takeshi and Satoshi and Shigeru and Kasumi. But you are very right about the unimagination in the stuff like Jessie and James. Most everyone I know thinks that is weird also. I told my mom about that and she asked if there was two characters named Sundance and Kid. 4. I think you'd probably like the comic. Everyone I know that thinks the show is childish or something likes the comic. It's written differently and with it's own versions of stuff(And it has the blood yes blood. And it had Ash and James going into a fist fight once. Yow!). I think it's meant to be Pokémon for an older audience. It's kind of a mix of game and TV show canon and stuff the author makes up. Actually, there has been at least one gang in Pokémon. That I heard anyway. That there was a biker gang. And there actually was an episode with guns in it, but they didn't bring it over. Stupid censors, don't they realize it was a kid's show in Japan, too? They didn't bring over another show supposedly because it had James in an outfit with blow up chest area so he looks like a girl. And I also wonder what would happen then if someone lost all there Pokémon. With your permission, may I write a fanfic musing about that? That's a pretty good point there. 5. You're welcome.:J 6. Hmm. So maybe there's some kind of hidden stuff in there. J We have actually seen personality changes between the different Nurse Joys and Officer Jennies. Like the Nurse Joy in that one very polluted city was the oddball of the family(Or as she put it "I'm not the oddball, everyone else is!") and she was very very different from the rest. Another Nurse Joy's dream was to be a Pokémon Trainer. So there are differences. 7. Hmm.Good point. I'm not quite sure about that myself, but I think that maybe what happens is Charizard/Charmeleon's attitude towards Ash changed, that it maybe didn't even know why it trusted him in the first place. I found out the real reason in the comic that they put it, and I bet it's the same in the TV show (at least this is the reason why Charizard didn't obey Ash)- Charizards are very hard to control. Their minds wander and even the toughest trainer has a hard time controlling them.It was explained more in the comic, but my comics have disappeared yet again. (Stupid comicsÖ*grumble grumble*) 8. Hm. You're right about that. It's another one of those mysteries that if it wasn't explained in the Japanese version only Mr. Satoshi knows. 9. Professor Oak actually does have a zoo. It was shown before the Pokémon League that he studies all the Pokémon sent to him--and his daily schedule is, if I remember correctly: First: To catalogue them all, and check that he still has all the ones he has. Then: Let them all out of their Poke-balls into the outside where he has a whole big thing set up. Feed them breakfast and study them. Then it's time for lunch. By the time he's done feeding them lunch he does something else I think but I forget. Then it's the time of the day to put them back in. Though he may feed them dinner first. You're right that sometimes it's a very nasty battle between trainers. But usually it is just friendly competition.
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Mark Morgan on 2/2/2001; 12:37 PM Bad Movie Report: Pokémon the First Movie. It begins by praising the show, of all things. While Dr. Freex talks about some of the goofiness ("There is also only one cop in each town, and each one is Officer Jenny - cloning ran amuck on this world a long time ago, but there were only two subjects, both female, and both apparently exceptional at their job"), he has good things to say about it. Good grief, he might have a point. I'm going to have to turn in my Cynics Society ID card. I get very bent out of shape when a show is designed solely to shove product at kids. The original Transformers television series was awful about this--characters introduced willy-nilly 'cause they were on the shelves. Ugh. Not that GI Joe was any better. The motto "Gotta Catch 'Em All" is particularly odious to me. "Be a good little consumer, children!" Blech. But ignoring all that, strictly looking at the plot of the show, the good Doctor makes a point: in Pokémon, violence has consequences. Hit something, it goes down. Shoot your GI Joe laser at something, on the other hand, and you might as well just have called it a bad name for all the good it's done you. Not the worst thing in the world to teach kids, that violence has consequences. Ugh. I feel all dirty now.
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Mark Morgan on 7/18/2001; 10:20 PM This just ain't right. Not. Right. Just. It's enough to drive one mad! The eldritch monstrosity! P'tah, P'tah, PokeTHULU! R'yleh! R'yleh!
RE: The Evils of Pokémon By: Mark Morgan on 1/3/2005; 7:30 PM My eyes are bleeding.
RE: The Evils of Pokemon By: demonchild13 on 2/2/2007; 1:09 AM I think its fun for little kids but yeah it does have its problems. After all that was the "thing" of the 90s for kids. I was a 90s kid and I played the game and so did everyone I know. Basically it was just what was popular back then, and now its not because if I ask someone if they play or watch Pokemon now they will say no. Its a thing of the past and in 10 years MySpace will probably be a thing of the past....
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