When the Gameboy titles “Pocket Monsters: Red” and “Pocket Monsters: Green” were first released in Japan in 1996, few could have predicted what would follow.
The concept was simple enough: players would traverse a fictional world by capturing, training and fighting the creatures that inhabited it – a mission encapsulated in the game’s famous slogan, “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”. But in just a few years, Pokémon, a coat of arms of the Japanese name “Poketto Monsuta”, was a global phenomenon.
By 1999, the game had launched in several Western markets, later becoming one of the most successful franchises of all time. A series of anime has appeared, which has been translated into more than 30 languages, and trading books that crossed the world’s playgrounds during the “Pokémania” of the late 1990s.
He also imprinted the identities of 151 completely fictional characters in the memories of millions.
Japanese children take part in a Pokémon card game tournament in 1999. Credit: Yoshikazu Tsuno / AFP / Getty Images
At a quarter of a century, many first-generation Pokemon are as recognized by millennials as their children. This is partly due to a revival after 2016 inspired by the mobile game “Pokémon Go” and the movie “Detective Pikachu”. But the success of the franchise is more than a smart marketing – it is the result of unique characters, who were universal enough to cross cultures and diverse enough to catch everyone a challenge, not a chore.
Their origins come from the creator of Pokémon, Tajiri Satoshi, whose childhood love of collecting bugs inspired a game with a strikingly similar premise. Most of the individual drawings, however, were the work of illustrator Ken Sugimori.
Sugimori worked with Tajiri on Game Freak magazine, which would eventually become the game company behind Pokémon. As the company’s art director, he brought to life his collaborator’s vision through a complex and imaginative taxonomy, complemented by individual lines of evolution and fictional genres, such as grass or dragon Pokémon.
Bulbasaur, one of the most recognized Pokémon of the first generation. Credit: Kindness Pokemon Company
Offering distinct characters has always been difficult. Even with an accompanying TV series, most were only able to pronounce their own names repeatedly. Therefore, their appearances were particularly important.
Becoming global
“Together with Tamagotchi, the story was that you take care of them,” Tobin said in a video interview. “You care about them, so that they grow up and the children can identify with the fact that they are becoming stronger. But then you care about them too (making sure they don’t die). It was unusual to have this in a fighting game … he took some of the features of war and then combined them with care. “
Squirtle, a light blue turtle. Credit: Kindness Pokemon Company
The cute squirtle (top) evolved into Wortortle and eventually Blastoise (bottom). Credit: Kindness Pokemon Company
This juxtaposition was reflected in designs that were both cute and fierce – or, through the process of evolution, transformed from cute to ferocious, from big-eyed, baby-looking Squirtle to the formidable Blastoise ( by Wartortle). No one, however, has more properly embodied this dichotomy than Pikachu, the most successful and marketable figure in the franchise. Naughty and pink cheek, with a strong voice, the electrified mouse was also a strong fighter.
The character’s design also played a part in Japan’s broader effort to export pop culture in the 1990s, according to Tobin.
“The idea was – or corporate strategy as a nation – we wanted our mouse to compete with Mickey Mouse,” he said. “So, I don’t think the fact that Pikachu is a mouse-like creature is accidental, but (the character) was made to be hyper-cute – prettier than Mickey or Minnie.”
Not all Pokémon were the talk of the playground – like Metapod, a crescent-shaped chrysalis. Credit: Kindness Pokemon Company
But although Pikachu and Bulbasaur stole the spotlight – and got into very important merchandise – there was a force in absolute diversity. And some of the vast Pokémon distributions were neither cute nor ferocious.
Take Diglett, a roughly drawn sausage-shaped mole, or Metapod, a drooping, motionless-eyed pupil whose unique ability is to strengthen its outer shell. All were relatively useless in battle; none was the most sought-after playing card in the schoolyard. But they were part of a complete universe – one that had something for everyone. In the gender normative world of the 1990s, toy marketing matters, Tobin said.
“At the toy store (back then) you had a blue aisle and a pink aisle,” he said. “But Pokémon was created to go beyond color.”
The art of localization
While the drawings of the characters remained the same abroad, Pokémon was still adapted for different markets, especially when it came to language.
A woman browses the goods at a Pokémon store in Tokyo. Credit: Behrouz Mehri / AFP / Getty Images
But the new Pokémon names have often remained true to the spirit of the originals. Take Sawamura and Ebiwara, who were named after a Japanese kickboxer and boxer, respectively, but who were named in English Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, a reference to the martial artists that Western children would recognize: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Or Ivysaur, whose Japanese name Fushigisou combines “fushigi” (strange) and “sou” (grass), resulting in a similar principle being used for the French version: Herbizarre.
Some names, such as Pikachu, were more or less directly transliterated from Japanese. But elsewhere there were portmanteaus such as Psyduck (a duck with psychic powers) or names that resonated only with the speakers of the language in question, such as the lazy Slowpoke. There were also word games of varying quality, from jellyfish-like Tentacool to Exeggcute, a collection of angry eggs.
Psyduck, a duck with psychic abilities. Credit: Kindness Pokemon Company
Some were a little less imaginative. It was a horned seal called Seel and a crab named Krabby. The serpentines Ekans and Arbok were made simply by reversing the words “snake” and “kobra” (sic). But there were also moments of linguistic refinement. The three “Legendary Birds” of the game were named Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres, the Spanish suffixes -uno, -dos and -tres reflecting their consecutive order in Pokédex. An amorphous stain, capable of taking on the shape of anything it saw, was aptly named Ditto.
The anime series has also been subtly adapted for overseas markets. For example, human characters were more important in the narrative of the American version, because it was believed that “Americans wanted someone to identify with this was not just bugs and animals,” Tobin said. But, he added, Pokémon has always kept something Japanese par excellence.
“I think the amazing thing is that it hasn’t changed that much. Not only was Japanese not a debt, but it was associated with “cold Japan.” The kids didn’t like it because it was Japanese, but they certainly thought it was a little exotic, “he said, comparing it to a type of soft power for the country.
“Intergenerational nostalgia”
A Hasbro employee presents the components of the Pokemon Battle Stadium at the company’s New York showroom in February 2000. Credit: Richard Drew / AP
Tobin, who failed to predict the longevity of Pokémon last time, is more optimistic about the next 25 years of the franchise.
“I was wrong in believing that Pokémon, like most children’s media or cultural products, will rise and fall and be replaced by the next big thing,” he said. “But I think what I and the other authors in the book understood was (understanding) what made Pokémon so attractive at the time. And the things that made him attractive were not limited to the culture of the 1990s.
Performers dressed in Pikachu during a “Pikachu Outbreak” event hosted bin Yokohama, Japan, in 2018. Credit: Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty Images
“I think it has become one of those very rare products that will never end, because it is so much in the popular imagination,” he added. “It has this intergenerational value of nostalgia, in the way that parents who grew up with Barbie might now want to buy them for their children or people who grew up with baseball cards want to do that with their children.
“He becomes self-recognized – he has his own fame.”
Top image title: 1999 (L to R) Pikachu, Psyduck, Togepy, Squirtle in the animated film “Pokemon: the first movie.“