Pokemon Phenomenon This kids phenomenon began as a hand-held video game and exploded across the globe, from trading cards to becoming the number one rated television kids’ show on the popular cartoon programming Kids’ WB! The TV program is drawn in the manner of the old speed racer cartoon with similar type voices. It began showing in syndication in September 1998 and within a few months shot to the top of the ratings chart for children’s programs. The Pokmon phenomenon began in Japan in 1996, with Nintendo inciting a national craze when it introduced software for its Game Boy portable video game system called “Pocket Monsters.” The name Pokmon, is short for POcKEt MONster, each have there own special fighting abilities.
Pokmon is marketed as a creative strategy game based on mythical creatures. Sounds like fun but its more than that, much more. You work your way to the top, perfecting your skills by using your Pokmon to fight against other Pokmon trainers. The Pokmon game does get the kids to think, strategize and use their memory skills. But thinking on what is the question that needs to be asked.
” Pokmon are incredible creatures that share the world with humans,’ says Professor Oak (on the program), the leading authority on these monsters.” There are currently over 150 documented species of Pokmon. The professor says “We need to deal with poke’mon as individuals just as we deal with people.” Pokmon frequently take on the characteristics of the human who captured them. The Pokmon song and mantra is heard on the program and written in the materials. “I want to be the very best like no one ever was, to catch them is my real test to train them is my cause .”I will travel across the land Searching far and wide Each Pokmon to understand the power that’s inside. “Gotta catch them all!” Its you and me I know I know, its my destiny.” Just about every child has memorized this stanza. The last line of the Pokmon mantra, “Gotta catch them all!” is used over and over again to have the kids desire and crave for collecting more Pokmon paraphernalia.
Whatever the creators of these Pocket monsters come out with the kids want they are hooked. Between the TV commercial breaks a Poke’mon comes flashed in a shadow shape and they all say in unison “Whose that Pokmon.” The kids are to recognize the certain character by its shape. Now remember there are over 150 of them so to do this takes quite some time to familiarize themselves with the creatures. This becomes a whole new education for them to learn of these mythical creatures. A Look at The characters The story revolves around a 10 year old boy named Ash Ketchum (a boy and his friends).
He is energetic and determined to become the world’s greatest Pokmon Master.” Ash’s goal and your child’s is to become the greatest trainer in the world by collecting and raising pokmon. His pet is Pikachu who looks like across between a cuddly rabbit and a rat. He has a lightning bolt shaped tail. (Raichu also has a lightning bolt tail) Misty a girl who is Ash’s friend is described as “headstrong and stubborn .
. . constantly quibbling with Ash.” She is always giving him a hard time, they are constantly arguing. Ash says she’s always putting him down. Then there is the third member of the adventurous trio, Brock who has uncontrolled hormones.
Brock who is Ashes trouble making partner is girl crazy, he is infatuated with their perfume, dress and shape. Every girl he sees he is in love with. Brock’s fascination with the opposite sex often gets him and the gang into trouble. Brock also has a temper (have you seen your child develop one?) and sometimes will hit Misty, who is his friend on the head, as in one case because she wanted to reveal that he loves a certain girl. Competition drives Ash making him obsessed with catching all the Pokmon.
But it is not that easy he has enemies, Team rocket. A boy girl team called Jessie & James (Jessie James remember him, the outlaw). Meoth is a Pokmon on team rocket who are the enemy are the nemesis of Ash, they want to steal all the Pokmon’s from the people and trying to steal Pikachu from Ash, and at times they do, but Ash always gets him back. “Prepare for trouble, make it double… Jessie, James . .
. they are an evil gang following Ash and friends looking to steal rare Pokmon. Jessie and James are stuck up, fashion conscious, trouble makers. Jesse the girl is dressed in a scanty short skirt.
These characters do not portray good values much less moral that the Bible asks us and our children to have. Yet they are the villain’s in the story. They have a song they often sing that is quite revealing, “To protect the world from devastation to unite all peoples within our nations. To announce the evils of truth and love to extend our reach to the stars above.” To unite the world and reach the stars was the goal of the tower of Babel. To announce the evils of love and truth make this quite a deceptive, evil message, even from the bad guys of the cartoon.
The Bible says, to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21. To “.. Reject that which is evil; hold to that which is good.” If you are a Christian you know the invisible war often times can become visible and you can be engaged in it. This one has touched our homes and it happened very quickly. In some respects it came under the radar screen of many parents.
We do battle, but not with creature against creature. Behind these creatures is a spiritual power trying to influence the children. We are in the midst of a battle going on for the hearts and minds of our children, and this has become an all out assault. Consider that Pokmon” is the sixth most-searched-for word on the Internet and is the fastest-selling Game Boy game. The video game has sold more than 4 million Nintendo Game Boy games in the United States, with the Pokmon game cartridges topping all others in the first and second best-selling slots.
In Japan were four versions that are not found in America, yellow, green, silver, and gold, yellow was recently released here. There are lots of Poke’mon that haven’t been seen or captured, nor made by Nintendo, But they will be! Why stop such a good thing? “Pokmon has since become the largest children phenomenon of the decade, Since the Pokmon trading card game’s debut in January 1999, over 2 million copies of the game have been sold in North America.” Nintendo, its Japanese creator, puts the total retail value of the animated cartoon, Gameboy video games, promotional toys and cards at $1 billion in the U.S. and $7 billion worldwide in just one year. Other merchandise to put your money into their pockets are: comic books, coloring books, videos, compact disks, etc. Instead of the phrase “gotta catch em all” it should say “gotta take all your money” because thats what they are doing as people are pouring hundreds if not thousands of dollars to quench the desire of their kids to “catch em all.” This fad does not come cheap, as there were originally 150 now the number is increasing as they see they can offer more to the nave children. Pokemon #151 is Mewtwo, who is psychic Pokmon.
The “holo” (shinies) cards are the rarest to catch and collect since there is a limited quantity of each set of Pokmon cards. Each is printed with the symbol which shows the cards are first-edition cards from that set. The cards may have future reprints but never with the symbol which assures that first-edition cards will maintain their value! The cards are of the highest quality with artistic pictures and information on them. On the cards they describe the creatures by their genetic type, weight, and height, such as haunter who is a gas Pokmon, length 5’3”, weight 0.2 lbs. He is used to hypnotize his opponent. On the upper left hand corner of the card it will tell you what stage of evolving it is in on the right hand corner grass, fire , water lightning etc.
At the bottom it shows it weaknesses and resistance. This is a complicated strategy game that introduces one to a pantheistic worldview and the child is exposed to the power of the occult. This has become very big money and not just baseball cards are counterfeited anymore. In July, Customs seized $250,000 worth of counterfeit Pokmon products at the docks in Elizabeth, N.J. They seem to be counterfeits surfacing everywhere. Genuine Pokmon cards are made in the United States and can be worth $50 each for the rare first editions.
Most parents can spend at the least $100 to over $1,000. Cards can cost From $3.50 to $7 for a single pack, theme packs can run up to $25. Prices can get really high, the rarest cards run anywhere from $100-$400 on the Pokmon black market. The news reports that Parents of two kids in L.I.
are suing Nintendo for “conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity” and “engaging in an illegal gambling enterprise.” They seem to believe Nintendo that offers rare cards in undisclosed packs and prompts the kids to “catch em all” going on a buying spree to get the rare card and resell them to the collectors for a greater markup. So they are accusing Nintendo of promoting gambling. They do have a point. However the parents have spent, thousands of dollars on Pokmon cards. Now anyone who has seen how these children act that are into this fad can sympathize, but somewhere along the line the parents need to take control and put their foot down. Better to be before, than to deal with it in the middle, losing money and your children to Nintendo’s toys.
The goal is to “catch em all. And the kids seek these cards in sometimes an aggressive fashion. They have been stolen from school to homes. One child I know had his whole card collection stolen, it had to be worth a couple hundred dollars.
The children get into fights over the cards? Some parents and educators say kids are becoming obsessed, even brainwashed. The Elementary aged children are being manipulated to crave and beg for more Pokmon paraphernalia, they don’t know how to stop. Many of these Pokmon creatures look like they came right out of your kids nightmares, but now they want to carry in their pocket. A few examples Himonlee, Jolteon, Pincer, Golbat, Gastly all look like Holloween refuges at best, at worst like little demons from horror films. Students in school are not able to leave their playtime outside the classroom, they are so engrossed with the game it captures their attention which the teacher has to compete with during class.
Because of the activity of the kids, some schools have banned Pokmon from the premises. It has become an epidemic among the children and not a good influence. This can come from the TV program where we find things like Misty is asked to fight over a Pokmon who Ash and her both saw at the same time as to who will capture the Pokmon first. This fighting is a consistent foundation in the game.
Ash is also in competition to catch more Pokmon than Professor Oaks grandson Gary. When Ash sees a new creature he refers to his Poke’dex, a small hand held computer which immediately identifies it. They certainly are not learning zoology from this game but about mythical creatures. (all the imaginary creatures are in it so there is no educational value in learning of them, but lots of learning about these fantasy creatures to help in Pokmon fights).
Now if our kids were this serious in remembering and identifying the real animals and creatures they learn in school, they would literally be geniuses. The Pokmon: morals and ethics Pokmon Game Boy game and watching the TV Pokmon show gives the kids the basic ideas and goals of the trading card game. The interactive, role-playing game of Pokmon offers young “trainers” a chance to an ever-increasing number of collectible species and engage in Pokmon battles with other trainers. The trainer’s goal is to increase his status through battles with other trainers until he earns the ultimate badge of honor by becoming “The World’s Greatest Pokmon Master.” To capture a Pokmon they throw the Pok ball at them and sometimes it gets teleported to professor Oaks Lab. In the complicated Fable world of Pokmon, each creature possesses its own special powers and abilities based on its association with certain elements (earth, wind, fire, water).
Trainers must know their creatures problem using solving strategy skills to win battles. To do this they need to commit to memory a list of arcane knowledge which will fit the battle. Which creature will they use, what they decide can mean victory or defeat. Trainers are also encouraged to teach and care for their captured Pokmon in order to become more successful.
The kids are told to Carry your Pokmon with you, and you’re ready for anything! You’ve got the power in your hands, so use it!’ Captured Pokmon can evolve and become even more powerful. As they immediately evolve, morphing (changing) into another creature. In Pokmon, the monsters transform the old self and evolve into a new more powerful Pokmon when they win. The Pokmon evolve and take on new characteristics and one can evolve into one of two completely different Pokmon, indicating a complete change. Caterpie who is a caterpillar evolves into Metapod who evolves into Butterfree a butterfly.
This is the teaching of eastern religions, the Shinto beliefs have evolution and re-in …
