#Gotta catch em all full#
#Gotta catch em all series#

Like the background of my hilarious and without-context pseudo-sophist leg tattoo, revisionist history is precisely what I’ve found my beloved franchise to be riddled with. While this was more out of drunken hubris than die-hard allegiance, I’m proud to rewrite history for the purposes of this argument. I even have the famous Gameboy line, “everything not saved will be lost” (usually preceded by, “are you sure you want to quit?”) tattooed above my right knee. Since Pokémon Gold and Silver, I have played every Pokémon game ground into existence by The Pokémon Company. In fact, it is the highest grossing franchise in the world. Pokémon captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the world from toddlers to teenagers. The reason for explaining this is that I am not alone. In hindsight this was an incredible margin for such a derivative product. I could also sell my one-of-one Monnys character cards to the neighbour for 20 cents a pop which, after a half-day’s work designing, could buy me a Kinder Surprise. Creatures who did not for a second question the barbarism of humans who persist in tracking, hunting and capturing them in uncomfortably small balls for the purposes of battle. I designed my own brand of collectible monster – Monnys – part in tribute, part in an effort to expand on and exist deeper in a world of magnificent creatures with fantastical powers.

#Gotta catch em all series#

There’s probably a whole other essay I could write about the odd Westernisation of Asian culture in that first series before I even get to unpacking Brock’s character. I realised much later in life that this land was just Japan.

#Gotta catch em all full#

I spent much of my first decade in this world attempting to escape it, be it through the 8-bit lens of personal gaming or the deftly 90s-chic animation of a stunning and oddly well-organised land full of people who ate “doughnuts” shaped in little white triangles. Posters dominated walls and figurines lined my shelves, delicately arranged to evoke the blood-pumping ferocity of battle. I was hooked from the moment I ran into my parents bedroom as a five-year-old and happened upon an enormous Pikachu thundering across the television in the now seminal episode, “ Island of the Giant Pokémon” (Season one, Episode 17).įrom that moment well into my early teens virtually every surface of my bedroom was covered in some sort of tribute to the pocket monster. The further Pokémon goes in validating the relationship between humans and Pokémon, the more out role becomes, well, superfluous.īefore we delve any further, it’s important you understand that I fucking love Pokémon. The thing is, the resulting impression of Pokémon’s search for meaning in its own existence isn’t one of reconciling humanity’s impact on the environment, but searching for our purpose within it. The implications of animal cruelty inherent in Pokémon – which is essentially cockfighting with magic and a side of poaching – have always been problematic, but they become increasingly so in today’s cultural climate.

It’s easy to assume this is a byproduct of a human population increasingly aware of its problematic relationship with the environment. Yes, whether it realises it or not, Pokémon has been around long enough to question its own existence. The franchise is so old, so vast and so engrained in the lives of real people that it has transcended entertainment and become something more. The Legend Of Arceus is the latest addition in a string of increasingly noticeable attempts to add some sort of moral compass to the world of Pokémon, to backfill the canon and address why players have to catch ‘em all, not just tell us we have to. As time goes on, the notion of controlling them for the entertainment of humankind becomes even more jarring. They are credited in their various forms as being responsible for the rain that falls to creation itself. Pokémon began as monsters, but have evolved into magical creatures who quite literally embody and control the natural world around them. The more we see them the more incredible we realise Pokémon truly are. However, since then we have been introduced to in excess of 800 Pokémon, seen in stadiums, across continents, on camera, in film and even working as detectives. In the constraints of an 8-bit world at the relative dawn of video gaming there was no real need to question the morality of this. On their journey, players could use their Pokémon to progress through the world, fighting off other Pokémon and Pokémon trainers alike. In 1996 Pokémon first entered the world as a simple Gameboy game, setting its player the task to complete their Pokédex by capturing all 151 Pokémon in the region of Kanto. In its infancy, this was less problematic.