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| Written: July 2010 |  | Last updated: July 2011 |
One day after the release of the newest Pokémon movie "Phantom Champion Zoroark" (Eng: "Zoroark: Master of Illusions") in Japan (July 2010) - 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 next year had 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..." (technically mid-second, after the Kanto Indigo League)
"...When Misty left..." (end of fifth season/end of Johto League)
"...When the voices changed..." (English dub¹, 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 (2007-2012). 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. With a maturity defined by unchanging selfless compassion and love for Pokémon, courage to defend his beliefs and principles, and respect toward those who may or may not show him the same, ironically, it's his intelligence - which, with all due respect, has never exactly been one of Ash's strengths - that's now in question...though it's often still unkindness that dumbfounds him the most. "It's said that we build our heroes up only to tear them down"²; reaching far beyond this one character, it's those of us who are still loyal who ultimately feel the effects of such betrayal to the point where it's no longer a question of who he is, but the hypocrisy of who viewers want him to be. The 'divide' created by those viewers that forces us to choose sides, whether due to the sudden voice split in the English dub or the gradual changes in his personality overall; regardless, he is still the same character we cheered on in the Indigo League...the same person who advanced all the way to the Sinnoh League semifinals, and greeting a new beginning in Unova with the same exuberance and purity of heart he's always had...following the same dream, in any language, forever to be a Pokémon Master...forever Satoshi...forever Ash³.
I admit, all of this 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 violence4.
How quickly some have forgotten what it was like to be judged so unfairly.
Over the years, the Pokémon powers-that-be have often been accused of marketing to a younger, newer audience more than to 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 on 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...opinions that had gradually, subconsciously begun to eat away at the blissful innocence I'd enjoyed for so many years, and once it's gone, it's gone. But that's when I also realized that as a long-time Pokémon fan, I am rather fortunate. The cynicism and negativity that consume so many others had for so long never once influenced how I looked upon or experienced Pokémon, and I wasn't going to allow it to start now...all of the energy that once came so naturally as anticipation and excitement that's now wasted on frustration and resentment made me realize I could never feel like that and still call myself a fan.
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 and series 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 breaks my heart to have to post an article like this. Originally conceived as a shared safe haven, these days, online Pokémon communities and forums - and even some 'fan' sites - are little more than dumping grounds which people use 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 often 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.
"If I listen closely, I hear a nostalgic voice,
a voice from the future...it's always praying for me...'You'll be all right! Somehow, it'll be all right! Everyone will be all right!'
"
-Satoshi (Pocket Monsters "Best Wishes!" opening [translation by Satoshikun.com])
¹Changeover to The Pokémon Company International [formerly Pokémon USA] from third-party company 4Kids (2006)
²Murphy Brown episode #2 of season 7 ("Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?")
³The Complete Book of Baby Names (100,001+ Best Baby Names) by Lesley Bolton entry: "Satoshi (Japanese) Born from the ashes". This same entry also appears in The Best Baby Name Treasury by Emily Larson. Note: Like many names, Satoshi has more than one meaning which also include 'wise', 'quick-witted', 'clear [thinking]', 'intelligent', 'clever' (various resources)
4ESRB video game ratings system that labels games containing content such as graphic and gratuitous violence as "M for Mature".
Text and artwork copyright © 2000-2012 by Kimberly (RageOfInnocence)
Pokémon © Satoshi Tajiri, Nintendo/Creatures, Inc./Game Freak, The Pokémon Company International
The beautiful screenshots of Ash, Pikachu, and their friends and Pokémon are from various themes and episodes from Pokémon
(Kanto/Orange Islands/Johto series), Advanced Generation, Diamond & Pearl, and Best Wishes!/Black & White |
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Dream Valley | Oak Branch Woods | We All Live in a Pokémon World | Kimberly's Attic
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