What do you think about Pokémon?

My daughter, the tomboy, was introduced to Pokémon by some boys in her kindergarten class and now she's hooked. Well, by 'hooked' I mean that she is extremely curious about it and tunes in anytime she hears it mentioned. She has a few trading cards that were given to her and one book. I think she played Pokémon on a video system during a playdate once. That's about it, other than the fact that for the past three days she's stuck a tail into the waistband of her shorts and insisted we call her Pikachu. That's normal, right?

I don't even begin to understand Pokémon, but I have a feeling I'd better start. From Wikipedia I've learned that it's all about fights and battles between Pokémon creatures. Oh, and also that on December 16, 1997 more than 635 Japanese children were admitted to hospitals with epileptic seizures brought on by watching an episode of Pokémon. So it's violent, yes? Any more violent than Star Wars?

Who has Pokémon experience, and what do you think about the whole thing? Do you take an interest in it and talk to your kids about what's happening in the Pokémon universe? Can I just close my eyes and make it go away?

Comments

[lilah]

Welcome to my world. My oldest has about 40 cards and claims to really like it. He talks about the amount of "damage" that each card has and my littlest has taken up the Pokemon talk. The truth is, is that they have no idea how to play the game and neither do their little friends. They like to look at the cards, but most of all they like to play with the stuffed animals. My Mom rented one of the movies for them and they watched it for about 10 minutes and got bored. E has a few friends that come over to play and they bring their cards and all they want to do is look at the cards and talk about the cards. E gets really bored and begs these friends to play something else. Listening to kids talk about Pokemon is like listening to them talk about religion or politics. The actual game is way over their heads, you can look it up on line and play a sample game, and as it turns out, way over my head and all of the adults heads that I know. IT IS STUPID and BORING and I hate it. When the kids want to talk with me about it I will discuss the cuteness of the creature and the silliness of the name and then I change the subject to volcanoes, dinosaurs, trips to the moon, whatever I can to just stop talking about it. Just smile and let it run it's course. I think you will find that they feel peer pressure to know a little bit about Pokemon and then they too start to figure out that it is really really dumb.
Ride it out and it will go away.

[Club of the cube]

How could you say that about Pikachu?!!!!

[xcthulhux]

LOLOLOL.
The violence isn't what gave those kids seizures.
it really does have mixed opinions.
some say that it promotes child/animal slavery, while others say that it has deeper meanings and kids should watch it.

i love pokemon ^.^

[Random]

I suppose you could call Pokémon violent, but if you actually watch the TV show, you'll see it's actually not all that violent. No, Star Wars is WAY more violent because it's not aimed for young children.
The violence is not the cause of the seizures. It was an episode with a lot of flashing colorful lights that caused the Japanese children to have them. Whenever there are episodes released like that they make sure not to show them in the US.
Personally, I think Pokémon is great. Pokémon teaches children to get along with animals and people; to make friends. The cards are a good way to help with Math too.
Talking to my kids about Pokémon and watching the show with them is a great way to bond with them. I also play the Pokémon CDs in the car when we drive.
When my daughter would play 'house' in class, she would always play the role of a Pokémon instead of a mom. She's a bit of a tomboy too. :)

[b. k.]

Wow. A "little" knowledge is a dangerous thing, I guess. Pokemon started as a game designed by a programmer based on his childhood memories of playing with beetles in Japan. Japanese children collect them and watch the beetles wrestle with each other. (No, Pokemon doesn't encourage cock fighting, calm down people.) Then combine that with Godzilla style monsters and some Japanese mythology and thats it. And no, its not designed to promote violence, child slavery, capitalism, consumerism, communism, brainwashing, etc. Not any more so than chess, which was even more successful, long term.
The game isn't really that complicated. Its basically elaborate rock, paper, scissors. I've heard kids explain it in detail and I was impressed. Its along the lines of playing chess or crazy eights and definitely easier to play than bridge. It can be as simple or complicated as the rules you apply. And the rules are written on the cards. "Flip a coin, get five points". Wow. Over most adults heads? What's cool is you can use your imagination to picture the battles, and you do get attached to certain ones.
If you consider card games stupid and boring I guess you wouldn't like this one either.
As for violence, if you think little Godzilla monsters squirting each other with water or zapping each other with lightning will turn your kid evil, good luck when they ask you about the war, or the Middle East, or even the fight between the pigeons outside the window. They probably had 3 arguments with their sibling in the last ten minutes. Many psychologists realize now that kids need to feel empowered to deal with conflict, and to fight off monsters instead of feeling helpless. Look at the games they make up themselves. I doubt playing a game where one kid says "my monster squirts your monster" is going to turn their child into a violent criminal. I wonder if they also think playing Old Maid promotes elder abuse, or Go Fish encourages animal cruelty. The last generation played with army men and cowboys and Indians, for Pete's sake.
Ironically these people always make sure their preschoolers read the Bible, which is way more violent than almost anything.
As for the seizures, yes alternating bright and dark flickering makes some people nauseous. But it does look like lightning, so blame the animators, not the Pokemon.
No, I don't work for Pokemon. I discovered it in college. Now I'm a doctor. I'm just tired of judgmental people. The type of people who want to ruin childhood and suck the fun out of anything. The people who won't give their kids cookies and milk once and a while because it has sugar (everything has sugar people, your brain runs on it, get real people.) Childhood's short. Lighten up. Its a game, and it's fun.

[Pokemom]

Playing the card game also promotes being courteous towards others, sharing and helping others out. I play the card game with my kids because they wanted to go play at the Pokemon gyms, usually at gaming or comic book shops on weekends, and I didn't want to just sit around while they played. So I had them teach me. Now we go to the tournaments and discuss what would make a better, stronger deck at home not to mention playing at home to test it out. It is great for math and reading. You have to add and subtract the hit points plus read what each attack does. And if you become good enough and start winning the tournaments your child can win scholarship money for college. Sorry but that doesn't sound evil to me.

[Malcolm Stumpf]

I've loved pokemon since i was little (still only 18), and i totally understood the card game. I was in it for the strategy and for the cuteness, heh. I would imagine i was liberatin' the little fellas from all the stupid trainers, They only fought for me out of loyalty in my brain. When it comes down to it, toys are toys, and kids will make them their own. I used to make up my own pokemon, who doesn't think it's fun to make up creatures? It didn't make me violent or anything, and is far less violent than most kids games these days. Besides,anything can be an educational tool in the right conditions.

Oh, and that siezure, thing, it was just because of an alternating background that went a tad too fast, that episode was banned and the animators learned their lesson. So don't worry about it.

[Malcolm Stumpf]

OH, plus, laws were made so that animation like the animation that was harmful could not be made again. Just saying.

[Jessica34]

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