POKÉMON CONTROVERSIESBy: Gabe E

When I first found Pokémon my mother didn’t like it, she thought it was satanic. Which I don’t blame her for… considering the fact that many parents thought, or think, that opinion worldwide.

For a franchise geared towards children Pokémon sure does have a lot of controversy. Pokémon is a franchise of video games, an anime, card games, manga, and toys. The main plot of Pokémon is that kids at the age of 10 get to journey around the world catching, playing, and battling with fantastic creatures called Pokémon. The game is mostly set on morals of loyalty and building friendships. Satoshi Tajiri, owner of development company Gamefreak, originally created Pokémon for the Gameboy; Gamefreak, Creatures Inc., and big time game-makers Nintendo currently develop it. There are many controversies surrounding the Pokémon franchise including violence, religious references, racial insensitivity, and multiple lawsuits.

VIOLENCE:GUNS AND BANNED EPISODES

Pokémon has been accused of violence of several kinds over the years. Several of these times were due to the anime, the first being a banned episode called “The Legend of Dratini”. This episode is basically about our heroes going to a place called a Safari Zone where you can catch Pokémon, but the Warden intimidates travelers…by pointing a revolver at their head. Of course he wasn’t the only one with a firearm. The series’ main bad guys Team Rocket had guns as well. There are several other banned episodes but none of them are brought up as often for various reasons, whereas this one is talked about frequently. There are good reasons for this of course; this episode contains guns, violence towards children, and a character dressed similar to Hitler while interrogating.

VIOLENCE:LEGEND OF DRATINI CLIP

And here is a video clip from the episode “The legend of dratini” As you can see, our heroes are just walking around being kids and then the warden points a revolver at them.

VIOLENCE: MISTY/KASUMI

The second time Pokémon had some issues with violence was the anime as well. It was more two occasions but they are very similar, Misty is a tomboy who often hits her friends when they do something stupid…which is a lot. But two of these times were considered too violent for 4kids TV, the broadcaster at the time. The first time was on the first episode where Misty asks Ash’s partner Pikachu if it’s ok and Ash replies “I’m fine”. She thinks he’s being a selfish jerk so she smacks him, but this was taken out. The other time was in the episode “The School of Hard Knocks” where instead of starting the episode Brock broke the fourth wall and said, “To be continued…”. She then decides it’s a smart idea… to smack him with a log; this was taken out as well. Notice: The next two slides have some more graphic content. Some viewer discretion is advised, you are allowed tolook away if you want

VIOLENCE: POKÉMON AND ANIMALS

The final use of violence in the anime was in the episode “A Corphish out of water” where while in a boat surrounded by fish-like Pokémon called Carvanha Ash is hit in the back of the head by one jumping out of the water. The final major use of violence in Pokémon is many claims by animal rights group PETA (or People for the ethical treatment of animals). PETA claims that Pokémon battles resemble too closely dogfights and cockfights, which can badly injure animals. They also claim that by selling Pokémon toys at McDonalds they are supporting the animals that are given different chemicals, slaughtered, and live under “poor conditions” in McDonalds factories and farms. Currently PETA’s website has two games about Pokémon the first being about Pokémon trying to free themselves from oppressive trainers, the second being Pokémon trying to free the trapped creatures and teach good morals at the horrible McDonalds. Pokémon responded to this saying “Nintendo and The Pokémon Company take the inappropriate use of our products and intellectual property seriously.” Here you can see three pictures, one of a bunch of carvanha about to attack Ash, and the other two are logos for the official attack campaign games made by PETA.

VIOLENCE: PETA ATTACK CAMPAIGNS GAMEPLAY CLIP

This is a clip from Pokemon: Red white and blue. Basically following PETA’s usual style this game starts out with a dark twist of events, having a miltank(a cow-like pokemon) be butchered and dehorned in a battle right before you. After beating the “mysterious stranger” you must head into the human world to stop the evil McDonald’s from killing innocent animals and Pokemon and turning them into food for fat and greedy customers.

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RELIGION

Many times Pokémon has been accused of discrimination against race and religion. The first major example of religious discrimination in Pokémon was the claims of Satanism. Many parents groups claimed that the way trainers captured Pokémon, summoned them to serve, and had supernatural powers that they were similar to demonic entities. Most of the concerns expressed were regarding the Pokemon types Psychic, Ghost, Poison, and Dark. Another claim by the so-called “Good Christian Mother’s group” was that Pokémon’s evolution was going against creationism beliefs.

CONNECTION TO NAZIS

There are several occurrences in the games and anime where Nintendo America censored something because it was eerily similar to something relating to Nazis or Adolf Hitler. The first thing is that on one episode, “All things bright and beautifly” the evil group called “Team Rocket” is seen standing together doing what looks similar to the Hitler salute; in the dub they changed everyone but Meowth. The other time involving the Hitler Salute was a minor edit with some bigger backlash. A Pokémon known as Registeel in America was altered in the games, as it used to have its arm up similar to the famous gesture.

CONNECTION TO NAZIS

The final time was a major accusation of insensitivity from the Jewish community because on a card called “Koga’s Ninja Trick” it had a manji, a mirror image of a swastika. For that last example you have to remember that before World War two the swastika and its variations were and still are symbols of peace and good luck in many Asian and Indian cultures. Now there are two racial discrimination examples that don’t relate to Nazis I’d like to talk about.

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RACE: JYNX

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maiden

Ganguro

Fashion

The first is a Pokémon known as Jynx. It was debated for a long time whether or not Jynx was racist. It had dark skin, large pink lips, and wide hips similar to many stereotypes of the African-American race. But Nintendo claimed it was based on a popular fashion design in Japan called Ganguro. Many people speculate though that this fashion trend of darkening skin and highlighting facial features is Japans interpretation of old Western plays and comedy acts where people would do similar things to exaggerate African-Americans. The problem with that though is that a lot of Japan does things similar to this, but most find it harmless and non-offensive. Of course many say that Jynx is probably based on some legends in the area about a princess who sung beautifully, then became vengeful and powerful after freezing alone in a blizzard. It just so happens that Jynx is a human-like Pokémon and is part Ice-type. Later Jynx was changed to purplish-pink with a smaller mouth to avoid controversy. Here you can see the comparison between the two versions. As well we have a picture of the Snow maiden and the Ganguro fashion trend. Jynx could be based on a mixture of these as well.

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST RACE: LENORA

Game Artwork Recent Artwork

The other thing based on stereotypes of the African-American race is the gym leader Lenora. In the games and her Japanese design Lenora is a woman with a headband, puffy hair, and an apron. Worried that people would think this was based on the Mammy archetype America quickly changed her so that she wore her apron like a cape in the games, and no apron at all in the anime, effectively throwing away any evidence against them.

LAWSUITS: URI GELLER AND KADABRA

There are three major lawsuits against Pokémon. The first was the case proposed by a man named Uri Geller, who claimed to be psychic. He claimed that the psychic-type Pokémon Yungerer, or Kadabra in English, is based off him and the stars and lightning on him wrongfully and illegally connect Geller to the German Nazi SS. Kadabra and Uri are also both famous for bending spoons. This case was thrown out of court, but despite that a Kadabra card has not been in the Pokémon TCG (Trading card game) since.

LAWSUITS: TRADING CARDS AND GAMBLING

The next case is one from a parent’s group. They tried to sue Pokémon and Wizards of the Coasts stating “the cards collectible nature and random luck-of-the-draw distribution is similar to illegal gambling”. To avoid further issues about gambling the European releases of the games Platinum they changed the casino-style slot machines with non-playable machines or in Heart-Gold and Soul-Silver kid-friendly tile flip games similar to minesweeper.

LAWSUITS: POKÉMON KILLS

LAWSUITS: POKEMON KILLS

The final lawsuit is a case known to many as “Pokémon kills”. Burger King released a series of promotional toys for the new Pokémon movie including some Pokéball toys. These toys clipped open and closed and happened to suffocate two toddlers. Two parents then set up a website called Pokemonkills.com. Currently the owners state they don’t know why this site exists or if the story behind it is true.

CONCLUSION AND FINAL THOUGHTS

Pokémon is a franchise for children and children are often thought of as needing more protection than others, especially when it is serious problems. So this topic matters a lot because most people do not want their children exposed to things like Nazis and racism. Though I have to give Pokémon some credit, it isn’t entirely their fault. Pokémon is from Japan and in Japan, due to major cultural differences, many things are ok there that are not here. As well there is support for Pokémon being good too. For the claims saying Pokémon is satanic Catholic-based radio channel Sat 2000 stated Pokémon did not have "any harmful moral side effects" and was based on "ties of intense friendship", and people stating that evolution is more similar to growing older rather than evolving negated the evolutionism claims. Also most of the lawsuits filed against Pokémon were thrown out of court on the first or second day. Now that I have laid all the facts before you I will ask the big question. Do you think Pokémon is good for children? Think about that for the day, and maybe even tell me what you think. Or do some digging of your own and find what you think is the truth.