Why Is Pokemon Loved?

[Soviet Heavy]

Before you say "Oh look! A thread with an opinion!" I'm going to say, shut up and listen. This is not an "Am I the only one?" thread. I want to do an analysis.

I'm no stranger to the fact that Pokemon is extremely popular, even today. I shamelessly admit I watched it voraciously as a child, but I dropped it several years ago. I recently watched an episode, and I was struck by how little had changed over the years. Watching from a different perspective gained with age, I noticed all the things I would have ignored when I was young. Terrible dubbing, shoddy animation, and the same damn story every single time.

So I've moved on. I thought, big deal, I don't see things the same way as I once did. But I do know there are some of you on this sight who still watch the show, and still purport it as an example of a genuinely good television program.

So I ask you: what do you see in the show? I'm not telling you that you are wrong, that would be quite hypocritical. I would just like to know (for a completely arbitrary reason) what about the show has kept you coming back over the years?

I won't question your reasons, but I do have an interest in seeing what you have to say.

 

[kingcom]

Simple mechanics and a game designed around achievements and levelling up. That combined with younger audience targetting constantly hitting a new market every release and potentially some of the old market. If metric management has taught us anything, those make a popular game.

 

[SwagLordYoloson]

The show itself is terrible, but that is the same with all Children's Cartoons. There is a lack of any meaningful plot or any interesting character progression other than the pushed themes of trust, friendship and giving it your best. It follows the usual Children's Cartoon build and follows it well, hence why children love it.

 

[Doctor Glocktor]

The show wasn't made to be good, the show was made to be an advertisement for the games, nothing more.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

Well, to be fair what I think most people see in the show is NOT something you can see by watching one episode. You also have to understand that Best Wishes/Black and White is basically a reboot for Ash. The series that you probably wanna look at when you wanna see what's changed is Diamond and Pearl.

Why? Well yes, many times the 'here's a pokemon or person in trouble, let's help it!' episodes don't change. But there's many changes in characters and the show's format. For example...

In Diamond and Pearl, as well as the Hoenn series to a lesser extent, Ash was not entirely the plucky young kid who gets mentored and helped by the people he meets and travels with. With the addition of May as a brand-new trainer, and a different TYPE of trainer at that, Ash became a mentor on his own. He's taught what he's learned from his own experiences and by the accounts of both his 'students', they've learned good things.

I think this started the most in Diamond and Pearl with Dawn starting out as a brand new, do-or-die coordinator. Pokemon Contests themselves are actually very interesting and they're almost better than Ash's gym battles. Dawn not only didn't even know how to catch a pokemon, but she had basically a similar experience with her Piplup as Ash had with Pikachu. Throughout the series Ash not only taught her, but they taught eachother. Dawn's different, contest-style of battling inspiring Ash to go beyond his often-used 'just give it your all' strategy.

As I said the Contests themselves are interesting and I'm tempted to say they're almost more entertaining than the Gym Battles. They provide dramatic tension in a different way and for a gimmick that was basically a side-attraction in the games, there's alot to it and it helps to flesh out the still often vague Pokemon world.

On the antagonistic end, yes. Team Rocket are still around. Yes, they're still idiots. Yes, they make trouble ALMOST every episode. However they're really not the main attraction and with Jessie deciding to become a coordinator as well, it's interesting to see the vocations James and Meowth indulge in. In fact towards the end of the series it's shown that all three have a flair for legitimate business, being able to sell all kinds of things at the sites of Contests and later during the Sinnoh League.

The main attraction tends to be Ash's rival, Paul. Frankly, if you've never watched it before, Paul's personality and training style may make you want to punch the guy in the face. Cold, calculating, and basically ruthless, in a nutshell he's everything Ash is not. Their battles often get heated and their rivalry only deepens after the Chimchar business. In a way it's a clash of ideologies, and overall I've gotten the feeling that if Paul's attitude isn't that far out of the norm, it may explain why so many Champions, Gym Leaders, and other notable people in the pokemon world take a shine to Ash.

Is the series still a drag? Oh you better believe it. More than once I've had to basically put a cheat-sheet together for people that weeds out the bullshit filler so people can see the good episodes. Is it still formula-based? Sure. But these days a lot of things are. But it's not totally awful. They've just gone back to brass tacks for Black and White and that's basically what you're seeing.

 

[Zeema]

The show wasn't made to be good, the show was made to be an advertisement for the games, nothing more.

yeh thats sorta sums it up

thou the Cartoon did have some good eps

 

[Zhadramekel]

Why fix what isn't broken?

 

[ChupathingyX]

Yeah, I loved the show as a child, but as I grew up I realised it was just the same thing over and over again with some new Pokemon thrown in, more forgettable characters, boring design and like you said, shoddy animation.

The song for the first season is still epic though...just sayin'.

 

[Arkvoodle]

Because Nintendo encodes subliminal mind-control into each new entry in its franchises.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

I'm not surprised at the popularity of the game. Back in the day when Red/Blue first came out, it was one of the first games to ever encourage other players of the same game to actually get together both for trading and battling. This sense of community continued on throughout all its iterations and improvements. In short...

It created one of the very first social networks...even before the internet was in mainstream use. Long before there was MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or any other of that nonsense...Pokémon brought like-minded gamers together.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

Heh. Saw the title, thought it was talking about the games not the anime.

I lost interest in pokemon round about early 4th generation (hoen or whatever it's spelt) series. I was finally old (still pretty young though) to see the episode pattern of "meet individual X, occurence Y and "blasting off again" followed up by allegory Z". Thus, it had become dull, also, seeing everyone shout "dodge" all the time pissed me off that there wasn't a dodge mechanic in the games other than decresing accuracy/increasing evasiveness and detect/protect. So in all honesty, I hate the pokemon anime. I suppose it's simple plot makes it appeal to kids and then it lingers with nostalgia. Ultimately though, I'm just gonna put my official answer to the question as:

 

[Adam28]

I am pretty sure most users here who still love pokemon don't watch the show, as Doctor Glocktor said, they are an advertisement for the games. I just like to play the new pokemon games now because I still enjoy them but I haven't watched the show in years.

 

[2xDouble]

I don't watch the show anymore, but I would assume it is still popular for the same reason it was popular 10 years ago, because the games are good and the show ties in to them.

 

[Matt Hancox]

In my case it was nostalgia; when I was 10 EVERYBODY was playing this game. We traded the cards while we talked about the latest episode of the show. It defied all social conventions, age and gender groups and still holds a place in my heart as the franchise by which my final primary school years revolved around.

Then I think we moved onto football stickers or something.

 

[Myrl]

When the first game came out, it was a main form of social gaming due to the ease of use with the link cables. Most of the big mmo games didn't make their way yet so it had a decent monopoly. For myself, having a full team of lvl 100s and a group of about 15 people that I had to spend a summer with at camp who played the game, it was an icebreaker. We had our tournaments and it had its place in our childhood. As time wore on, games were made, nostalga came in and the older kids bought the games. The younger generation wanted to mimic the older ones and play the next gen games to compete. It started a cycle that continues today.

 

[Michael Hirst]

I never liked the show even when it first started, in fact it was responsible for putting me off the whole genre of anime for a long time. I didn't tell other people they weren't allowed to like it or anything but I just didn't get it. I hated all the characters, Ash was whiny and useless, Misty was bitchy and useless, Brock pretty much never got into a fight and did nothing but drool at nurses/policewomen. Team Rocket were the most redundant enemies from the start and could never create tension of any kind.

There was a single moment I really liked in the anime though and it was the very beginning of the first episode, showing the pre title battle from the games and then turning it into a real fight with the same music remastered into something much more awesome, after that it went downhill for me.

The games on the other hand were great though me and my brother put many hours into blue and red to fill our pokedex and make great teams for vs mode. I'd say it's just as responsible as Final Fantasy 7 for sparking my interest in JRPG's.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Simple mechanics and a game designed around achievements and levelling up. That combined with younger audience targetting constantly hitting a new market every release and potentially some of the old market. If metric management has taught us anything, those make a popular game.

This in terms of Pokemon games, essentially.

The show still sucks a big one, however. At least with Digimon, your main character(s) aren't stuck in eternal adolescence forever, regardless of when puberty is supposed to step in. Also, better, more consistent plots that actually build upon one another.

 

[SextusMaximus]

The games! The games are fantastic, simply put for me.

 

[ccggenius12]

Watched the show as a kid, not really anymore. Back when cartoon network still streamed online videos, I might watch one episode, because it was obviously Rocket-centric. Fact is, when they decide to characterize these guys, they have way more depth of personality than the lead characters. They have hopes and dreams, and their occupation is just a means to an end. They aren't all just about "ZOMG, A POKEMONZ, MUST CATCH FOR 2 HAZ GLORY OF ZOVIET RUZZIA!!!" That being said, the episodes featuring them are few and far between, so sad pandas all around.

 

[Terminate421]

It's only the games I am usually after, even then the reason is for simple to pick up, but skill to know how to be good, such as predictions and strategies, most notably against human players. Also it's concept is fucking awesome.