Pokemon!

double psyduck ftw

Lets talk about Pokemon today. I dont believe there has ever been anything that went from fad to phenomenon to lame to retro cool in such a small span as Pokemon did. If I remember correctly it came to America roughly ten years ago, it was massive on the Game Boy and it was a merchandising juggernaut. There was Pokemon in everything from school supplies to macaroni to cars because demand was so ridiculous. Of course the crown jewel of the entire thing were the Pokemon cards whose main achievement was to set the stage for Yu Gi Oh and spawn a disturbing number of Wizards of the Coast stores. Ah the late 90's!

I was of course a nerd hooked on the whole thing even in the 7th and 8th grade. Yes I have a shit ton of Pokemon cards (some of my favourites) and yes I went to see the first movie on its release day and yes I left it all behind as soon as I found a girlfriend who would not have any of that shit. I once spent $25 on a Charizard card and guess what? I don't regret it. But it all ended, just like my Power Rangers obsession before it, when they got too cute, when they started getting greedy, specifically when the 150 monster roster ballooned into an unwielding beast which now probably numbers in the 500s.

The main problem is that the first 150 characters seemed to all have distinct personalities and designs, the later designs started getting lazy. Sure there were some standouts but for the most part the basic design session probably consisted of someone either finding a plant or an animal, painting it a weird color and then adding unnecessary zig zags and swatches and spikes and doodads. Not only did it get difficult to keep track of all the new characters but it also became boring. I mean except for Mudkips and this guy every character after Mewtwo is a fucking alien looking ponce.

But it made a comeback! usually for something to become retro cool at least two decades have to pass. Take the 80's: everybody fuckin loves Thundercats, the NES and so on. That retro cool fad hit its apotheosis in the 2000's, two decades later. Pokemon has made a comeback only a decade into its prominence in America. Now its cool to like oldschool Pokemon, its hip, so much so that my artsy girlfriend even wears a Pikachu shirt happily! (well maybe not happily). The franchise has made a remarkable comeback and its still holding strong in its earnest, non-ironic side.

So was Pokemon good? fuck yeah. It brought anime to America in a way that DragonBall and Sailor Moon couldn't. It brought the Japanese tradition of heavy merchandising, it made the religious zealots uneasy, it made nerds to collected them all Gods and those who didn't pussies. It turned boys into men and prevented this guy from getting laid. Pokemon!