“As is apparent now, Nintendo of America’s tireless preparations, and marketing - $20 million to start - paid off. The Game Boy titles Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue were released on September 27, 1998. They became the fastest-selling Game Boy titles ever, selling a combined 200,000 copies in the first two weeks of heir availability. By the end of 1998 they had sold four million units in the US alone across three versions. In Japan, across four versions the game had sold nearly 12 million copies.” (Kohler 2005, 247)
Hailing from land of the rising sun, Pokémon was the biggest phenomenon that the world had seen in many years, and quickly became one of the most recognizable symbols of contemporary pop culture for an entire generation.
Figure 1. Pokémon became the first animated characters to make
the cover of TIME in 1999.
In analyzing Pokémon using the Circuit of Culture (Du Gay 1997), this essay focuses especially on the interaction between production and consumption of the Pokémon phenomenon in both Japan and America, paying particular attention to how the representation of Pokémon was transformed as the game was translated for export, in order for it to achieve the same level of consumption in America as it did in Japan.
I chose to focus more on these three moments of the circuit, as the other two were much less significant in this instant. Identity was no longer an issue in the forefront once almost every kid was playing Pokémon- because playing the game no longer served as a form of identifying one’s self with the in-group, but rather it just being a social norm. I will also not touch much on the regulation process as it did not significantly affect the other moments in the circuit within this part of the world (should this essay have been on the Circuit of Culture within China or Singapore however, there would be much to say about regulation and the challenges in competing with imitation Pokémon toys and games).
Initial Production in Japan
Pokémon had humble beginnings. After taking Satoshi Tajiri 6 years to develop a game (he almost went broke in the process) that reminded him of his childhood past time of collecting insects, Pocket Monsters was finally released in Japan on February 27, 1996 to surprisingly little fanfare. It did not explode onto sales charts either, yet sales climbed slowly and steadily, continuing to increase even after the first few weeks of its hitting the shelves (which is usually when games sell the most copies). It was only then that Nintendo realized how big Pokémon was, and “they moved fast, licensing toys and other related products.” (Kohler 2005, 241)
Pocket Monsters then grew into a media-mix complex (Allison 2006, 196), starting an anime cartoon series and releasing its own trading card game, toys and movies, that allowed kids to be actively involved with this fantasy world in many ways. It was not the first Japanese product to do this, and the distributors of the game were but following the set formula that had worked with other popular series like Digimon and Doraemon, all of which had already spanned out into mixed media complexes, and involved merchandising and licensing products of their own.
Initial Consumption in Japan
What set Pocket Monsters (later renamed Pokémon when it entered the US market) apart from other games? The difference is that Pokémon was consumed socially. Instead of just beating the game, players could use a Game Boy linking cable to interact with other players- not just in challenging each other (as Digimon had done), but also in cooperating with each other. For example, trading (exchanging Pokémon with another player by link cable) was necessary to get 11 of the total 151 Pokémon (Allison 2006, 197). This may not seem like a big difference, but to children in Japan living increasingly compartmentalized lives, this was a paradigm shift from the older kind of more anti-social games:
“People feel a lot of darkness today. As a defense, they retreat into solitary capsules. On the trains, everyone is immersed in their Walkman, manga, books they buy at kiosks: defense mechanisms used to maintain distance from others. Youth also turn to consumer products that allow them to relate to one another by maintaining the rule of silence” (Watanabe 1999, 75)
Pokémon was thus consumed unlike any other game in Japan, in what was described by Yamato (1998) as a “Social phenomenon”. He explained that “(in) an age when kids have fixed schedules and are busier than ever before, Pokémon provides an opportunity to fit in communication with friends.” (Yamato 1998, 247) For once, a video game was causing children to become more open to talking to others, and filling a social need they all felt.
From Mass Production to Mass Consumption:
The Power of Pokémon’s Representation In Japan
Seeing how Pokémon was bringing in the profits, its producers poured a lot of finances into it. In an attempt to make the already popular game even more famous, they wanted to appeal to a wider audience through its representation in the anime, card games, toys and other merchandise. This began with the mass production of Pokémon at an unprecedented scale.
Figure 2. “We all live in a Pokémon world.”
When it came to Pokémon, it seems the philosophy of “the more the merrier” held true. While there is only one Doraemon and Hello Kitty, there are as of now as many as 649 Pokémon. Kubo Masakazu, Producer and Editor in chief at Shogakukan (the man behind the success of Pokémon in the bookstores and anime), commented that the sheer number of different Pokémon produced ensured that “everyone is able to find one they like.” (Koyama-Richard 2010, 176)
There was also a significant effort to make the representation of Pokémon more appealing to female players. Kubo Masakazu continued, “Most of the readers thought that it was a game aimed mainly at boys. But as all the Pokémon in it were delightful, I realized that the TV cartoon version was also sure to appeal to girls. So I put the director Yuyama Kunihiko, who has created many cartoons for girls, in charge of it.” (Koyama-Richard 2010, 176)
With the conscious effort not to limit their target audience, Pokémon characters were represented more gender neutral than the characters from other games or anime series; often a powerful, fully evolved Pokémon (the dinosaur-looking Dragonite, below left) played up the kawaii factor too.
Figure 3. Figure 4. Compare this to an equivalent dinosaur-looking character from Digimon (Metal-Greymon, above right), with its heavy armor, powerful weaponry and fierce countenance that appeals more to boys than girls. Another humorous image posted on 9GAG highlighted this point further:
Pokémon in Japan continued to grow and reap in the profits by carefully adjusting how it represented itself to appeal to as large a section of the domestic market as it could. So while the initial volume of consumption was dependent heavily on the production values of the game itself, the mass consumption of Pokémon was more influenced by the representation of Pokémon through the anime as a game/series/phenomenon for everyone.
Pokémon had thus become a phenomenon in Japan.
It was time to get it exported to America.
Re-production in America Through Alternate Representation
This was where the headache began. It was not possible to just take something phenomenal in Japan, put it in America and watch it sell in the same way. (Actually later on they could bring Japanese Pokémon cards to America and they sold even better than the English cards, but that was after the fad caught on.) After all, “Tajiri, its creator… conceived the game as a product strictly for domestic consumption.” (Allison 2006, 239) The American kids had to buy on to it, and the distributors of Pokémon were very careful in adjusting the representation aspect to make Pokémon foreign enough to be cool, but accessible enough to be welcoming.
The game that was to be released in the US was the exact same game that had done so well in Japan, now translated into English. Thus the production moment would be the same in America and Japan, as the goal of mass consumption was also alike. The key to reproducing the success of Pokémon in America would thus lie in the representation moment- the Pokémon cartoon in particular would need the most revamping.
In order to make the foreign product feel less foreign, anything remotely Japanese was replaced with an American equivalent. Signboards, street names, and any other form of Japanese wordings or references were airbrushed off and substituted. Even food items like Japanese rice balls were replaced with doughnuts or sandwiches. The aim of changes like this, according to Norman Grossfeld from 4Kids Entertainment (the person in charge of the movies and cartoon for U.S. release), was not simply to put English on top of the Japanese but to take the “place” of Japan, thereby making Pokémon “placeless” (Allison 2006, 246) so as to not alienate the American viewers with a foreign Japanese landscape.
Figure 6. Even a Warner Brothers logo was added to make it look more “made-in-America”.
In that light, all the names of Pokémon were changed to English equivalents, except for its mascot, Pikachu (Nintendo Japan wanted its name to remain unchanged in every country.) The human character names were changed too- even the lead protagonist, who was named after Pokémon’s creator, was not spared.
In addition, the cartoon series inserted more music to increase its pacing, along with other elements like the new slogan in American slang (“Gotta Catch ‘Em All”), accompanied by a catch theme song and even a MTV styled Poké-rap. These helped make the Pokémon world seem more welcoming to Americans because it now came across as having elements somewhat familiar to them.
Representing American Values in a Foreign Import
And it was not just the superficial visual and audio aspects of Pokémon that underwent changes- These small modifications were done also to shift the entire focus of the narrative to better suit the American market.
Every American series or movie seems to need an archetype hero character. While Pikachu was seen as the main character in Japan (thus their not allowing Pikachu’s name to be changed in any language), Ash, the English name for Satoshi, was portrayed more as the hero protagonist in the USA than in Japan. Only in the US was there toy figurines released of the human characters in the show- only there were human characters important in merchandising.
Japanese storytelling is less “black and white”, often lacking the clear distinction between good and evil characters evident in an American movie. This too had to go. The titular antagonist in the first Pokémon movie, Mew-two Strikes Back, was portrayed with ambiguous motives in the Japanese version of the film. In the final scenes of the movie, it simply says, “It’s best this is all forgotten” before wiping out everyone’s memory. This one-liner becomes an elaborate speech in the American release of the same film, serving to clarify everything, bring closure to the events, include a “moral of the story”, allow the antagonist to admit wrongdoings, and recognizing the goodness of the heroic characters- all just for the audiences benefit (because Mew-two still wiped the memory from the characters after that). Gail Tilden, project manager for Pokémon at Nintendo of America, explained the need for such blatant story telling - “American kids need to be hit over the head.”
Other values were also put into the representation of Pokémon in the USA. “Gotta catch ‘em all” was the slogan added only in the American version. ("Let's get Pokémon" was the Japanese version.) What is interesting is that capturing all Pokémon is clearly not Ash’s focus in the cartoon, choosing instead to focus on training them. After the huge amount of investment made, the American owners of Pokémon wanted major sales, and infused the value of acquisitiveness into the slogan by adding the word “all”, which made all the difference in the meaning! They were indeed lucky it got the approval of Federal Communications Commission censors, who prohibited the use of injunctions in ads directed at kids (Allison 2006, 244).
Not only was the music in the American series modified, the title songs, played at the start of every episode of the series, were re-written and infused with much more American values:
Pokémon Theme Song (English)
I wanna be the very best that no one ever was,
To catch them is my real test, to train them is my cause
I will travel across the land, searching far and wide.
Train these Pokémon to understand the power that's inside!
POKEMON! (Gotta catch 'em all!)
It's you and me, I know it's my destiny,
POKEMON!
Ooooooohh your my best friend, in a world we must defend,
POKEMON! (Gotta catch 'em all!)
Our hearts so true,
Our courage will pull us through,
You teach me and I'll teach you,
POKÉMON!
Gotta catch 'em all,
Gotta catch 'em all! POKEMON!
Words like “power”, “destiny” and “courage” in “a world we must defend” show how American ideals, like saving the world, were added in the representation of what Pokémon meant. The Japanese side only has personal aspiration:
Pokémon Theme Song (Japanese)
I'll go through flames, floods, weeds, forests,
The soil, clouds, and under the skirt of the girl (Scream!)
And through here, through there..
(x2)
A long, long road to go, To get pocket monsters....
Good-by, my home, I'm starting with the cute guy (Pikachu!)
Win and win with a trained ability,
Go to a new town with new friends
Success is not guaranteed
(A matter of course)
What's the matter?
You, monsters, always go all out
And to finally complete the year-long translation to English (or transition to America), even the original game versions of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green were translated to more patriotic American colors- Red and Blue.
Figure 7. Pokémon as it was released in Japan.
Figure 8. And Pokémon was finally ready for immigration to the US.
Mass Representation and Consumption in America
The American release was carefully planned, and learning from the experiences of the Japanese release, the anime was aired before the game even hit stores. In Japan, the game had started small, and production expanded steadily as sales continued. In America however, they dived into the deep end, taking a huge gamble by backing Pokémon on all fronts right from the start.
“It was launched in the heartland of America- Topeka, Kansas, amazingly renamed Topikachu for the day. As a thousand stuffed Pikachus were dropped over the city by air, ten Volkswagon bugs, painted yellow and outfitted with tails, assembled in the centre of town.” (Allison 2006, 241)
2 weeks after the launch, Pokémon aired its first episode on national television (a reverse of what happened in Japan where the game came out first). With all the hype generated by the launch and anime, Pokémon was represented as the next big thing, and when the game finally hit stores another 3 weeks later, it caught on like wildfire, selling the number of video games in one month in the USA what took 9 months to sell in Japan. “As is apparent now, Nintendo of America’s tireless preparations, and marketing - $20 million to start - paid off.” (Kohler 2005, 247)
Final Thoughts
Figure 10. Pikachu and his friends had finally arrived in America.
It is possible to see the Pokémon anime narrative is a meta-narrative of the bigger process of the globalization of Pokémon. After all, the original Japanese name of the boy setting out into the world to become the greatest trainer of them all is the same as the designer of the very game (Satoshi Tajiri) that travelled the world to become number one in a cultural form of imperial conquest. But each new region brought new challenges, and as Satoshi in the anime has gone through many changes in the series, the game too has travelled from one country to another while undergoing many changes.
The world forced the Pokémon franchise to “change ‘em all”, from its musical score to its characters’ names. But in adapting its representation to different cultures, the Pokémon franchise was ultimately able to “catch ‘em all”, the huge American market, and the world beyond.
Bibliography
Allison, Anne. Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys And The Global Imagination. California: University of California Press, 2006.
Du Gay, Paul. Production of Culture/Cultures of Production. Edited by Paul Du Gay. London: Sage, 1997.
Kohler, Chris. Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. Indianapolis, Indiana: Pearson Education, 2005.
Koyama-Richard, Brigitte. “Interview With Kubo Masakazu.” In Japanese Animation : From Painted Scrolls to Pokémon, by Brigitte Koyama-Richard, translated by Susan Schneider. Paris: Flammarion, 2010.
Watanabe, Naomi. “Kodomotachi ga Pokemon ni motomeru mono (The things children want from Pokémon).” Komodo Purasu, no. 2 (1999): 59-75.
Yamato, Michikazu. “Kuzen no shakai gensho 'Pokémon' cho hitto no nazo (The riddle of the super hit and unprecedented social phenomenon, Pokémon)).” Gendai, January 1998: 242-49.
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Accessed on 9 Oct 2011
