Japanese popular culture has been a point of interest for the West for as long as I can remember. I’ve grown up in an environment obsessed with the movies, games, anime and other media coming from Japan. As a child I wasn’t aware these things I loved came from a country outside of North America; now, I understand much of the popular culture that shaped my childhood was imported directly from Japan. Probably the most influential of them all on me was Pokémon. Discussing Pokémon’s popularity requires appreciating the history, analyzing how it has transcended languages and borders, and understanding the evolution of the franchise. I will also attempt to explain why Pokémon is still so important to me more than fifteen years after I picked up …show more content…
From a simple black and white game on a Gameboy, to a popular anime series and card game to one of the most played games on the app store, the Pokémon franchise has evolved. I often wonder if Nintendo and Game Freak, the creators of the Pokémon games, knew just how large of a phenomenon they were about to launch when the first Pokémon game was released. A single game set in motion an entire franchise, arguably one of the most famous franchises born of a video game. Hillman argues the Pokémon games started off quite simply, and I would definitely agree. The games have grown considerably since then, with each new generation adding more features. New features have become the main selling point of each new Pokémon game. The same could be said for the long-running anime, coming up with more intricate and elaborate plot lines. It would be remiss to discuss the evolution of Pokémon without at least mentioning Pokémon Go. Pokémon Go has exploded into a viral phenomenon, with more than 100 million downloads of the game worldwide. According to Business of Apps, “In the US alone more than 34 million people have downloaded the game since its launch on July 6th and now, a month after, 90% of these people are still playing the game” (Dogtiev, 2016). This is almost unheard of for an app, and even more interesting, U.S. Android players spend more than 43 minutes on the app a day. Pokémon Go has taken the idea of Pocket Monsters and returned them to our pockets in a revolutionary new way. Comparing modern day Pokémon with that of 1999 is like comparing night and