It's a Mad, Mad Poké-Monde

The evolution of the newest kid craze

By Erica D. Rowell

NEW YORK — What once caused seizures among Japanese children is now spawning a frenzy across the U.S. Pokémon fever is spreading like wildfire. But is it a good fever or a bad fever? And how long will this estimated $5 billion run last?

AP/Wide World A Chinese tourist couple look at Pokémon dolls at a toy shop in Tokyo in 1997, when television broadcasts of the popular action-packed show caused convulsions in hundreds of children

By now, most American parents know Pokémon (pronounced Poh-KEE-mon) is short for pocket monster. And pocket monster is short for "drive your kids crazy." Pokémon has quickly eclipsed now-passé fads like the Power Rangers and Star Wars, filling the "must-have" void for the 4-to-14-year-olds at almost light speed.

But what exactly is a Pokémon? It's not an easy question. And the response evolves, much like the Pokémon themselves, depending on which age group you ask.

This much is fact: Pokémon is the creation of a Japanese man named Satoshi Tajiri, who thought up a universe inhabited by trainable monsters and the children who train them. The young characters find the creatures, tame them, and then challenge other creatures with them. Each "monster" has a characteristic special power, and they all can evolve into something else. Like the cast of humans, some creatures are good and some are bad.

In Japan, Nintendo picked up the idea and made it into a Game Boy. Next came a TV show. And then, in 1998 Pokémon products hit American shores with the power of a tsunami: Game Boy, television show, trading cards, action figures, backpacks, school supplies, T-shirts, breakfast cereal, books, compact discs, computer gadgets, candy ... and in November, a movie.

The secret mantra that fuels the Pokémon craze is a simple one: "Gotta' Catch 'em All." Kids buy the Pokémon characters, trade them around, and then buy some more.

AP/Wide World Dylan Keegan, 7, of Brea, Calif., gives a big hug to Pikachu, a larger-than-life-size Pokémon character

Mickey, age 7, was talking Pokémon in Riverside Park earlier this week and explained what draws him: "I like Pokémon because I like to collect the cards, the game. And I watch the Pokémon show every day except Saturday. And it's really famous."

Parents don't just simply buy kids toys any more. They enlist them in movements. And "Catch 'em All" Pokémon is a movement with a perfectly singular theme that acts as both narrative challenge and marketing pitch. In the show, to be a Pokémon master you have to catch all the creatures. So in real life, to be a master, you have to buy as many packages of Pokémon trading cards as your parents can afford.

Get it? You don't have to. Parental incomprehension is part of the allure for kids. "The running joke is the older you get, the harder it is to understand. But the kids seem to get it," said Jenny Bendell, public relations manager of Wizards of the Coast, which makes the trading card game.

Norm Grossfeld, executive producer of the Pokémon TV show and president of 4 Kids Productions, the company that produces the American version of the show, sounded a similar theme. "One of the reasons (for Pokémon's success) is that it's a magical world created for kids which is so complex that really only kids can understand it. ... It's their own, secret, private thing that they can all become experts on."

This proprietary child-product relationship adds a type of adult-free independence to the experience — which is part of every child's fantasy. The idea of child autonomy is even built into the premise of the TV show. Ash Ketchum, the main character, wants to be a great Pokémon trainer. So in the first episode, he leaves home to begin his quest. He's all of 10 years old.

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