In a country far, far away there once lived a man named Satoshi who, with his mighty army of funding (better known as Nintendo), took the world by storm with 151 “Pocket Monsters” better known as Pokemon. Thaese pocket monsters were so friendly and appealing that they soon found their way into almost every American child’s home. However, these monsters were expensive, and the good ones were only captured by sure luck. In time, the parents of every American child soon complained of expense and child gambling. Soon after the mighty empire of Pokemon came tumbling down. However, to this day, the Pocket Monsters still roam the streets of America thanks to the mighty brain of Nintendo.
While the story of Pokemon can be told as a short reminiscent tale, the intricacy and complexity of the world-renowned phenomena of Pokemon deserves notice. The marketing genius of Nintendo during the birth and peak of Pokemon (1996 – 2000) forever changed the American culture and the Cultural Industries. Pokemon had an impact on our lives and our economy. In the proceeding paragraphs the tale of Pokemon will be told from two sides: the social dimension and the economic perspective.
In September 1998 Pokemon Red and Blue were launched in the U.S. alongside the Pokemon television series. The move by Nintendo to place their videogame based TV show on public television worked. The combined release got kid’s attention though television and kept it with the video game. This was the start of the Pokemon craze. Within months of the dual release the Pokemon trading card game hit U.S. streets. These 151 Japanese born creatures encapsulated the youth of the United States. My friends and I were caught up in the Pokemon frenzy: buying, selling, and trading cards. A report from the New York Times detailing the explosion of Pokemon read, “Pokemon… looked as if it had reached fever pitch last spring with the release of Pokemon collectible trading cards that became the currency of choice on thousands of American playgrounds” (Lyman). The only snag in retail sales was the allegation that purchasing Pokemon Trading Cards was a form of underage gambling. To an unheard of extent Nintendo’s Pocket Monsters had successfully infiltrated the hearts of young Americans across the country. The question that remains to be answered is “how?”
The 1998 release of Pokemon was not Nintendo’s first. The original campaign began in Japan two years earlier. 1996 was also the release year of Nintendo’s highly successful Nintendo 64 platform in both the U.S. and Japan. The rising popularity of Pokemon within the Japanese society and the considerable revenue obtained from console sales led Nintendo to nurture the popular Pocket Monsters game into a multi-industry product. Nintendo was the first in the realm of the Cultural Industries to combine all the traditional mediums (television, books, music, movies, etc.) with the newest technologies available to the current market. For example, Nintendo’s Hey You Pikachu was the first console videogame to incorporate voice recognition.
Coming into the U.S. with a beloved television show dubbed in English, two videogames, and a mature card game gave Pokemon the financial strength it needed to flourish in the United States. Nintendo, using their long held influence and connections, quickly began developing products to further grab funds from the parents of America’s youth. “[Pokemon] began life in the United States in September 1998 as a Nintendo video game and quickly expanded into beanbag toys, action figures, comic books, T-shirts and a cartoon show,” detailed Julian Barnes, a reporter. The immense popularity of Pokemon drove Nintendo’s sales to new altitudes. Within a six-month span, the videogame company gained more than $4.00 per stock (Yahoo! Stocks). This fueled Pokemon’s exponential growth.
I vividly remember the development of Pokemon in my youth. It started out as a game that my friends and I played for fun. It branched to a cartoon we all watched on the weekends. Then to a card game that we all pumped hundreds of our parent’s dollars into. Next, to a movie that we all saw. Then to the fast food restaurant with Pokemon toys we all wanted. And finally to the bedspreads, sheets, wristwatches, spiral binders, pencils, backpacks, clothes, models toys, stuffed animals and action figures we all thought we desperately needed. Nintendo created a kingdom with connections to every aspect of an American child’s life. Nintendo’s product networking was encompassing.
After the initial surge of Pokemon into the U.S., Nintendo was not about to slow down its pursuit of the dollar. In 1999 the first of ten Pokemon movies was released in the United States. “Even before the movie’s release, toy industry analysts were estimating that Pokemon in all its various commercial forms would sell $6 billion worldwide by the end of [the] year,” stated an analyst from the NY Times (Lyman). The toy industry analysts were right: Nintendo’s net income increased by 3% (Nintendo America). This flood of funds caused Nintendo to setup the Pokemon Company, a subsidiary but independent business. This Pokemon Company was charged as the “licensing front” of Nintendo’s Pokemon. The Pocket Monster phenomena was grossing such an incredible amount from all aspects of the Cultural Industry that corporations were willing to pay to carry the Pokemon emblem on their products, hence the need for a licensing front. The Pokemon Company did their job well: Pokemon could be found in almost every partition of any department store, on the shelves in grocery stores, in Burger King’s Big Kids meal, in bookstores, at gas stations and even in clothing stores. Nintendo’s endless networking within the Industrial and Cultural Industries sent their stock soaring. However, despite Nintendo’s efforts and enormous funding, Pokemon would peek in 2000 and crash shortly thereafter.
Life in elementary school taught me many things. I learned about pain, fun and – most of all – Pokemon. However, I received my first lesson about cultural fads in elementary school. While the majority of my time was spent in the jungle gym, Pokemon still taught me a lesson: that even the most beloved game and television show has its limits. One day we woke up and the Pocket Monsters were no longer the dominant fad in the jungle gym. Despite the multitude of hours and the hundreds of dollars of our parent’s money we invested, Pokemon was dropped within a week in favor of something newer (and thus cooler): Digimon.
Just as Nintendo’s stock was reaching its all time high, Pokemon lost grip of America’s youth. Nintendo peeked in 2000 and lost it all in early 2001. Everything from the console games to the card sales saw a decline in sales: “Now the [Pokemon] card market has virtually collapsed and Pokemon ‘thousand-aires’ have watched their net worth be wiped out,” (Barnes) writes a reporter in 2001. Pokemon was forgotten. All was not lost however. Nintendo did not dissolve the Pokemon Company, nor did it ever stop producing Pokemon products. As of today’s date approximately 1017 Pokemon television episodes have been produced (Wikipedia). Eleven Pokemon movies have been released in Japan and ten in the United States. As of September 30th sales of newly released Pokemon Diamond and Pearl have reached 12.17 million worldwide (Nintendo Japan). The term Pokemon still remains a household name and continues to reach out to thousands of America’s youth.
During its prime, Pokemon had a substantial effect on the social, political and economic realms of the United States. It affected me in my youth. It was my parent’s Pocketbook Monster. It gave huge economic gains to the Cultural Industries and Nintendo America. It challenged the courts with allegations of underage gambling. Nintendo created a product that was more than a videogame; it was and still is a part of our Cultural Industries and a part of our culture.