Pocket Monsters

 

What started out as two games that nearly bankrupted a Nintendo branch company, became a phenomena that reached 3 decades.  Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon in the west, was considerably one of the best Franchises ever conceived by Nintendo. It has spawned numerous mediums that I can't even count and is one of the reasons gameboy didn't die off and introduced the concept of the Link Cable: A device used to connect two gameboys together.  A concept succeeded by Gameboy Color's Infared sensor and Nintnedo DS' Wi-Fi technology. That's right folks, this game was one of the founding fathers, of console to console online multiplayer games.   When I was a kid I got introduced to the game through Pokemon yellow, I was one of the few people that had a yellow gameboy color with the yellow game tied to it. I lost it though. As of now I am on a quest to beat every Generation I Pokemon game.  My favorite pokemon is Pikachu simply because it was my favorite color as a kid, yellow.

The story revolves around Trainer Red, who ventures through out all of the Kanto region training to be a master of Pokemon: creatures of various species that have special abilities, and can get captured in a sphere known as a pokeball. What goes on inside the ball I don't know.  Anywho along the way Red has to gather badges from respective Gyms in order to enter the League and battle the Elite Four: Renowned Pokemon champions. As well as Blue, a jerkass of a trainer who doesn't treat his Pokemon well and tries to fight Red thoughout the entire game.  All the while he deals with Team Rocket, a mafia like organization bent on taking over the world. This task in particular makes Red into a hero along the way. Cool kid, not even a teen yet and he manages to fight off evil.  

Now for the main event, Could It Exist In Real Life?

First let's start with Pokemon.  Yes they can exist both literally and in theory.  For starters much of the Pokemon are ordinary animals.  Pidgey is a Pigeon, Spearrow is a Sparrow, Rattata is a Rat, Meowth is a Cat.  Even some abilities such as Water Gun are actually real there are able to spit water like a firehose such as Elephants and Dolphins.  Others like Charizard, and the three legendary birds are based of mythological animals like Dragons and Phoenixes. Then we get to the weirder ones, Pikachu a mouse like pokemon who can generate electricity. Now this is gonna shock you (PUN!!!!), but Pikachu can exist.  How? Gene splicing that's right folks.  Now we all know that scientists all over the globe are working in various ways to splice genes of various animals together.  In the case of Pikachu I theorized that it's a hybrid between a mouse, due to it's shy nature, a rabbit due to it's size and an electric eel simply because that's the only animal in the world that generates it's own electricity.  Would it work? I don't know and even if it did I doubt the result would be the cute cuddly electric machine we know and love.  Now here's another shocker (PUN!!!!) that proves it further.  Ever notice how in every single Pokemon game, that each starter town has a Pokelab. In the case of the original Kanto series, Professor Oak.  To top it off the Lab on Cinnabar island (MISSINGNO!!!!) that created Mewtwo through cloning,  what's to say they didn't do other experiments there.  Hell the scientist that created him in the movie was trying to bring his daughter back. 

Next is another concept, Battling.  This sadly exists in real life in two ways.  Since as long as we were a civilization we as a race were also capable of breaking certain laws and taboos.  One of which was Illegal Animal fighting. The most common being cock fighting which involves two roosters fighting to the death and the more obvious dog fighting.  To make matters worse in the game whenever we win a Pokemon battle, we get money from it.  When I was a kid I always wondered why that was so, and then I realized that Red and his competitor were making side bets.  Our hero ladies and gentlemen.   The other way is less of a problem (depending on the point of view.) but still a factor raised.  When not in competition the other way to level up Pokemon in a battle was to have them fight wild Pokemon.  Sometimes during the fight Red and to an extent us, would take the chance to catch the wounded Pokemon.  This my friends is called hunting.  Some do it for food, some do it for sport and some for profit.  Red does it for the second and third reason.  Catching them, or beating them to train his and profiting from the experience and money he earns in competition. Now I know what you are thinking "Pokemon don't die, they faint from battle." And I agree, that does happen....to the lucky ones.   Allow me to introduce you to......

Lavender Town, A Small Town covered in a beautiful hue of Purple.

 

 

 

However despite this beautiful hue, it houses a sad tragic story.  On the right of Lavender Town, you'll find Pokemon Tower.  Anyone who is playing this game for the first time be warned, not only of the spoiler, but because what I am about to say next may ruin your childhood forever.  For Pokemon Tower......is a cemetary.  All the floors of the tower save for the ground and top are lined with Pokemon Graves.  That's right folks, Pokemon is one of the first games in the world to acknowledge death.  Not only that, but it is said that their ghosts still linger on even beyond the grave.  It is also one of the places where Red meets Blue.  Now here's to make it more tragic for you.  Upon the first couple of battles, Blue had a Rattata, which later evolved into a Raticate.  However meeting him this time, no Raticate is to bee seen.....That's right folks, Red and to an extent you killed Blue's Raticate.  Tell me why Red is the hero again?

The next thing on the list is Pokeballs. However my transporter theory in Tron and Power Rangers already explained that one. In this case however the pokemon no matter how big can be shrunken down to fit inside a ball the size of an orange.  This is easy, if the theories I mentioned in the articles are true, then anything that has been converted into data can always be diverted and compressed to fit in certain objects. Much like how hard drives and flash drives can have billions of bits and bytes of data put in a small storage device.  

Now last but not least is the big one, could Red Exist in real life.  Now before I say let's do a little Background.  Trainer Red goes by many names in different incarnations. In the anime he is known by two names.  In the Japanese Dub, his name is Satoshi, while in the English Dub, we know him as Ash Ketchum. Upon researching Pokemon to try to find the earliest cover pictures I stumbled upon the creator's name:  Satoshi Tajiri.  Red and his incarnations all over the franchise were based on him as a child and as I looked further, he among most things, liked to collect bugs.  Now when starting out in the game what type of Pokemon do you end up catching first? Bug Type.  Trainer Red/Satoshi/Ash Ketchum is Satoshi Tajiri.  And it fits because what's the first thing a true legend does when he fulfills his ultimate goal?  Tell the story about it. Satoshi Tajiri, Red no matter what other gamers or Blue in your life tell you, you have always been and always will be the Pokemon Master.   Why? Because you created them.  I and all Pokemon Trainers all over the world salute you and hope you keep making the games that push us on the path in making us masters. 

As usual, debate, argue and let me know what I missed. Stay Tuned For More and Catch 'Em All. 

Oh just one more thing, I was gonna put Pokemon Centers, but I realized they are too obvious to defictionalize.  Since they are vets.  As for why there are so many Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys I honestly don't know. Ask Brock, he knows the differences. Just don't mention that name.