Disturbing Truths About Pokemon

[TV Eye]

Jun 5, 2010 4:42:29 GMT -5 kirbychu said:

Uh, I've been arguing for the family love. I was just pointing out that there's no evidence to suggest that Blue's parents are dead other than their absence at the family home, which, as we've seen in plenty of other families, isn't a big deal in the Pokémon world. In this case, the parents haven't even just left the kids to fend for themselves - they're living with their grandfather, who is more than capable of providing for them.

Oak? What parent would leave their children in the care of the leading professor in Pokemon? Someone who spends most of his time in a lab and later hosting a radio show?

Granted, by the time he gets the radio show Blue is old enough to become a Gym Leader (he's 13 by the way which seems a little strange, but Brock was 12 and Misty was around 11 in the anime).

All this bullshit aside, I think it's awesome that a game with no story is able to be evaluated so fluently, that many people pick up tons of different vibes.

This argument is unsound because (repeating myself) I like to believe there is some story involved. Some deep dark meaning behind trivial events.

And there WAS a manga stating that Blue's and Daisy's parents died in a car accident. This manga details every event from the Red and Blue games accurately, so maybe in the Japanese versions of the games it was stated...who knows.

[8bitretroshit]

Wait wait wait, Brock's 12?? I suppose that's about the time hormones start kicking in, but I always thought he was atleast 17 or something.

[Johans Nidorino]

Jun 5, 2010 11:05:14 GMT -5 TV Eye said:

And there WAS a manga stating that Blue's and Daisy's parents died in a car accident. This manga details every event from the Red and Blue games accurately, so maybe in the Japanese versions of the games it was stated...who knows.

This is the type of answer I was expecting to hear

Jun 5, 2010 12:37:11 GMT -5 8bitretroshit said:

Wait wait wait, Brock's 12?? I suppose that's about the time hormones start kicking in, but I always thought he was atleast 17 or something.

To my understanding, Misty and Brock begin at 10 and 15 respectively.

[wanderingshadow]

It's a bit odd that kids so young get to wander around with out supervision, but I think that's part of what Satoshi Tajiri was going for. I seem to remember a quote from him that goes something like: "When you're a kid and get your first bike, you want to go somewhere you've never been before. That's like Pokémon." I know when I got my first bike, I wanted to go places I've never been and do it myself.

[Da Robot]

Jun 5, 2010 11:05:14 GMT -5 TV Eye said:

And there WAS a manga stating that Blue's and Daisy's parents died in a car accident. This manga details every event from the Red and Blue games accurately, so maybe in the Japanese versions of the games it was stated...who knows.

They died in a car accident, in a world where there appear to be no roads at all . . .



Speaking of being sent to big wide world at the age of 10, would anyone here liked to have done that when they were 10? Are 10 year olds in Japan super mature or something?

It would also be weird be a kid being affected by puberty as well.

(Ash calls back home)
Ash: Mom! Why is my voice changing, and why is there hair growing in places where there was no hair before!



Well at least the girls would have started by the time they left home . . .

[TV Eye]

Makes me wish they'd make the Pokemon world more realistic.

Though Black and White seems to fix those flaws. There are now roads in the big cities and the protagonists are older.

[Fryguy64]

Jun 5, 2010 23:48:47 GMT -5 Da Robot said:

It would also be weird be a kid being affected by puberty as well.

(Ash calls back home)
Ash: Mom! Why is my voice changing, and why is there hair growing in places where there was no hair before!

ASH is evolving!
ASH became TEENASH!
;D

[Prince~Of~Light]

Jun 5, 2010 13:45:06 GMT -5 wanderingshadow said:

It's a bit odd that kids so young get to wander around with out supervision, but I think that's part of what Satoshi Tajiri was going for. I seem to remember a quote from him that goes something like: "When you're a kid and get your first bike, you want to go somewhere you've never been before. That's like Pokémon." I know when I got my first bike, I wanted to go places I've never been and do it myself.

I remembered this quote that can be found at "500 Manga Heroes & Villains" in Pikachu-profile:

"The Pokeverse is a small boy's dream world: Pokemon trainers don't have to go to school, there are no mothers nagging about bedtimes and washing, but there are friends arond every corner and a big sister or brother figure always materializes to provide a meal, a bed an any other help that is needed."

Yeah, few of those are mostly took from anime and that school-thing is actually wrong. But Tajiri did success at giving us the feeling of liberty and let us explore the places we have never seen before. That's what I felt when I was playing Sapphire and was in Route 104. (Cue the epic marching-to-the-adventure music)

Oh yeah, Ash didn't yet grow up, as we see... (-'_l-)

[TV Eye]

Oh yeah, and about roads...

We know they SHOULD exist, because of the moving truck in Ruby/Sapphire and the infamous pickup truck from Red/Blue.

[kirbychu]

I always figured that vehicles existed, but weren't used frequently enough in most regions for them to bother building roads. We know that the primary modes of transportation in the Pokémon world are walking, bikes and... well, Pokémon themselves. There's no need to destroy the bits of nature between towns to build roads, because most people prefer to travel with their Pokémon and meet new Pokémon on the way. When they use cars, it seems to just be to transport things they can't carry.

So far the only vehicles we've seen getting frequent use are boats and, to a lesser extent, trains. But they're only used when people are covering a huge amount of distance, like travelling to a new region.

[Shrikeswind]

If I may, it seems to me that the games and the anime have the closest ties with regards to the spirit of the series. I mean, obviously they aren't canonically the same, but it seems to me that the intent behind the anime was to provide a backdrop to the games with regards to the universe, as such, there's only one Team Rocket Gym Leader as opposed to that one manga having half the gyms led by a Team Rocket member, the fact that the rival turns up at inopportune times to taunt the hero and show him up, it keeps going. That manga is so far off canon as to be hilarious. In the games, the Elite Four aren't actively seeking destruction, they're just the toughest guys in the region. In the anime, same thing. In the manga, they're four jerks trying to conquer the world. Only one Gym Leader is a known member of Team Rocket in the games. In the anime, same thing, and in fact, it's almost guaranteed he's the only one in that Jessie and James would probably be privy to the various Gym Leaders being on Team Rocket and therefore wouldn't have any reason to turn up in the episode at all. In the manga, four Gym Leaders are Rockets. So treating the manga as definitive of how the game universe works is erroneous, it's more appropriate to treat the anime as definitive, and even that's technically an inaccuracy. For all we know, Brock's Moses to a religious band who finally settled down in the wildlands between Mt. Moon and the Viridian Forest, Koga has ninja-killed people, Team Rocket's crimes are actually to a higher goal that Giovanni has never revealed to anyone, the Elite Four are the governing body of the region or, in the case of Kanto/Johto, regions in plural, and Lt. Surge deserted after his Vietnamese lover betrayed him, being that she was a VC spy. There's nothing to suggest otherwise, which makes the game universe open to interpretation (to a degree. Actually, I'm not sure on Lt. Surge's story, since I always get bored in Vermillion.)

[Johans Nidorino]

Jun 6, 2010 20:00:23 GMT -5 Shrikeswind said:

That manga is so far off canon as to be hilarious. In the games, the Elite Four aren't actively seeking destruction, they're just the toughest guys in the region. In the anime, same thing. In the manga, they're four jerks trying to conquer the world. Only one Gym Leader is a known member of Team Rocket in the games. In the anime, same thing, and in fact, it's almost guaranteed he's the only one in that Jessie and James would probably be privy to the various Gym Leaders being on Team Rocket and therefore wouldn't have any reason to turn up in the episode at all. In the manga, four Gym Leaders are Rockets. So treating the manga as definitive of how the game universe works is erroneous, it's more appropriate to treat the anime as definitive, and even that's technically an inaccuracy.

You're referring to Adventures/Special? Tajiri has been quoted as saying that manga is the one that most resembles the world he was trying to convey. Plus some known facts that were first stated in this manga were later true in the games. The known ones at least... Imagine how many unknown.

Of course, making the Gym Leaders good and then evil screams "make up your mind!". But everything that is officially licensed has a chance to be "canon".

[Shrikeswind]

Yes, that's the one. But no, my intent was not to disagree with Tajiri's "I feel this conveys my world best" thing, I mean in the sense of how the world plays out. The anime has alot more plot ties to the games than does A/S, even if the game is supposed to be conveyed more like A/S with regards to tone.

Now I'm interested. Do you have a list of these facts?

Oak? What parent would leave their children in the care of the leading professor in Pokemon? Someone who spends most of his time in a lab and later hosting a radio show?

What? Just because he has a job, he automatically can't take care of his grandkids? (Even though it's apparent he doesn't, being that he can't even remember Blue's name.)

[Johans Nidorino]

Jun 6, 2010 20:57:29 GMT -5 Shrikeswind said:

Now I'm interested. Do you have a list of these facts?

It's commonly known that Giovanni is Silver's father, firstly shown in that manga.

Although the girl choice in FireRed and LeafGreen was always planned to be in the game, as seen in old artworks of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Gren, her existence as someone from Kanto first developed in Adventures/Special. She was later given the game's clothes in the manga.

For more links between the manga and the games, have you ever seen Hitmonlee's legs in the anime stretch to the point of them looking like springs? I doubt it. That was very explicit in that manga, though.

I'm pretty sure Tei can lecture you more on this.

[kirbychu]

Hitmonlee's legs never actually uncoil like that in the anime or games, though. They're said to be spring-like, but in the manga they're actual springs.

I never liked the universe as portrayed in the manga. It tries to be far too dark and edgy, what with turning a large number of the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members, who're mostly portrayed as heroic in the games, into evil murderers (especially Lance) and having Wally, who just seems to have asthma in the games, need to wear a special mecha suit just so he can breathe.

The number of things that first showed up in the manga is still second to the number of things that first showed up in the anime by a fairly large amount, anyway. I'm much happier with the anime's depiction of the world. It feels more real when not everybody's out to kill ten year old kids.