/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ JAPAN: ‘Pocket Monsters’ Gorge on Profits

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 7 1999 (IPS) - Kanta Yamaguchi, 11, is a hero in his class because he has collected the most number of ‘Pokemon’, or ‘Pocket Monsters’ products. He has 120 out of a total collection of 150 available the market — and two kinds of each monster.

“They are cute and exciting. Don’t ask me to explain exactly why I think so but I just love them,” says the boy, whose tiny room is filled with Pokemon games, cards, videos, stuffed toys, lunch boxes and even a rice topping attributed to the brightly colored characters that light up the now-famous ‘Pokemon’ video game distrubted by Nintendo Company.

Kanta’s enthusiasm illustrates why the hugely popular software game Pocket Monsters, a bizarre collection of monster characters that do battle with one another, have taken not only Japan, but Asia and the United States by storm.

The ‘Pokemon’ concept was created by a Japanese man who, a loner in his childhood, created the monsters from his memories of collecting insects in the fields outside his house. Now 34, Satoshi Tajiri is also known as “Dr Bug”.

The game was not always such a craze. It fell into trouble in 1996 when it was first launched in Japan and was withdrawn after several young viewers were afflicted with short epilepsy fits while watching the programme.

But after a short silent spell, Pokemon was back through the video game that comes in four series and has re-entered the market to unbounded success.

Japanese children are once again glued to the television cartoon series of Pokemon, and are snapping up the television games, collector toys and trading cards with a vengeance.

Of the characters, the most popular is Pikachu, a feline-like golden-colored creature with big, pointy ears and bright eyes who stuns his opponents with electric shocks.

The monsters — other names range from ‘Wartortle’ to ‘Pollywhirl’ — duel in tough battles that cover a myriad of adventures, which, according to producer Nintendo, is the secret behind the huge success of the product.

The monsters all possess different powers and battle with each other. Communication cables between two ‘Game Boy’ palm-size machines allow two players to exchange or trade their monsters, which is another major attraction of the game.

The monsters undergo metamorphoses and acquire differetn powers as they grow, which is why the game makes children want to possess each monster to allow them to play a wide set of various games.

Since the game was re-launched, sales in Japan have been phenomenal and contributed to keeping Nintendo, dogged with poor Japanese sales, afloat.

Pokemon sales reached 12.98 million games during the last three years since it was launched. Yuka Ehara of Nintendo refuses to say how big the game has contributed to the company’s sales, but only that it is “a major contribution to corporate earnings”.

The success of Pokemon has encouraged the next evolution of the game that was rolled out just last week. The latest series are a “silver” and “gold” set of games that adds a new set of 100 monsters to the already existing tribe.

The games, now sold for 3,000 yen each (less than 3 dollars) will debut in the United States next year.

The games are a “step-up” from the original Pokemon, says Ehara explaining that the new versions are based on human interaction through stories that focus on the nurturing and rearing qualities of the owners.

“Gold and Silver versions are geared towards improving communication between the users and the characters in the games, because the users now get to play a role in bringing-up their monsters,” she explains.

For instance, Wani-noco, or crocodile kid, a cute lime-green alligator, can be male or female depending on the user’s choice. The character grows to become a fearsome, chubby crocodile with special powers that can be used in battle.

Likewise with Hino-arashi, a cuddly porcupine that turns into monster spitting fire from his back. And then there is gentle looking Chicorita, something similar to a sheep with chicory leaves flowing down the body.

Sawori Nakano of Media Factory, which produces Pokemon cards, says the company has sold 1.52 billion Pokemon trading cards in Japan, a major hit in their sales.

The company puts out 700 types of cards that feature various versions of the 150 monsters. A pack of 60 cards of the original Pokemon characters cost about 9 dollars, and the buyers are mostly third to fifth graders who also carry out a flourishing trading game with their cards.

Nakano says the company is putting out new versions to cover the recently marketed silver and gold games.

“Owning the cards has become a kind of status symbol with the young fans,” she explains. “The characters have come to symbolise the owner’s powers and children will do anything to own the ‘powerful’ cards.”

Manufacturers say the popularity of Pokemon is not a new phenomena in Japan that has put several series of super character hits, such as Nintendo’s ‘Super Mario’, a video game featuring the adventures of a boy in search of a princess, ‘Tamagochi’ or the virtual pets, and ‘Hello Kitty’, a cuddly kitten that has become an international brand in the innovative animation world.

“The Japanese , whether old or young, have a penchant for the cutesy,” observes Nakano. “This explains why they are leaders when it comes to developing ideas for animation.”

Not everybody is loco over Pokemon, though. Parents say it encourages consumerism because youngsters compete to buy all the monsters they can, and point to the game’s motto which is ‘Collect ’em all!”

Said one executive who will himself sell Pokemon trading cards in the Philippines, where youngsters are enthusing over Pikachu: “The story lines of the cartoons make no sense, but it’s the biggest hit today.”