Lets talk about Pokémon
The Highest grossing media franchise of all time.
The second best selling Video game franchise of all time.
TV series that has reached 20 seasons and over 1000 episodes.
The world's top selling toy brand.
The world’s top selling trading card game.
That’s without mentioning the number of video games, animated movies and the hit hollywood movie starring Ryan Reynolds.
We're talking Pokémon.
First released in February 1996 in Japan as “pocket Monsters: Red and Green” Pokémon as it is now known started taking the entire world by storm when the English language adaptations of Pokémon Red and Blue were released in the latter part of 1998. The first two games were shortly followed by the Yellow edition where we didnt get to choose our starter from the original trio of Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle but instead we were given our very own Pikachu so we could emulate the hero of the anime series Ash which was released dubbed in English very shortly after the release of the game, whereas the Japanese original release date was approximately one year after Red and Green released.
After the game was released in the USA Wizards of the coast released the first english edition of the much loved trading card game, a game which has gone on to sell more than 30.4 BILLION cards…..
The game itself, no matter how popular has actually caused a lot of controversy.
Some Christian groups feel that Pokémon evolution goes against the biblical creation account of Genesis, later the vatican, quite correctly, made a statement that the series is “full of inventive imagination” and has no “harmful moral side effects”
One card that was only ever supposed to be released in Japan that had the Buddist symbol of a manji which unfortunately is the reverse of the swastika used by the Nazis which offended the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group.
And in America (Where else) two nine year old boys attempted to sue Nintendo as they claimed the TCG caused their problematic gambling.
The game also ultimately upset PETA as the concepts of capturing animals to fight, such as cock and dog fighting in real life, encouraged cruelty to animals. PETA later released a spoof game where Pokémon battled to free themselves from their human masters (it's VERY bad). #Gottafreethemall.
The most famous early controversy though has to be from the anime series that featured in one particular episode bright explosions that alternated rapidly between blue and red which caused epileptic seizures in over 600 Japanese children. The episode has never been aired since.
Now you can see Pokémon everywhere you go and you can also buy merchandise literally everywhere, in high street stores, Supermarkets and on wonderful websites (Hint, Hint)
Check out OUR Pokémon range now and see what you can find to add to your collection: