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News Tip: Pokemon Celebrates 10th Birthday

Anniversary marks the breakthrough of 'globalized' Japanese toys, says Duke cultural anthropology professor Anne Allison

When the makers of Pokemon celebrate its 10th anniversary with a video-game extravaganza in New York on Aug. 8, 2006, they will not just be promoting a highly successful multimedia product.

The anniversary marks the breakthrough of Japan into a pop culture marketplace that had until then been dominated by the U.S., says Anne Allison, a Duke University anthropology professor who has studied the globalization of Japanese toys.

"In the United States, children think Japanese stuff is cool. It's not foreign or alien anymore," she said. "Kids today grow up liking Japan. It's a trendsetter, and Pokemon is one of the reasons for that."

Pokemon was launched in Japan in February 1996 as a Game Boy game, and its creators expected it to be a brief fad. But by the summer of 1996, it became clear that Pokemon had staying power, said Allison, author of the 2006 book,"Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination." Pokemon was introduced in the U.S. in 1998.

"They say in Japan that it 'opens kids up' --- it opens them up with exchanges of information, opens them up to other kids, opens them up to the universe of Pokemon," said Allison, who when researching her book interviewed the creators and marketers of Pokemon as well as children who play it.

Although Japanese children's products and entertainment had already crossed over to the U.S. with the introduction of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1993, it was the Pokemon franchise that truly achieved global success, Allison said.

This year, Pokemon USA, Inc. has promoted the anniversary with a 24-city mall tour featuring local video game competitions. The promotion culminates in the Pokemon 10th Anniversary Party and Video Game National Championships in New York Aug. 8.

The premise of 10-year-old Ash Ketchum, who tramps around in his quest to collect Pokemon -- or "pocket monsters" (creatures with different powers) -- and become a Pokemon master, appeals to children's sense of adventure and competitive desires, Allison said. The collectible creatures also are desirable because they're cute and cuddly, she added.

The original idea appeals to boys and girls, young and old, she noted. The characters are monsters, but they're cute; they fight, but they don't die; kids collect and get to know an ever-evolving world, she said.

"There's also this element of nurturing and taking care of and getting attached to Pokemon as if they were your pets," she said.

Like the Pokemon games themselves, the marketing also "opens up" by constantly creating new products, Allison said. The original Game Boy game led the way to a trading card game, movies, cartoons, toys and other spinoffs.

"The fantasy also plays into the way the product is marketed. It was a clever product to begin with, and the marketers kept it going. It's constantly changing. It's new, but it's also familiar."