Hole in the Net

Hard to believe I know, but damn if the franchise hasn’t been around for a decade now, and if the sales of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are any indication, it’s a good deal away from losing steam. No doubt the franchise’s popularity is in no small way attached to the advertisement…er, animated series, and the new Diamond and Pearl is what we’re going to take a brief look at to discover why it is that despite being the bad kind of repetitive that Dragonball Z only wishes it could be, the show still manages to be a phenomenon. In a world where parents get up in arms and decry the type of violence found in video games such as Grand Theft Auto, I find it curious that an animated children’s program that, at its core, is about the entrapment and forced combat of frequently dangerous wildlife by pre-teens with zero parental supervision has been allowed to be as successful and influential as it has…then again, I was raised by parents who bludgeoned me with a tree any time I didn’t trim the grass properly (with rusty pinking shears, of all things), so my perspective on parental allowances is a bit skewed.

Pokemon has been both the target of ire from die-hard anime fans as well as a source of endless, shall we say, creative artistic interpretations posted to innumerable internet art sites, but love it or hate it, the creativity and energy that undoubtedly has both Japanese and American children bouncing off the walls like Pikachu in a bottle still permeates the series. Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl follows the story of Dawn, your typical Pokemon protagonist, who on her tenth birthday begins her journey to become a Pokemon coordinator (which, I must admit, sounds a lot like someone who matches Jigglypuff drapes with Weepinbell bedspreads) just as her mother was before her. Still, names, faces and motivations are irrelevant; if you’ve seen any of the other umpteen iterations of Pokemon, you already know that the plot is a threadbare attempt to string together saccharine-blasted cockfights (of the rooster variety, thank you), and in this PDaP succeeds in delivering. Of course, poor Dawn is just a bit player in her own series; not but a scant episode or two into the series, she and her ear-searingly annoying Piplup (creatively named ‘Piplup’) find themselves supplanted by energetic but egotistical Ash and perennial favorite Pikachu, along with stoic but girl-crazy Brock. Fortunately for Dawn, nicer-than-Misty-but-twice-as-weepy May and Brock-chaperone Max are out of the picture this time out, giving her more than ample time to develop her second-banana bit player skills to their utmost. Outside of the Pallet-swap (see what i did there?) and roster changes, everything here is by-the-numbers Pokemon, so what is it about the series that gives it such long legs?

I personally give much of the credit to the Pokemon realm’s resident ‘villains’, Team Rocket. Their predictable but humorous meddling has become increasingly elaborate as each new series unfolds, and they are the portal through which parents of the show’s target demographic are drawn in. Jesse, James, and Meowth are not so much evil as they are perpetually broke, and all they really want to do is make a buck and finally succeed in something in life (in other words, they have the same hopes and dreams as most of the people you know), and who can’t relate to that? As is often the case, the villains have greater depth and are far more well-rounded in their motivations than the protagonists, and its their flaws that make them far more easily identified with. It’s clear that Team Rocket’s voice talent are still having a lot of fun with the characters after so many years, and the localization provides for some of the best self-referential and satirical lines the show has to offer. Ash and Co. may drive the show’s success, but Team Rocket is what gives it gas.

Considering Nintendo’s penchant for choking franchises until they cough up cash, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Team Rocket spin-off game or series somewhere down the line; I’d be even less surprised to discover that TR’s lovable-loser stylings and humorous self-depricating banter finding a much broader audience amongst children and their parents than the show that spawned them did.