Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon

Description

Initially developed in Japan by Nintendo as a computer game, Pokémon swept the globe in the late 1990s. Based on a narrative in which a group of children capture, train, and do battle with over a hundred imaginary creatures, Pokémon quickly diversified into an array of popular products including comic books, a TV show, movies, trading cards, stickers, toys, and clothing. Pokémon eventually became the top grossing children's product of all time. Yet the phenomenon fizzled as quickly as it had ignited. By 2002, the Pokémon craze was mostly over. Pikachu’s Global Adventure describes the spectacular, complex, and unpredictable rise and fall of Pokémon in countries around the world. In analyzing the popularity of Pokémon, this innovative volume addresses core debates about the globalization of popular culture and about children’s consumption of mass-produced culture. Topics explored include the origins of Pokémon in Japan’s valorization of cuteness and traditions of insect collecting and anime; the efforts of Japanese producers and American marketers to localize it for foreign markets by muting its sex, violence, moral ambiguity, and general feeling of Japaneseness; debates about children’s vulnerability versus agency as consumers; and the contentious question of Pokémon’s educational value and place in school. The contributors include teachers as well as scholars from the fields of anthropology, media studies, sociology, and education. Tracking the reception of Pokémon in Japan, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, they emphasize its significance as the first Japanese cultural product to enjoy substantial worldwide success and challenge western dominance in the global production and circulation of cultural goods. Contributors. Anne Allison, Linda-Renée Bloch, Helen Bromley, Gilles Brougere, David Buckingham, Koichi Iwabuchi, Hirofumi Katsuno, Dafna Lemish, Jeffrey Maret, Julian Sefton-Green, Joseph Tobin, Samuel Tobin, Rebekah Willet, Christine Yano Contents I. CONTEXTS AND ISSUES 1. Joseph Tobin, Introduction 2. David Buckingham and Julian Sefton-Green, Structure, Agency, andPedagogy in Children’s Media Culture 3. Anne Allison, Cuteness as Japan’s Millennial Product II. GLOBAL CIRCULATION 4. Koichi Iwabuchi, How ‘‘Japanese’’ Is Pokémon? 5. Hirofumi Katsuno and Jeffrey Maret, Localizing the Pokémontv Series for the American Market 6. Christine R. Yano, Panic Attacks: Anti-Pokémon Voices in Global Markets III. PLACES AND PRACTICES 7. Julian Sefton-Green, Initiation Rites: A Small Boy in a Poké-World 8. Dafna Lemish and Linda-Renée Bloch, Pokémon in Israel 9. Gilles Brougère, How Much Is a Pokémon Worth? Pokémon in France IV. POKÉMON GOES TO SCHOOL 10. Helen Bromley, Localizing Pokémon through Narrative Play 11. Rebekah Willett, The Multiple Identities of Pokémon Fans 12. Samuel Tobin, Masculinity, Maturity, and the End of Pokémon 13. Joseph Tobin, Conclusion: The Rise and Fall of the Pokémon Empire Contributors Index