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The series
Pokemon is an animated series originated from a video
game by Nintendo. It is a short form for "pocket monsters" and, indeed,
the nice little monsters can be carried in one's pocket, inside their "pokeballs",
where they use to rest between battles. This do not apply to Pikachu, of
course, since it refuses to enter its pokeball and prefers to walk along
with his master Ash and his friends.
Ash is a little boy who leaves his home together
with his first pokemon, a pikachu (a kind of electric rat), in order to
become a pokemon master. In order to do that, he must travel and catch
as many pokemons as possible, learn about them and train them to fight
against other pokemon masters. During his journeys he meets Misty and Brock,
that become his friends and join him. Misty wants to be the best trainer
of water pokemons and Brock aims to become the best pokemon breeder in
the world.
Pokemon and the Bildungsroman
At first sight there is nothing special in the series:
it has a very simple plot, a series of apparently loose adventures, with
the sole purpose of showing meaningless fights between funny little monsters
and selling as many commercial products as possible (after all, the series
originated from a video game). However, coming back to my words on the
initial page, this first impression is transformed when one looks at it
more carefully: Pokemon is really a transposition to television
of a very important literary genre, the Bildungsroman, that could
be roughly translated as "formation novel".
I know I have spoken against jargon and complicated
words on the first page, but I put this term here just as a curiosity.
The word is not important, only the idea. A "formation novel" narrates
the experiences of a character during a period of his moral formation or
education up to his maturity, frequently during a long journey or a pilgrimage.
Many years ago, in the Middle Ages, when cities
were very isolated and there was no other way of communicating than travelling,
it was usual for learners of any trade to learn everything they could from
their local master and then leave to gain experience and skill in foreign
places. The Bildungsroman has its origins in romanced reports of
such travels, that may also be seen as a symbolic representation of the
journey through life and everything we learn on it.
Do you remember what I said on the first page, about
manga and anime questioning basic themes of mankind? The Bildungsroman
depicts exactly this: how the character learns to find his own way, his
identity, his place in the world, from the experiences he has during his
lifetime; how he grows, not only in body, but in spirit and character as
well. Ash's journeys with his friends are in fact a journey towards his
spiritual development and his formation as a human being, a series of episodes
that make him grow. This is clearly stated in the anime: any children than
want to become pokemon trainers must leave security and comfort of his
home and contact new people, meet new experiences that will lead them forward.
Pokemons as alter ego of their trainers
However, it is not enough that one teaches battle
techniques to his pokemons: all the time the relationship that is (or should
be) established between trainer and pokemon is highly emphasized: "a pokemon
is only just as strong as his trainer"; "there are no evil pokemons, they
only do evil things when their masters order them to"; "a pokemon will
not respect you if you don't share all his training and suffering" and
so on. These and similar statements show that the success of a pokemon
depends on the good preparation (and sweat) of its trainer. The moral aspect
is openly stated, what, by the way, happens in most anime that follow this
kind of plot. Another well known example is the anime Rayearth,
which has also the peculiarity of being a "formation anime" for girls,
while most other anime that also have a training journey, such as Dragonball,
Yu Yu Hakusho and Shurato, center on boys and emphasize physical
combat as an important part of their development. On the other hand, in
Pokemon the children are not the ones to fight: this is the task
of the little monsters and it is they that carry the signs of their evolution,
that is actually only possible through their masters' own evolution. Actually,
the little monsters' fights are a very clever way of illustrating the importance
of combativity and endurance in an anime designed primarily for children,
who can not (or should not) get directly involved in physical combats.
Well, what is a "formation novel" good for? In former
ages there was no television nor animated series. People transmitted their
knowledge through oral tradition (fairy tales, story telling around the
fire etc.). Later, invention of the press made it possible to fixate such
traditions in a written form and to access it even without the physical
presence of other people. Nowadays, children in an industrialized society
and in a big city have very little chance of being in constant touch with
their parents, grandparents or other relatives that would transmit them
moral values through conversation and narratives. Education is almost entirely
left to the school, which is more dedicated to transmit "objective" knowledge,
such as reading, counting and getting grades good enough to grab a diploma
(...oops! Let's change this line of though!). What I mean is that education
in a sense of socialization and acquiring of moral and social values has
no longer a formal place in our society and was incorporated by television.
It is easy to see that important people nowadays are those who are seen
in the movies or in television, and they are the ones to dictate the way
of dressing or behaving.
In this way, animated series (and anime in a very
strong way) incorporated the tradition of Bildungsroman. It was
just that the vehicle has changed, from oral tradition to paper and now
to the screen.
Ash is a normal kid, overhasty, conceited and kind
of annoying. He has nothing to do with the "super-hero" that we find in
other cartoons (as a curiosity, there is a link at the bottom of the page
to the site "Anti-Ash Homepage"). Despite his dreams of grandeur, he starts
his journey with a failure: he oversleeps and has to content himself with
the only pokemon left: a rebel, ill-humored pikachu that even refuses to
get into the pokeball. Although they would later become best of friends,
Pikachu's respect and dedication must be painfully earned by Ash. Here
we have the first lesson of life: nothing comes for free, one has to fight,
endure and give many things away in order to get what one wants.
Such thoughts seem extremely out of order in a society
that seeks for success and pleasure in a pill. However, quick gains have
a tendency to be ephemeral and inconstant. Anime transmit the message that
one has to rise through one's own diligence and hard work and that altruistic
acts always bear the best fruits. Is reality like that? I don't know, but
if everyone would think and act that way, there would be a greater chance
that it would happen, isn't it?
Even Misty and Brock only grant Ash their friendship
after a period of conflict. And only during the series we discover, along
with Ash, which are their qualities and learn to respect their peculiarities.
Second lesson on the road: people are different and should be respected
as such. Someone that at a first sight does not seem to please us may turn
to have hidden qualities or even become a good friend. Even the other trainers
with their different stiles show Ash that there is not only one way to
develop oneself. Everybody must have his chance!
In this way, each episode presents actually a little
message about life, not only for Ash, but for the audience as well. Each
adventure shows Ash one of his limitations, which he must work out or at
least acknowledge in order to go ahead. Very often Ash can only get the
upper hand because of luck or other people's help. He is not and will never
be perfect, he is just a human being looking for his ideals and trying
to do his best. The important thing is to keep one's heart pure, trust
one's friends and be ready to learn from one's mistakes.
The allies
One can not be expected to know or learn about every little detail of a situation alone. For this Ash has the help of his friends, Misty and Brock (and Tracy later on), who bring him information and perspectives that he would not know if he were alone: Misty, although quarrelsome, represents the emotional perspective, sensibility and sense of beauty (even for a Tentacruel!). Brock is like a big brother, someone more experienced but yet young enough to interact with Ash as an equal. This role is later taken on by Tracy (and I am still wondering why Brock was replaced by Tracy. Did the audience not like his face? Can it be that his one-tracked mind concerning women was out of place in a series for young children? If someone has any information about it, please let me know!).
Ash has also his PokeNotebook (a very practical way of presenting technical data about the pokemons without phoning Professor Oak all the time) and professor Oak himself. Like the PokeNotebook, Professor Oak is there to present technical information, but he also counsels Ash about his relationship to the pokemons. It is good to point out that Professor Oak does not really tell Ash what to do. He just presents the facts and gives advice, making it clear that Ash is the only one responsible for his decisions and their consequences. Professor Oak is the voice of experience and authority and acts as a father figure (by the way, have you noticed that characters in cartoons are usually orphans and/or live with an "uncle"? I think it is because a parent would restrict the opportunities for an adventure. Can you imagine a real mother that would acts like Ash's mother? When his 10-year old son tells her he is leaving alone in long a journey, her only concern is that he changes his underwear daily! Of course she is there as a caricature, only to show how annoying the mothers' concerns can become to a child, but that is already too much!
Pokemon has still another peculiarity: as
it was created primarily for young children, grown-ups are presented less
as characters than as types. An extreme case are the Joy nurses and the
Jenny officers. All look exactly the same and behave (almost) in the same
way. They stand for social functions of care and law and they are there
to show Ash what society expects from him. However, Brock, who is older,
can distinguish them. Maybe little children have a tendency to see non-relative
grown-ups only as social types without any individuality. Maybe they are
just there to show that every institutional person ends up acquiring a
common "professional identity". Whatever it is, it is very interesting
that Pokemon emphasizes and uses this "typification" in a very humorous
way.
The adventures of Ash and his friends continue when
they travel to an archipelago in order to fight the Elite Four, another
Pokemon League. These new travels allow Ash to visit more "exotic" places
and people and also have another peculiarity: up to then the episodes of
the series centered on Ash's own mistakes and deficiencies. Now he faces
other people's faults and learns to recognize and avoid them, as in the
case of the two egoistic children that did not allow their pokemons to
date, or the episode where a mayor who had abandoned his bubbasaur as a
child is ready to let it die (along with Ash and his friends) rather than
risk his chances for reelection.
OK, so what now?
Now, dear traveler, just keep on enjoying Pokemon
as you always have. This is the beauty of artistic manifestations, whatever
they are: one does not have to rationalize upon them to share their benefits.
The messages will keep on coming to you as they always have. Just maybe
now you will pay more attention to some details and appreciate even more
the references made in the episodes. I am happy that you have come back
so that we could talk again. Come back anytime And we will continue our
discussions about what one can find behind the nice colors and drawings
of manga and anime.Ja ne!
Back to the
initial page of Elbereth's Fantasy World
Contact
Elbereth! Comments are welcome!
Pokemon
2 - The new Mission
In Brazil, we are by now watching the second phase
of the series, that starts after Ash's performance (and defeat) at the
Pokemon League. Up to the tournament, Ash could only think of competing
and winning it. He was overconfident of his success and that led him to
neglect his training. At the tournament he got to know other highly qualified
trainers and that showed him his weak points and gave him a bit more humility
to resume his journey for improvement. I will comment only on one episode
of the Pokemon League Tournament because of its relationship to the concept
of Bildungsroman: the meeting of Ash and Ritchie.
Right away, we are startled by the utter similarity
between the boys: both are very similar in face and body, are the same
height, dress very much alike and even have the same kind of pokemons!,
Well, the truth is that Ritchie is Ash! Just like the pokemons are
an extension of their trainers' personality, Ritchie represents the greatest
challenge that one can face: to know and to conquer oneself! (Again we
find a strong similarity between Pokemon and Rayearth, where
Lucy meets her double, Nova and has to deal with it.)
It does look like that old Kung Fu movies, doesn't
it? Exactly. The whole eastern philosophy insists a lot on this theme,
which by the way was also a motto of Socrates: know thyself! It is not
to wonder that Ash sympathizes immediately with Ritchie and becomes his
friend: he is the image of Ash as this later may come to be: judicious,
responsible, strong, honest, skilful. And although he is so different from
Ash, they are still the same! This shows Ash that his dreams are not impossible
and shows him the way to reach them.
The Elite Four
We do not learn only by making and analyzing our
own mistakes, but also by observing and thinking about other people's behavior.
Seeing that their evil actions bring suffering and punishment upon such
people, Ash and his friends have new parameters to guide the progression
of their spiritual journey and their moral development.
