What is the Catholic's Church opinion of the Pokemon?

-- Ranya Nasrallah (ranyanasrallah@yahoo.com), March 18, 2001

Answers

Jmj

Hello, Ranya.
The Catholic Church has not made an official statement about Pokemon. If you would like to read what various Catholic and non-Catholic visitors to this forum have said about it, please click on the following link:

Thread active from August, 1999 to February, 2001

St. James, pray for us.
God bless you.
John


-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 18, 2001.

Pokemon are a cynical marketing ploy by those clever money making Japanese. They are unhealthy in that they target children with the message 'gotta catch em all'. Unfortunately for parents there are hundreds of them and they can cost a small fortune. They remind me of the marketing practices of Macdonalds,cynical, and targeted at children.

My advice - avoid them. Why pay good money for badly drawn bits of tat.

-- Sharon Guy (sharon@sguy.co.uk), March 20, 2001.

"Pokemon are a cynical marketing ploy by those clever money making Japanese. They are unhealthy in that they target children with the message 'gotta catch em all'. Unfortunately for parents there are hundreds of them and they can cost a small fortune. They remind me of the marketing practices of Macdonalds,cynical, and targeted at children. My advice - avoid them. Why pay good money for badly drawn bits of tat."

Hey! First, Pocket Monsters was not a money making ploy until it came to the US and became Pokemon, same as with other great anime such as Dragon Ball! You seem to lump everything up and go ONLY by what you read and do no research into the subject at all, you're commenting on something you know nothing about! I have been an avid Pokemon fna since 1995 when it first came out in Japan as a game for Gameboy. Satoshi Tajiri created Pokemon because of his love for animals he used to catch in the woods and river fronts in Japan. He also had an unhealthy love of video games spening whole saturdays at arcades and mastering games. In college he met Ken Sugimori, a really talented artist who designed Pokemon for him, he then submitted them to nintendo, it then became a game. Satoshi never expected Pokemon to be a big hit but it was, and as with most games that are really popular, it became an anime and then later a card game. Nintendo of America imported it, and changed the name to Pokemon, and then it was sold here and became a great success, 4Kids entertainment then got the rights to dub the anime, and dumbed it down as well, they were the ones who added the "Gotta cach 'em all" moniker to the anime. Then Wizards of the Coast who made Magic the Gathering aquired the rights from Media Factory to produce the Pokemon card game in the states, this boosted the craze to "fad" status(define fad...it doens't apply to Pokemon...well in the states it may), movies came out in Japan and were dubbed into english, but lost alot of the story and though provoing essece at the same time. And this led to parents thinking Pokemon was only for kids...of course here in the US when we see anything animated, we think it's automaticly for kids, but Pokemon was intended for all ages and wasn't marketed DIRECTLY at any age group until it came here. So your saying "Pokemon are a cynical marketing ploy by those clever money making Japanese." is not only wrong but racist, it was the clever money making american corporations who targeted Pokemon at kids. So it really helps to know of what you speek before the words come out, because it makes you seem ignorant!

-- Case J. Darian (itseverywhereyouwannabe@hotmailc.om), May 29, 2001.

"Why pay good money for badly drawn bits of tat."

Please and as if Disney doesn't market it's animation to kids? Anim is on a much higher wavelength than cartoons will ever be, here in the states, I can never find thought provoking animation unless I look to anime, cartoons from Disney and the other studios are aimed directly at children. WHat about Disney's marketing ploys? Huh? You don't mention them and their countles Disney stores, and clothing and toys and plastic figures and their own channel you have to pay for to watch their CRUDELY drawn animation, I'd take anime over our domestic animation, at least I get to think about the situations in anime and feel for the characters and at least I know there's anime for all age groups and genres, anime are like movies, they are so varied and have so many different categories they could have their own video store chain! You seem to have amnesia when it comes to the fact that we in the US do the exact same...so think about that before you put your foot in your mouth!

-- Case J. Darian (itseverywhereyouwannabe@hotmail.com), May 29, 2001.

I agree with this guy! Disney is definately CRUDE. Why don't you attack them??? And Pokemon is great!! What's wrong with 'gotta catch 'em all'? pardon, i am but 12 years of age ^u^. but anyway, u ppl should loosen up! your attacking harry potter now! doesn't god say that its okay to entertain ourselves?? it seems like your attacking all the good, foreighn fads! c'mon, its ppl who give into their kids maing it a big ploy. if you ask me, the most a pokefan requires is a pokemon gameboy game or two, at least one packet of pokemon trading cards, they're cheap, and maybe a fake pokeball and a tiny toy to imagine with. oh yeah, and the privilege to get on the internet and discuss this. frankly, this is pretty much ALL you need, unless your one of thoe fanatics who has to have every fad, like tickle-me-elmo :P. what was with that fuzzy red toy, anyway????? my advice, ppl, is loosen up.& pray directly to god,not to virgin mary.

-- Maggy Briar (anonymous@no.com), December 02, 2001.

Maggie,

I have a question for you. Suppose that I really wanted a favor of you. For instance, I would prefer when you are posting on forums that you use proper English (such as people and not ppl, you not u, etc.) Now you may or may not have time to consider my request. But if I approached your mother and asked her to intercede for me, would that request now have higher importance to you?

That is what Catholics are doing when they ask Mary to pray for us. Simply asking a mother to intercede on our behalf.

P.S. Please do not throw in a Catholic bash at the end of posts addressing a different topic. It just makes us ignore the rest of your post. If you would like to question Catholic belief, feel free to post such a question, but start a new thread or add to one addressing the said question.

-- Glenn (glenn@excite.com), December 03, 2001.