How Pokémon Go! protects the world from devastation
…and unites all peoples within our nation
The year is 1999, just days away from the next millennium. Everything is changing, generations were turning over — fast. This year, it is Generation Y’s turn to misbehave, and a phenomenon from Japan was out to make sure they did.
This year, kids in the Philippines get their very first taste of Pokémon. And boy, does it sweep like a storm.
Everyone wants to become Ash Ketchum, the franchise’s main character. Everyone wants to name their pet Pikachu, a charming yellow electric mouse and his staunchest companion.
Pokémon becomes my weekly habit on GMA-7, Friday nights. It is an all-access pass to the adventures of Ash and his friends — and, sometimes, the misadventures of slapstick bad guys Team Rocket, or the trio of Jessie, James, and a Pokémon named Meowth who looked like a cat.
But alas! I, a first-grader, am not the boss of my household. If my father wanted to watch Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras, and Jojo Lastimosa play ball, my father would watch Alvin Patrimonio, Benjie Paras, and Jojo Lastimosa.
I am able to fulfill my heart’s desire only when he goes to the city for work. This 7-year-old, burrowed in his den in the province, watches Ash compete in a Pokémon race atop his Rapidash (It defied the laws of physics, because fire and pain!) and take on other trainers who rode an Electrode (Again, physics! Rolling and pain!).
I also watch how Team Rocket attempted to steal Ash’s trusty Pikachu, all the while reciting (without fail) a motto that will live forever in the hearts and minds of other 7-year-old fans.
Jessie: Prepare for trouble!
James: Make it double!
Jessie: To protect the world from devastation.
James: To unite all peoples within our nation.
Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love.
James: To extend our reach to the stars above.
Jessie: Jessie! (Well, duh!)
James: James. (Well duh, again! And note that he didn’t shout his name like the tactless Jessie because he’s a smooth motherfu***r who should by the way marry Jessie because they’re perfect for each other!)
Jessie: Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!
James: Surrender now or prepare to fight!
Meowth: Meeeeeeoooowth, that’s right!
Pokémon, it can be argued, is possibly be the biggest (and greatest!) thing that ever happens to Generation Y. We are all so enamored with all things Pokémon that anything related to the franchise is collected, from trading cards and teks (the cheaper version of cards) to T-shirts and electronic Pokedexes, just like Ash’s.
Episode after episode, we dream of a reality where Pokémon exist, because who wouldn’t have wanted to own a bad-ass Charizard and burn everything to the ground? Or a kick-ass Gyarados and just bulldoze anything on sight?
These pocket monsters (no matter their size, they still lived inside Pokéballs) are the mythological beasts that keep countless 7-year-olds — me included — doe-eyed at night.
The year is 1999. Every episode, we hear the now-immortal opening line:
“I wanna be the very best like no one ever was.”
It is the anthem of young, fickle-minded people who want to be just like Ash when they grow up. (Not Gary, because Gary is a douche.) It is our anthem.
The year is 2015. After sixteen years, the new millennium lacks what the children of the ’90s yearned for. The world could never make us forget.
But during an intermission in Super Bowl XLIX, the world finally witnesses for the very first time what could–and would–become the next craze to swallow it whole.
During the half-time break, also known as a parade of commercials, the world first saw Pokémon Go. Anticipation builds. Is this it?
Finally, we thought, we could become just like Ash. Sixteen years later, we have not forgotten.
The year is 2016, and Pokemon Go launches in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. The world promptly loses its, well, collective shit. It is the future that was promised, the future we of Generation Y had always wanted. It was sure as hell the trail Ash Ketchum blazed.
Pikachu, Rhydon, Nidoking, Snorlax, Blastoise, Gengar, Onyx, Golem, and the bunch are no longer just anime or video game characters from our childhood. From figments of imagination to projections of reality, our childhood myths have turned into our adult truths.
The Philippines gets the game later than the first four aforementioned countries, but when it does become available to download, everyone in the country who grew up watching the charming yellow electric mouse (again) lost his or her individual shit, and that individual shit became a collective shit.
Finally, we thought, we could become true Pokémon trainers.
The year is 2016, but in our hearts we still hear the pounding of that opening line. “I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was.”
Generation Y, all grown up, is now at the age where they can carve their own legacies. But deep in our hearts, the dream of collecting all of the badges, the goal of collecting all of the pocket monsters and being the very best (like no one ever was) will always be that one legacy we’d want fulfilled and left for future generations to enjoy.
