It is no secret at this point that Pokemon is popular. Kids, teenagers, and adults all take part in the culture our society has created around Pokemon. According to the article “Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokémon”: Pokemon “might be appropriately be described, in anthropological terms, as a “cultural practice”. It is amazing that this series of video games, toys, shows, and card games has reached the point of being a cultural practice. Pokemon has even reached the point of entering into other domains. In the most recent 2014 World Cup Japan’s mascot was Pikachu who is the mascot of the Pokemon series.
A huge part of Pokemon’s popularity is its appeal to both girls and boys. Starting with Pokemon Crystal in 2001 players of the Pokemon game were able to choose whether or not they wanted their trainer to be a male or a female. The games have since had this choice for players. Nintendo at this point became aware of their audience and made that point to add such a feature.
In most forms of media girls are represented poorly. In Pokemon most of the female cast turns out to be the favorite characters of most fans. In each game there is a champion (or a last boss) at the end that the player must face to finally beat the game. For the first three generations of Pokemon all of these champions are male. Finally in Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl the champion is a trainer named Cynthia. The general consensus among fans is that Cynthia is the toughest champion that any player has faced in any game. In the anime she also plays the same role and acts as a teacher figure to the main characters in her story arc. She is a good role model for girls that are tired of having the same damsel in distress characters in their animated shows.
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