“I want to thank you all that you have been enjoying yourselves with Pokemon in many countries and in many languages. I am very glad if you would make friends with each other when you grow up through Pokemon. I hope that Pokemon would be your good friend forever.”

Satoshi Tajiri, 42, Creator of Pokemon.

Source:
http://users.otenet.gr/~tzelepisk/yc/st.htm

Dear Satoshi,

Thank you for your wonderful Pokemon. I am a mother of two boys, a teacher and editor of International Family Magazine. I choose not to reject my son’s fascinations until I have fully investigated them. I read everything about Spiderman and found he was a standup guy who wanted to help people, protect his family, and fight the bad guys. And when Jax played with a big boy Lucas that he looked up to one day by the pool, he fell in love with Pokemon. And so, I read and looked at everything Pokemon, and I fell in love too.

Pokemon evolve and strengthen their magical powers. They use their powers to battle but their battles are more like martial arts, no one dies. Pokemon trainers catch Pokemon and help the Pokemon to evolve themselves. Some of the famous trainers are Ash, Misty and Brock. They are the good guys. Ash, Misty and Brock are good hearted, protective of their Pokemon, and do the right thing. The bad guys are the Rocket Team, they are vain and greedy and behave badly.

Jax and Brody collect Pokemon and organize them in their evolutions and their energy categories of Water, Grass, Fire et al. The level of intelligent reasoning and logic that the Pokemon game requires of my five and three year old is engaging and challenging. The morality that my children discuss over the right or wrong treatment of Pokemon is inspiring. I chose not to reject Pokemon because of a superficial appearance of “battling” which could only mean something awful, violent and evil. Because of my choice, I found a rich narrative game that endows my children with hours of quality enjoyment and friendships with other Pokemon collecting pals.

Satoshi, your wish for global friendship and play came true for this American family so far away from Japan, you and the children of your country that started Pokemon. It warms my heart that Jax and Brody could get on a plane with their card-collecting binders and find friends in Japan to play with. I wonder if any Moms in Japan will trade me any cards from my binder as well? Thank you, Catherine Wayland

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