After an year of watching updating my review: Initial review is below as First Review
Pokemon are short for pocket monsters. It is a cartoon serial based on story idea of Japanese author.
It is aired on Cartoon network for more than an year, Mon-Fri at following times:
Morning 8:00 - 8:30
Evening 5:00-5:30
Night 8:00-8:30
Pokemons are animals like creatures with special powers . For example: Most popular one in Pickachu which is rat like animal and it has special powers like thunder bolt shocks. These animals are caught by a trainer and then they live in a gray and red ball called Pokeball. Trainers train them to become stronger and fight matches against each other using them. Each pokemon has special power except Meowth cat-like Pokemon, the pokemon just say their names. Over a period of time they evolve into more powerful species. They share special bonds with their trainers/masters. There are proper tournaments where the trainers fight with their Pokemon’s , to be the winners. To participate in the tournament the qualification is to fight battles with the Pokemon gym-leaders(a senior trainer who is authorized to give badges in case he is defeated) and win minimum number of badges.
Pokemon is story of a ten year old Pokemon trainer Ash Ketchum who starts on a journey and wants to become the greatest Pokemon trainer. His first and favorite pokemon is Pikachu- a rat like pokemon. To give him company are his friends Misty(a girl with orange colored hair) and his friends Brock (a Pokemon breeder -he doesn’t fight battles but is interested in studying and breeding Pokemons and falling in love with every girl that he meets) or Tracy (who is interested in drawing Pokemons).
Currently third season of Pokemon-’’Johto journeys’’ is being aired. In the first season Ash reached the last 16. In the second season he won the orange league. Now he wants to win the Johto league. The other important characters are
Team Rocket: consisting of Jessie, James and Meowth. Their aim to is catch Pikachu and other pokemon’s for their boss. In every episode they meet Ash and his friends.
Nurse Joyce: A nurse of Pokemon’s. In every city there is a Pokemon health center which is run by Nurse Joyce and her pokemon. Nurse Joyce of every city looks same and only Brock can differentiate them
Officer Jenny: Cousin of Nurse Joyce, like Nurse Joyce there is office Jenny in every city. She is a police officer.
Though every episode consists of some battle between Pokemon’s, each episode is different in terms of why battle is fought, the pokemon chosen for the battle and their attacks. How trainer uses his knowledge and instinct as to which Pokemon to select and when to call it back. Ash is very sweet little boy and my daughter feels upsets when he loses. Every episode tries to give some message and underlying message always is : it is better to be loser than not to fight the battle. You must learn from your mistakes. Work with pokemons to understand them and their powers.
It is very popular among kids of all ages and has spun off a mini-industry based on it. You get Pokemon games(from FunSchool), Pokemon T-shirts, Pokemon cards. Some pokemon based product is also offered by FMCG companies- example currently Bournvita is offering Pokemon cups, Cheetos offers Pokemons 3-D puzzles. If one searches on net then one can find many sites dedicated to Pokemons.
There was a time 12-9 months back when kids wanted to collect Pokemon cards, which they could trade. It was felt that Pokemon cards encourage trading. There was time when most of the schools banned students from bringing Pokemon cards to school. Thankfully that fad is on wane. It’s been quite sometime since I bought any Pokemon related product for my daughter.
I like watching the serial with my daughter. It is better than the PowerZone serials like ’’Swat cats’’ or ’’Kids next door’’. Unlike ’’Tom and Jerry’’ which just has Tom and Jerry with few additional character, Pokemon has new Pokemon and other characters per episode. It is not too loud and does not make it’s message heavy.
First Review:
Pokemon: Some facts: 1. It is a new animated series on Cartoon network 2. ’’Pokemon’’ games for kids are available in toy shops. 3. ’’Pokemon’’ trading cards are available in toy shops.. 4. ’’Uncle Chipps’’ and ’’Cheetos’’ potato wafers have pokemon tazzo as freebie. 5. Dresses with pokemon characters are available. 6. Mothers are threatening the kids ’’if you don’t study or do so and so work I shall not let you watch Pokemon today’’. 7. Kids want to become ’’pokemon trainers’’ when they grow up. Pokemon is a new serial on cartoon network. It is at 8 a.m - 8:30 a.m with repeat at 5-5:30 p.m Mon-Friday. It is about adventures of a 10 year old boy ’’Ash Ketchum’’ and his friends ’’Misty’’ and ’’Brock’’ and their pokemon’s. Pokemons stands for ’’pocket monsters’’. These are animals with special powers. Ex: Pickachu is a mouse which can give thunder bolts. Pickachu is the ’’pokemon’’ of Ash and is the cutest of all. There are 150 pokemons. Ash, Misty and Brock are traveling ’’far and wide’’ to gather new pokemons. They use these pokemon’s and their special powers in pokemon battles. Ash wants to be the best pokemon trainer and he has to gather badges by winning battles with other pokemons. ’’Team Rocket’’ troubles them in every episode. I find pokemon interesting because it is nicely made. It also teaches some lesson in every episode. It talks about how there are no short-cuts in life.