The Gen-P Goldmine

They’re little, they’re cute and they’re everywhere.

Introduced into the United States a year ago, Pokemon has become a multimedia phenomenon. The animated TV series has become the centerpiece of Kids WB!, the network’s children’s programming block, ranking as the No. 1 children’s show in the 2-11 and 6-11 age groups--even during reruns and with episodes coming out on cassette and DVD. It is the No. 1 video game and trading card game in America, and Pokemon toys are outselling “Star Wars” merchandise 2 to 1 in some stores, and merchants complain they can’t keep the trading cards in stock. Usenet carries several thousand Pokemon-related messages a day; at any given time, E-Bay may list 12,000 Pokemon items--at prices ranging from a few bucks to several hundred dollars, e.g., a set of five Japanese Pokemon Booster Boxes for $1,075 and a first-edition Pokemon Jungle card set in a sealed case for $685.

Children from the ages of 6 to 14 who complain about memorizing their multiplication tables can rattle off the names of all 150 Pokemon. Serious players can also recite the characteristics of each Pokemon, and how it will fare in a fight against any other Pokemon.

Pokemon (PO-kay-mon) began with a video game in Japan in 1995. Pokemon, or “pocket monsters,” refers to both the game and the fantasy characters who populate it. These mini-monsters range from smiling, rounded blobs to fire-breathing dragons and faceless objects, and sport such odd names as Wartortle, Kakuna, Pikachu, Charizard and Blastoise.

Taking the role of 11-year-old Ash Ketchum, the player moves through a series of mazes, catching “wild” Pokemon, training them and using them to fight duels with other characters. As the Pokemon gain experience points, they grow stronger, and some of them “evolve”: Bulbasaur can turn into Ivysaur and, ultimately, Venusaur. The object of the game is to become a Pokemon master by collecting at least one of each of the 150 monsters: “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” is the omnipresent motto.

The television series, which like the game debuted last year in the U.S., follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum and his friends--the quiet, more mature Brock and the feisty, outspoken Misty--and his favorite Pokemon, Pikachu. Ash aspires to be a champion Pokemon trainer--which means he needs to collect all 150, and work with them to defeat other trainers. Ash may not be the brightest cartoon kid on the tube, but he’s dedicated and kind hearted, if a bit hot tempered.

The quartet travels from city to city, collecting, training and fighting Pokemon, and thwarting the schemes of the villainous but inept Jessie and James and their pet Pokemon, Meowth, who make up Team Rocket. Many of the episodes include moral lessons: In an episode titled “Bye Bye Butterfree,” for example, Ash sacrificed his own feelings and allowed the first Pokemon he raised and trained to leave and find a mate.

The series has proven to be gold for Kids WB!, with the network more than doubling the number of times “Pokemon” airs this season--twice a day, six days a week--with the 52 new episodes ordered by the network sprinkled randomly through the week.

“I think Pokemon is a magical world for kids,” says Norman Grossfield, president of 4Kids Productions, which Americanizes and distributes the English-language version of the Japanese “Pokemon” TV series. “They can become experts in the way this particular world works and the creatures that inhabit it.”

According to Grossfield, “Pokemon,” the series, requires considerable reworking before it airs on the network here: “When we receive an episode in Japanese, the first thing we do is a literal translation . . . [then] rewrite the script until the flow of the story works and the humor is more appropriate for our market.

“We replace all the music, as the music in the Japanese version is very sparse, and Western audiences are used to cartoon series with music all the way through,” he continues. “We also do some minor editing for things that might be offensive to a U.S. audience. It’s usually not a big problem, but sometimes the human characters slap or smack one another, so we figure out a way to tone it down. Finally, we digitally remove the Japanese characters on street signs, storefronts, business cards, etc. We try to replace them with graphic symbols, but occasionally we have to go with an English word.”

“Kids like it because it’s a whole separate world that is their world, that they can become fully invested in,” says Perrin Kaplan, director of marketing, Nintendo of America. “It has a social aspect, it has a deeply challenging aspect, and I think it has some personality, because each of these characters is . . . unique.”

Dr. David Feinberg, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at UCLA, sees other aspects to its popularity: “There’s a wide range of reasons why certain things catch on with kids. One, which I don’t think we should underestimate, is that other kids like it, so normal peer relationships cause kids to become interested in it. Many of the Pokemon evolve and develop into different things: That’s something kids can relate to, and in some ways, it mirrors what they might be going through in certain developmental stages.”

At a time when debates rage over the allegedly violent content of many video games, Pokemon has little in common with, say, “Duke Nukem” or “Mortal Kombat.” Although trainers have to pit their Pokemon against each other to capture “wild Pokemon” and beat their rivals, none of the Pokemon is ever killed or injured. The losing Pokemon in a match faints and is removed from the game until it’s been rejuvenated.

“You fight a lot, but it’s not violent, it’s fantasy,” says 11-year-old Neil Cline of Santa Monica. “If your Pokemon are asleep or paralyzed or poisoned, you take them to the Pokemon Center--it’s like a hospital for Pokemon. You have to take care of them.”

The Pokemon craze shows no signs of peaking, and Nintendo, 4Kids and more than 50 licensees will introduce a variety of products in the coming months. Warner Bros. will also release the English version of the animated feature “Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back,” on Nov. 12, retitled “Kids WB! Presents Pokemon: The First Movie.” (It was the fourth-highest-grossing movie in Japan last year.)

There are new versions of the game in the works, and there will be Pokemon clothes, backpacks, watches, sleepwear, zipper pulls, baseball hats, athletic shoes and toys. Sears is setting up Pokemon boutiques, and General Mills will sell Pokemon snacks.

But will Pokemon be able to defeat the biggest foe of all--kids’ boredom? That will determine whether the “little, cute” creatures fade into memory like Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, or become mainstays of childhood for generations to come like Winnie-the-Pooh and Batman.

As UCLA’s Feinberg puts it: “If it’s bringing kids together, if it’s safe and if it helps people enjoy time together, whether it’s parent-child or child-child, it’s good stuff.”

* “Pokemon” airs weekdays at 2 and 3:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 and 9 a.m. on KTLA-TV.