With its cute, mousey mascot and the rousing catchcry "gotta catch 'em all", Pokémon has won the hearts of gamers globally since it was released in 1996.
But for Japanese players, raised with a knowledge of Shinto — the country's oldest and largest faith — the Pokémon universe is more than a cartoon fantasy.
According to Mio Bryce, head of Japanese studies at Macquarie University, the world of pocket monsters is full of Shinto elements.
"The original Pokémon setting has that connection with land — the physical environment — and quite supernatural beings," she says.
This melding between the natural and the supernatural is inherent in Shinto beliefs.
The religion is animistic and pantheistic, Dr Bryce explains, meaning that spirits or gods — known as kami — can be found in natural phenomena, like waterfalls, along with animals, trees, everyday objects, and sometimes even humans.
"Unlike many other religions, which have clear doctrines, such as Christianity and Buddhism, it's much more ambiguous," she says.
Spirit monsters from sly to stupid
But not all kami are respected, says Dr Bryce. Some might be "stupid and mischievous", others can be hostile.
Carole Cusack, a professor of religious studies at the University of Sydney and co-author of the book Anime, Religion and Spirituality, explains the more antagonistic spirits are usually referred to as "yoki".
"Yoki are ghosts, goblins, phantoms, and sometimes monsters or demons," she says.
"[But] they're not all fearsome or hated. There's a sort of situation in Japanese mythology and folklore where there's a capacity for these creatures to be both dangerous and attractive."
And, Professor Cusack points out, many Pokémon are viewed in this same light.
"Ever since it debuted, the game has been about playing with monsters, and there are different creatures to capture and to keep a scorecard on," she says.
"Pikachu, the cute kind of mousey-rabbity-looking thing that's the franchise mascot, he is a kind of mouse spirit.
"They all have particular cunnings or skills. Fox spirits, for example, can [sometimes] bring you good fortune, other times, they're malevolent and sly and you have problems."
But not all kami — or Pokémon, for that matter — are associated with living, breathing beings.
Professor Cusack points to the Japanese word tsukumogami, which refers to discarded household objects that contain a spirit.
The Pokémon character Dusclops could easily fit this description. It carries a striking resemblance to the chōchin-obake or "paper lantern ghost".
Not so cute after all
Pokémon isn't the only Japanese creation to reference folkloric concepts.
Carol Hayes, from the Australian National University's college of Asia and the Pacific, says the Japanese imaginary landscape — laden with a pantheon of spirits, good and bad — has been rich fodder for anime and manga.
"There are a lot of female characters in anime that are very closely linked to Shinto," she says, pointing to Hayao Miyazaki's heroine Princess Mononoke and the manga series Inuyasha as two examples.
"It's harking back to old matriarchal shamanistic [roles], and closely wedded to the natural landscape."
Dr Hayes says both Princess Mononoke and Pokémon illustrate that natural creatures and phenomena are not always controllable.
"With Pokémon, they're pocket monsters, they're not Tamagotchi — cute, little pets you had to feed and sleep," she says.
"It's not just master and dog."
Insect collecting and augmented reality
Dr Bryce agrees that coexistence is a central theme in Pokémon, and one that carries spiritual resonance.
"The idea of Shinto comes from the view that the world is all connected, all supported," she says.
She believes the creature-collecting nature of Pokémon is akin to the Japanese tradition of children capturing and exchanging insects on their summer holidays.
It's an activity, she says, that immerses kids in the natural world, which is integral to Shinto ideology.
And she thinks the augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go, which encourages players to find pocket monsters outside their homes, might foster a similar connection with the environment.
For Dr Hayes, the multi-dimensionality of Pokémon Go — a fusing of reality with supernatural — is almost a metaphor for how people practice Shinto.
"[The way] you're collecting Pokémon in your actual, physical world and, if you look at it through your device, you can see these creatures is an imagined landscape [similar to how] this parallel world exists in the belief structure," she says.
"There is this pantheon of spirits around. And [like] the Pokémon … they're harnessing more and more power from the natural landscape."
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA5LTA2L3doYXQtcG9rZW1vbi1wb2NrZXQtbW9uc3RlcnMtY2FuLXRlYWNoLXVzLWphcGFuLXNoaW50by1mYWl0aC8xMjYyNjc5ONIBJ2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvYXJ0aWNsZS8xMjYyNjc5OA?oc=5
2020-09-05 22:30:00Z
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