During the period 2000-2010, there was hardly any city kid who did not watch cartoon shows. Those were the days of cartoons like “Scooby-Doo”, “Dexter’s Laboratory”, “Justice League”, “Super-Man”, “Batman”, “Tom & Jerry”, etc. Then, came the cartoon series, “Pokémon”, which changed the trend of the then running cartoon shows.
This cartoon show, “Pokémon”, consisted of a world full of imaginary creatures (birds, animals, insects, etc.) inspired by the living and extinct flora and fauna. These imaginary creatures were called as Pokémon (short for pocket monster). This cartoon show was about the journey of Ash Ketchum, the main character of the show, with his friends, Misty and Brock, to become the greatest Pokémon trainer in the world.
At that time, this show had become a part of almost every kid’s life. This show taught me many things. It was an inspiration in many ways. Ash and Pikachu showed us what friendship is. They showed us that friendship can’t be limited to anything, it can evolve from anything and from anyone.
As kids, we all loved the way Ash caught the Pokémon, controlled and trained them. He also struggled with the same (especially Charizard), but he overcame the struggles and successfully trained them. He controlled the Pokémon like a person should control their emotions and thoughts give them (emotions) the right direction.
In the show, Ash was shown playing many Pokémon battles, winning badges from them and these badges helped him in qualifying for major tournaments. From these battles of Ash, we learned dedication for getting what we want to achieve. This show showed us that failing is also a part of the journey to success as Ash had his parts of achievements and failures in his journey.
The gadgets shown on the show was a great source of attraction for us. There was a gadget called “Pokedex” which tells about the characteristics of a Pokémon. I wish if I had that sort of gadget which could tell about the characteristics of a person so that I could know how to deal with them.
The gadget which got most of the attention was the “Pokéball”, the gadget which was used to capture Pokémons. Every Pokémon after getting caught, lived in the Pokéball. However, Ash’s Pikachu was the only Pokémon which did not live in the Pokéball.
Another interesting part of the show was the evolution of the Pokémons. This showed us that anybody can improve themself with hard work. There was also an episode in which Pikachu was getting evolved to Raichu, but he(Pikachu) opposed the evolution and chose to be Pikachu. This taught us that a person only can make the choice of what they want to be.
The Pokémon toys and collectables made the kids closer to the Pokémon franchise. Many brands made Pokémon toys free with their products. For example, uncle chips made Pokémon tazos free inside the chips packets. Kissan made diamond shaped cards having picture and information Pokémon & Pokémon scrapbooks with their products. There were also Pokémon trump cards available in the market. Those trump cards were an absolute delight to have. I still remember shouting words like “Attack”, “Defence”, “Height”, “Pokémon Type”, etc. while playing the trump cards with my buddies and brothers.
And today, I can say that Pokémon made my childhood awesome.