New York Sign Language Pokemon-Crazy Kids Learn To Love Americanized Heroes By BOB YAMPOLSKY	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
アメリカ版（？）ポケモンが大人気 ポケモンは、もともと日本の TV ゲームのキャラクターです。米国では昨年から子供たちの間で人気が高まり、アニメや映画の大ヒット。関連グッズはクリスマスプレゼントの主役となりました。今回は2人の子供を持つ筆者がその熱狂ぶりについてレポートします。

I know that Fushigidane is Bulbasaur, that Zenigame is Squirtle, and that, in Japan, in the United States and most probably everywhere else in the world, Pikachu is Pikachu. I know these things, of course, because I have children who are devotees of Pokemon, in both the Japanese and English versions.

The Pokemon craze, as you may well know, is in full throttle here in the United States. It started getting serious early last year and to many people's amazement, it has only gotten stronger in the months since then.

The Pokemon craze has two levels. First, it's mass culture for kids' television, cards and games. Second, it has become a topic of adult discussion. The very intensity and duration of the craze has parents concerned. Our kids' attention spans usually don't last longer than your average music video, so it makes us wonder, what is this thing that has them so enthralled? Newsweek, a couple of months back, ran a cover story asking, "Is it Evil?" (Answer: probably not.)

On another level, ours is a culture that admires success, and Pokemon has been nothing if not successful. The show is the top TV show for kids in the country. The card mania keeps on going. And sales of Pokemon toys have far surpassed all others. The brilliance of the marketing strategy has been praised loudly. But this leads back to our concerns as parents: Is the whole point of Pokemon simply to squeeze as much money as possible out of our kids?

In New York, things really began to take off around Halloween. The New Yorker, to begin with, had on its cover a drawing of Halloween night, with trick-or-treaters dressed in Star Wars costumes and such, holding trick-or-treat bags and looking on in chagrin as Pikachu hauls away a big bag stuffed with cash. On Halloween you saw Pikachu masks everywhere.

Then, on the second Wednesday in November, there was a noticeable increase in absences at New York City schools; the explanation was the "Pokeflu". The Pokemon movie was opening that day.

It is unusual for a movie to open on a Wednesday, especially a movie for kids, who are supposed to be in school. But the movie theaters promised a Pokemon card to each ticket holder, and the lines at the box offices were long. The next day was Veterans' Day, a holiday, and the theaters again were packed.

From there, the momentum from the movie was enough to carry Pokemon into the promised land of Christmas season. Pokemon toys were far and away the most popular. One extremely popular gadget was a key chain "Pokeball" that opens and has a little monster inside. At one store I heard a very sensible-looking father say, as he examined samples a sales clerk was showing him, "No, we already have Charmander. Do you have Squirtle? Or Zordon, maybe?"

On Dec. 24, when I did my final shopping, there were still tons of Star Wars toys left, and tons of the Disney-backed Toy Story 2 toys, but only dribs and drabs of anything Pokemon related.

At Rockefeller Center we saw a person dressed in a Pikachu costume sitting on a chair, and beside him/her a man with a Polaroid was yelling, "Pictures on Pikachu's lap." Someone asked how much. "Seven bucks (¥735)." I hustled my children away.

It's rare that foreign movies are big hits in the United States, and it's far, far rarer for foreign television programs to be hits. The Pokemon movie, bad as it was, was a hit, and the TV show is the top kids' show in the country.

But I haven't heard complaints about Pokemon based on the fact that it's from Japan; this just doesn't seem to be a concern for most people, except perhaps my kids. They have dual nationality (U.S. and Japanese) and they have been granted a certain status among their peers for being from the land of Pokemon and knowing the original names of the monsters. Kids here, incidentally, consider the Japanese cards far more valuable than the English ones.

It might be interesting to know that in the TV show here, the hero Ash speaks in a much more boyish and innocent way than his Japanese self, Satoshi. Satoshi's language is much rougher. Ash is an American archetype, the green but determined small-town boy. And all in all, I'd say, a thorough job has been done in Americanizing Pokemon.

Sometimes, however, there just are certain things that do not translate well. I was watching the show with my kids the other day and I saw the three heroes sit down to eat. They're eating onigiri, that is plain to see.

But you can't say "onigiri," because no one would understand, and you can't say "rice balls," because still no one would understand. But they can't be ignored, either, since they become part of the plot. So, budding translators, what do you do?

Call them jelly doughnuts.

Shukan ST: Jan. 28, 2000

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