What fascinates
children about Pokémon?
|
Anyone who currently
has anything to do with children will certainly have come across
them, the "pocket monsters". Pokémon is at present
the most popular series among the 6- to 13-year-old boys and girls.
The programme on RTL 2 scores top viewing ratings, the Gameboy games
are found everywhere and school playgrounds at times resemble a
bazaar for Pokémon trading cards. There are not a
few teachers who would like the children to be able to learn irregular
words just as quickly as they can say "Bulbasaur – Ivysaur– Venussaur"
or "Charmander – Cone – Charizard". Pokémania has proliferated.
GfK rates
for Pokémon
In order to first
categorise the use quantitatively here is a GfK ratings data sheet
for Germany. In the first half of 2000 over one million watched
the programme that was transmitted at 2.45pm every day. The age
structure, ie the age groups over which the viewers are distributed,
shows that it is chiefly children who watch the programme. Pokémon
appeals to boys and girls, rather more boys watching it.
The market share,
ie the figure that indicates what percentage of the respective age
groups had their television sets switched on for this programme,
indicates the enormous success of the programme, especially in the
group of the 6-9-year-olds. (AGF/GfK PC#TV; IP Deutschland)
So what is it
that fascinates the children about the pocket monsters? In group
discussions and morning circle conversations with 392 primary school
children (March and May 2000) this is one of the questions that
was looked into. Below the results are briefly summarised.
The principal
motive: A boy experiences adventures with his animal and human friends
This is the principal
motive: a 10-year-old boy and his best friends enter a world and
experience adventures with their little "monsters". On their journey
they meet many different Pokémon and learn how they
have to be cared for and trained.
Knowing
about connections
The children
in front of the television set or their Gameboy learn together with
Ash, the hero, as it were and knowledge can be fun. Within a very
short time they know the names and various developments - and not
only school boys and girls who are good pupils manage to do this.
Otherwise less successful children in particular can shine and prove
themselves with their special knowledge.
Of course, Pokémon
cannot offer much help for coping with everyday problems or knowledge
of and understanding for a world that is becoming increasingly complex.
If it does, then it tends to promote the children in areas of consideration
and friendship or calls for a certain strategic way of thinking.
Pokémon:
creatures that have to be taken seriously but can be controlled
with many character features
Pokémon
is a fantasy world with the Pokémon figures at its
centre. There are many different ones, something for all tastes.
In their undeveloped
form the many monsters are a good half a metre tall, like a fairly
large dog or E.T. It is a size that has to be taken seriously, but
which nevertheless children can still control. Once they have been
caught, the Pokémon are the most loyal friends that
have to be looked after and which stand in and also fight for you.
This basic motive
is already to be found in classic children's television, for example,
in the case of Lassie, Flipper or Fury. Animals
are the most reliable friends. They multiply their own potential,
thus creating room for fantasies of size and giving them the feeling
of being loved and needed.
A children's world – without adults
And what is particularly
important in the case of Pokémon is that it is a children's
world. Adults only appear on its fringe, since children solve the
problems alone. This opens up fantasies and offers the children
a world into which they can direct their thoughts.
Media and events
arrangement
So, of course,
it is opportune that Pokémon offers a whole media
and events arrangement. There are not only the usual merchandising
articles on the series, but more importantly the trading cards and
Gameboy games, and Pokémon is also to be found on
the internet. In addition there are organised events, such as the
German Championship, which took place in Munich on 4th
September 2000.
Pokémon creates
occasion for communication and swapping scenarios in the peer group
The interplay
of different products naturally creates chances of interaction.
Pokémon is not merely a subject of conversation, it
can also be swapped, and the tricks for the new Gameboy edition
are welcome everywhere.
Pokémon
offers a whole world, a world with which a lot of money is being
made.
Get
all of them
And that is,
of course, the principal intention behind it all. What has always
been successful with children and implemented in history and the
media arrangement is adopted. In particular the collecting mania
of children is exploited, since collecting is an important way of
appropriating the world for primary school girls. There is nothing
new in that; earlier on it was wafers or colourful pieces of broken
glass. The difference between pieces of broken glass and Pokémon
is the money they cost, and in the case of Pokémon
it is quite a lot more.
Knowledge and
possession is necessary and obligatory in the peer group
The proportions
that Pokémania has assumed are resulting in pressure on children
and parents alike that should not be underestimated.
For children
it is not just a matter of enhancing their image with knowledge,
but in the meantime it has become a question of anyone who does
not know all about Pokémon or is not even interested
in them losing respect, and that calls for a high degree of self-esteem.
The pressure
on the parents is especially strong, since it is they who have to
finance this passion for collecting. The proportionality of little
presents is very quickly lost. It becomes extremely difficult, of
course, for families who simply do not have this kind of money.
Children as customers
Pokémon
is not over demanding as far as content is concerned (cf Flimmo).
But nor does it offer many perspectives or much support. It is a
perfectly constructed arrangement built up around a theme: the Pokémon.
In the feature film the 151st figure followed the first
150, and shortly another 99 are to be added to these, so that there
is always something new to buy. The follow-up product Digimon,
which is meant to increase and secure the success to date, is already
being broadcast.
The success of
Pokémon shows, on the one hand, how much children
enjoy these fantasy worlds, worlds full of mythical creatures that
are to be taken seriously but are controllable, worlds to which
adults really have no access. But above all Pokémon
shows how deliberately a trend is set, a trend which simply wants
to turn children into customers.
AUTHOR
Maya Götz,
Ph.D., is an academic member of the staff of the IZI, Munich.
maya-goetz@brnet.de
www.maya-goetz.de
INFORMATION
Internationales
Zentralinstitut
für das Jugend-
und Bildungsfernsehen
IZI
Tel.: +49 89 - 59 00 21 40
Fax.: +49 89 - 59 00 23 79
eMail: izi@brnet.de
COPYRIGHT
© Internationales Zentralinstitut für
das Jugend- und Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) 2001
|