PokéTalk: Exploring the World of Pokémon

Asher:  Helloooooo Culture Kids!  Thank you for joining us today!  My name is Asher and I am your host, along with my mom, Kristen.  I get to be the main host today because we’re talking about my favorite thing ever, which is Pokemon!!

Mom: Asher has been waiting for a very long time to work on this episode and we are thrilled to finally learn all about it.

Asher:   The word Pokémon comes from a combination of the Japanese language for pocket and monster.  

Mom:   Pokemon is based on the idea of catching, playing, befriending, raising, trading, training and battling with hundreds of different creatures.  Pokemons are creatures that comes in all shapes sizes and genders.

Asher:  They live in the wild or they live with their trainers.  The trainers are humans.

Mom:  Pokemons can grow and some can evolve into stronger POkemons. 

Asher:  Pokemon was first made by a game designer Satoshi Tajiri in 1996.  He loved to collect insects when he was little and loved finding strange bugs or tadpoles.  

Mom:  I guess that’s where his inspiration came from!  From exploring the forests and nature.  This is why mommy always says, playing outside and exploring is the best way to come up with cool ideas.

Asher:  Yes because so many pof the pokemon characters look like bugs!

Mom:  So get this.  When Tajiri shared the idea with Nintendo, which is a company that makes video games, it took them 6 years to create the game!  Asher, that’s more than the time you have been alive.

Asher:  Oh my gosh!  That’s a long time.  Good things take a long time to create.

Mom:   So on February 27th of 1996, the first Pokemon video game was introduced!  Back then, they called it Pocket Monsters.  

Asher:  So the video game is simple.  Players have to find Pokmeons to catch and train them.  Then the pocket monsters use their powers to fight the other pokemons.  

Mom:  Then a few years later it was introduced to the United States, and then the UK.  

Asher:  And they’ve come up with many many versions of the game.  And now there are over 1000 Pokemon characters that were created since then!

Mom:  And the games became so popular they created trading cards in 1996, containing just 102 cards.  And 3 years later it was introduced to North America and then the rest of hte world.  

Asher:  There’s now pokemon card tournaments where players come to battle each other.  And there’s even a world championship tournament!  Like the World Cup but for Pokemon! Hahahah

Mom:  And also in 1997, Pokemon was turned to a TV show in Japan!  

Asher:  It began as a story of a boy named Satoshi.  This character was named after Satoshi Tajiri, who created Pokemon!

Mom:  But when the TV show was released for the rest of the world, they changed the name of Satoshi to Ash.

Asher:  I wish it was Asher, not Ash.

Mom:  Close enough.

Asher:  Then ofcourse after the TV show cae the movies.  I haven’t seen the movies yet but I will one day.

Mom:  Yup.  And now this might shock Asher, but there was a time that mommy could not stop playing a Pokemon game.  

Asher:  What? You dont even like playing the board game!

Mom:  OK, so several years ago in 2016, probably every grown up listening to this episode was very much into this game, or at least knew or watched people out on the streets play this game on their phones.  It’s called Pokemon GO…

The game took the world by a storm!  The players got to explore their world and catch pokemons that appeared through their phones, as if they’re really there!  Mommy and daddy lived in NYC at that time, and every now and then, you’d see people chasing after pokemons with their phones up trying to catch them all!  

Asher:  Hahahah ohhh that sounds so cool.  

Mom:  Yup.  Though Pokemon might have been originally created for the kids, it was mostly grown ups that enjoyed playing this game the most.  I loved that because it’s important for grown ups to sometimes be child-like too.

Asher:  Well daddy loves playing Pokemon board game with me.

Asher:  OKay so before we learn about pokemon characters, let’s learn about how they’re categorized.

Mom:  So now, the part that Asher has been waiting for… it’s time to learn about the different Pokemon characters!  We’re going to do another episode sometime later because like we said there’s over a thousand characters.

Asher:  But today I want to talk about the main characters from the FIRST generation. The trio that started it all…are Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle!

Mom:  OK so those who are new to Pokemon, a generation is a grouping of the Pokemon games that separates them.  In each generation, a new region and a new set of Pokemons are introduced.

Asher:  There is a theme introduced in a generation.  Each generation has key features such as important Pokemon and places.  

Mom:  So the first generation theme is in the Kanto region, which was the first region Pokémon fans ever visited in the Pokémon universe.  IT began the recurring trio of Grass Fire and Water, with the player’s choice being between “Bulbasaur, CHarmander, and Squirtle.”

Asher:  We’re going to first learn about Bulbasaur!  Bulbasaur is a small, short grass and poison type pokemon.  

Mom:  It’s important to note that every pokemon is grouped into a certain type. There are 18 types that are properties of the Pokemon and their moves.  Some pokemons like Bulbasaur have two types.  Grass and Poison.  

Mom:   The creators of Bulbasaur confirmed that the design of Bulbasaur are based on onions and bulldogs.

Asher:  It kinda does look like a bulldog.  And just like all Pokemons, Bulbasaur evolves into a different species, called Ivysaur and then Venusaur.  The bulb on its back blossoms into a large flower when it evolves.  

Mom:  Can you share with us what it means to evolve?

Asher: In Pokémon games, evolution is the process that some Pokémon go through to take on a new form.  So Bulbsaur evolves into Ivysaur and then Venusaur.

Mom:  So the seed on a Bulbasaur’s back is planted at birth and then grows as the bulbasaur grows.   The Bulbasaur enjoys soaking up the sunlight and because of this, they can survive without eating for several days, because the bulb stores energy in the body.   

Asher:  Bulbasaur is a Grass & Poison Pokémon. It is weak to Flying, Fire, Psychic and Ice moves. Bulbasaur's strongest moveset is Vine Whip & Power Whip.  

Asher:  Next let’s talk about Squirtle!

Mom:  Squirtle is a Water t ype Pokemon in Generation 1.  

Asher:  So the same generation as Bulbasaur.

Mom:  IT evolves into Wartortle and then in later levels evolves into Blastoise.

Asher:  Squirtle is a small reptile Pokemon that kinda looks like a light blue turtle.  It walks on its two short legs and runs on all fours.

Mom;  It has large, purplish red eyes and has a long tail with a hard shell that forms after birth.  It uses the shell for protection and can swim very fast.  Squirtle can spray foamy water from its mouth at great force and can be found around small ponds and lakes.  

Asher:  Next on the starter pokemon list in the first generation is Charmander!  Charmander is considered to be one of Ash’s most powerful pokemons.  

Mom:  Charmander is a Fire-type Pokémon. It mostly has an orange body with blue eyes. Charmander is a combination of char (to burn) and salamander, the reptile.

Asher:  It has two small fangs in the upper jaw and two small fangs in the lower jaw.  But the best part is that it has a fire tip at the tail and it has been blazing since its birth.

Mom:  The flame tells us how Charmander is doing!  When it is burning brightly, it means Charmander is strong and healthy.  When it burns really hard, it means it is angry.  It will even continue to burn if it’s raining, but only if the charmander is healthy and happy.

Asher:  And the flame even flickers when it is happy.  

 At first, Charmander belonged to a trainer named Damien.  But Damien abandoned Charmander, bc he thought Charmander was a weak pokemon. But later Charmander chose Ash to be the new trainer.  Damien was not happy about this.  

Mom:  That’s an interesting backstory.  

Asher:  And Charmander evolves to Charmeleon, and then Charizard.

Now here’s a cool fact which just goes to show how popular Pokemon can be around the world.  There was a new bee species that was discovered, and they named the bee after Charizard!  The bee is called Chilicola Charizard and it looks nothing like the Pokemon character, but  still a fun fact to know.  

Mom:  Next we’re going to talk about everyone’s favorite- Pikachu!  

Asher:  Pikachu is the first electric typ of Pokemon!  It is the mascot of Pokemon and very popular.  It is a yellow mouse.

Mom:  Pikachu was intended to revolve around the idea of electricity.  They have short yellow fur with brown markings on the backs with pointy black tipped ears.

Asher:  A girl pikachu sort of has a heart shaped tail at the end.  They attack with electricity from their bodies to their oponent.  

Mom:  Pikachu evolves from a baby Pokémon called Pichu if it loves its trainer.  

Asher:  Pichu is a small yellow electric mouse, but is not as powerful as Pikachu. It evolves to Pikachu when it is very happy.

Mom:  Pikachu can evolve nto Raichu when they are exposed to a Thunder Stone.  

Asher:  A thunder stone is a type of stone that makes Pokemons evolve, and it has a thunderbolt pattern on it. And Raichu is orange, not yellow.  It can hold much more electricity in its cheeks.

Mom:  I do have to say, one of my faovirte things about Pikachu is its unique name.  The founder Satoshi Tajiri said that the name Pikachu comes from the combination of two Japanese sounds.  The first being Pika, is the sound electricity makes in Japan, and Chu, in which the Japanese interpret the sound of mice.  

Asher:  Chooo choooo

Mom:  Well this was so much fun learning about the starter pokemons in generation 1.  We will definitely come back to learn about other generations in later episodes.  But for now, Asher do you have any fun Pokemon jokes to share?

Asher:  Q: What do you call a storm of Pokemon?

A: A Pokemonsoon!

Q: What’s better than one Pikachu?

A: PikaTWO

Q: What appears over Ash’s head when he gets an idea?

A: A LightBulbasaur

Thank you so much for joining us today! We have a special announcement to share- our website is finally live!  Please check out “www.culturekidspodcast.com” where you can check out all our episodes AND leave us a voicemail!  You just click a button and start recording your message!  Share with us how much you love our episodes and let us know what you want to learn about next!  

Asher:  Thank you and stay tuned for next week!  We are going to learn about something mysterious and kinda scary.  But not really.

Mom:  Stay tuned for  more.  See you later alligator!