Did you go through Pokemon demonization?

Frozen Lotus

Frozen Lotus

Shay's Ice Prince
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    Basically, when I was a kid and Pokemon was all the rage, after about a year the media, parents, and schools started kind of a witch hunt for Pokemon. They were calling it evil, saying it gives bad influences, and wanted to all together ban it. This was years ago, back before Gen II was even a thing... but it was a big, big deal. School ended up banning the cards entirely, and most of the merchandise. A lot of kids weren't allowed to have anything to do with it anymore because their parents gave into the movement, but... it never really killed the obsession.

    Have you ever gone through something like this? Do some places still demonize it, or has that pretty much all together passed by?
     
    No, I don't think anywhere I've been to has ever demonized Pokemon. That's what I'm happy with, because banning it is not cool at all and everyone should enjoy it.
     
    Most of the demonization I saw was stuff I found online. I remember finding all these news articles about this or that and laughing because "how do you people really think that?", mostly because a lot of it did seem to be reaching for things. I'm sure it still happens, but nowhere near as badly as it did when the original fad was being pushed.

    I'm just thankful I never ran into it in real life. I mean, my high school banned pokemon-related things, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't because of any moral objections to it. Rather, they just didn't want to deal with kids fighting over things, or have any sort of distractions in classrooms (such as with stuff like the Pokemon Pikachu I took to school and hid in my pockets to make sure it was never seen, haha).
     
    While Pokemon was never demonized per se, there came a point where we weren't allowed to bring our cards or games to school, mostly because the older kids were tricking the younger ones into bad deals. But then again, the same thing happened over the years with Pogs, Beyblades, and both Magic and Yugioh cards, so it's not like the schools had anything against Pokemon specifically- they just wanted to keep these things away before anything escalated.
     
    Osiris said:
    While Pokemon was never demonized per se, there came a point where we weren't allowed to bring our cards or games to school, mostly because the older kids were tricking the younger ones into bad deals. But then again, the same thing happened over the years with Pogs, Beyblades, and both Magic and Yugioh cards, so it's not like the schools had anything against Pokemon specifically- they just wanted to keep these things away before anything escalated.
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    I came here to tell this exact story, haha. More than that, I haven't seen.
     
    Cards and the games where banned from my school, but because they where a distraction in class as opposed to what you're speaking of. I did have a grandparent that refused to buy me anything pokemon because her church said they're demonic. (She also burned my father's albums back in the day because she thought it was the devil's music...so, yeah)
     
    I remember this being a big deal among religious households. In mine, it wasn't even brought up or considered. If I recall correctly, a Christian organization began the rumor that Pokemon was satanic because it encouraged children to run away, play with a bunch of creatures that didn't look like the sort of animals we'd find anywhere -- absurd really. I'm glad the rumor is gone.
     
    The closest I saw of this was my neighbor whose parents wouldn't let him play Pokemon because "it was evil". I was not allowed to bring a game and the one's he had had no label. I'm not sure if they knew I played it or not, it's been years. Luckily, my parents saw it as an innocent video game and never forbid me from playing the games.
     
    I've heard of it, but I've never really been targeted by it. My parents actually like Pokemon quite a bit; they've never actually played the games but they've seen some of the movies and a few episodes of the anime, and they adore Pikachu and Squirtle respectively. I'm kinda blessed I guess, having parents that like video games.

    I did use to have a friend though whos' parents wouldn't let him play Pokemon for a while. They were Jehova's Witnesses, and unfortunately were sorta gullible. They believed Pokemon and other RPGs were Satanist recruiting tools so they didn't let him play Pokemon until he was a teenager, and almost banned him from Sonic the Hedgehog because his brother told them it was Satanic as a joke. The dad also cooks chicken for 6 hours straight until it's nothing more than a flavorless mass of fibers. Make of that what you will.
     
    But Pokemon is a contributor to the occult! I know because I read it on Tumblr! Seriously though, if you play the theme song backwards you can here cryptic messages like "There is no possible way the Pokemon franchise can have demonic influences". <-- Not sure what that means, but it's certainly occult-ish.

    But everything was banned at school and, not surprisingly, the cards were as well. I remember before the ban some guy gave me a useless Driftblim card but afterwards caved in and I got a Gyarados. (Still kept Driftblim though, aha!)
     
    I never really saw it demonized, tbh. My school didn't allow us to bring the game systems or whatever to school to begin with anyways, so that was never an issue. I never really saw anyone with the cards either, but people that brought those kinds of things to show off never really got into any trouble. They didn't make any rules against it. The only thing they would've gotten in trouble for was bringing the game system to school (not the games themselves), and that was already against the rules as it was.
     
    I never really had something this extreme happen to me, my school just ended up banning cards because people were always messing around with them in class, same thing happened with Bakugan and Silly bands lol
     
    Thankfully and surprisingly, I haven't. Usually the people in my area will believe almost anything. My school didn't ban Pokemon and allowed us to bring cards (as long as you weren't playing with them in class), backpacks and lunchboxes with Pokemon on it, but bringing your Gameboy was prohibited anything that was electronic you couldn't bring due to obvious reasons and my parents were okay with me watching the show and playing the games.
     
    Surprisingly, in my childhood, my parents though everything was evil but Pokemon. They banned Bakugan because the main characters didn't always get along.
    ...I had a sad childhood.
     
    Nope, never. The only thing my mom was ever cautious about at any point was Harry Potter when the books came and everyone was literally crying, "witchcraft!" but the pastor at the church we attended at the time pretty much went, "nah, it's chill."

    Okay, so, that was really off topic but yeah, I've never gone through Pokémon demonization or known anyone who has.
     
    My parents banned pokemon because it was too violent. My dad still says he doesn't like it since all they do is fight each other. Pokemon wasn't the only thing banned, everything was banned. Yugioh, Magic the Gathering, Digimon, and most everything my friends were into. During lunch, everyone would be trading, battling, doing whatever, and I would just kind of look on. I don't think the ban was because of religious reasons, and it was partly since my parents didn't want me pouring all of my money into the franchise.

    Then one day I was on a school band trip when we went to a mall. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about, and picked up this version called Pokemon Black. About a year later, I was known in the school as the king of pokemon, haha.
     
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