Japanese developer Keita Hirose thinks that the concept behind Pokemon revolves around slavery. According to the developer, Pokemon are forced into slavery after having been battled against and captured by trainers, who can then use the Pokemon they own to their advantage. Keita Hirose has come up with a mobile game called Ojimon, which seems to poke fun at the Pokemon series by having Pokemon’s faces swapped with those of weary-looking middle-aged men that can be captured and forced to work in labor camps.
Ojimon Developer Thinks Pokemon Revolves Around Slavery
Not touching this with a ten foot poll
Same, looks like another jab at Nintendo just for some publicity. Remember when PETA did something similar with their “politically correct” parody of the game?
….”Hey you!! Go pick that cotton Pikachu!!”
….”Massa Ash Ketchem be a good Massa!!”
I thought I saw an episode where Team Rocket had a “House greninja” & a “Field greninja!”
Hehe. I’ve ALWAYS felt that Pokémon promoted animal cruelty. You know, because of the Pokémon always fighting and getting injured. I was on this conversation long ago with someone in my family (can’t remember who). I was telling them how I felt sorry for the Pokémon because they’re always forced to battle, battle, BATTLE! Like, even if the Pokémon wants to live like a regular animal, they can’t because they’re forced to put their life on the line for idiotic badges. But I never took it to heart because it’s just a game and anime.
That’s the thing these people don’t understand. It’s a game, and they’re not exactly attempting realism with this series.
Even if it was about animal cruelty or something, there have been FAR worse things in games and not a single person cares.
See, this kind of thinking is from people who do not know what the series is really about.
Pokemon are not forced to battle, battling is a main focus of the game, but it’s not a lesson in cruelty.
Catch them, battle.
Sooo, could the same not be said about dogs in dog shows? Horses at the track? Cows being milked?
Do they despise that? Or perhaps enjoy it because they receive enough training from people who care enough to train them.
Alot of Pokemon can only evolve through friendship, or through trading, but that is forcing them to get stronger through receiving a trainer? Sadistic.
The series is about friendship, not cruelty.
Pokemon are healed, they do not die.
If anything you learn alot more about cruelty from one cockfight than playing 1000 hours of Pokemon.
Also, Pokemon use supernatural powers to battle, you know think if real life animals can do that we would find ways to exploit and/or capture them?
Bravo.
And- you mentioned pokemon leveling up/evolving from high friendship levels, but there’s not even one pokemon that evolves from hatred towards its trainer, is there?
Absolutely not.
What kind of twisted Pokemon would that be to get stronger only through neglect?
But point is, it’s like my dog.
He loves me, I love him. Yes I suppose I am his “master” but if I send him into a forest and say “you’re free now, I no longer own you” he will die.
Pokemon teaches more about love for your companions than exploiting them.
And anyone who says otherwise is just fucking bored for some attention.
It’s a beloved franchise, not a conspiracy
There’s the move fruatration that does more damage the more the pokemon dislikes you, but no Pokemon evolves from dislike and trainer frustration.
Frustration is only useful for like the first few levels you have that Pokemon though. You’re better off replacing it with something else after 4 levels or so.
Such as Return?
It’s pretty obvious you’ve never played or watched Pokémon.
Pokemon are not animals, they’re different creatures with different needs.
The same you could say to the farmers and their slavery to the cattle, of course is not valid, Pokémon is not even about a real thing, it is not teaching anybody to do that kind of things…
Why is this even here? Some guy is butthurt and that they’ll never each the level of quality and popularity that a multi-million dollar franchise has and they’re trying to find any way to bring it down, to little or no effect. This is nothing new.
Slavery is not something to joke about. Pokémon is a game, for children no less. Slavery was actual abuse of human beings. Forced labor in terrible conditions.
Maybe if nintendo communicated the fact that pokemon are supposedly willingly caught and enjoy battling with trainers a little better. Like, pokemon can run away at any time, as we saw in X/Y with Floette. And they can ignore orders. They aren’t slaves.
Black and White looked like the best chance to really explore this idea, what with the morality of keeping pokemon being in question as a plot point in the game… but it was just a bunch of trainers talking, while the pokemon stayed in their pokeballs. Nintendo has never really put serious effort into the plot of the games, because they don’t have to. These games will sell as long as it’s pokemon.
I hope they do get a really good story in at least one Pokémon game. That’s really the only thing missing from an otherwise spectacular franchise.
Yeah, X/Y and, to a lesser degree, BW2 felt like wasted potential in that aspect. They could have developed that theme even further, but nope, back to GSC levels of storytelling.
Honestly, why don’t they put the guys from Mystery Dungeon in charge of the story of the next installment? I’ve heard those are usually well-written.
I think it’s more the fact that the people don’t know the franchise well enough, or that they don’t care, for that matter, than Nintendo not communicating the point of the franchise properly.
Case in point, PETA made more than one Pokémon parodies. One of them’s called “Pokémon Black and Blue”, which was a parody of Black and White. They apparently missed the point completely on what the game was about.
(multiple being 2, but that’s besides the point).
You do know these games are developed by 2nd party studio GameFreak, right?
GameFreak is 3rd party
THAT IS NOT TRUE!!!!! Pokémon are not like slaves!!! They’re our partners!!!
It’s EXACTLY when people say or do things like this that really BURN ME UP!!!
>>>Technically they all suffer from some twisted Stockholm Syndrome>>>
Yeah! Bring back black butlers in every household! They’re our partners too!
Not the brightest lamp this guy.
Am I the only one who thinks those face on pokemon bodies look hysterical? XD
*faces on the
nope, i chuckled when I saw them. Just too cute.
>>>If they made the bodies human instead, I would buy it>>>
Go sexy 18 year old female, use thunderbolt!
>>>I would just collect them and use them as cattle for my own experiments>>>
All that Nightmare fuel!
Plz nontendah stap promotn slayvry, itz not 2000 nemor
jesus its just a fucking game..nothing to do with slavery at all
Oh goodie, another complaint about Pokemon…. Maybe I can make a game parody, about the Pokemon haters:
The Bitchers 3: Free-Ad Hunt
Why the hell does this even warrant an article, especially this week? It’s complete crap, not only for what occurred this week but making comparisons of a fantasy GAME to a very distraught time in our history.
Oh look a game with guns, it’s promoting a mass exodus. FFS.
Yeah, Pokemon is totally the spawn of Satan……….
When I was younger my parents actually thought Pokemon was a form of satan and trashed all my Pokemon games and toys. I had practally all Pokemon themed and every GBA game, so it was a stab to the heart. We don’t have those problems anymore XD
Well that sucks. Sorry to hear that. My parents were happy with me watching Pokemon and had no problem with it. I never owned a Gameboy when I was younger, so I couldn’t experience the joys of Gen 1.
I bet that guy never played or don’t know anything about Pokemon, he just blabbed to get attention. Even PETA realized their mistake when they shared their thoughts in a recent article about Pokemon and animal cruelty.
Actually only pokemon trainers make them fight and if you watch the series you will see that a lot of pokemon are actually pets. Pokemon trainers are also part of a large pokemon research project so battling is part of research.
It’s like I’m in 1998 again.
Pokemon has survived for decades. This game can complain all it wants, but it isn’t going to do a single bit of damage to Pokemon.
Those who insult Pokemon must be punished, who’s with me?
Listening to this fuck who’s obviously talking shit the same way the stupid assholes at PETA pulled off and failed JUST BECAUSE his shitty ass ripoff isn’t even taken seriously as a “ripoff” of Pokemon and thus flopped on its face? lmao
I sense obvious jealousy, trolling and butthurt over here and BTW, that “game” looks so fucking repulsive that not even God would look at it.
Oh, look, seems like it’s first-generation-only.
Looks like someone is outdated.
I just have one question to ask… What the FUCK is wrong with people like this?
This is funny lol
Pokemon don’t battle for blood, they battle to drain the other’s strength and stamina to zero to grow stronger themselves, much like a human martial arts/boxing match or workout.
Slavery? Not all pokemon are obedient right off the bat. Although most work is done in a commander/soldier format, pokemon are kinda like the assault weapons if the world. If a giant, bipedal turtle that is taller than you that can spew water with enough force to punch steel is taking aim at YOU, you freaking listen! HOWEVER, a major theme, especially in the newer games, is how trainers form strong relationships with their pokemon.
I don’t understand why people overanalyze a game made for children. Their are so many worse titles with worse content, and people only attack Pokémon because it is popular.
I never get people like this. Seriously, first off, IT’S A GAME, and second off, there have been plenty off instances where the Pokemon had to fight in the wild either way.
Something like this can only come from Japan
Idiot. If you’ve played the games or even watched the fucking anime, you’d know most trainers take very good care of their Pokemon. Even some, if not most, of the bad guys actually care about their Pokemon & treat them as partners. Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, is actually one of the only few villains in the series that actually treats Pokemon as if they were slaves. But even then, even Giovanni has at least one Pokemon he cares about & takes damn good care of. *cough*Persian*cough* And there are some villains that do treat their Pokemon like slaves but eventually have some character development of their own where they see the error of their ways & start actually caring about their Pokemon. There has actually only been 2 villains in the entire series that I’ve seen that see their Pokemon as only tools & treat them like slaves & that was Ghetsis of Black/White/Black 2/White 2 & the Cyrus of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum.
Oh & half of the Pokemon you see in the series aren’t even used for battle. Some are pets, some are wild & battle of their own accord, and some actually AID humans, also of their own accord.