Hello there! Welcome to the world of POKEMON!
My name is OAK! People call me the POKEMON PROF!
The words that start a worldwide phenomenon, while you, a kid with your name or a weird name, goes around, facing their rival ASSHAT, and whatever the world has to throw at them, bug catchers, fans, soldiers, the mafia, eco terrorist, doomsday cultist, investigators, sportsmen, hikers, retired folks, poke-peta, violent fashionistas, your boy Guzma, a lady in an alien jellyfish, ship captains, people in capes, pilots, psychics, martial artists, bikers, bird keepers, dandy folks, investigative reporters, scientist with low moral fibber, dancers and weird people. And that is not counting spinoffs, that include a sentient disco ball with a person attached to it, and Oda Nobunaga.
But all of them, all of us? Don't matter, we are here for something else, for the Pokémon.
It starts simple enough, a kid and their lizard/turte/toad/rat, and a world filled with people obsessed with them, both virtual and real. But every steep of the journey, whenever you want more depth, you get more depth, from "figth to level up", to "fire is good against grass", to "I'm ready to build a team!", to "eugenics time!", to "the meta is orientated to dragon offense teams, so the fairy wall is the way to go", in the battle road, or "this is a lizard on fire", to "salamanders were asociated with fire, as ancient alchemist thought that they spawned from burning wood, instead of escaping" to "steel is strong against fairy because in stories, the fae are weak to iron weapons", to "they try and design pokemons and areas thinking about predators and preys, and alimentation first", in the biology side of things. It is a world with a new layer just around the corner, and when you get to the end, then it is time to start making your own.
And Pikachu. I'm of two minds about the little rat, on one hand it's not that interesting (biologically or combat wise) and steals the spotlight of other mons.
On the other hand, is it the reason pokemon, the franchise, got to survive, grow and endure?
I mean, this is a what-if, but:
Is it the rodent power exploited by Disney and Warner to push the Mouse and the Bunny as head of a larger fantasy?
It is the clean design that screams "yep, this is a mouse that produces electricity"?
Is it the fact that every other electric mon besides the weird spiky bird was from neat (spiky dog, gorila with tiger skin) to wtf (floating magnets, a ball with eyes), and while we were ok with the number of other cool elements, the thunder becons?
Is it the fact that the sylabes Pi Ka Chu allowed to say way more than they should?
Whatever the case, this monster of a franchise is part of smash, and for that and the spirit of exploration, I am grateful.
So today is the 8th Day, the Pikachu day.