WORLD REPORT EDITION    TOP STORY

  November 12, 1999

Poké Power

Meet the quiet genius behind the ever expanding Pokémon universe

Attention pokémaniacs: Who is most important in the world of Pokémon? It is:

a) Ash Ketchum

b) Mew

c) Satoshi Tajiri

d) Mewtwo

e) Pikachu

The answer may surprise you: it's c. Without Satoshi Tajiri, there would be no Pokémon. No Pokémon trading cards, no Pokémon video games, no Pokémon TV show, no Pokémon movie ... you get the idea.

Tajiri, 34, is the shy, soft-spoken creator of Pokémon, which means pocket monster. The monsters may be pocket size, but their popularity sure isn't! Last month Pokémon Yellow, the latest version for Nintendo's Game Boy, sold more than 1 million copies in the U.S. in the first two weeks after its release.

This week Pokémon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back hits theaters, stirring up even more Pokémania. Whether you're a Poké fan or Poké foe, the fad has everyone wondering: Will this monster craze ever stop growing?

In an exclusive interview with Time reporter Tim Larimer, Tajiri explained how he got the Poké ball rolling during his childhood in Japan. "Everything I did as a kid is kind of rolled into one thing: Pokémon," says Tajiri.

As a boy, Tajiri collected bugs. "Every new insect was a wonderful mystery," he said. "And as I searched, I would find more." Tajiri also spent lots of time playing video games and taking them apart to figure out how to make his own.

In 1991 Tajiri came across a Nintendo Game Boy. When he saw that two Game Boys could be linked with a cable, inspiration struck. "I imagined an insect moving back and forth across the cable," he recalls. "My idea was for information to go back and forth, to be shared."

Just as Tajiri had collected bugs as a kid, the object of the Pokémon games is to collect all the monsters. (At last count there were more than 150 of them.) That goal is reached by arranging fights among Pokémon and trading with other Pokémon trainers for rare ones. Trainers include Misty, Brock and 10 year-old Ash. In Japan the Ash character is named Satoshi, after his creator.

The more the Pokémon fight, the more they develop their skills, which help them transform into stronger, more powerful monsters.

Pokémon Catches On

By the time Tajiri completed Pokémon in 1996, Game Boy technology was old news. Nobody at Nintendo was too excited by Tajiri's strange new game, but they decided to take a chance on it anyway. They released Pokémon in Japan, and slowly but steadily sales started increasing each month.

Unknown to Nintendo, Tajiri had added a secret twist in the Pokémon programming: a mysterious monster known as Mew, who plays a big part in the new movie. "You have to acquire Mew by interacting," Tajiri says. "Without trading, you can never get Mew." The Mew mystery got people talking about the game and made it even more popular.

The final piece of the Pokémon puzzle was a yellow pip-squeak named Pikachu, the thunder mouse who is Ash's cute sidekick. His popularity has drawn more kids - especially girls - into the Pokémon craze.

How Long Will It Last?

Pokémon fever has been spreading in the U.S. since it arrived last year. The cards are a bigger deal here than in Japan: more than 2 million of the starter games have been sold since they were introduced in January. The animated series is also a huge hit. Meanwhile, Nintendo-sponsored gatherings called Pokémon League training tours continue to draw thousands of kids at a time.

Of course, Poké power may be turbocharged right now, but Pikachu, Grimer, Squirtle and the rest of the gang had better watch out. You don't have to be an out-of-work Power Ranger to know that today's craze will fade as soon as the next big thing comes along.

http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/magazines/story/0,6277,53759,00.html