How Pokémon fever has gripped the world, connecting people of all ages

Consider the case of veteran British actor Bill Nighy, who played Clifford Enterprises founder Howard Clifford in the film Detective Pikachu (2019). When speaking about his time on set, Nighy remarked that he had been “generationally disqualified” from Pokémon in the franchise’s early days, but had since found joy in discovering the wonders of the encyclopaedic Pokedex book.

This affection, fostered at the age of 69, is a sign of a broader trend: it is simply impossible to escape Pokémon in 2019. It is an entity that has deeply affected universal society – arguably for the better – connecting people of all ages and from all corners of the Earth for more than two decades. It is a game, a world, that is founded upon fun, discovery, exploration and what it means to wonder, to imagine and to dream.

Pokémon is the highest-grossing entertainment franchise of all time, having made a whopping US$90 billion since its conception in 1995.

As the franchise has grown, the fictional world of Pokémon has become ever more intertwined with our own. Once, the franchise was just an anime series, a trading card community and a pair of ambitious games for the Game Boy. Now there is a mobile game played by millions of people all over the world, with November 15 having marked the behemoth series’ first mainline ven­­ture onto home consoles via the games Pokémon Sword and Shield. Pokémon are no longer merely a figment of the imagi­nation, some intangible fancy pondered by young­sters as their imaginations blossom. The franchise permeates the boundaries between our worlds, uniting generations in a shared passion for something wholesome, positive, and deeply invested in community.

The augmented reality of Pokémon Go is the bridge connecting the real world to the virtual world of Pokémon. Nowadays, simply looking through the lens of a phone camera can reveal a Pidgey nestled amid autumnal foliage, a Squirtle riding the inward tides or, terrifyingly, a Mr Mime plopped on your living room couch, sizing you up with those ghastly eyes. (As if Mr Mime wasn’t already frightening enough, I recently realised that it’s not actually wearing clothes: those blue growths protruding from its head and its curled clown feet are part of its body.)

However, it is the community behind Pokémon Go that makes it special. For example, although game-maker Niantic recently announced it would be introducing an official PVP (player vs player) League to Pokémon Go early next year, dedicated fans have been making do since the app’s launch back in 2016, with Pokémon resource commu­nity The Silph Road having arranged The Sinister Cup, an annual competitive circuit designed by the fans, for the fans. Meanwhile, official events known as Go Fests have been held in cities all over the world, inviting folks of all ages and backgrounds to congregate and share their passion.