By Rhena Imamura

Pokemon （Pocket Monsters） is popular in Japan and throughout the world. On November 12, 1999, the movie "Pokemon, The First Movie" (Japanese title: "The Counterattack of Mewtwo") was released in 3,000 theaters in the United States, and grossed 80 billion dollars. It took in 91 billion dollars in other countries.

Pokemon fever in the United States is much higher than in Japan. More people saw Pokemon during its first week than saw any of the big Hollywood movies. No other Japanese movie has ever out-performed Hollywood.

But not only Pokemon movies succeed abroad. The TV animation is also popular. In autumn of 1998, the TV Show "Pokemon" began broadcasting 30 minute programs twice a day except on Sundays. " Pokemon" is at the top of audience ratings for animation. Pokemon fever expanded to Asia and Europe soon after. At present, "Pokemon" is broadcasted in 68 countries around the world, and Pokemon movies have been released in 40 countries.

In the U.S., Pokemon video games are always in the top 10, and Pokemon toys and cards are always in high demand and often out of stock. The number of shipments of Pokemon video games comes to 74 billion dollars worldwide, and Pokemon card games total more than 120 billion dollars annually. Pokemon related merchandise, like foods and stationeries, sell in the millions. The total sales of Pokemon related goods exceeded 1trillion yen in Japan, and even more abroad. Pokemon is surely one of the top animated character business. We can see Pokemon characters not only in card games and video games, but also on airplanes and railroad cars in Japan.

Nintendo has established Pokemon Centers which sell related dolls and merchandise in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Yokohama. These items are also sold on websites. Pokemon Centers have been established in about a dozen cities around the world, like New York, London, and so on.

Pokemon game creator Satoshi Tajiri and producer Tsunekazu Ishihara created it as a portable game that was sold by Nintendo in 1996. In those days, there were two types of game cartridges, red versions and green ones. The differences between the red and green versions were the appearance rate of the Pokemon characters. There are characters which you can only get in the red version or the green version. Players can collect all of the 151 Pokemon characters（currently there are 493）by connecting machines. In the game, you can choose any six Pokemon characters you like and try to defeat your opponent. Now there are many varieties of Pokemon games in addition to the red and green versions.

Why did Pokemon become so popular? The first reason is that there are many types of monsters. Children can emphasize with their favorite one. Secondly, the attributes of each character appear according to height, weight, strength, and weakness respectively. The information for each character is shown in detail, so children remember the attributes of the monsters just as if reading illustrated books of dinosaurs and animals. Playing Pokemon has a touch of real life.

Another reason for its popularity is probably the influence of the Pokemon card game. Children buy many cards in order to collect all of them. They have been fascinated with the enjoyment of collecting the cards.

In America, the animation “Pokemon” was widely accepted. The reason why "Pokemon" is very popular in America is because it's a simple story like other cartoons, it has charming monsters, there is meticulous thought put into the story and it has fascinating dramatic developments. In addition, viewers point out that the reason for its popularity is that there is no cruelty, and none of the characters ever die in the story. Therefore, the reasons why "Pokemon" is enjoyed by children seem to be common everywhere.

In the future, Pokemon's popularity will keep increasing. The Japanese animation business will surely continue to grow in the future.