This is what my elder daughter has to say about Pokemon in her own words -
Pokemon it is a very action packed thing to watch, some people think its a scam, it's about a boy named Ash who's destined to be a Pokemon master and he catches Pokemon in these little balls similar to fishing bobbers and he uses them in battles to work his way through the Pokemon league there are more than 150 Pokemon and they're all different in their evolvings. Ash's first Pokemon was Pikachu, given to him by professor oak. The evolvings is how the Pokemon grow up, going through different stages, though some do not evolve, just stay how they are. I like the Pokemon cartoon because its very entertaining and sometimes has very touching moments. Like when ash has to let his butterfree go, my daughter found that very sad. On the cartoon show are ash brook misty, team rocket and Pikachu, team rocket are the bad guys who steal rare Pokemon. Jesse is the girl, James is the boy. Seemingly for no other reason than they want to have the rarest Pokemon around. Pikachu is a favorite because he's so cute. From the bye bye butterfree episode, in my daughters own words, we learn that sometimes you just have to let go and from team rocket she again says we learn that you cant always have what you want.
Other people, such as my husband, think it's nothing more than a scam to sell the merchandise and I pretty much agree with him, though I feel that every cartoon and children's show on the air is the same way, with a lot of merchandising out there. So in that vein, its pretty much moot as to whether its evil for being a merchandising vehicle... all the children's programs out there are the same way. Back in the day, it was also the same, with care-bears, transformers and my little ponies: hastily slapped together cartoons to serve as cute little half hour commercials. The concept is too good to ignore and even more savvy these days as the cartoons are written and drawn by those who grew up on their precursors. Throw in a heavy dose of moral lesson for the adults to approve and then make the characters cute, but not too cute for your boy viewers, then flood the market with affordably chintzy products and varying degrees of increasing quality at increasingly ridiculous prices.
Yes, the Pokemon products your kids are going to want (you to buy) are astronomically numerous. But as a parent you hold the wallet and if you've let your children see previously that money doesn't grow on trees, they'll be able to deal with whatever limit you set.
When Pokemon hit the scene, my husband and myself didn't know anything about it other than it was the latest fad. Armed with that information, my husband only said "you don't need that junky stuff," expecting that to be the end of that. I on the other hand, being into anime to some extent myself and having previously encouraged her interest in Sailor Moon (that's another article altogether), decided to check it out myself. I watched the television cartoon with her and browsed through whatever info I could find on the numerous webpages devoted to it. What I found was not very surprising let alone shocking.
Nine out of ten webpages out there are nothing more than lists of the different Pokemon or purely graphic with no more than a dozen words altogether. Then there were the websites and news articles of people deriding it as some type of satanic conspiracy. I have to admit, that caused me to roll my eyes and snort a half-amused breath out my nose. Accusations of it being somehow insidiously aimed toward brainwashing children to want to be satanic magicians out to collect souls or some such. I admit to not understanding where the people who say that are coming from or what it is that they're trying to say exactly.
What I found watching the cartoon was a cartoon that was pretty much the same as any other. The hero, Ash, has an ambitious aim, to be the best Pokemon trainer in the world: a Pokemon master. He has a group of side-kicky friends that follow him around and help him out. There's a duo of comical villains, the Pokemon thieves, Team Rocket, who are always pulling outrageous schemes and always being foiled. The episodes occasionally tell interesting stories, that even I as an adult, want to watch and see what happens. Such as when Ash becomes good friends with another kid trying to be a Pokemon master and during the Pokemon league matches, they ended up having to compete against each other.
I bought our elder daughter a starter pack of Pokemon cards as a token "you've got some too" gift because when the kids who come play in our backyard with her had binders full of hundreds of cards, she felt left out with the rest of their trading and playing. Now she has the minimum needed to trade or play and she isn't interested in having the most or the best - she only wants to be able to play the game.
That's the wonderful thing about fads, you don't have to become obsessed. It's up to us as parents to allow our children to run the gamut of these fads without letting them go overboard with it. I feel it's an important part of growing up, to learn moderation and ultimately, that while its fun, it shouldn't be all you think about, eat, sleep and breathe. What we as parents have to do is let them play but within the limits of both budget and common sense.
All in all, its just like any other cartoon out there, no worse,
no better and I'm convinced, no nefariously evil intentions behind
it.