By Myutsu150
Posted 05-28-2000

My Number One Pet Peeve: The absolute arrogance and condescending attitude of Nintendo of America, WB and 4Kids Entertainment. Need proof? Just go to www.pokemon.com! Some choice quotes: "Did you know that pokemon have different names in other languages?" (Okay, the VERY WORD "Pokemon" is from a foreign language!)  or this one about MSB movie : "Because it was originally made in Japan, the movie had to be virtually reimagined for American audiences". (Translation: Those people are so d**n foreign theres no way you stupid American kids can understand how they think. So we'll dumb down the story for ya!) Plus, these people do as much as possible to erase as many cultural references they can. God forbid anyone mention CHOPSTICKS or RICE BALLS! (They're DONUTS!) And even a scribble of Japanese writing must be DESTROYED! Don't let the occursed script reach the eyes of our impressionable children! (They're too shallow to appreciate anything from another country anyway.) What happened to the famous Ameican Multi-Culturalism? Its all hypocrisy! (I make one exception--on the whole, the TV series is very well translated, except for certain cheap puns. I'll admit that.)

Examples of condesention: The complete rewrite of the Mewtwo movie. We all know it was because Mewtwo spoke the name of an accursed being--GOD! *gasp* Now, this is a typical example of the U.S.'  phobia towards religion. I mean, Japan is LESS THAN 1% CHRISTIAN! Truthfully, they're mostly Buddhist! Yet they had no problem casually mentioning God. Besides, the concept of God is not something exclusive to Christianity, hello! What, did these producers fear that children would convert to Christianity in droves (to their parent's horror, of course) with the mere mention of a Supreme Being? And, since all kiddie cartoons need to have sledgehammer-applied morals (to make sure the dummy children are well-brainwashed into being good little boys and girls) all this sappy garbage about the power of love and pacisfism were rammed down our throats. After all, fighting is BAD! (Um, maybe Pokemon wasn't the best medium to try and say that...) But hey, who cares about plot consistency? These American kids are too stupid to pick up on any non-sequitors, they're used to being talked down to. And, its not as if the fan base contains any TEENAGERS! (They can't deny they know we're out here, we're a decently-sized demographic!) Even Disney movies, in all their simplicity of plot, are good enough to have adults appreciate them! The 'First Pokemon Movie', however, was so idiotic almost every adult who saw it hated it! (I've read the majority of reviews). Basically, they sent us all the message that we're not considered or respected at all.

So a big thumbs-down to all these companies who care more about profit than entertainment, or anything else in the shows they produce.

P.S. I wonder why they also completely ignore the fact that Pokemon means "Pocket Monsters?" Has anyone else noticed that?