An interesting article I found

[El Squibbonator]

So I was looking on Medium, and I found this article about the general response older Americans (especially Baby Boomers) seem to have had toward the Pokemon franchise when it first reached the United States, and what might have motivated it. It's fascinating and worth a read!

 

[Blackjack Gabbiani]

Do they...not know the difference between racism and xenophobia...? And specifically anti-Japanese sentiment?

 

[UxieLover1994]

Proof of the ugly sides of nationalism, which sadly is even uglier today than it was in the 90s. But I see some paradox in this article, as this was before the days of widespread internet and many parents assumed (even despite the infamy EP038 left) Pokémon to be an American cartoon series as opposed to a Japanese video game franchise with an anime tacked on. And many people born before 1980 still assume this.

And whenever something is going through a fad phase, especially if the target audience children and/teenagers, it will be hated among older and more conservative groups. Even Sesame Street was condemned in its early days.

 

[El Squibbonator]

Thing is, it wasn’t just Pokémon either. A lot of the anger of American parents groups was disproportionately directed towards Japanese shows. Power Rangers (the dubbed version of Super Sentai) got hit with this a lot, to the point that many public schools banned the toys and the show was frequently condemned for its supposed “violence”.

Meanwhile American cartoons did stuff like this and nobody seemed to care.

 

[Poke Trey]

Double standards of the time, I guess. Wonder what they're saying of it now.