Have You Seen My Childhood?

The post I made about little boys got me thinking about (my own) childhood and Pokémon. It can be said that I grew up with Pokémon in the latter part of my childhood. It has been one of the things that made that time of my life as lively as can be, in its different forms. I took joy from playing the games and watching the anime, as well as taking in the spirit of creativity from related works. Arguably, many things about Pokémon are or can be directed for children.

Nowadays, though, it's older people that play Pokémon, perhaps even more than children do. The supreme section of the VGC championships, the Masters division, is where they show the teams they have concocted and duke them out to see who's better. This is in addition to the Junior division, which is the same thing, but for younger people. And it's even older people that still that enjoy all things Pokémon. It's obvious that some people never outgrow their passions, including me.

This also reminds me of the Michael Jackson song "Childhood", for which the first line of the song is the title of this post. In light of the above, some people might think that Pokémon is only reserved for children (thus considering the case of people like me childish), when in fact the reality is that older people also do like Pokémon. To this, the response is two lines from the song: "before you judge me/try hard to love me". Pokémon is for everyone, and there is no reason not to enjoy Pokémon at any age.

Also as stated in the other post, Pokémon is somewhat of a realization of its creator's childhood into a virtual form. Thus Pokémon is also an offer by its creator to experience his childhood. This doesn't change anything, though, as the offer is nostalgic in nature. It is meant as a way to relate with others by showing and sharing the experience. In this way, Pokémon is also a way for others to give the answer of "yes, I have" to the same question posed by the song above and here in this post:

Have you seen my childhood?