Subcultures and Specialties

The quiz from Sunday that I covered in the post from the other day got me thinking about something else. Pokémon is a part of pop culture, but in some ways it can also be described as a "culture" of its own, what with people who do things in particular ways and beget, gain, or achieve certain things from it. It can be considered as a big thing of culture. As big as it is, it may leave room for some smaller things to exist, and it does. Those smaller things deserve discussion to a certain extent.

One of those things is subcultures. A subculture would be considered a smaller portion of a bigger culture. If Pokémon is considered a culture, then its subcultures would consist of fans who do specific things. For example, there would be the "competitive" subculture, which the association of main series players that I know and am a part of would fall into, and with the advent of PvP in Pokémon Go, certain regional groups for the game. Another subculture would be the "collection" subculture, which my figure group would be a part of. Yet another one would be the "casual" subculture, who may deal with any or all of these, but not to a great extent. There may be other subcultures with Pokémon, but these can be considered significant ones.

Another one of those smaller things is specialties. This may be considered as an adjunct to subcultures for people who have particular interests in specific Pokémon things. Some of my figure fellows could be said to have a particular specialty for that, aside from other Pokémon things that they may deal with. The person who partook in the quiz the other day and mostly dealt with the TCG can be considered to have that as the specialty, as would some of the TCG players in my area when they deal with Pokémon. Meanwhile, I have the tendency to think that many of those that deal with PvP in Pokémon Go, especially in my area and neighboring ones, specialize in this and perhaps few other aspects of Pokémon. The possibilities could be rather diverse.

As for myself, given my tendencies toward different Pokémon things and to not go too deeply into any one in particular, I would say that I fit into the "casual" subculture. Further evidence for this my lack of mastery in many competitions. In regard to specialties, I would say that the most profound ones would be blogging because of this blog (which has become an "enterprise" of sorts), as well as cosplay because of my foray into it (which is helped by my popularity with it). These are the little things I particularly identify with, and I'm sure for someone else this will be quite different.

It seems hard to think of Pokémon as a thing of culture, but in a way it does; it makes people do things in certain ways and achieve certain things, not to mention its overarching quality. That seems to lend itself well for specific subcultures by way of people doing things and specialties by their achievements. They become the small things that make up the big thing, and it is apparent that they make out the big thing as a "cultural" thing, which could be considered neat even for something pop-culture as Pokémon.

One year ago: Pokémon and eSports
Two years ago: Fondness for Latias and Latios
Three years ago: A Story of Love, A Story of Passion