The Challenges of the Juvenile

The juvenile in a time where the night is so cold

The juvenile has the key to the end

The juvenile in the end, that is why we are here

The world will take us to the end

Tomorrow's foe is now a friend

-- "The Juvenile", Ace of Base

This year has been a year of challenges for pretty much everyone, including this Pokémon fan. Many fans of the franchise like me could be described as "young", at least relatively to certain other fans, or in other words "juvenile", and that brings up this song by this (used-to-be) famous group. It could also be described as a "spiritual sequel" to another song of theirs, which I coincidentally wrote about two years ago (see below). The youth spirit is evident for Pokémon affairs, so I won't discuss that too much with this song - the other one below suffices for just that - and instead, I want to go back to the "challenges" topic, which this song and Pokémon can tie into in a way.

This song happens to be the last track (in most cases) of their last album that was released while their two original female vocalists still remained in the group. In its original form, it was to be planned as the theme song for an installment of a popular series of detective films, but their record executives cut the project midway through, and eventually it was retooled to its current form. In the years that progressed between the two events, the group experienced many challenges, partly due to industry pressure and partly due to their own undoing, and that eventually led to the exit of the vocalists and later on the group becoming "defunct". There's something to be gained from this, particularly for Pokémon.

A friend of mine, who is also a fervent Pokémon fan and observer, say that Pokémon (specifically its originators Game Freak) may be facing industry pressure due to the demand of new games. This is particularly evident with how the newest games of Sword and Shield turned out, no matter how good they are. The industry pressure could be construed to be similar to what affected the group as above. Therefore, the challenge for them is how to keep things relevant and yet accessible with future games, particularly of the main series. With demand remaining high for the Pokémon games, the pressure seems to be something that will always be there; the challenge is certainly keeping things together and not letting the pressure get to them like it did for the music group, and that's a big one.

As for the song itself, for which the chorus is quoted above, it sounds like a hymn. That hymn may describe the challenges that both budding and veteran Trainers may have right now with current times, whether young or just young at heart. The chorus particularly contains the "tomorrow's foe is now a friend" line, which avid Pokémon fans should recognize as being conceptually similar to the second chorus of the Japanese theme, "Mezase Pokémon Master", but more "forward-thinking". Though it may not necessarily have the same connotation, the "forward-thinking" assumption in light of "Mezase Pokémon Master" should be good enough for me as well as any Pokémon fan.

It's hard to deny that this year has been a pretty rough one for anyone concerned, in and out of Pokémon, with its various challenges. Then there are those challenges that the originators of Pokémon itself and the music group that created the above song have faced, which could be taken to be similar. No matter the challenge, it may help to have a youthful spirit in order to face them. As with the song from two years ago, I have to state that I'm not such a "juvenile" anymore, but it's still a good spirit to have. With that, the song above seems to be a good legacy left by the once-famous music group and a reminder for future progression for young and old, Pokémon or otherwise.

One year ago: Pokémon Movements in Pokémon Go

Two years ago: Being Young and Proud

Three years ago: PokéNumbers