Monday, October 2, 2023

Brighter Days of Pokémon Youth

Over the course of this blog, I've written occasionally about Pokémon "history", which applies for both the franchise itself and the people who enjoy it - including myself, of course. It has encompassed over a quarter century and is now closing in on completing three decades, and that's not a short time. With that length of time, some people are bound to consider the earlier years of Pokémon - the "younger" years - as being brighter than the present, and that might seem reasonable given everything that Pokémon has today.

Back then, there were only the main series games to be considered (and played) and few, if any, spinoff games for that purpose as well. In effect, the latter didn't "compete for the light" of the former, even if now the major competitive games all shine in their own ways. Also back then, all the possible variations of Pokémon species that exist today had yet to be realized, leaving imaginations rather free and wild while the future wasn't yet "muddied", in a way. It too was a brilliantly simpler time with less mechanisms to worry about, which is another sense of brightness. In a way, its essence is now captured by Pokémon Go, and while it's still bright, it may never be as bright as it once was.

I'll admit, this discussion was partially inspired by a song. The title, when translated, means "The Brighter Days of My Youth", and its singer is the same as two songs I've discussed nearer to the present and farther away in the past. The only problem is that the song comes out to be very somber in translation, almost "dark". Whereas, I consider Pokémon to be always bright for me and other fans, even if the past could be considered to be brighter than the present. So, the song I am mentioning may not really apply to this state of affairs, but at least the spirit of the translated title may still apply somehow - though not necessarily in the same way.

At this moment, I'm no longer as young as I was when I truly became a Pokémon fan, and perhaps that applies well to most of the Pokémon fans that I know. Yet even today, Pokémon may be considered to maintain a state of brightness left over from its past, which could be considered brighter than it is today. Still, it seems no matter how old or young fans are relatively to Pokémon, a sense of brightness is certainly what attracts them.

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