Pokémon for the Sake of Pokémon?

In aesthetics, there is a school of thought or philosophy that dictates that art in its true form is created just for its own purposes and is free of any ties to social or functional purposes - "art for art's sake", originally rendered in French but is now found in different languages including English. It's even the slogan of a certain movie studio, and some filmmakers abide by that slogan. Now, for some, video games may also be considered art, which means that Pokémon - itself a franchise filled with art - could be scrutinized under this philosophy. Even so, the scrutiny also leads to the consideration that Pokémon may be representative of only itself, with it seemingly being made pervasive in all things, for example running races (perhaps more on this later) that don't seem to have apparent connections. Thus, it takes a discussion in order to try to establish a few things about the matter.

For the discussion, it's worth recalling that the original Pokémon games were based on the childhood visions and experiences of its originator. As such, those games could be construed to have a purpose (to encapsulate those visions) and are not merely artistic for their own sake. Beyond these first games, a relevant and important mission statement becomes key to this scrutiny, and this statement was divulged nearly five years ago in a certain Pokémon happening. If this mission statement is taken to be applicable to basically everything about Pokémon thereafter, or at least those which were created during and after the formation of The Pokémon Company - the entity important to this statement - then the the philosophy could be considered irrelevant, and Pokémon does have a purpose. For the running race, as a continued example, it means that beyond simply complementing it with Pokémon, the race is to demonstrate the liveliness of Pokémon.

A tangent to this philosophy that still has ties to Pokémon is the expression of "Japan for Japan's sake", which I had already explained over a half-year ago (though in a slightly different form) in a post about a certain descriptor for rabid and radical fans, of and beyond Pokémon. It may be true that it is important to instill appreciation for foreign things in their languages and as they are - even for stuff from where I am locally - but it also seems important to be able to understand the things, if not their languages, while doing so, which means facilitating those things with translation and other related processes if the possibility arises. Pokémon underwent these processes, and it could be said that they took the franchise to new heights that it perhaps couldn't possibly reach had it remained only in Japan(ese).

While I'm not a philosopher, I find that it seems important to dig into philosophical concepts every now and then to make sense of the world, including things that make up that world, like Pokémon. At this present point, that means determining if Pokémon has a purpose beyond existing as what it is and in the different forms that it may take - and in fact, that seems to be the case in many respects. Some art beyond that which has relations to or involves Pokémon may beg to differ - and that may be perfectly understandable given the viewpoints of the creators - but if anything, Pokémon may be regarded to go beyond these viewpoints, especially as it's apparent that Pokémon itself also goes beyond art.

One year ago: Pokémon: Hisuian Snow

Two years ago: On Trainer Footwear

Three years ago: Doing Well on Pokémon Quizzes, Right Now

Four years ago: Voyager of Glory

Five years ago: You Can, I Can

Six years ago: (Continuing the) Local Ex-Raid, 4/8/2018

Seven years ago: On the Road Again