Pokémon

This name is apparently an acronym for "POK Erythroid Myeloid Ontogenic" factor (a cancer causing agent), so the name could be either a backronym or simply coincidence. Unfortunately, it fell victim to the dot-com bust, and the rights to the domain were sold to CBS SportsLine in 2001. A mammalian oncogene was named "Pokemon" [4] (http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/54387.cfm) (no "é") by its discoverers. After his second retirement, Jordan formed the MVP.com sports apparel enterprise with fellow sports greats Wayne Gretzky and John Elway in 1999. See also Jynx and Kadabra for specific lawsuits regarding these characters.. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI. They claim incorrectly that the word "Pokemon" is a Japanese word which means "I am a Jew." One Saudi Arabian Sheikh (Sheikh Abdel Moneim Abu Zant) has written "The Pokémon craze is a Jewish plot aimed at forcing our children to forgo their faith and values and to distract them from more important things such as scientific ambitions." The Anti-Defamation League has denounced these theories. [3] (http://www.adl.org/presrele/IslME_62/3791_62.asp). A Nike commercial in the 1991 Super Bowl where he and Bugs Bunny played basketball against some Martians inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie Space Jam, which also starred Michael and the Looney Tunes in a fictional story set during his first retirement.

A few Islamic religious speakers in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt hold that Pokémon is part of a "Jewish conspiracy" to corrupt Muslim children. He has also been connected with the Looney Tunes.
. wearing Jordan apparel. An image of the controversial card may be seen here (http://www.geocities.com/swastika_webring/pokeswas.jpg). It has even crossed over into other sports, with athletes such as Randy Moss, Derek Jeter, and Roy Jones Jr. [2] (http://www.adl.org/presrele/Mise_00/3511_00.asp) This raised a public backlash in Japan for being intolerant towards the symbols of the Buddhist religion for the sake of avoiding controversy. Athletes who endorse the company include Ray Allen, Michael Finley, Derek Anderson, Gary Payton, and Jason Kidd.

As a result of this controversy Nintendo stopped using this symbol even in the Japanese version. Subsequently Nike spun off the Jordan line into its own company. by unauthorized import. The innovation of designer Tinker Hatfield spurred the basketball shoe industry to new heights. However, these Jewish groups attacked the Japanese version distributed in the U.S. The hype and demand for the shoes even brought on a spat of "shoe-jackings" where young boys were robbed of their sneakers at gunpoint. The manji was shown only on a Japanese version card and was excluded from the North American release. Nike created a signature shoe for him, called the Air Jordan.

If a Japanese map of any major city is examined, little clockwise swastikas, or "manji", where Buddhist temples are located, can be seen. He first appeared on Wheaties boxes in 1988, and acted as their spokesman as well. Nintendo says that this is a matter of cultural misunderstanding, as the swastika used to be used in East Asian cultures as a symbol for "good fortune" by the Buddhist religion. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, McDonald's, and MCI. Pokémon has been criticised by some members of the Jewish community for its use of the swastika, the most widely known symbol of Nazism, which they hold is inappropriate for children's toys. Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. The alleged outcry was enough to move the Vatican to comment, in an official statement on April 21, 2000:. By the time a report was filed, James' body had been cremated per local health laws as a John Doe.

It would be incorrect to state that the Christian religious community is of a single mind in this matter, but most mainstream sects of Christianity are utterly indifferent to Pokemon. Michael and family did not immediately file a missing persons report, because the elder Jordan frequently took long trips by himself. The surprisingly small amount of original protests (as opposed to reports of protests) seem to reinforce this belief. But James' body was not immediately identified. Still, most people (including many Asian Christian congregations) dismiss these claims to be nonsense, and attribute many of the alleged protests to urban legend. The perpetrators made several calls from James' cell phone and were quickly captured. The claimed parallels between Pokémon and Satanism include:. Two local criminals killed him and stole his Lexus, a gift from Michael.

Some Protestant Christian groups in the United States believe Pokémon to be Satanic in origin.[1] (http://www.cephasministry.com/save_our_children_pokemon_booklet.html) After the US release of Pokémon Yellow, there was a sudden widespread criticism of it passed through Christian congregations primarily by word-of-mouth. While returning from the funeral of a friend, he pulled over onto the side of an interstate highway in North Carolina for a nap. In late 2002, it was scheduled to tour Europe, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. Jordan's father, James, was murdered in August 1993. It was based off of the popular Pokémon anime, and was well-liked among fans of the franchise (in spite of some continuity errors relating to the anime). Michael Jordan currently lives in Highland Park, Illinois. A live action show called Pokémon Live! toured the United States in late 2000. James gained certain celebrity when he announced, at the age of forty-seven, that he intended to stay in Iraq until the U.S. occupation ended.

Main article: Pokémon Live!. Jordan is a Sergeant Major in the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army. There are various Pokémon manga series, four of which were released in English by Viz Communications, and seven of them released in English by Chuang Yi. James R. The trading card game also spread to schools around the world, with news reports stating about their confiscation from classrooms. Michael Jordan has two older brothers, Larry and James R., one older sister, Delores, and one younger sister, Roslyn. The latest incarnations of the card games is known as Pokémon-e Trading Card Game, the cards of which (for the large part) are compatible with the Nintendo e-Reader. Jordan is notoriously competitive, and is rumored to have lost enormous amounts of money playing golf and gambling.

However, with the release of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire Game Boy video games, Nintendo took back the card game from Wizards of the Coast and started publishing the cards themselves. At UNC, he majored in geography. At the time, it was published by Wizards of the Coast, the company most famous for Magic: The Gathering. Laney High School, where he was a standout in football, baseball, and basketball. It is a collectible card game based off the famous Pokémon video game. He attended Emsley A. The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first introduced to North America in 1999, and in Japan at an earlier date. Jordan spent his childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Main article: Pokémon (card game). Nonetheless, it was a star-studded roster that cruised through pool play and the medal round, restoring America to its place atop the basketball world. Sunday is seen only on TV Tokyo, with no English adaptation planned. It is often rumored that Jordan kept guard Isiah Thomas off the roster due to personal differences. Currently, Advanced Generation can be seen on TV Tokyo, and the English Advanced Challenge adaption can be seen on Kids WB in the United States, YTV in Canada, and Sky 1 in the United Kingdom. Housoukyoku originally aired on TV Tokyo but has since ended its run, while Chronicles can only be seen in the United Kingdom on Toonami UK as of May 2005. Jordan played on two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams: as a college player in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of the original "Dream Team," with other legends such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. There is also a television program in Japan titled Pokémon Sunday, a live action Pokémon-themed variety show hosted by the Pokémon Research Team. It was the first jersey the Heat retired in their then-15-year history, and it was half Wizards blue, half Bulls red.

The English adaptation of this series, Pokémon Chronicles, combines the episodes from this series as well as various other made-for-TV specials (originally unrelated to Housoukyoku) that have aired in Japan but not translated for English release. Out of respect for Jordan's legacy, the Miami Heat retired his #23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though he never played for the Florida team. The second, entitled Shūkan Pokémon Hōsōkyoku is a spinoff of the first, and tells the adventures within the continuity of Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation, starring many of the recurring characters in Pocket Monsters. At the beginning of the 2001-2002 basketball season, Michael Jordan donated his $1 million salary to help the victims of the September 11 attacks. Again, for the English release, Advanced Generation was split into separate series. The 2002-03 season was heralded from the beginning as Jordan's final goodbye to his fans and he retired for the third time at the season's conclusion. Ash takes on the role of a teacher and mentor for a younger, beginning Pokemon trainer in this series. He played in his 13th and final NBA All-Star Game in 2002-03.

The saga continues into Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation (in Japan) where Ash and company travel to Hoenn, a southern region in the Pokémon World. He returned for the 2002-03 season and averaged 20 points. For the English language release, Pocket Monsters was split into four separate series spanning five seasons. Playing through pain, especially in his knee, he was still an important player for the Wizards. The first, and the more familiar one, Pokémon or Pocket Monsters (often referred to as Pokemon: Gotta Catch Em All to distinguish it from the later series) tells the adventures of Ash Ketchum (Satoshi in the original Japanese version) as he travels through Kanto, the Orange Islands, and Johto to become the greatest Pokémon Master. Yet despite an injury-plagued 2001-02 season, he still averaged nearly 23 points per game. There are two Pokémon anime series based on the video games. In 2001, he came out of retirement a second time to play for the Washington Wizards, though his skills were noticeably diminished by age.

Main article: Pokémon (anime). Jordan retired again on January 13, 1999. There is currently a Nintendo DS sequel, (Pokémon Diamond and Pearl), as well as a Gamecube game entitled Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness in development. But it was back to winning ways the following year, the Bulls won three consecutive NBA titles between 1996 and 1998, with Jordan becoming the first and only player to win six NBA Finals MVP Awards. The series has also diversified into various spin-offs, such as pinball games, virtual pets, simulated photography, and racing. The switch did not immediately bring him luck, and the Magic prevailed. A third version of Ruby and Sapphire, called Pokémon Emerald, was released on May 1, 2005. As he struggled with unaccustomed playoff difficulty, he broke out his old #23 jersey during a second-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic.

The most recent full fledged game has been Fire Red and Leaf Green which are remakes of Red and Blue. Jordan led the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Semifinals that year. The Game Boy Advance first saw the release of Ruby and Sapphire, with Emerald being the tertiary version. Because jersey #23 had been retired, he wore #45, his Barons number. Gold and Silver were followed by the exclusively Game Boy Color version, Crystal. He ended his basketball retirement on March 19, 1995 by rejoining the Bulls. Pokémon Red and Blue (Pokémon Green was available in English via import but had many swear words from the translator) were followed by Pokémon Yellow (in Japan, Red and Green were followed by Blue which was subsequently followed by Yellow). Many consider this brief stab at baseball the only tarnish on his athletic career.

Each generation of Pokémon games so far has followed a pattern of two complementing versions followed later by at least one other version with some extras. He was never called up to the majors. While battling monsters is nothing new to RPGs, many players found themselves nearly addicted to finding, fighting, and capturing each and every one of the Pokémon in the game. Another, perhaps easier, goal was to finish the game's storyline by becoming the Pokémon League Champion by collecting eight Gym Badges and defeating the Elite Four. He led the club with 11 bases-loaded RBI and 25 RBI with runners in scoring position and two outs. The ultimate goal of these games was to catch at least one member of all the different species of Pokémon (150 at the time, 151 including one that could not be obtained during regular gameplay), and to do so, players had to trade for Pokémon not available in the version they had. He had an unspectacular professional baseball career for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team, batting .202 with 3 HR, 51 RBI, 30 SB (tied-5th in Southern League), 11 errors and 6 outfield assists. These games were nearly identical, save for the fact that each version had a select group of Pokémon that the other version did not. Jordan spent the next year pursuing a childhood dream: professional baseball.

The first games in the series were the RPGs Pokémon Red and Blue (Red and Green in Japan and a subsequent special edition known as Blue). Perhaps weighed down by the August 1993 murder of his father, Michael retired from basketball two days before the 1993-94 NBA season, and the Bulls retired his #23 jersey. The Pokémon franchise originated with a series of Japanese video games created by Satoshi Tajiri for the Game Boy. He had the following to say about Jordan:. Main article: Pokémon (video games). Jordan's coach was Phil Jackson. based subsidary called Pokémon USA, which a minority owner is 4Kids Entertainment, the international distributors outside Japan of the popular Pokemon anime series. In 1997, he also recorded the only triple-double in an All-Star game.

The Pokémon Company in turn has a U.S. Only Willis Reed (1970) and Shaquille O'Neal (2000) have won all three MVP awards in the same season. The subsidary handles everything from publishing the games in Japan to running the official merchandise stores, the Pokémon Centers. He also earned the elusive MVP triple crown (league, finals, all-star game) twice when he won All-Star MVP in both 1996 and 1998 (he also won in 1988). Because of the unprecedented popularity of the franchise, Nintendo formed a subsidary company called The Pokémon Company to handle the franchise. He was also named Rookie of the Year (1985) and Defensive Player of the Year (1988), and won the Finals MVP award every year the Bulls reached the Finals -- a feat not likely to ever be duplicated. Shows such as the Simpsons have made mild references to Pokemon and other anime in their cartoons. He won six NBA Championships (1991-1993 and 1996-1998) and was league MVP five times (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998).

The satirical cartoon South Park spoofed Pokémon in Episode 312, entitled "Chinpokomon", in which the bosses behind the creation of the toys were revealed to be Japanese ultranationalists bent on avenging Japan's defeat in World War II. Jordan played 13 seasons for the Bulls, generally as a shooting guard, but his height (6'6", or 1.98 m), skills, and physical conditioning also made him a versatile threat at point guard and small forward. The Pokémon characters have become pop-culture icons, with a Pikachu balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, thousands of merchandise items, and in 2005, a theme park in Nagoya, Japan. He was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft as the third pick overall. (In an "in-joke" used in the English version of the Pokemon anime movie "Destiny Deoxys," Brock says this as he catches hot dogs from a machine in mid-air.)The games have sold over 100 million copies to date, not counting the ones released for consoles. By his sophomore year, he was clearly the team's biggest star; as a junior, he was named the national player of the year. The game's catchphrase used to be "Gotta catch 'em all!", although now it is no longer officially used. He ended the 1982 year in grand style, hitting the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game against Georgetown, led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing.

Pokémon battles are based on the non-lethal Eastern sport of fighting insects, but the Pokémon never bleed or die, only faint. As a UNC freshman, Jordan was an exciting but not dominant player. The Pokémon games are strategy games with a small RPG element which allow players to catch, collect, and train pets with various abilities, and battle them against each other to build their strength and evolve them into more powerful Pokémon. (Others call Jordan overrated [2] (http://airjudden2.tripod.com/jordan/index.htm) and point to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Shaquille O'Neal.) His jumping ability -- he could once dunk from the foul line -- earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness.". These figures have grown from the 151 monsters (including the secret one, Mew) from the original games. In 1991, he was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and was named the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year." These and other achievements have persuaded many fans and several basketball legends[1] (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/features/jordan/news/2001/08/22/jordan_greatest/) that Jordan was the best ever to play the game. The franchise has 386 unique monsters that lie at the heart of the Pokémon series (391 including currently known Pokémon from future games). He was named to the All-Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times.

Pokémon is also the collective name for the fictional creatures within the Pokémon games. He won six championships, notched 10 scoring titles, and was league MVP five times. The name Pokémon is a portmanteau of the words Pocket Monsters (ポケットモンスター Poketto Monsutā), which is its Japanese name. A remarkable force at both ends of the floor, Jordan ended a career of 15 full seasons with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history (ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.06). It has been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, and much more. Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former National Basketball Association player, considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Pokémon (Japanese: ポケモン Pokemon, pronounced Poh-Kay-Mon, although it is frequently mispronounced "Poh-Kee-Mon") is a video game franchise, created by Satoshi Tajiri and published by Nintendo for several of their systems, most importantly the Game Boy. NBA All-Star Dunk Contest Champion: 1987, 1988.

See also: Allegations of Satanism in popular culture. ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year: 1983-84. The game world also incorporates Asian traditions about elemental forces. Adolph Rupp Trophy: 1984. For example, some practise martial arts, which some Christian groups denounce as pagan. Wooden Award: 1984. Many Pokémon embody or practice Asian spiritual and mystical concepts. John R.

These powers are not derived from God and therefore must stem from Satan. Naismith College Player of the Year: 1984. Many Pokémon have paranormal or psychic powers. NBA Rookie of the Year Award: 1984-85. Pokémon "evolve." Evolution precludes literal creationism, therefore Pokémon denies some forms of Biblical interpretation. NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award: 1987-88. "Magical" stones are used to evolve certain Pokémon. NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award: 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98.

Magical "talismans" (gym badges) are necessary to control many of them. NBA Most Valuable Player Award: 1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, 1997-98. They are captured and must be invoked to perform tasks. Pokémon parallel demons. Pokémon Zensho.

Poketto Monsutaa Chamo Chamo Puritei by Yumi Tsukirino, who also made Magical Pokémon Journey. Pokémon Getto Da ze! by Satomi Nakamura. The stories tell the tales of the art behind some of Himeno's cards (the tale of Persian from the Jungle set is particularly popular). There are six volumes and each includes a special promotional card.

Pokémon Card Ni Natta Wake (How I Became a Pokémon Card) by Kagemaru Himeno, an artist for the TCG. Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker (not released by Viz). Pokémon Ruby-Sapphire and Pokémon Pocket (not released by Viz). Pokémon Gold & Silver (not released by Viz).

Satoshi to Pikachu, not released by Viz). Ash & Pikachu (a.k.a. Pikachu Meets the Press (newspaper style comics, not released by Chuang Yi). Pokémon: PiPiPi Adventures), a shōjo manga.

Magical Pokémon Journey (a.k.a. Pokémon Adventures, a shōnen manga based on the video games. The series is based on the video game and anime. It was divided into four tankōbon, each with four separate titles in North American and the English Singapore versions: The Electric Tale of Pikachu, Pikachu Shocks Back, Electric Pikachu Boogaloo, and Surf's Up, Pikachu.

Pokémon (The Electric Tale of Pikachu a.k.a Dengeki Pikachu), a shōnen manga created by Toshihiro Ono.