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. Much of his marketability was lost, however, as the result of rape allegations stemming from his encounter with Katelyn Faber in a Colorado hotel room in June 2003. A mammalian oncogene was named "Pokemon" [4] (http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/54387.cfm) (no "é") by its discoverers. Bryant's youth, style, good looks and accomplishments on the basketball court had made him one of the most popular and marketable players in the NBA. See also Jynx and Kadabra for specific lawsuits regarding these characters.. After flirting with the idea of joining several teams, he signed a new seven-year deal with the Lakers worth over $136 million on July 15, 2004. 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). The Lakers also ventured to the 2004 Finals against the Detroit Pistons, but lost four games to one. Following the loss to the Pistons, Bryant opted out of his contract to tested the free agent market.

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 is regarded as one of the best players in the NBA. Bryant helped lead the Los Angeles Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002.
. By the age of 24, Bryant had won many individual awards, and had been named to the All-NBA team multiple times. An image of the controversial card may be seen here (http://www.geocities.com/swastika_webring/pokeswas.jpg). Bryant's career trajectory as an NBA player out of high school has been exceptional. [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. His parents initially disapproved of the marriage, but have since reconciled with Bryant.

As a result of this controversy Nintendo stopped using this symbol even in the Japanese version. He married Vanessa Laine on April 18, 2001 in Dana Point, California and their daughter Natalia was born on January 19, 2003. by unauthorized import. Though young and somewhat introverted, Bryant's immense talent made an immediate impression with his teammates on the practice court. However, these Jewish groups attacked the Japanese version distributed in the U.S. Within weeks of being drafted, the Hornets traded him on July 11, 1996 to the Los Angeles Lakers for center Vlade Divac. The manji was shown only on a Japanese version card and was excluded from the North American release. Bryant entered the NBA at the age of eighteen after a spectacular high school career in the Philadelphia suburb of Lower Merion, and was originally selected by the Charlotte Hornets but never played for the team.

If a Japanese map of any major city is examined, little clockwise swastikas, or "manji", where Buddhist temples are located, can be seen. Bryant spent much of his childhood in Italy, where his father played professional basketball, and speaks fluent Italian. 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. Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a National Basketball Association player for the Los Angeles Lakers; he is also the son of NBA player Joe "Jellybean" Bryant. 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. USA Today and Parade Magazine's 1996 National High School Player of the Year with a seasonal average of 30.8 points, 12.0 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4.0 steals and 3.8 blocks per game. The alleged outcry was enough to move the Vatican to comment, in an official statement on April 21, 2000:. to a 31-3 record and Class AAAA state title as a senior.

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. Led Lower Merion H.S. The surprisingly small amount of original protests (as opposed to reports of protests) seem to reinforce this belief. Named the 1996 Naismith High School Player of the Year. Still, most people (including many Asian Christian congregations) dismiss these claims to be nonsense, and attribute many of the alleged protests to urban legend. Holds the Lakers team record for most consecutive free throws made at 43. The claimed parallels between Pokémon and Satanism include:. One of only two players to ever score at least 35 points in 13 straight games.

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. One of only three players in NBA history to score 40-plus points in 9 consecutive games. In late 2002, it was scheduled to tour Europe, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. Ties NBA record for most made 3-point field goals in one game with 12 versus the Seattle SuperSonics on January 7, 2003. 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). Slam Dunk Champion: 1997. A live action show called Pokémon Live! toured the United States in late 2000. All-NBA Defensive Second Team: 2001, 2002.

Main article: Pokémon Live!. All-NBA Defensive First Team: 2000, 2003, 2004. 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. All-NBA Second Team: 2000, 2001. The trading card game also spread to schools around the world, with news reports stating about their confiscation from classrooms. All-NBA First Team: 2002, 2003, 2004. 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. NBA All-Star: 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005.

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. NBA All-Star Game MVP: 2002. At the time, it was published by Wizards of the Coast, the company most famous for Magic: The Gathering. Three time NBA champion: 2000, 2001, 2002. It is a collectible card game based off the famous Pokémon video game. The Pokémon Trading Card Game was first introduced to North America in 1999, and in Japan at an earlier date.

Main article: Pokémon (card game). Sunday is seen only on TV Tokyo, with no English adaptation planned. 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. There is also a television program in Japan titled Pokémon Sunday, a live action Pokémon-themed variety show hosted by the Pokémon Research Team.

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. 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. Again, for the English release, Advanced Generation was split into separate series. Ash takes on the role of a teacher and mentor for a younger, beginning Pokemon trainer in this series.

The saga continues into Pocket Monsters Advanced Generation (in Japan) where Ash and company travel to Hoenn, a southern region in the Pokémon World. For the English language release, Pocket Monsters was split into four separate series spanning five seasons. 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. There are two Pokémon anime series based on the video games.

Main article: Pokémon (anime). 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. The series has also diversified into various spin-offs, such as pinball games, virtual pets, simulated photography, and racing. A third version of Ruby and Sapphire, called Pokémon Emerald, was released on May 1, 2005.

The most recent full fledged game has been Fire Red and Leaf Green which are remakes of Red and Blue. The Game Boy Advance first saw the release of Ruby and Sapphire, with Emerald being the tertiary version. Gold and Silver were followed by the exclusively Game Boy Color version, Crystal. 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).

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. 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. 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. These games were nearly identical, save for the fact that each version had a select group of Pokémon that the other version did not.

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). The Pokémon franchise originated with a series of Japanese video games created by Satoshi Tajiri for the Game Boy. Main article: Pokémon (video games). based subsidary called Pokémon USA, which a minority owner is 4Kids Entertainment, the international distributors outside Japan of the popular Pokemon anime series.

The Pokémon Company in turn has a U.S. The subsidary handles everything from publishing the games in Japan to running the official merchandise stores, the Pokémon Centers. Because of the unprecedented popularity of the franchise, Nintendo formed a subsidary company called The Pokémon Company to handle the franchise. Shows such as the Simpsons have made mild references to Pokemon and other anime in their cartoons.

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. 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. (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. The game's catchphrase used to be "Gotta catch 'em all!", although now it is no longer officially used.

Pokémon battles are based on the non-lethal Eastern sport of fighting insects, but the Pokémon never bleed or die, only faint. 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. These figures have grown from the 151 monsters (including the secret one, Mew) from the original games. The franchise has 386 unique monsters that lie at the heart of the Pokémon series (391 including currently known Pokémon from future games).

Pokémon is also the collective name for the fictional creatures within the Pokémon games. 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. It has been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, and much more. 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.

See also: Allegations of Satanism in popular culture. The game world also incorporates Asian traditions about elemental forces. For example, some practise martial arts, which some Christian groups denounce as pagan. Many Pokémon embody or practice Asian spiritual and mystical concepts.

These powers are not derived from God and therefore must stem from Satan. Many Pokémon have paranormal or psychic powers. Pokémon "evolve." Evolution precludes literal creationism, therefore Pokémon denies some forms of Biblical interpretation. "Magical" stones are used to evolve certain Pokémon.

Magical "talismans" (gym badges) are necessary to control many of them. 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.