When Pokemon Came To The West (Patreon)

Hi all! I'm deep into the research/scripting phase of the next video so I thought I'd give you a heads up what's coming!

I'm looking into the way Pokemon came to the US and sparked the Pokemania craze of 1999 to 2000. I'll be focusing more on the anime and how it got Westernised in a major way but we found plenty of odd stories to do with the card game and Game Boy games too. While you wait for a script, I'll share a few of those stories now.

Pikachu replaced by prostitutes (BBC News - 2000) 

Children at some London primary schools have invented their own bizarre version of the Pokémon card collecting craze using prostitutes' calling cards. The pupils, some as young as five, are obtaining the cards from the capital's telephone boxes in order to collect and swap them.

Pokemon Mania Takes On Criminal Proportions (NY Times - 1999)

In Bridgeport, Conn., a 9-year-old boy hid in a downtown store until it closed, tried to steal 44 packs of Pokemon cards and $600, and, trapped in the locked store, called 911 for help. 

Pokémon trumped by pocket saints (BBC News/archive.org - 2000)

But theology student David Tate, 29, believes his Christian Power Cards, featuring 120 Bible characters, could offer a more acceptable spiritual alternative. Jesus has been left out of the pack to avoid offending anyone. "It would defeat the purpose if Jesus was beaten by one of the bad characters," said Mr Tate.

Ishihara Interview (Nintendo JP)

As expected, when I first showed Pokemon over there, people said, "Too cute." At that time, there was a character idea that the American staff came up with, and it was an illustration that I would never be able to show to anyone for the rest of my life, but if it was Pikachu, it would be something like ``Cats'' by Shiki Theater Company. She's shaped like a tabby cat, but she's changed into a character with big breasts. When I said, ``What? What's Pikachu about this!?'', they were like, ``No, this is where the tail is sticking up!''.