How 151 monsters conquered the world

Miami-Dade County Ordinance 5-12A is not the most commonly quoted decree on the local statute book. It concerns the illegality of being in possession of any dyed or artificially coloured animal. Probably introduced to stop rustlers painting or disguising stolen livestock, it sits there most years without troubling Floridian law enforcers. Then along come Erik Torres and Zaza.

On 26 December 2022, Torres, owner of the pet shop World Famous Puppies in Doral, took Zaza, a Pomeranian, to a basketball game between Miami Heat and Minnesota Timberwolves, where she attracted the attention of the game’s commentators. As the camera honed in on Zaza, one said: “I don’t think that dog signed off on that paint job.” Also not signing off were officers from Miami-Dade Animal Services, who hit Torres with a citation referencing Ordinance 5-12A. He was fined $200.

Zaza had been dyed yellow with red spots on each side of its face, a look instantly recognisable to anyone with children under the age of 30, and many beyond. Zaza had been made to look like Pikachu. It was not a first offence. Indeed, her owner’s behaviour had already been noted when Animal Services investigated a separate complaint against World Famous Puppies on 21 December. “Pikachu was in the store,” said assistant director Kathleen Labrada. “There was a staff member holding the dog in her lap. We obtained a photograph at that time.”

Yet in many ways, the surreal nature of this episode is not even that a grown man should dye his dog the colour of a cute, cartoon, electric mouse. It is that he should dye it the colour of something that is not a mouse at all, but a Japanese demon and thunder beast, originating possibly from the masked palm civet, a species native to south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent. For Pokémon purposes, Pikachu is the unevolved form of Raichu, and Raichu is based on the legend of Raiju, a creature wrapped in a ball of lightning, the companion to the Shinto god Raijin. Japanese mythology attributes electrical storms to the movements of Raiju, whose cries sound like thunder and who sleeps in the navels of humans. Superstitious Japanese will still settle down flat on their stomachs during night thunderstorms for protection. And right there is why Nintendo, and inventors Game Freak, did not believe Pokémon could ever work in the western market. Too Japanese, too other. Too tied up in eastern myths and folklore. Yet somehow this unknown world took over our own.

It was 25 years ago that Nintendo spent $25 million promoting Pokémon in the American market, releasing the Red and Blue versions of the games in September 1998. How big is it now? The latest figures place the gross worth of the Pokémon franchise – from games, to television, to films, to toys and merchandise – at around $92.121 billion, and growing. It outstrips not just modern phenomena such as Hello Kitty, but iconic figures including Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, even Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while it continues to evolve for the western market, Pokémon remains, in essence, resolutely Japanese. 

There are 1,008 Pokémon species now – making the motto “Gotta catch ’em all” less a challenge, more a heroic quest – some with incredibly dark back stories, straight from eastern culture, that fly deep beneath the radar of western audiences, particularly the younger players. Think Hideo Nakata’s Ring, or Dark Water, that whole genre of J-horror. Then consider the balloon-like Pokémon, Drifloon. It floats not because it is filled with air, but with human souls being transported to the afterlife. A child that mistakes Drifloon for a toy and holds the hand at the end of its string will vanish. Froslass will find a human it likes, freezing and removing them to its den, to be used as decorations. Gourgeist looks like a Halloween pumpkin with long arms, and chokes its prey to death while singing with happiness at the suffering it has caused. Phantump is a rotten tree stump possessed by the spirits of dead children, lost in a forest. (There’s a lot more dead children in Pokémon legend than we imagine, by the way.) Palossand is a sand castle that pulls its victims down into the sand, before sucking out their souls. A Banette is a discarded toy, motivated by hatred at its lonely fate and becoming a type of voodoo doll that inflicts curses by sticking needles into its own body. Its mouth is zipped to contain the spite within and it lurks in dark alleyways hoping to find the child that disowned it and exact revenge.