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If there was a thread for this elsewhere, I do apologize, I did not see one when searching, if there is please let me know.
As we know, Pokemon's 30th Anniversary is ongoing as we prepare for Winds & Waves, the tenth generation of Pokemon. However, many are aware of how Gen 7 went with it being the 20th Anniversary and it's major shine of celebrating Kanto to the expense of the characters, Pokemon, and the region itself, being called Kanto Glorifcation or better known as "Kanto Pandering" which was also seen before in Gen 6 but was made more aware in Gen 7.
As the years go by, we had more obvious forms of Kanto Pandering and probably even subtler forms with Gen 8's Gigantamaxing and Leon's Charizard as prime examples. Regional forms were also a prime example in Gen 7 and while it let up in Gen 8, I feel a subtle one is that the only new Galarian regional we got with DLC was Slowpoke and only Slowking got one due to the Evolutions. Gen 9 let up on this but with the new convergent Pokemon, what two types of Pokemon were they based on? Kanto Pokemon and none else (in hindsight, while they exist, I'm surprised Paradox Mon weren't majority based on Kanto mons if anything it was more Johto and Hoenn). Even in the most recent game, Legends Z-A, the DLC seems to imply (though not confirmed) that Corbeau apparently knew Giovanni? Like what?
More modern spinoffs are also getting in on this as less and less third parties have access to it and TPC become more involved. Pokken had a very Kanto full roster with two Pikachus and two Mewtwos. GO being the biggest offender where they mostly started with Kanto but even when they move forward, it feels like they still haven't moved forward from it. And when they introduced a evil team from it, unlike being a new team like the new characters they made for GO specifically, welcome back Team Rocket. Pokopia becomes the biggest offender now recently where even though it's so distanced from the rest of the franchise, it's still somehow set in Kanto, Kanto mons are predominately the most present in the Dex, and as we learn more of the backstory to this version of the Pokemon universe we talk about Professor Oak and somehow Team Rocket has reformed in the backstory even though it had no purpose (even as someone who hasn't played Pokopia, reforming Team Rocket in the backstory does seemingly have no purpose it could be just some random unnamed group or something we don't know about, but it had to be Team Rocket?)
Even the anime and other media isn't except from this as we had instants with the entirety of Journeys into Horizons. The Alola series also followed it due to its source but it somehow went even more beyond by bringing back Misty & Brock in their Kanto attire and even ignoring their post-Kanto development sometimes in some famous scenes of the Alola series, while they came back for the finale, it was Kanto referencing again while being just there (granted, in defense I didn't watch the Alola series and that is what I got from the clips I've seen and whatnot, but it feels like they ignored growth just to come back to what fans remember of the original) Journeys ended with this great battle between Pikachu & Leon's Charizard, like we're finally saying goodbye to these characters and the usage for the time being only to be greeted by, while very different characters, Captain Pikachu & another Charizard front center along with everyone in, you guessed it the Kanto region. While they do move very quickly from this, you kinda see a lot subtler stuff, like now when writing this just realizing that half of Ancient Heroes Pokemon (the ones that have Ancient Pokeballs associated with them) are Kanto related in some form either being an evolution or form (or just straight up Lapras, that one is a still an odd choice Kanto Pandering aside (I know there was the giant grass mon which nothing else was different but Lapras just seems odd out of them since it doesn't feel much different from other mons like the other Heroes are outside of the size and scars. Like I know it was a pirate, but it still has a pack like regular Lapras and it just doesn't feel different enough to warrant being an Ancient Hero if you look at the rest of them)). Even other animations have this subtly, like Concierge with it's wondrous animation a lot of the plots and mons focused are surrounded by Kanto mons despite the presence of other gen mons or that TCG series where some reason the "partner Pokemon" was Oddish? As a non-TCG follower, I just found that weird, in the sense of the show and the actual game.
Of course, a lot of the merch is also based on Kanto and Gen 1 Pokemon which makes some sense. But in a series with 30 years of stuff, why is only this getting the merch to celebrate it? Every new piece of merch introduce in the Pokemon Presents earlier this year, was RGBY inspired and nothing else. There obviously can't be merch of everything, but it makes no sense why only 1 set of games in the series gets it while the others are forgotten. That music player they made, where's the Gen 2 cartridges? Why not celebrate all the music of Pokemon and give Game Boy inspired cartridges to later gens and its music maybe even spinoffs?
But while this may or may not count, I think the mascot treatment of specifically Kanto mons is the worst. You see Pikachu everywhere, you see Charizard on what is supposed to be tough and powerful trainers like in Horizons and Legends Z-A, with instances of Eevee and Meowth here and there. Like Pikachu is on everything Pokemon related, which makes sense as a mascot but it feels like they are everywhere and in everything when they shouldn't. Merch is Pikachu, plushies, cups, notebooks, stickers, always Pikachu and some trainer as to have it in game to the point it's in Champions despite not being comp viable at all and there's no other pre-evos of Evolite. Like I understand it's a mascot, but do you see other mascots as much as we see Pikachu? Does it feel like that things are made better cause we have the mascot mons in them? Like if you discount logos and stuff, do we see Mickey Mouse as much as we see Pikachu and Charizard? Like look at the upcoming Gen 10, who are the first things we see? Pikachu and its new versions Wavy and Windychu.
While a lot of these instances are a stretch and I honestly may be crazy (I am very known for Kanto bashing on our Discord), I feel like it says something when I see these things a lot. Pokemon is now 30 years old, there are people who never played Gen 1 who are fans of the franchise. While I understand it was the first, it's not the only thing about the franchise worth celebrating. You don't play other games and see constant references to the first game if they gone on for a long time, Mario does it but it's not in your face or constantly done that it's annoying, or they actually do something with it that makes it unique and a fresh take on the original. Other franchises often don't even attribute most of their stuff to their first game it's often the second: Megaman's format is based on the second game, Street Fighter II is what set the franchise to the course it is now and is more famous than the first. You don't see Assassin's Creed reference the first game constantly cause the first two sequels is what put the franchise on the map. And you know what, Pokemon as a lot to thanks to Gen 2 as it is what set the franchise into what it is today not Gen 1, it introduced all the mechanics we know now like Shiny Pokemon, breeding, among others but it doesn't seem to get that worth of celebration Gen 1 deserves due to being joint in the hilt with Gen 1 due how GSC is set up. Even in movies, you don't see them reference the first movie often that it dominates the plot, Toy Story 4 was a strange example that came into my brain where sure there were references but it didn't take up the plot like it seems. Ghostbusters Afterlife seems like a retread of the first, but it expands lore while celebrating it while focusing on the new while Pokemon wants to celebrate their roots while the new seems to dominated by the old in most cases. Like you don't see Mickey reference Steamboat Willie constantly, Kingdom Hearts II showed those old Mickey cartoons as a level, reference it later on and then moved on.
I think what irks me the most about it recently is that GameFreak & TPC are promoting this tag of "Every Pokemon was someone's first" or "Every Pokemon is someone's favorite" but then they themselves don't follow it as we get more and more Kanto. Like I said earlier, we have people who are being exposed to the franchise who never played Gen 1, never played RGBY and their first exposure to the franchise is now more likely than ever to be a non-Gen 1 Pokemon, but we promote it like it was everyone's first. To me with all this, it just seems GameFreak doesn't want to move on from its roots when we have over 1000 Pokemon now. With over 1000 Pokemon, and saying at that every mon is a favorite to someone, why does seem you don't want to follow it despite you saying? Cause everything else seems to the contrary of celebrating "all things Pokemon" if we only care about 151 and then some.
Is there more Kanto pandering than usual? Has it gone down in recent years? Do you care about the Kanto obsession GameFreak & TPC seem to have? Is it a big deal? Am I just crazy? What do you think?
As we know, Pokemon's 30th Anniversary is ongoing as we prepare for Winds & Waves, the tenth generation of Pokemon. However, many are aware of how Gen 7 went with it being the 20th Anniversary and it's major shine of celebrating Kanto to the expense of the characters, Pokemon, and the region itself, being called Kanto Glorifcation or better known as "Kanto Pandering" which was also seen before in Gen 6 but was made more aware in Gen 7.
As the years go by, we had more obvious forms of Kanto Pandering and probably even subtler forms with Gen 8's Gigantamaxing and Leon's Charizard as prime examples. Regional forms were also a prime example in Gen 7 and while it let up in Gen 8, I feel a subtle one is that the only new Galarian regional we got with DLC was Slowpoke and only Slowking got one due to the Evolutions. Gen 9 let up on this but with the new convergent Pokemon, what two types of Pokemon were they based on? Kanto Pokemon and none else (in hindsight, while they exist, I'm surprised Paradox Mon weren't majority based on Kanto mons if anything it was more Johto and Hoenn). Even in the most recent game, Legends Z-A, the DLC seems to imply (though not confirmed) that Corbeau apparently knew Giovanni? Like what?
More modern spinoffs are also getting in on this as less and less third parties have access to it and TPC become more involved. Pokken had a very Kanto full roster with two Pikachus and two Mewtwos. GO being the biggest offender where they mostly started with Kanto but even when they move forward, it feels like they still haven't moved forward from it. And when they introduced a evil team from it, unlike being a new team like the new characters they made for GO specifically, welcome back Team Rocket. Pokopia becomes the biggest offender now recently where even though it's so distanced from the rest of the franchise, it's still somehow set in Kanto, Kanto mons are predominately the most present in the Dex, and as we learn more of the backstory to this version of the Pokemon universe we talk about Professor Oak and somehow Team Rocket has reformed in the backstory even though it had no purpose (even as someone who hasn't played Pokopia, reforming Team Rocket in the backstory does seemingly have no purpose it could be just some random unnamed group or something we don't know about, but it had to be Team Rocket?)
Even the anime and other media isn't except from this as we had instants with the entirety of Journeys into Horizons. The Alola series also followed it due to its source but it somehow went even more beyond by bringing back Misty & Brock in their Kanto attire and even ignoring their post-Kanto development sometimes in some famous scenes of the Alola series, while they came back for the finale, it was Kanto referencing again while being just there (granted, in defense I didn't watch the Alola series and that is what I got from the clips I've seen and whatnot, but it feels like they ignored growth just to come back to what fans remember of the original) Journeys ended with this great battle between Pikachu & Leon's Charizard, like we're finally saying goodbye to these characters and the usage for the time being only to be greeted by, while very different characters, Captain Pikachu & another Charizard front center along with everyone in, you guessed it the Kanto region. While they do move very quickly from this, you kinda see a lot subtler stuff, like now when writing this just realizing that half of Ancient Heroes Pokemon (the ones that have Ancient Pokeballs associated with them) are Kanto related in some form either being an evolution or form (or just straight up Lapras, that one is a still an odd choice Kanto Pandering aside (I know there was the giant grass mon which nothing else was different but Lapras just seems odd out of them since it doesn't feel much different from other mons like the other Heroes are outside of the size and scars. Like I know it was a pirate, but it still has a pack like regular Lapras and it just doesn't feel different enough to warrant being an Ancient Hero if you look at the rest of them)). Even other animations have this subtly, like Concierge with it's wondrous animation a lot of the plots and mons focused are surrounded by Kanto mons despite the presence of other gen mons or that TCG series where some reason the "partner Pokemon" was Oddish? As a non-TCG follower, I just found that weird, in the sense of the show and the actual game.
Of course, a lot of the merch is also based on Kanto and Gen 1 Pokemon which makes some sense. But in a series with 30 years of stuff, why is only this getting the merch to celebrate it? Every new piece of merch introduce in the Pokemon Presents earlier this year, was RGBY inspired and nothing else. There obviously can't be merch of everything, but it makes no sense why only 1 set of games in the series gets it while the others are forgotten. That music player they made, where's the Gen 2 cartridges? Why not celebrate all the music of Pokemon and give Game Boy inspired cartridges to later gens and its music maybe even spinoffs?
But while this may or may not count, I think the mascot treatment of specifically Kanto mons is the worst. You see Pikachu everywhere, you see Charizard on what is supposed to be tough and powerful trainers like in Horizons and Legends Z-A, with instances of Eevee and Meowth here and there. Like Pikachu is on everything Pokemon related, which makes sense as a mascot but it feels like they are everywhere and in everything when they shouldn't. Merch is Pikachu, plushies, cups, notebooks, stickers, always Pikachu and some trainer as to have it in game to the point it's in Champions despite not being comp viable at all and there's no other pre-evos of Evolite. Like I understand it's a mascot, but do you see other mascots as much as we see Pikachu? Does it feel like that things are made better cause we have the mascot mons in them? Like if you discount logos and stuff, do we see Mickey Mouse as much as we see Pikachu and Charizard? Like look at the upcoming Gen 10, who are the first things we see? Pikachu and its new versions Wavy and Windychu.
While a lot of these instances are a stretch and I honestly may be crazy (I am very known for Kanto bashing on our Discord), I feel like it says something when I see these things a lot. Pokemon is now 30 years old, there are people who never played Gen 1 who are fans of the franchise. While I understand it was the first, it's not the only thing about the franchise worth celebrating. You don't play other games and see constant references to the first game if they gone on for a long time, Mario does it but it's not in your face or constantly done that it's annoying, or they actually do something with it that makes it unique and a fresh take on the original. Other franchises often don't even attribute most of their stuff to their first game it's often the second: Megaman's format is based on the second game, Street Fighter II is what set the franchise to the course it is now and is more famous than the first. You don't see Assassin's Creed reference the first game constantly cause the first two sequels is what put the franchise on the map. And you know what, Pokemon as a lot to thanks to Gen 2 as it is what set the franchise into what it is today not Gen 1, it introduced all the mechanics we know now like Shiny Pokemon, breeding, among others but it doesn't seem to get that worth of celebration Gen 1 deserves due to being joint in the hilt with Gen 1 due how GSC is set up. Even in movies, you don't see them reference the first movie often that it dominates the plot, Toy Story 4 was a strange example that came into my brain where sure there were references but it didn't take up the plot like it seems. Ghostbusters Afterlife seems like a retread of the first, but it expands lore while celebrating it while focusing on the new while Pokemon wants to celebrate their roots while the new seems to dominated by the old in most cases. Like you don't see Mickey reference Steamboat Willie constantly, Kingdom Hearts II showed those old Mickey cartoons as a level, reference it later on and then moved on.
I think what irks me the most about it recently is that GameFreak & TPC are promoting this tag of "Every Pokemon was someone's first" or "Every Pokemon is someone's favorite" but then they themselves don't follow it as we get more and more Kanto. Like I said earlier, we have people who are being exposed to the franchise who never played Gen 1, never played RGBY and their first exposure to the franchise is now more likely than ever to be a non-Gen 1 Pokemon, but we promote it like it was everyone's first. To me with all this, it just seems GameFreak doesn't want to move on from its roots when we have over 1000 Pokemon now. With over 1000 Pokemon, and saying at that every mon is a favorite to someone, why does seem you don't want to follow it despite you saying? Cause everything else seems to the contrary of celebrating "all things Pokemon" if we only care about 151 and then some.
Is there more Kanto pandering than usual? Has it gone down in recent years? Do you care about the Kanto obsession GameFreak & TPC seem to have? Is it a big deal? Am I just crazy? What do you think?
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