It’s a special year for both JohnCon and Pokémon — they are both 20 years old! As one HopSFA leader commented, “Pokémon will be old enough to drink in Japan.”
In 1996, while he was working for Nintendo, Satoshi Tajiri created Pokémon. When he was young he collected insects; inspired by this hobby, he created a land inhabited by almost 500 species of creatures (the basic translation of the name is a combination of “pocket” and “monster,” and thank you, Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife).
Here’s a book about the business side of Pokémon, too, and of course, the “official Pokémon channel“!
And no, Pokémon does not cause cancer, even though there’s a family of oncogenes (genes that can contribute to the development of cancer) named “Pokemon” (*without* the accent). The company was quite unhappy about this, as you can imagine. Eventually, the researcher and his institution stopped using the name, but PubMed still lists almost 60 articles with the word in their titles, the most recent only two months ago.
This year, JohnCon will be celebrating its own 20th birthday as well as that of Pokémon. Please join us for movies, gaming, vendors, and more.
- Levering Hall
- Friday evening, April 1, continuously THROUGH Sunday evening, April 3