Now the world is addicted to the Pokemon Go game that uses characters from the Pokemon movies and Pokemon video games. And, apparently the Pokemon Go game phenomenon makes a lot of information circulating if Pokemon is related to Jews.
pokemon go controversy
One of them is through a broadcast that is widely circulated and states that Pokemon comes from the Syriac language which means "I am Jewish". Also the naming of Pikachu mentioned means "Be Jewish". And Charmender means "god is weak".
So are these analyzes true?
Pokemon itself was originally owned by the media franchise Pokemon Company, which is a consortium between Nintendo, Game Freak and Creatures. The company was originally created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1995.
As written by Wikipedia, the name Pokemon actually refers to the Japanese language which means Pocket Monsters or Poketto Monsuta. Tajiri himself has made the concept of Pokemon as a hobby to collect insects.
How about the name Pikachu? The terms used in the name of the monsters in Pokemon are explained at length on the Pokemondb website. Pikachu itself consists of two syllables namely Pika which means little mouse and Chu which is the Japanese term for "squeak".
The name Charmander comes from the word 'Char' which means 'to burn' and salamander is a lizard-like animal such as amphibians. In fact, Charmander's original name was hitokage, which was derived from the words 'hito' (person) and 'tokage' (lizard).
Since its birth, long before Pokemon Go or the Pokemon mobile game was released, Pokemon has indeed reaped a lot of controversy. Especially regarding the symbols used.
One of them who protested was the civic group Anti Defamation League which mentioned the existence of the opposite symbol of the swastika which was considered offensive to the Jewish people. As a result, the Pokemon trading cards with the logo were then withdrawn from the market.
In 2001, Saudi Arabia banned Pokemon games and cards because of the star of David symbol which was said to promote Zionism. Besides, because trading cards are very close to gambling that violates Islamic law.
At the time, a Nintendo spokesperson in Tokyo stated that Pokemon did not make Pokemon for religious purposes. Pokemon basically uses characters with geometric symbols according to the character.
Apparently, with the presence of Pokemon Go, which is a version of the Pokemon mobile game, it does not escape controversies.