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A few weeks ago I discovered this book from 2004(-ish) which seems to be the only academic-level book on Pokemon, at least before Pokemon GO became the case study of choice for urban planners, sociologists, etc. The main drawback is that the book was compiled from presentations at a conference in 2000, so the time frame is very limited (i.e., Pokemon Gold and Silver are mentioned once from what I could tell through ctrl-f). The main appeal is that the authors are all credentialed education scientists, cultural scholars, Japanese media specialists, etc., who do fieldwork, so you can expect something a bit more sophisticated than a YouTube essay.
Now that I'm in a spot where I'm not doing 13 hour days for work, I figured I'd read it during my lunch breaks. If there's any interest, I'd love to do a read along and post screenshots, notes and interesting things in it. I've only read through the intro so far, and while it's a bit jargony and theoretical, some of the chapter titles point to interesting things.
