>>30796543The 90's and early 2000's is where Pokemon was at it's absolute peak. It was the shit and for good reasons. Pokemon was socially engineered to be the shit, you open a marketing textbook and not see them, it was probably printed out before 2000.
The games, anime and card game was already out and those were all a financial success in the states but Pokemon: The First Movie is what propelled it's popularity to the point where you absolutely could not escape it. Posters, toys, books, a tie-in with Burger King, a freaking musical, an album based on the movie with some of the most popular artists of the time and the games and anime got even more popular from the result, making Warner Brothers thousands on VHS sales alone and the other two theatrical films were a ginormous success as well and helped it keep it afloat.
I think Pokemon is the perfect example of corporate calculating and marketing successfully churning out something as simple as a game about catching and training monsters and turning it into a cultural phenomenon and the must have thing for kids of the 8-12 demographic whether it be the games and anime or any virtually any other product that you could think of. Cereal, poptarts, clothing, keychains etc. If it featured Pikachu and friends then you're damn right that it will sell like hotcakes. The first movie alone defined an era and is a perfect example on how clever marketing can make anything sound cool.
I believe that we are about to enter another hay day for Pokemon due to the success of Sun and Moon, I don't think anything can top how insane things were for it back in the day but who knows, we'll have to wait and see.
