>>56551240>Nigga just wanted to tell story about how industrialization and urbanization are lame and gayNo, industrialization of Tokyo did impact the idea of Pokemon because Tajiri lived his childhood when certain areas were still countryside and he used to play the whole day outside catching bugs, and then he observed how Tokyo kids less than a generation later could no longer do that because the places Tajiri and other kids his age would play in were now industrialized.
Pokemon was meant as an escapism fantasy for kids to immerse themselves in a world where the balance between countryside and industrialization was enough to be able to pretend your backyard was a far place immersed in nature even if de facto it was safely close to home.
To give them an equivalent of Tajiri's childhood spent in nature catching bugs and observing other creatures, but mixed up with the interest he later developed as a teen for videogames and JRPGs.
Pokemon indeed contains criticism of hyper-industrialization (for instance the very existence of Grimer and Koffing), but it was never meant primarily as a political statement.
He simply saw/sees the threat industrialization past a certain point specifically in the relation to the possibility for kids to develop their imagination and self-confidence in a natural environment through play-pretend.
From this point of view, Tajiri's dream still holds up to present day because Pokemon regions always have an abundance of natural environments and the feeling, especially for kids, to live an adventure that feels both far from home and civilization but still actually very physically close to it.
I do agree that Tajiri probably hates how much of a marketing beast and money-printing machine his creature became, to the point where all other aspects of the franchise impact the games' production schedule and content.
