Jessica Aimee Levy Critical Studies Activity 4: Specialist Pathways

Satoshi Tajiri born 28 August 1965 is a Japanese video game designer best known as the creator of Pokemon and the founder of Game Freak Inc. His fond childhood memories of gathering insects and watching monsters on Japanese television inspired him to create a video game inhabited by +/-151 animated creatures with unique personalities and distinctive powers. In his game, Tajiri shaped a world where monsters can be captured and then after trained to fight against other monsters. At 17, Tajiri began writing and editing Game Freak, which focused on the arcade game scene, from 1981 to 1986. Game Freak was handwritten and stapled together. Nonetheless, Ken Sugimori, who later helped illustrate the first 151 Pokmon, saw the magazine at a djinshi shop, and decided to get involved. As more contributors came to Game Freak, Tajiri began to realize most games were lacking in quality, and he and Sugimori decided the solution was to make their own games. After Nintendo released the Family BASIC programming language, Tajiri studied it to better grasp the designs of Nintendo Entertainment System games. He then purchased the hardware to develop games. Tajiri and Sugimori evolved the magazine into the video game development company Game Freak in 1989. Soon after, the two pitched their first game, an arcade-style game called Quinty to Namco, who published the game. When he first pitched the idea of Pokmon to Nintendo, they could not quite picture the concept, but were impressed enough with Tajiri's prior game programming that they decided to explore the concept. Shigeru Miyamoto began to mentor Tajiri, guiding him during the creation process. Pokmon Red and Green took six years to produce, and nearly bankrupted Game Freak in the process; often, there was barely enough money to pay the employees. Five employees quit, and Tajiri did not take a salary. Investment from Creatures Inc. allowed Game Freak to complete the games, and in return, Creatures received one-third of the franchise rights. In between the approval and finish of the project, Tajiri assisted in the design of two Mario spin-off games for Nintendo: Yoshi and the Japanese-only release Mario & Wario. He also worked on the 1994 Pulseman. Once the games were finished, very few media outlets gave it attention, believing the Game Boy was a dead console; a general lack of interest of merchandising convinced Tajiri that Nintendo would reject the games. The Pokmon games were not expected to do well, but sales steadily increased until the series found itself among Nintendo's top franchises. There are rumours of a hidden Pokmon, Mew, which could only be obtained by exploiting programming errors, increased interest in the game. Tajiri had included Mew in the game in order to promote trading and interaction between players, but Nintendo was not aware of the creature upon release. The franchise helped revive Nintendo, whose sales had been declining. Tajiri deliberately toned down violence in his games. In this vein, he had Pokmon faint rather than die after defeat, as he believed it was unhealthy for children to equate the concept of death with losing a game. Tajiri also continues to be involved in the more modern Pokmon titles as well. On the most recent incarnations he supervised the process from start to finish and approved all the text. While developing games, Tajiri works irregular hours, often laboring 24 hours at a time. Tajiri mentions Shigeru Miyamoto as a major influence, thinking of him as a sort of mentor. For this reason, his developmental style closely matches that of Miyamoto. In the Pokmon anime, the main character is named Satoshi, while his rival is Shigeru. Tajiri claims that Western audiences understand his work better; instead of focusing exclusively on prominent characters like Pikachu, he believes they understand that the games are about partnership and identification with one's team. Satoshi Tajiri is a great inspiration to me because he has pushed through all the hardships that were thrown at him whilst creating Pokemon. Pokemon was basically my childhood obsession and to this

day I still play and watch pokemon. I love the innocence and the simplicity of the design. I want to aspire to Tajiris standards, I realise that it will take me a long time to reach his level and I would need someone like him or Shigeru Miyamoto to help me on my journey to where he is. I would love to incorporate the style of Tim Burtons cartoons and the style of Tajiris cartoons into my own style. They are both great inspirations to me. Pokemon also represents a sense of team work to me and often reminds to follow personal ethics; which Pokemon taught me as a child. To always respect the people you are working with as well as to put in as much effort as I can into everything I do. Word count:810

Wikipedia: 27 October 2012. Sataoshi Tajiri. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Tajiri. Last accessed: 2012-10-28 Wikipedia: 27 October 2012. Pokemon. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon. Last accessed: 2012-10-28 Ehow: By Michael Hinckley, eHow Contributor. Available: http://www.ehow.com/about_4596709_who-created-pokemon.html. Last accessed: 2012-1028

The Pokemon Wiki. (unknown). Satoshi Tajiri. Available: http://pokemon.wikia.com/wiki/Satoshi_Tajiri. Last accessed 2012/10/28. Luke Plunkett. (30/05.2011). How Pokmon Was Born From Bug Collecting and Aspergers Syndrome. Available: http://kotaku.com/5806664/howpokemon-was-born-from-bug-collecting-and-aspergers-syndrome. Last accessed 2012/10/28. Time Asia. (Unknown). Interview With Satoshi Tajiri. Available: http://pokedream.com/pokemon/infocenter/tajiri.php. Last accessed 2012/10/26. Wikipedia: 27 October 2012. Sataoshi Tajiri. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satoshi_Tajiri. Last accessed: 2012-10-28 Wikipedia: 27 October 2012. Pokemon. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon. Last accessed: 2012-10-28 Ehow: By Michael Hinckley, eHow Contributor. Available: http://www.ehow.com/about_4596709_who-created-pokemon.html. Last accessed: 2012-10-28 John. (2012). Pokemon series creator Satoshi Tajiri once reviewed MOTHER. Available: http://www.tikisaurus.com/blog/retro/pokemon-series-creatorsatoshi-tajiri-once-reviewed-mother-1.html. Last accessed 2012/10/27.