AAP: The Cause
Now in questionnaire format!
What is Anti-Pokémon?
Anti-Pokémon, in the most general sense, is the notion of being against the Pokémon franchise for one reason or another. At the height of the Pokémon craze, Anti-Pokémon was a reasonably big movement on the Internet, with all sorts of different Anti-Pokémon sites aimed variously at seriously arguing the evils of the Pokémon franchise, providing a laugh for people who hated Pokémon in the form of "killing Pikachu" jokes and so on, or just trolling various Pokémon fan venues. Today, Anti-Pokémon websites are mostly dead, and for the purposes of this day and age, one can treat any publicized sentiment against Pokémon or Pokémon fans as "Anti-Pokémon".
What is Anti-Anti-Pokémon?
Anti-Anti-Pokémon is, in a way, a counter-movement against Anti-Pokémon, which has taken the form of everything from general pro-Pokémon clubs to united efforts (thankfully nonexistent today) to flame Anti-Pokémon websites. It has also largely involved countering the various claims against Pokémon that have been made over the years. Today, Anti-Anti-Pokémon in the sense of directly arguing with Pokémon haters is necessarily dead, thanks to the general absence of Pokémon haters who care enough to bother.
So you wish you could argue with Pokémon haters?
No. They have every right to have whatever opinion they want about Pokémon or whatever else. The "Anti-Anti-Pokémon" sections on this site are merely my thoughts on why I believe there is nothing wrong with liking Pokémon if you honestly do; I am not trying to imply there is something at all wrong with disliking it or that people who just don't like it should be giving it a second glance.
Hey, didn't you use to have a long page of counters against Anti-Pokémon arguments and a section on your forums for debating with Pokémon haters?
Well, yes, I did, in 2003. Now that I've grown up a bit, I've realized that it was awfully hypocritical of me and rather missing the point. The point would be that I really don't care whether you or anybody else likes Pokémon or not, and trying to debate whether the Pokémon games, anime or cards are "good" or "bad" will not get anybody anywhere. What makes sense to try to defend is my right to like it without being labeled in some way or another.
But nobody who dislikes Pokémon is ever going to read your sections!
Yes, I am fully aware of that. But even though Anti-Pokémon in the sense of the Internet movement is long dead, real-life society still retains negative attitudes towards Pokémon and countless other franchises that make people feel ashamed to admit what they enjoy, which I think is very regretful. My Anti-Anti-Pokémon articles are generally written for Pokémon fans and aim to analyze some of these negative attitudes, what they are based on and whether there really is anything to them.
Page last modified June 13 2009 at 18:26 GMT
