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As with the later Sega game Shenmue (1999), Pokémon’s setting of the Kanto region is based on the real Kantō, an area of central eastern Japan that includes the Greater Tokyo Area. The map included in the original Japanese releases of Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Green Version is titled POCKET MONSTERS TOWN MAP and while colourful, inviting, and heavily stylised, is very clearly based on Tokyo Bay and the surrounding countryside. In contrast to the abstract, tile-based geography of the Game Boy screen, the map presents Kanto as a continuous, inhabitable landscape: towns nestled among forests, plains, mountains, and coastlines, linked by winding roads and sea routes. It transposes the real topography of the area into a bright, vivid story map that promises colourful adventure in what is, despite the ‘monsters’ of the title, essentially a safe environment full of childlike wonder.

The original Pokémon games for the Nintendo Game Boy introduced players to the region of Kanto, a stylised landscape of towns, caves, forests, and coastal routes. The fold-out ‘Pocket Monsters Town Map’ presents this world as a continuous geography loosely based on the Kantō region of designer Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood.

Released in Japan in February 1996 for the Nintendo Game Boy, Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green mark one of the most consequential debuts in the history of videogames. Developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo, the paired titles introduced players to the world of Pokémon: a lightly sketched but inviting landscape in which human trainers capture, trade, and battle fantastic creatures.

Pokémon was conceived by Satoshi Tajiri (b.1965) in 1990. It was based partly on childhood enthusiasms, for insect collecting expeditions and also the notion of ‘capsule monsters’ from Ultraseven (1967–68), one of his favourite television shows and part of the popular and ongoing Japanese science fiction media franchise Ultraman (1966–).

Capsule monsters were portable creatures that could be called upon to fight in battles that were too challenging for the hero alone. The word ‘Pokémon’ is a Japanese adaptation of the English ‘pocket monster’. When the Game Boy was released by Nintendo in 1989, it also made available a ‘Link Cable’, adding a social dimension which allowed the hand-held gaming machines to be paired. The idea for Pokémon clicked in Tajiri’s mind, uniting these disparate elements into what went on to become a global franchise generating vast revenue streams.

As well as the monster battles, Pokémon is a digital system of exploration, classification, and exchange. ‘Tajiri’s goal was to create the sense of wonder and adventure he felt when collecting and studying insects in the rural areas around his home’.

This conceptual core is reflected in the games’ structure: players traverse a map of towns, routes, caves, and gyms, gradually assembling a Pokédex that promises completeness while constantly deferring it. Crucially, no single cartridge could contain all 151 Pokémon. Completion required social interaction – trading via the Game Boy Link Cable – thereby embedding cooperation and connectivity directly into the game’s design.

Since its debut in 1996, Pokémon has grown into one of the most successful entertainment properties in history, encompassing videogames, animation, film, trading cards, and merchandise. Its longevity is sustained by a careful balance of innovation and continuity, and by an explicitly intergenerational appeal. Pokémon’s impact can occasionally reach beyond its immediate audience, with YouTuber Logan Paul’s 2021 purchase of an extremely rare Pokémon card for a record-breaking $5.3m (£3.9m) making news headlines.

Pokémon Company CEO Tsunekazu Ishihara recently suggested that the franchise can last for another 50 to 100 years, continuing with its long-term goal to ‘enrich both the real world and the virtual world’

Nintendo Pokemon Pocket Monsters Red packaging