Are Your Children Nuts About Little Cartoon Creatures From Japan? Don't Know Why? The Diagnosis Is Simple: -- Pokemon Fever

"Gotta catch 'em all."

It's 3:30 p.m. on a weekday - any weekday - and the pre-teen you live with is trying to get some time with the television, rambling on about poke-a-something.

"Gotta catch 'em all."

What?

The show can't be missed, he says.

Why?

Because he's collecting poke-a-whatsits, and a missed episode would mean the collection would have gaps.

Gaps!?

"Gotta catch 'em all." It's like a mantra - your kid keeps repeating it.

Is this child possessed?

Perhaps. But if he, or she, is, so are millions of other kids in this country. They're simply caught up in the biggest kid trend of the moment - and perhaps, one that could prove the most long-lasting: Nintendo's "Pokemon."

Everywhere you look, the game's cuddly characters seem to pop up. Game Boy owners rarely stray from their duties as a Pokemon trainer. If your son has an allowance, he's probably more likely to blow it on "Pokemon" trading cards than bubble gum.

If your daughter watches Saturday-morning cartoons, you've probably awakened to her retelling the adventures of 10-year-old Ash Ketchum and his electrifying rodent pal, Pikachu. Or maybe she was riled by the antics of Jesse and James, the cross-dressing duo known as Team Rocket.

Thanks to "Pokemon," lots of 6-year-olds are using the word "evolve." Of course, to them it has little to do with Darwin; they're talking about the process that makes a tiny, flame-puffing Charmeleon turn into a gigantic, fire-breathing Charizard. That is, when they're not babbling about Squirtles, Jigglypuffs and Meowths.

But let's slow down a bit here; what does this gibberish mean?

Short for "pocket monster," "Pokemon" started in Japan in 1996 as a game for Nintendo's Game Boy system and it has become the highest selling game in that market. "Pokemon" was introduced to American Game Boy owners in September 1998. At first, it appealed mostly to boys from 6 to 12 years old; boys make up the majority of video-game consumers. With the recent North American introduction of the televised cartoon of the same name, and the friendly, "Hello Kitty"-like appeal of the characters, more girls are catching Poke-mania. And yes, there are plenty of adult fans as well.

The Pokemon characters are monsters who live on Pokemon Island and must be captured with a special Pokeball, nurtured and trained by players. The monsters are broken into categories such as Flying Pokemon, Electric Pokemon, Ghost, Prehistoric, and on and on. Within each category there are also subcategories.

Players choose certain Pokemon to battle with other trainers' monsters, helping them to evolve into more powerful creatures either through experience or by trading with a friend. The object is to collect all 150 Pokemon (151, if you count the "hidden" character Mew), defeat eight master Pokemon trainers and collect their badges. This helps a player rise to the level of World's Greatest Pokemon Trainer.

Hence the catchphrase: "Gotta catch 'em all."

"Pokemon" means big fun for kids. For Redmond-based Nintendo of America Inc., Renton-based Wizards of the Coast, as well as 4Kids Entertainment, Hasbro and every other company getting a piece of the action, it also means big business.

"I don't know that there has ever been anything like it . . . certainly this is an incredible phenomenon," said Gail Tilden, Nintendo of America's vice president of product acquisition and development.

That may prove to be an understatement. Certainly this hasn't been pop-culture's first successful Japanese import; just look at the umpteen permutations of Fox Television's "Power Rangers," which recently reached the 300-episode mark and introduced "Power Rangers Lost Galaxy."

"Pokemon" - both the game and the cartoon series - has the potential to be even bigger. "Power Rangers didn't just blast off like this," said Norman Grossfeld, president of 4Kids Productions, who oversees the television section of 4Kids Entertainment. "It took awhile to come over here. `Pokemon' came over here so quickly, and all of a sudden it's hugely popular."

The secret to "Pokemon's" success?

"Kids love collecting things," Grossfeld explained, "and here, all of a sudden, we've created a universe of 150 characters to collect."

Behold the power of "Pokemon's" collectibility: The newest Pokemon to be introduced to the game was Mew, a hidden character that could only be installed with a separate mechanism (note: it was a special offer, you can't buy it). When Nintendo announced Mew in its "Nintendo Power" magazine in January, a contest to give away 151 Mews drew about 50,000 entries.

In Japan alone, Pokemon has racked up $4.5 billion in retail sales and still counting. In the U.S., Nintendo has sold 2.4 million of the game's red and blue cartridges at about $30 a pop. In mid-December, locally based Wizards of the Coast began selling Pokemon trading cards in packs priced between $2.99 and $9.99. They've been flying out of stores ever since. Pokemon cards are now in their fifth printing, and according to Paul Verner, Wizards of the Coast's Pokemon brand manager, 1.7 million kids are playing with them. Wizards expects sales by the end of the year to exceed those of its more famous product, "Magic: The Gathering."

"We're struggling to keep up with our production levels," Verner said. "Everywhere they're selling out within hours of the times we've released them."

Sales of Pokemon products, including merchandise other than the Game Boy products, are estimated to be somewhere between $85 and $100 million in 1998 in the U.S. All of this before the release of new games, new toys and a feature film expected sometime this summer.

Little of this is important to 9-year-old Alec Jensen, who lives in Shoreline. He's just crazy for Pokemon.

"They're pretty cute," the third-grader said. "I like the Japanese drawings, the way they draw animals."

What he really likes are the trading cards. His father, Roy Jensen, takes Alec and his 6-year-old brother, Elliot, out to buy a few more cards at least once a week. So far, the boys have about 150 between them, but of those, many are duplicates.

"I'd say (Alec is) occupied with `Pokemon' probably about an hour a day, then he talks about it all day long," Jensen said. "He's got a `Pokemon' T-shirt he wears to school. You can hardly peel it off of him."

Fans like Alec may give "Pokemon" the potential to outlast the typical three-year boom-and-bust window for most hot toys and games. As Grossfeld puts it, "Pokemon" is ever-evolving. That is, there will always be more versions of the game introducing other creatures to collect and more powers to discover.

As long as there are the "Pokemon" games, Grossfeld hopes there will be the "Pokemon" cartoon. 4Kids Productions brought the cartoon to North America several months ago, and it has given WB's children's block some of its highest ratings ever (in Seattle, at 9 a.m. Saturdays on KTZZ-TV). The Seattle area's UPN affiliate, KSTW-TV, which airs the cartoon at 3:30 p.m. on weekdays, has also seen a significant ratings boost.

Grossfeld was wary of the series at first, mainly because of the failure of other so-called Japanimation series here, such as "Sailor Moon."

Then there was an incident in December 1997 in which hundreds of Japanese children experienced dizziness and seizures while watching a "Pokemon" episode.

"It was caused by a three-second animation technique that's been removed from the show," Grossfeld said. "It was never used before or after that episode. There's absolutely no way it can happen here." (However, bootleg copies of the famous episode are a prized acquisition among adult "Pokemon" fans and pop-culture mavens.)

In spite of its shaky first impressions on North Americans, "Pokemon" fans are fiercely devoted to the cartoon - the ratings and ravings are proof. "I think it's the first cartoon series that's like a soap opera for kids, where they actually make plans to see the show. Kids go nuts if they miss it," Grossfeld said.

Another reason behind the cartoon's popularity is that it includes strategic hints about which Pokemon to use in different situations, and introduces new characters.

Indeed, "Pokemon" appeals to its devotees on a variety of levels. It has the draw common to any video game: The monsters are trained to do battle, using special moves and imaginative powers. If your monster wins, it gains strength and, perhaps, evolves into a bigger, more powerful creature. A loss means a trip to the Pokemon hospital to recover and fight another day.

There's more to it than a typical video-game power fantasy, however. Unlike other games, "Pokemon" encourages participation and cooperation, as well as competition. Players cannot collect all 151 Pokemon characters without trading with friends and working together.

"I traded with my brother a couple of times," said 6-year-old Alex Fredrickson of Edmonds, a first-grader who often plays the Game Boy game with his 9-year-old brother Erik. "I couldn't have the Game Boy that day, so he traded by himself. He gives me really good Pokemons."

Their father, Jack Fredrickson, added that they play so frequently the pair often loses track of time. Even so, "I'm not concerned one iota. Both of my kids are doing good in school, they're good in sports. There's a balance."

Which brings us to something parents seem to enjoy about "Pokemon" : It's even a bit educational. Kids have to memorize what certain monsters can do, create strategies and learn to negotiate with other players. The card game requires kids to use their mathematical and reading skills.

Alec Jensen's father, Roy, believes "it's actually good for Alec's thought processes," he said, "because he has to add and subtract the numbers to figure out who won a play."

Pokemania also makes parents work with subtraction; getting started with a Game Boy and a Pokemon cartridge costs somewhere between $80 and $110, depending upon where you shop. The trading-game starter decks are more economical at $8.99, but consider that your kids will be begging for theme decks ($9.99) and booster decks ($2.99) galore. In other words, "Pokemon" can end up costing a pretty penny, if you don't set limits.

Alec and Elliot each have a Game Boy; however, Jensen won't buy them the cartridges. "I like the card idea better because you're working with a tangible object in your hands. You have to read the card. It's not just thrown in front of you with electronics."

If Nintendo has anything to say about it, Father Jensen is in for a battle. Aside from an impending merchandising blitz, the company will soon be introducing "Pokemon Pinball" and "Pokemon Snap," the latter for the Nintendo 64 system. Other versions of the game are also set to be released in the future.

Meanwhile, Wizards of the Coast will introduce its Jungle expansion set to play with existing decks in July, with a Fossil expansion to hit stores in the fall. "Pokemon" will also invade theaters sometime this year with an English-dubbed version of "Mewtwo Strikes Back," already a popular hit in Japan.

Fans know they've gotta catch 'em all.