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…some critics argue that Pokemon's influence on the global cultural scene is in fact quite trivial when compared to such Western popular cultural products as the Beatles or rap music. These critics find Pokemon's message too superficial to count as a meaningful cultural export (e.g., Newsweek Japan, 8 December 1999:50-51). However, this kind of comparison is also fruitless and even fallacious as it implies that American/Western popular culture continues to present the rest of the world with influential messages, ideas, and lifestyles that have the power to impact world politics and to launch social movements, just as it used to do. A more productive way of making sense of the symbolic power of Japanese animation and computer games is to look at the issue of transnational cultural hegemony and power in a different light, rather than froma conventional Americanization perspective. The age of Americanization, in which crosscultural consumption was predominantly discussed in terms of the influence of a single dominant country, is, if not over, at least coming to an end (cf. Tomlinson 1991). I would suggest that we use the rise of Japanese cultural exports as an opportunity to reconsider the meaning of transnational cultural power. The international popularity of Japanese anime and computer games as exemplified in the pokemon craze provides us with some clues we can use to discern emerging trends in the global circulation of characters, culture, and products. Pokemon's global success is indeed unprecedented. However, it would be misleading to think that the factors that contributed to this success are unique to Pokemon. I would suggest instead that Pokemon is the product that to date has most efficiently capitalized on emerging marketing trends. Animation and computer game characters are playing an increasingly significant role in the multimedia business. Computer game characters are intertextual, and can be used in a variety of media such as movies, TV series, comics, toys and associated merchandise. Marsha Kinder (1991) describes the multiple possibilities of transmedia intertextuality as representing a "supersystem of entertainment" that has come to be a dominant force in the global entertainment business. In Japan, media industry leaders decided that computer games and animation would be the main features of such a supersystem. Together with the global success of Japanese computer game software such as Super Mario Brothers, the realization, since the recent recession, of declining strength in the Japanese manufacturing-oriented economy has convinced many Japanese companies to invest in the development of animated and digitalized multimedia products.

…some critics argue that Pokemon's influence on the global cultural scene is in fact quite trivial when compared to such Western popular cultural products as the Beatles or rap music. These critics find Pokemon's message too superficial to count as a meaningful cultural export (e.g., Newsweek Japan , 8 December 1999:50-51). However, this kind of comparison is also fruitless and even fallacious as it implies that American/Western popular culture continues to present the rest of the world with influential messages, ideas, and lifestyles that have the power to impact world politics and to launch social movements, just as it used to do. A more productive way of making sense of the symbolic power of Japanese animation and computer games is to look at the issue of transnational cultural hegemony and power in a different light, rather than froma conventional Americanization perspective. The age of Americanization, in which crosscultural consumption was predominantly discussed in terms of the influence of a single dominant country, is, if not over, at least coming to an end (cf. Tomlinson 1991). I would suggest that we use the rise of Japanese cultural exports as an opportunity to reconsider the meaning of transnational cultural power. The international popularity of Japanese anime and computer games as exemplified in the pokemon craze provides us with some clues we can use to discern emerging trends in the global circulation of characters, culture, and products. Pokemon's global success is indeed unprecedented. However, it would be misleading to think that the factors that contributed to this success are unique to Pokemon. I would suggest instead that Pokemon is the product that to date has most efficiently capitalized on emerging marketing trends. Animation and computer game characters are playing an increasingly significant role in the multimedia business. Computer game characters are intertextual, and can be used in a variety of media such as movies, TV series, comics, toys and associated merchandise. Marsha Kinder (1991) describes the multiple possibilities of transmedia intertextuality as representing a "supersystem of entertainment" that has come to be a dominant force in the global entertainment business. In Japan, media industry leaders decided that computer games and animation would be the main features of such a supersystem. Together with the global success of Japanese computer game software such as Super Mario Brothers, the realization, since the recent recession, of declining strength in the Japanese manufacturing-oriented economy has convinced many Japanese companies to invest in the development of animated and digitalized multimedia products.