I love Pokémon, it’s my special interest, I’ve been playing since Gen 1 and have pretty extensive knowledge about the Pokémon world.
However since becoming a communist I’ve realized that a lot of things are missing from the world, including basic functions on how everything works. Just the presence of police implies there are laws that have to be enforced, which in turn implies people write those laws, etc. We know that there was an industrial revolution, which led to capitalism, being the economic system in all Pokémon regions, meaning all of the contradictions that come with it. There was a war that took place, as alluded to by Lt. Surge, who might actually be from Unova.
In the manga there’s the Pokémon Association (PA), a legislative body that determines the laws involving Pokémon, similar to Congress here in the U.S., with each region apparently having its own PA.
In the anime they have the Pokémon Inspection Agency (PIA) that inspects Gyms to see if they’re up to par.
They don’t explicitly talk about politics and political views (obviously because the series is marketed to kids) but I think exploring these mechanisms could be really interesting, if not for the fact that Pokémon adds another layer to politics because they’re creatures with a material effect on the world.
Some people might be more left leaning when it comes to economics and social issues, but might be more right leaning when it comes to trainer regulations.
I’m curious to know what other people think, I’m actually writing a story that explores some of these themes so I’d love to get some ideas!
Setting aside the political system in the fictional setting of Pokemon, its theme did have universal government regulations of Pokemon battles, animal violence, reduction of Indigenous groups into restrictive stereotypes, commodification of nature in the form of pokemons, and monopoly of the Pokemon battle system. The idea that a society can transform nature and Indigenous people into systematic tools of violent entertainment without opposition is highly immoral and disrespectful in reality. That is why I like to watch parody of Pokemon that expose the irrationality and cruelty of the Pokemon setting.
Except it’s known in the Pokémon world that they aren’t just “animals fighting”; they aren’t even animals, considering there are actual animals like rodents, birds and fish in the Pokémon world. They do have intelligence since they can understand humans, and will actually not listen to you if you mistreat them, or if they don’t respect you they won’t even be caught.
What are you even talking about?
“considering there are actual animals”
although nintendo might have shown real animals in early gens, nintendo retconned that out in later gens and it’s no longer considered canon