Poke'mon: Seeing Triple

Welcome back to this week's Meandering Monday, which has not wandered far from last week's topic.  Poke'mon is a rather unique entity in the anime world, it's a video game but has both and anime and several manga series.  Each of these mediums provides a different look into the world of Poke'mon since each has it's own distinct plot and cast of characters.  Over the next few weeks we're going to look at how these three series differ, specifically in their main characters for the original series. 



The Games: Red

Our first subject is the main character of Red and Blue, who is commonly referred to as Red despite being named whatever the player wants.  Of our three subjects the least is known about Red, like many other protagonists he never speaks but his character can be guessed at from how others respond to him.  He refuses to join team rocket early on his journey and directly opposes them several times without any expectation to be rewarded.  From this we can gather that he is relatively moral, believing that team rocket is doing wrong and needs to be stopped.  A point worth making about Red's battles with team rocket is that no one else opposes them or even joins up with Red after he begins fighting other than his rival.  There are a few ways this can be interpreted, the common folk of Kanto might not believe that team rocket needs to be stopped, they have no knowledge of what is going on, or they are unable to do anything to help.  Each of these conclusions leads to Red being extraordinary in a different way.  If the first conclusion is correct then Red is not only highly moral but grew up to be that way in a world where nobody else has any morality.  If the second is true then Red is either lucky or has good investigative skills but this is also the least likely interpretation since the townspeople talk openly about strange things happening in town, and the team rocket grunts guarding their bases are in full uniform.  The third interpretation implies that Red is a highly skilled trainer and that most other people aren't strong enough to even resist team rocket. 

Red's other actions support his skill as a trainer, he defeats all 8 gym leaders and becomes champion of the Poke'mon League.  Even after his journey ends Red is still known throughout the land as the strongest trainer and is the final challenge in Gold and Silver. In conclusion Red is a silent and skillful trainer, but has a deep sense of right and wrong.  He is the archetypical silent champion and destined to become a legend.  Next week I'll talk about a hero more towards the other end of the spectrum Ash.