{"id":719927,"date":"2026-06-06T23:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719927\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T23:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T23:29:15","slug":"the-enduring-appeal-of-pokemon-still-finding-new-fans-30-years-after-its-release","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/719927\/","title":{"rendered":"The enduring appeal of Pok\u00e9mon, still finding new fans 30 years after its release"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Jez Sundqvist, the Pok\u00e9mon experience is still unforgettable almost three decades after he first encountered it.<\/p>\n

“It just brings back all those memories of getting probably, you know, Pok\u00e9mon Red or Pok\u00e9mon Blue for the Game Boy and cracking that out of the packet,” he said.<\/p>\n

It is a joy he now experiences with his 11-year-old son, Auden, in their hometown of Port Lincoln on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.<\/p>\n

Jez Sundqvist says he was introduced to Pok\u00e9mon at a similar age, and over the past few years, he has dived back into that world once more, this time with his own children.<\/p>\n

Their journey began in 2016, with the advent of Pok\u00e9mon GO, an app for smartphones that allows users to “catch” Pok\u00e9mon in the real world using augmented reality.<\/p>\n

\"Pokemon<\/p>\n

Pok\u00e9mon GO launched in 2016 and was the franchise’s foray into virtual reality with players able to “capture” Pok\u00e9mon in real life settings such as parks, malls and beaches. (ABC News: Alex Blucher)<\/p>\n

“That’s a real-world game” he said.<\/p>\n

“It incentivises you to go to different places and do things there because you’ll find different Pok\u00e9mon \u2026 it’s been really enjoyable to be able to share the joy.<\/p>\n

“When we travel somewhere, we can look at some cool stuff and then play and do some cool things in Pok\u00e9mon as well.”<\/p>\n

He said the world of Pok\u00e9mon allowed you to “immerse yourself in something that’s quite removed from normal life”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Pok\u00e9mon franchise comprises of video games, television shows, merchandise and more.\u00a0 (ABC Wide Bay: Nikki Sorbello)<\/p>\n

For Auden Sundqvist, card collecting became his gateway into the Pok\u00e9mon world.<\/p>\n

From there, he became immersed in the Pok\u00e9mon universe of video games and collectibles.<\/p>\n

The renewed interest has not only helped him and his father bond, it has influenced their travel and holidays.<\/p>\n

The pair has travelled to Melbourne and Adelaide to pick up new Pok\u00e9mon cards and has visited Pok\u00e9mon Centres (retail stores run by the Pok\u00e9mon Company featuring merchandise, video game events, and larger-than-life Pok\u00e9mon statues) while on holiday in Japan.<\/p>\n

“I like it as a family thing,” he said.<\/p>\n

Transcending generations<\/p>\n

This year marks 30 years since the game’s creator Satoshi Tajiri transformed his childhood hobby of bug catching in his garden<\/a> into a multi-billion-dollar world of video games, trading cards, anime, manga and pop culture.<\/p>\n

And 30 years later, some of the franchise’s first fans are sharing their passion for catching Pok\u00e9mon with their kids.<\/p>\n

\"Cherrish<\/p>\n

Cherrish-Lee Gardiner as one of the main characters of the anime for her school book day. (Supplied: Ebonie Gardiner.)<\/p>\n

Ebonie Gardiner remembers growing up, watching Pok\u00e9mon on the cartoon channel.<\/p>\n

Now her daughter, Cherrish-Lee, is Pok\u00e9mon mad.<\/p>\n

Being able to bond with the 13-year-old is not something Ms Gardiner takes for granted.<\/p>\n

“It’s nice to watch that it travels through generations and hopefully she has some sort of connection with her children,” Ms Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s super cool that it’s something that we can enjoy together and it’s good family time.”<\/p>\n

Her daughter can recall watching the first Pok\u00e9mon movie as a seven-year-old and has been obsessed ever since, collecting 168 Pok\u00e9mon plush toys plus a stack of other memorabilia.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Super-fan Cherrish-Lee Gardiner with her Pok\u00e9mon plushie toy collection.\u00a0 (Supplied: Ebonie Gardiner)<\/p>\n

“I enjoy everything about Pok\u00e9mon, especially how unique they are; I love all Pok\u00e9mon,” Cherrish-Lee Gardiner said.<\/p>\n

“I like the older Pok\u00e9mon \u2026 it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. I still wish they were like a real-life thing like Charmander. I could go around town trying to catch him.”<\/p>\n

The secret sauce of Pok\u00e9mon’s success<\/p>\n

Jason Bainbridge from the University of South Queensland has over two decades of experience in media and communications, and said Pok\u00e9mon’s appeal is in its simplicity and adaptability.<\/p>\n

“It was very cleverly constructed as a narrative that’s really quite timeless,” Professor Bainbridge said.<\/p>\n

“It can adapt quite easily; you can constantly have a new Pok\u00e9mon joining the franchise, and you can have new regions of the world to explore.<\/p>\n

\"Professor<\/p>\n

Jason Bainbridge says Pok\u00e9mon’s simple narrative has allowed the franchise to adapt and stay relevant after three decades to appeal to audiences of all ages. (Supplied: Jason Bainbridge)<\/p>\n

“Most importantly, it’s taken advantage of every technological development during that period of time.”<\/p>\n

He said the continued appeal was down to fans connecting their own dots to the franchise’s narrative.<\/p>\n

“What a good franchise needs to do to maintain its longevity is become generational,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars have occasionally stumbled, struggling at times to find a new direction that satisfies the older fans and also brings in new fans.<\/p>\n

“Pok\u00e9mon’s done it very well because you’ve got that strong attachment to character, but the narrative itself is about finding new characters, going to new places, adding new variations of characters,” he said.<\/p>\n

More news from regional SALasting legacy<\/p>\n

Back in Port Lincoln, Jez Sundqvist hopes his family’s love of Pok\u00e9mon will continue to the next generation.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jez Sundqvist shares a bond with his 11-year-old son, Auden, through Pok\u00e9mon.\u00a0 (ABC Eyre Peninsula: Jack Ward)<\/p>\n

“I’m confident that if my children have children, I would probably be doing it with them too.”<\/p>\n

He said bonding with his son feels like a full-circle moment.<\/p>\n

“It probably does make me a bit sentimental thinking about it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Jez Sundqvist, the Pok\u00e9mon experience is still unforgettable almost three decades after he first encountered it. “It…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134,2582,340932,346,349026,349025,6148,7475,3975],"class_list":["post-719927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-family","tag-family-bond","tag-pokemon","tag-pokemon-30-years","tag-pokemon-game","tag-pokemon-go","tag-tv-shows","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}