Pokemon's Christ Allegory

I used to watch Pokemon a lot as a kid. We also played with and traded cards, played the video games, talked about the fictional creatures endlessly, and watched the movies. Back when it was popular--the late 90s/early 2000s--I was too young to note, analyze, or appreciate any symbolic depth to the works I was imbibing. I recall reading Narnia because I liked it. On a subconscious level, though, I think I recognized quality and depth in movies.

The Pokemon movie that came out in 1999, Pokemon the First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back (do not know how Nintendo got away with that name), had all the characters--both human and pocket monster--that the TV series presented to us kids. Naturally, we saw ourselves in the cool, simplistic cartoon characters; we imagined throwing pokeballs, having our Pikachus and Bulbasaurs fight each other, and going on adventures with our friends. Cool.

As a pseudo-adult looking back, I see a side of the movie I must have failed to notice. One scene in particular illustrates my point: It is the scene at the end when Ash sacrifices himself for all of the surrounding Pokemon and humans. After jumping in front of a pair of colliding energy projectiles hurled by the malicious, power-hungry Mewtwo and the angelic, light-hearted Mew, he turns to stone, falls prostrate, and seems to lose all life force. Pikachu begins crying; the rest of the evocative, heartbreaking scene is best retold in motion picture format:

https://www.facebook.com/1691323087814099/videos/1720994688180272/

No matter how ridiculous you think Pokemon is, or how silly you believe cartoons are, or how little you believe in Christ, I think this is still a powerful scene. I want to focus on the end of the scene, where Mewtwo soliloquizes the following:

A human sacrificed himself to save the Pokemon. I pitted them against each other, but not until they set aside their differences did I see the true power they all shared deep inside. I see now that the circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. 

I think this mini-speech is a near-perfect parable of Christ's atonement and love. I swapped the term "human" for "god/Christ/perfected being," and "Pokemon" with "humans/God's children." It is a pretty simple analogy to be drawn; Narnia does the same with Aslan's sacrifice for Edmund's mistakes. Similarly, both Aslan and Ash are "resurrected" in a spectacular and beautiful way.

And beyond the Christ allegory, there is a call to action for those who have been previously pitted against one another in division and conflict: Remember what you share inside--remember who you are, who gave you life, and what you can do with that life. It doesn't matter whether you were born as an orphan street urchin or as a rich heir to the throne, all people ought to come together and "set aside their differences."

While watching this today the allegory came so immediately to me. Before, when I was young, I could not have picked up on the ink between the lines. It took a second reading. Perhaps if I watch it ten years hence, I'll pick up on some other facet(s) I previously missed. Rewatching this scene was a solid reminder that rereading "stuff I've already read before" is well-worth my time.