Fanthropological

Breaking News! Were you at YetiCon? If so, you may have been a part of our live podcast: *A Fanthropological View of Pokemon*! What is it that keeps a franchise going for over twenty years? Why do fans continue to flock to it? Who are the fans of Pokemon anyway? Stay tuned, and find out! ## Episode outline ### Fandom Facts **Origins:** Pokemon is a video game and media franchise that was started in 1995 by Game Freak / Nintendo video game designer Satoshi Tajiri. The franchise centers on fictional creatures called Pokemon (*Pocket Monsters*) which humans, known as Pokemon trainers, catch and train to battle each other for sport. The is the third best-selling video game franchise (behind Mario, and Tetris) and spans 18 mainline games, over 60 different spin-off games, an anime series that has been running for 20 years and 11 seasons, 20 different movies... there is a *lot* of Pokemon! **Demographics:** Obviously, the main game series has broad appeal, so it is hard to pin down. Using data from [*Club