Emerging as one of the more pervasive and successful phenomena of contemporary popular culture, Pokemon has inspired as unlikely a deluge of detractors as it has devotees. I’ve found this backlash against a seemingly innocuous and delightful fad a trifle unfair, to say the least. So I’m here to burn the begrudgers. Prepare for trouble…

Some of the viscously negative hype which Pokemon has managed to generate has merely been the throwaway abuse that is mutually volleyed between the various “Cool” stances in the playground of the Popular. It’s the sort of mentality that informs eccentric internet hate sights, and while acerbic, is essentially benevolent, implying that Pokemon is at most an annoying but harmless fad.

Pokemon first found itself target of media fury when an excessively frenzied animated sequence in an television episode broadcast early in the original Japanese animee series induced seizures of hundreds of viewing children. Conspiracy theories be damned, of course – nothing like this ever happened again. Nintendo have nothing against epileptics.

However, by the time Pokemon had been exported to the USA, and ultimately disseminated to the Western world, there were scare-mongering stories in TIME magazine and its various media vehicles, and a generally paranoid and contemptuous attitude towards the phenomenon appeared. I’ve formed a mental picture of grey-faced and humourless legions muttering earnestly about the “Pokemon Menace”. We’ve been told before that Satan’s minions are out there, gleefully endeavouring to be a bad influence on children, like they’ve nothing more evil to do. I’m unconvinced of the validity of these crude and humourless attacks, even if they are steeped in pseudo-intelligent guff about symptoms of societal obsession with violence and acquisition. That’s just Americans desperately wrenching macrosociological implications from pop ephemera. Child psychologists from the American Institute of Family and Media studies can vilify Pokemon all they want. If you approach the phenomenon with a marketing demographics textbook under one arm you’ll possibly come to the conclusion that Pokemon only exists to sell itself in its various forms to people who are easily advertised at and too young to realise they can waste their disposable income on cigarettes. But you still aren’t anywhere near explaining its Appeal.

I’ve often channel-surfed my way to the Pokemon television series, and it appeals to me. I haven’t overdosed on product placement, in fact I’m absorbed by the concept of these 150 quirkily improbably creatures; amused by the antics of Pokemon trainers Ash, Brock and Misty, and of course Team Rocket, Pokemon’s token Bad guys. It’s all very fluffy – Ash and his chums are a typically inoffensive bunch of late nineties cartoon kids, all multicultural and altruistic. Team Rocket, ritually humiliated at the end of each TV episode, are far from sinister. And the Pokemon themselves are hardly standard monsters - indeed, the idea of such endearingly cute creatures engaging in brutal single combat is pleasantly incongruous.

I learnt very little form the anti-hype, and I suspected I’d learn less form the hype. Instead, I consulted a genuine expert on all things Pokemon. Saul, being eleven, is more than qualified to help me plumb the depths of Pokemon Cool. Forget about violence in Pokemon, by the way. Combat, for Pokemon, is like sports for humans, a challenging and rewarding physical endeavour. The incongruity of cute being cruel is fairly irrelevant when you consider what otherwise civilised beings are prepared to endure for kicks. And Pokemon are never Bad. Pokemon only do bad things because their trainers bid them thus. There’s a conspicuous lack of death in Pokemon. It’s just too nice. Even Team Rocket feature fondly in the arcana of Pokemon collectibles. But it’s not really about the humans. Their part in the whole thing is secondary - Picachu, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and chums are what it’s all about. It’s the way they look and act, Saul tells me. Part of the Pokemon experience is that it demands a multiplicate mental catalogue of names, types, attributes and evolutions. It’s all essential to gameplay, and far from passive entertainment.

Pokemon, in its multifarious manifestations (book, games, TV, trading cards and every sort of tangential merchandise imaginable) and with it’s concept of Pokemon capture - Gotta Catch ‘Em ALL!!! – has been accused of fostering an fixation with acquisition and hoarding. Saul admits that too much money is probably spent on the Pokemon franchise, but it seems kids do see the Sell. It’s blatant, after all. When it comes to acquiring Cool Stuff, though, many aspects of the craze seem to encourage sociability and cooperation, such as the hugely popular trading cards or the range of GameBoy games, where trade with peers rather than voracious consumption is the name of the game. Pokemon feeds the head. Its aficionados aren’t about to murder their loved ones. It may possibly herald the Japanese dominance of global culture, but that’s as disturbing as it gets. Whether the sensation dies like so many others or evolves like Pokemon, it deserves to be regarded favourably among recent cultural ephemera. Give Pokemon a chance.