Polkémon and the Cards that Almost Existed

  With Detective Pikachu electrifying theaters last month, I want to take a trip way back to 1995, when Pokémon was just a twinkle in Satoshi Tajiri’s eye. Now, most people believe that the word ‘Pokémon’ comes from the portmanteau of ‘pocket’ and ‘monster.’ While clever and fitting, this is simply not the case. In fact, Mr. Tajiri coined the term ‘Pokémon’ before he even knew what the franchise would look like. It came to him in a dream after his first night home after several restless days and nights in the cargo hold of a commercial airplane, where he was stuck for three days.

  While it is true that he did eventually decide on the 151 colorful, battling monsters that would take the world by storm, the first draft of Pokémon looked much different. In fact, it had a different spelling, which would lead to a whole different set of characters and storylines. Before Pokémon, there was Polkémon.

  
     Polkémon was the original English spelling that Tajiri gave to his new word. He added the ‘l’ before the ‘k’ because he was more familiar with words like ‘folk’ and ‘yolk’, where the ‘l’ is silent. While looking at this word, he saw what you probably are seeing right now: ‘Polk,’ the last name of the 11th President of the United States of America. His mind started racing with the possibilities of a world exploring life in the mid-19th century in the ever-expanding, less-than-a-century-old United States. 

     Think of all that he could incorporate! The Democrats win back the White House after four years of the Whig party in control! How exciting! George M. Dallas becomes the Vice President, a dream that he had had ever since he realized that he wouldn't be able to be an Olympic weightlifter because the first modern Olympics wouldn't be held for another until many years after his death! And hello? The Mexican-American War!! There was so much to work with, and Tajiri got right to work.

  Here are just a few of the original Polkémon cards that Ken Sugimori, the art director, whipped up.

Very real original art for Polkémon cards

   
  Eventually, after several focus groups of children ages 8-14, Tajiri realized that the average Japanese child had neither the interest in James Polk (or any of the other notable people involved in 1840s geopolitics, for that matter) nor the desire to learn about him in any way — many were violently against the concept as a whole. He went back to the drawing board, thought of Pikachu, and the rest is a 90 billion dollar history. This is all very true.