The lie has been part of the lives of most people, over the years thousands of people spread lies and other thousands believe and end up spreading them too. Do you remember that there were rumors that if you put a 2-liter bottle full of water in the clock, the electricity bill would be cheaper? How could thousands of people believe in such things?
Unfortunately, over the years rumors and lies about famous things have been spread, mainly by religious people without any knowledge. We have already heard reports that Hello Kitty, Xuxa, Pokemon, Katy Perry, Globo, and various famous things were accused of having a pact with the devil. Nowadays, 90% of famous things have had a pact with the devil… It seems that some love to burn famous things.
This all happens because some idiot spreads a rumor on the internet, and people believe it and help the rumor spread. How is a lie spread? The more scandalous, famous, and sensationalist the subject, the easier it is for it to go viral and end up being defined as truth for many people. And even with the existence of sites like Google and e-farsas, where we can easily research the subject, it seems that lies only increase. WhatsApp and social networks are one of the biggest sources of lies spread throughout Brazil.
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Lies about Hello Kitty
In 2005, a rumor circulated on the internet that Hello Kitty was created by a woman through a pact with the devil to cure a 14-year-old child who had cancer. This rumor spread in such a way that many people around me stopped buying products from this brand and criticized those who had such products. And this was not the only rumor; there were versions that said the little girl was born without a mouth or with cancer in her mouth.
Others said that the word Kitty meant devil in Chinese, even though Hello Kitty was created by Japanese people. China and Japan are completely different from each other, especially in language. Any English student obviously knows that Kitty means kitten. And the character’s name has always been Kitty White or white kitten. The fact that the character has no mouth is a marketing move so that people can imagine the kitten’s expressions; her eyes are black and without eyebrows exactly to not present facial expressions. Some claim that the kitten was created without a mouth to criticize the submission of Japanese women, something we cannot dismiss.
The big truth is that Hello Kitty was created by 3 men in 1974 who worked at Sanrio. The designer of the kitten was made by Ikuko Shimizu. Japan is famous for creating mascots and fictional characters; the company Sanrio had exactly this focus, to create characters and sell their licenses or products.
Lies about Pokemon
Pokemon was another franchise that was successful worldwide, created by the great Japanese gaming company Nintendo. The franchise where you capture little creatures on handheld video games became so famous that it gained toys, card games, and television adaptations. At the time the anime was released in Brazil, many religious people already had in their heads that all Japanese cartoons were from the devil. The mere fact that there were non-real creatures was already a reason for parents to prohibit their children from watching this cartoon.
The problem is that Pokemon was created using non-real creatures precisely to avoid any issues with organizations that defend animals. Nintendo managed to solve this problem with animals and didn’t even worry about Christians, since they do not predominate in Japan. It is up to the person’s conscience to decide whether or not to watch Pokemon. The problem is that many criticize with all their might but play Mario Bros, the biggest franchise of Nintendo that clearly has magic and supernatural characters.
Pokemon does not take place in our universe; many characters may be native to there, and much of it was created in a laboratory. There are no scientific arguments to defend the pokemons that have hypnosis powers or ghost types that may hurt the conscience of some Christians. The fact is that Pokemon is a franchise with thousands of games, each with its story and characters; I personally don’t know why to condemn a franchise just because 1 out of thousands of pokemons has something questionable. If that’s the case, we can’t watch absolutely anything on TV.
People don’t know how to translate
Now let’s talk about the biggest stupidity and lie spread on the internet related to Pokemon. Many religious people suggest that the name means pocket demons, while the literal translation of Pokemon (Pocket Monster) means pocket monsters. Of course, if we research the meaning of the word monster, we can understand that it is something questionable; however, monster is a word that means any being or thing contrary to nature, anomaly, or deformity. Since the pokemons are not real animals, they are not normal. Now to turn the word monster into demon is a big exaggeration. Thousands of video games and cartoons use the word monster to refer to collectible characters that do not exist in our world, whether science fiction or not.
Other lies that have been spread on the internet are related to the names of the pokemons, which are nothing more than adaptations, abbreviations, and mixtures of the animals they were inspired by, or their elements and abilities. Some even said that Pikachu means Destroyer Monster. Any Japanese student knows that pika is synonymous with light and chuu is rat. Pika is also simply a small mammal that looks like a rat; in Brazil, it is called Ochotona.
Some also claim that the cartoon caused hallucinations, suicides, and sent several children to the hospital. An argument without any foundation; the only concerning thing that happened was that people who suffer from epilepsy ended up having problems in an episode where a strong light was used in the animation.
What can we conclude from this?
We cannot deny that many cartoons, games, and other things that originated in Japan have something considered wrong by Christians. The fact that most of the population is Buddhist and Shintoist ends up making the authors of these works simply put biblical references because they find it interesting and do not think that Westerners will criticize or find it strange. Japanese culture is completely different from Western culture, and they do not see the devil in everything, nor do they think about conspiracies, hidden messages, or anything like that when creating their works.
If you want to know if a Japanese game or anime is appropriate for your child, simply research reliable sources, watch, and check the story. Do not believe in rumors just because something is famous and various lies have started to circulate about it. The internet is full of lies; stop depending on the opinions of others or believing everything you read! Consider your own conscience!
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