Pokémon Go and religion are not so far apart
Over the past week, tens of thousands of people have taken to roaming the streets, interacting with invisible beings that now inhabit our cities. These fanatics speak in a special language, undertake hours of devotional activity, and together experience moments of great joy and great sorrow.
What sounds like a sudden global religious conversion, is, of course, the launch of Pokémon Go, an augmented reality smartphone game that has restarted the popular culture phenomenon of Pokémon. In many ways, however, Pokémon and religion are not so far apart. Pokémon owes much of its its conception to creator Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood love of bug collecting, but the mythology and animist religious history of Japan also provided rich inspiration.
Shintoism, Japan’s oldest religion, teaches that the world is inhabited by thousands of kami, or gods. When made offerings of food and incense, kami bestow good luck in business, studies and health, but when disrespected, they can turn vindictive. In many cases, the parallels are clear: the water/ground Pokémon Whiscash bears a strong resemblance to namazu, a catfish who causes earthquakes in Japanese mythology; meanwhile, grass/dark Pokémon Shiftry is a tengu or goblin. In Pokémon Go, when offered food and incense, Pokémon become your allies, rewarding players with points and special items. Alternatively, they can run away or resist capture.
In her 2006 book Millennial Monsters, scholar of contemporary Japan Anne Allison argues that popular culture phenomenon such as Pokémon demonstrate a kind of “techno-animism”, which imbues digital technologies with a spirit or soul.
This type of animism is embedded in commodity consumerism, where emotive ties between people and things are used to push products. But it is equally a means of fighting the dislocation of modern life by allowing consumers to create meaning, connection and intimacy in their life.
We tend to think of religion as diametrically opposed to contemporary technology. But religions have always relied on the latest technologies to spread the gospel – think the Gutenberg Bible and the invention of the printing press. It’s not surprising then that today, religion has moved online: devotees can download the iRosary application to conduct Catholic prayer on-the-go, listen to podcasts of punk Buddhist dharma, and conduct ancestor worship online.
As many have said, what’s compelling about Pokémon Go is its immersive play, which blurs reality and fantasy. Using the phone’s GPS and camera functions, it projects a layer of augmented reality onto a mapped streetscape. This allows players to simultaneously inhabit two worlds – one geographic and one imaginary – leading to both humour and danger when they collide.