‘Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years’: inside the secretive world of Pokémon

The Guardian 受访

2 The Guardian

原文

Not content with a billion fans, The Pokémon Company’s COO Takato Utsunomiya talks about his plan to catch the rest of humanity – and for the far-reaching franchise to outlive us all.

译文

不满足于十亿粉丝，株式会社宝可梦的首席运营官宇都宫崇人谈到了他的计划——要捕获全人类，并让这个影响深远的品牌比我们所有人都活得更久。

The Guardian 受访

3 The Guardian

原文

When Satoshi Tajiri was a child, he developed a fascination with insects. Growing up in the greater Tokyo city of Machida during the 1970s, he’d scour the forests and ponds, collecting and observing beetles and caterpillars. But as Tokyo expanded, Machida became more urban, paving over the rural playground that inspired the young Tajiri. In 1990, determined to give urban kids the same feeling of discovery that insect collecting had given him, Tajiri came up with an idea for a Game Boy video game about finding and trading “capsule monsters”.

译文

田尻智小时候就对昆虫产生了浓厚的兴趣。20世纪70年代，他在东京都町田市长大，常常在森林和池塘边搜寻、收集并观察甲虫和毛毛虫。但随着东京的扩张，町田变得越来越城市化，曾经激发年幼田尻智灵感的乡村游乐场被柏油路覆盖。1990年，田尻智决心让城市里的孩子们也能体验到当年昆虫采集带给他的那种发现感，于是萌生了一个关于在Game Boy上寻找和交换“胶囊怪兽”的游戏创意。

The Guardian 受访

4 The Guardian

原文

Thirty-three years later, that first duo of ambitious Game Boy games has blossomed into the world’s highest-grossing media franchise, beating behemoths such as Star Wars and Marvel. Tajiri took a step back from his cutesy creation in 2012, and his developer Game Freak is now part of a larger Pokémon Company – whose COO, Takato Utsunomiya, now sits in front of me in Yokohama.

译文

三十三年后，最初那对雄心勃勃的Game Boy游戏已发展成为全球收入最高的媒体特许经营品牌，超越了《星球大战》和漫威等巨头。田尻智于2012年退居二线，不再直接参与其可爱创作的管理，而他的开发商GAME FREAK如今已成为规模更大的株式会社宝可梦的一部分——该公司的首席运营官宇都宫崇人，此刻正坐在横滨我的面前。

The Guardian 受访

5 The Guardian

原文

Anyone who’s watched a Pokémon Presents live stream will immediately recognise Utsunomiya. Earning a reputation for his flamboyant Pokémon shirts, the impeccably groomed COO has introduced the world to several new generations of Pokémon. “My job? I spend all day every day thinking about Pokémon,” he says with a smile. “Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years – making sure it survives well past our lifetimes.”

译文

任何看过宝可梦发表会（Pokémon Presents）直播的人都会立刻认出宇都宫崇人。这位衣着无可挑剔的首席运营官，以其华丽张扬的宝可梦衬衫而闻名，曾向世界介绍了多个新世代的宝可梦。他微笑着说道：“我的工作？我每天每时每刻都在思考宝可梦。我们的目标是让宝可梦延续数百年——确保它在我们有生之年之后依然长存。”

The Guardian 受访

6 The Guardian

原文

During this year’s Pokémon world championships – the 18th such event – the entire port city of Yokohama was overtaken by Pikachu parades and art installations, as 2,000 competitors and 10,000 fans made the pilgrimage during a particularly humid August, children and adults alike. “I think in the past, we had two separate audiences – younger kids and adults – but now we’re starting to see a family audience where they’re enjoying the experiences together,” says Utsunomiya.

译文

在今年的宝可梦世界锦标赛（WCS）——这一盛事已举办至第18届——整个港口城市横滨被皮卡丘游行和艺术装置所淹没，2000名参赛者和10000名粉丝在特别潮湿的八月前来朝圣，无论孩童还是成人皆然。宇都宫崇人表示：“我认为过去我们有两类不同的受众——年幼的孩子和成年人——但现在我们开始看到一个家庭受众群体，他们共同享受这些体验。”

宇都宫崇人受访

8 宇都宫崇人

原文

“It’s easy to just focus on adults: they have a lot of disposable income, you can see their reactions in real time on social media … But we need to make sure that we are still keeping the younger kids interested,” he continues, “Kids are very honest – they won’t play something they don’t like. If your brand feels old or boring, they will immediately dismiss it.”

译文

“人们很容易只关注成年人：他们拥有大量可支配收入，你可以在社交媒体上实时看到他们的反应……但我们需要确保仍然保持对更年轻孩子的吸引力，”他继续说道，“孩子们非常诚实——他们不会玩自己不喜欢的东西。如果你的品牌显得老旧或无聊，他们会立刻弃之不顾。”

The Guardian 受访

9 The Guardian

原文

Though Tajiri and co’s original characters, from Charizard to Chansey, Gengar to Gyarados, are still the most enduringly recognisable, there are now more than 1,000 little monsters for today’s kids to catch. While some recent designs have moved away from the insects and believable animals of old – see Pokémon inspired by swords, chandeliers and even ice-cream – Game Freak’s designs are still Pokémon’s biggest asset. Can the developer still design monsters as iconic as the original 151?

译文

尽管田尻智及其团队最初设计的角色，从喷火龙到吉利蛋，从耿鬼到暴鲤龙，至今仍是最深入人心的形象，但如今已有超过1000种小怪物可供今天的孩子们捕捉。虽然一些近期的设计已偏离了早期的昆虫和真实动物风格——例如受剑、吊灯甚至冰淇淋启发的宝可梦——但GAME FREAK的设计仍是宝可梦最大的资产。这家开发商还能设计出像最初151只那样标志性的怪物吗？

宇都宫崇人受访

10 宇都宫崇人

原文

“I do think we can continue to create lots and lots of new Pokémon, and really we must create more appealing Pokémon if we want to continue passing on Pokémon to the next generations,” Utsunomiya asserts. “Coming up with new Pokémon ideas is an area that Game Freak really excels in. People who grew up playing Pokémon as kids are now entering Game Freak and are on those teams, creating new Pokémon and coming up with new ideas.”

译文

“我确实认为我们可以继续创造大量新的宝可梦，而且如果我们想继续将宝可梦传承给下一代，就必须创造出更具吸引力的宝可梦，”宇都宫崇人断言道。“构思新的宝可梦是GAME FREAK真正擅长的领域。那些从小玩着宝可梦长大的人现在正加入GAME FREAK，并成为这些团队的一员，创造新的宝可梦，提出新的想法。”

The Guardian 受访

11 The Guardian

原文

Tajiri first dreamed up Pokémon as a video game – the Game Boy’s link cable inspired the trading and battling that defines the franchise’s fiction – but in 2023, games are just one piece of the wider Poké puzzle, alongside the long-running anime series, movies, trading cards and merchandise, and spin-offs such as Pokémon Go. With all that going on, how essential are the video games now to the business?

译文

田尻智最初将宝可梦构想为一款电子游戏——Game Boy的连接线启发了交易与对战，这定义了该系列的核心设定——但在2023年，游戏只是更广阔的宝可梦拼图的一部分，此外还有连载多年的动画系列、电影、集换式卡牌和周边商品，以及像《Pokémon GO》这样的衍生作品。在这一切并行发展的情况下，电子游戏如今对这项业务有多重要？

宇都宫崇人受访

12 宇都宫崇人

原文

“Video games are truly at the core of the brand – and that will continue,” replies Utsunomiya, “the games are really the best way to experience the settings of each Pokémon. We really try to treat them like living creatures; you see them in the game and how they’re behaving there … In the original games, there’s quite a gap between the descriptions in the Pokédex and what you actually saw in the game. But starting with Legends Arceus and Scarlet/Violet, you see [Pokémon like] Bidoof creating dens in the game, and you have Pokémon travelling in packs. So there’s a newfound realism of their setting. When it comes to delivering the descriptions seen in the original Pokédex … there’s a lot more we can do there.”

译文

“电子游戏确实是品牌的核心——而且这一点将继续下去，”宇都宫崇人答道，“游戏确实是体验每只宝可梦所处环境的最佳方式。我们真的努力将它们视为活生生的生物；你在游戏中看到它们，以及它们在那里的行为……在最初的游戏中，宝可梦图鉴的描述与你在游戏中实际看到的之间存在相当大的差距。但从《宝可梦传说阿尔宙斯》和《宝可梦朱／紫》开始，你会看到[像]大尾狸这样的宝可梦在游戏中筑巢，还有成群结队旅行的宝可梦。因此，它们的环境设定有了新的真实感。在呈现最初宝可梦图鉴中看到的描述方面……我们还有很多可以做的。”

The Guardian 受访

13 The Guardian

原文

It has not all been rosy for Pokémon in recent years. 2022’s games, Scarlet and Violet, were visually underwhelming and plagued with bugs (of the technical kind, rather than the cutesy collectible kind), their poor technical performance inciting backlash the franchise had never seen before.

译文

近年来，宝可梦并非一帆风顺。2022年的游戏《宝可梦朱／紫》画面平平，且饱受技术性漏洞困扰（而非可爱的收集类小精灵），其糟糕的技术表现引发了该系列前所未有的争议。

宇都宫崇人受访

14 宇都宫崇人

原文

“Regardless of whether we publicly respond, we’re always paying very close attention to the feedback and conversations happening in the communities,” Utsunomiya says. “There are certain aspects where we can’t always be 100% aligned with what parts of the community are asking for and what we want to provide. But we do this with the desire to keep Pokémon going for a very long time, and I believe that the fans and players are aligned with us in that respect.”

译文

“无论我们是否公开回应，我们始终密切关注社区中的反馈和对话，”宇都宫崇人表示。“在某些方面，我们无法总是与社区的部分诉求及我们想要提供的内容百分之百一致。但我们这样做是出于让宝可梦长久发展的愿望，我相信粉丝和玩家在这方面与我们是一致的。”

The Guardian 受访

16 The Guardian

原文

Outside the games, Pokémon’s recent releases have been spilling over more and more into real life with the eyebrow-raising sleep-tracking app, Pokémon Sleep, and a dental hygiene companion app called Pokémon Smile. It increasingly feels as if Pokémon are positioned less as battling monsters and more as mascots that slot into our day to day lives.

译文

在游戏之外，宝可梦近期的发布越来越多地渗透到现实生活中，推出了令人瞩目的睡眠追踪应用《Pokémon Sleep》和名为《Pokémon Smile》的口腔卫生伴侣应用。越来越让人觉得，宝可梦的定位不再仅仅是战斗怪兽，而是融入我们日常生活的吉祥物。

宇都宫崇人受访

18 宇都宫崇人

原文

“Everyone has to sleep. If we can add a bit of entertainment to an aspect of daily life you have to do anyway, there’s an opportunity there,” laughs Utsunomiya, when I put this to him. “Pokémon is at its most popular in the Americas, Europe and Japan – and if you combine all those populations, it’s around a billion people. So, there are still more than seven billion or so people outside those territories. We really want to have the rest of the world become passionate Pokémon fans. So we need to learn to incorporate those values and cultures around the world.”

译文

“每个人都需要睡觉。如果我们能在你每天必须做的日常事务中增添一点娱乐，那便是一个机会，”宇都宫崇人笑着回应我的提问。“宝可梦在美洲、欧洲和日本最受欢迎——如果将所有这些地区的人口加起来，大约有十亿人。因此，在这些地区之外，仍有七十多亿人。我们真心希望世界其他地方的人们也能成为热情的宝可梦粉丝。所以，我们需要学会融入世界各地的价值观和文化。”

The Guardian 受访

19 The Guardian

原文

It may surprise those outside the Pokémon phenomenon – or those who have fallen off the wagon since the turn of the millennium – that these collectible critters are more popular than ever. The original Game Boy games remain the series’ bestselling, at over 46m units, but 2019’s Pokémon Sword and Shield on the Nintendo Switch have already shifted 26m, and the games as a whole have sold over 460m in total. Pokémon Go still has an estimated 80m active players. There is clearly something enduringly appealing about Japan’s most successful entertainment export. Where Tajiri started out on a catch-em-all quest to capture bugs, the Pokémon Company is now on a quest to capture the world.

译文

对于那些置身宝可梦现象之外的人——或是自千禧年以来便已脱坑的人——可能会感到惊讶：这些可收集的小生物如今比以往任何时候都更受欢迎。最初的Game Boy游戏仍是该系列最畅销的作品，销量超过4600万份，但2019年在Nintendo Switch上推出的《宝可梦剑／盾》已售出2600万份，整个系列游戏总销量已超过4.6亿份。《Pokémon GO》估计仍有8000万活跃玩家。日本最成功的娱乐输出品显然具有某种持久的吸引力。田尻智最初以捕捉昆虫的“集齐所有”任务起步，而株式会社宝可梦如今则致力于征服世界。

宇都宫崇人受访

20 宇都宫崇人

原文

“That there is something that is just universal about Pokémon,” reckons Utsunomiya. “When the first games came out in Japan, it was typical to look at video games as something that are just for boys, but we [soon] realised a much more diverse audience were playing them. We soon found that the games were very appealing to the rest of the world as well … It would make us very happy if, through Pokémon, people can connect with each other – regardless of where they are, or who they are.”

译文

“宝可梦具有某种普世性，”宇都宫崇人认为，“当最初的作品在日本发售时，人们通常认为电子游戏只是面向男孩的，但我们很快意识到，有更多样化的受众在玩这些游戏。我们也很快发现，这些游戏对世界其他地方同样具有吸引力……如果人们能通过宝可梦彼此相连——无论他们身在何处，无论他们是谁——那将令我们非常高兴。”

‘Our goal is to keep Pokémon alive for hundreds of years’: inside the secretive world of Pokémon

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