#like how Cinnabar is obliterated by a Volcano and forces Blaine into becoming a hermit lmao

[shinygoku]

Kanto (Pokémon Region) kind of sucks.

Y’know, from a quality of living in it point of view.

It’s so urbanised there’s no wide open spaces, the only nature is tiny fringe areas around the cities, extremely regimented right-angled routes, a menacing forest filled with bugs, and awful nightmarish cave systems. The largest single Pokémon habitat is the Safari Zone, something between a nature preserve and a tourist attraction.

Most of the Kanto Pokémon themselves are Poison type, either formed by pollution or thriving from the ambient levels of it. The singular Ghost family is all Poison. Pokémon also swarm around in disused buildings, like the Powerplant (oddly empty of people. Was that before or after Zapdos roosted there?) and the Cinnabar Island Mansion.

The latter of which is filled with the horrors Science can do. Reading the papers sheds light on what made Mewtwo so hostile and why he’d wanna go hang out in a cave instead. While less foreboding, Ditto, Voltorb, Magnemite and Porygon also seem to be man made mons, either purposefully or through unexplained mutations, though the latter category seems to be the case with the aforementioned Pollution Pokémon of Grimer and Koffing.

Other mons are treated poorly, with Lapras being hunted to near extinction, Magikarp being sold as a grift, Slowpoke having their tails cut off, and Team Rocket having 1 confirmed kill on the mother Marowak. While there is a dedicated cemetery for departed Pokémon, the graves were later moved for human convenience, to repurpose the resting place as a Radio Tower! The Casino started as a Front for Team Rocket, but even under new ownership there are again Live Mons given away as prizes for gambling enough. Multiple trainer classes, including one of the Gym Leaders, use whips!!

There’s odd subtext of hostility and abuse of power in the Kanto games:

A drunk old man blocks your path (in the Localised ver, he just needs Coffee lol)

Some annoying kid forcibly drags you to Brock’s Gym if you try to pass

The Nugget Bridge gauntlet (which also seems to be a Team Rocket scheme, were the kid trainers aware of that?!)

Bikes cost more money than you can carry even though there’s a huge Bike only route, which itself is full of hostile people

The guards posted around Saffron City (the big crossroad town of the region) who only let you through upon being given a bribe (of water, but as all 4 were allegedly thirsty, how come they decide to suddenly be Good at the same time??)

Also in Saffron City is the Psychic Gym forcing the Fighting Gym into obscurity

Your Rival ....Green/Blue who is the Professor’s Grandson and who tries to stop you getting a map, as well as being written as a friend turned bully before the events of the game and constantly puts you down on your adventure

But even then, you don’t play as someone totally virtuous, you grab whatever isn’t nailed down as par the RPG course, but beating up a nerd for a Fossil and taking an Eevee from an apartment are a little beyond the norm. But then again, Team Rocket aren’t even subtle about their goals or operation. People just do whatever!

There plain ass doesn’t seem to be much to do, either trawling around in cities where a big shopping mall is in 1 town only, a museum in an even more boring town, hostile “natural” areas or... Pokémon battles. You can see why everyone and their grandma challenges you.

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I’m not saying all this makes the setting a bad game, though! I kind of love the Edge and the Grime! Kanto games are very flawed but the way it managed to weave a lot of insidious subtext into the games is pretty impressive, though I can’t be sure how much was intended lol

...I admit I almost completely forgot about the Sevii Islands, but I simply have no idea what they’re like as I never played FRLG and they seem to be gone again in Let’s-A Go lmao

While it’s unfairly overplayed as hell compared to the other regions, it really stands out for the Cruddiness! Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh all feel like Ghibli paradises in comparison, and the later regions not based on parts of Japan all have a different flavour even when they’re quite urbanised too. (I’d like to go into the other 3 regions of the first Tetralogy some time, they’re what I know and love the most ;3c)

Disclaimer: My observations on Pokémon Kanto are not indicative of how the real Kantō region of Japan may have been in the 90’s.