The lie has been part of most people's lives, over the years thousands of people spread lies and thousands more believe and end up spreading too. Do you that there were rumors that if you put a 2 liter bottle full of water on the clock, the electricity bill is cheaper? How were thousands of people able to believe such things?
Unfortunately during these years rumors and lies about famous things have been spread, mainly by religious people with no knowledge. We have heard reports that Hello Kitty, Xuxa, Pokemon, Katy Perry, Globo and various famous things have been accused of making a pact with the devil. Nowadays 90% of famous things have made a pact with the devil... It seems that some people 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 does a lie end up being spread? The more outrageous, famous and sensationalized the subject, the easier it is for it to go viral and end up being defined as true by many people. And even with the existence of sites like google and e-farmes, where we can easily search on the subject, it seems that the lies only increase. WhatsApp and social networks are one of the biggest sources of lies spread across 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 claimed 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 little cat. And the character's name has always been Kitty White. The fact that the character has no mouth is a marketing ploy so that people can imagine the little cat's expressions; her eyes are black and without eyebrows precisely so she does not show facial expressions. Some claim that the little cat was created without a mouth to criticize the submission of Japanese women, something that cannot be ruled out.
The great 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 spawned toys, a card game, and adaptations for television. At the time the anime was released in Brazil, many religious people already believed that all Japanese cartoons were from the devil. The mere fact that there were non-real creatures was reason enough for parents to prohibit their children from watching this cartoon.
The problem is that Pokemon was created using fictional creatures precisely to avoid any issues with organizations that advocate for animal rights. Nintendo managed to address this issue concerning animals and didn't worry about Christians, as they are not predominant in Japan. It is up to individual conscience to decide whether or not to watch Pokemon. The issue is that many criticize with all their might but play Mario Bros, the largest franchise of Nintendo, which clearly features magic and supernatural characters.
Pokemon doesn't take place in our universe, many characters may be natural there and a lot was created in the laboratory. There are no scientific arguments to defend pokemons that have hypnosis or ghost-type powers that can hurt the conscience of some Christians. The fact is that Pokemon is a franchise with thousands of games, each with its own story and characters, I personally don't know why condemn a franchise just because 1 out of thousands of pokemons has something questionable. If so, we can't watch anything on TV at all.
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, whereas 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, then they are not normal. Now turning the word monster into demon is a great exaggeration. Thousands of video games and cartoons use the word monster to refer to collectible characters that do not exist in our world, whether in science fiction or not.
Other lies that have been spread on the internet are related to the names of the pokemons, which are nothing but adaptations, abbreviations, and mixtures of the animals they were inspired by, or of their elements and abilities. Some have even claimed that Pikachu means Destructive Monster. Any Japanese student knows that pika is synonymous with light and chuu is mouse. Pika is also simply a small mammal that looks like a mouse; in Brazil, it is called Ochotona.
Some also claim that the cartoon caused hallucinations, suicides and took several children to the hospital. An argument without any foundation, the only worrying thing that happened was people suffering from epilepsy ended up having problems in an episode where they used a strong light in the animation.
What can we conclude from this?
We cannot deny that many drawings, games and other things that originated in Japan have something considered wrong to Christians. The fact that most of the population is Buddhist and Shinto ends up making the authors of these works simply put biblical references because they find it interesting and they don't think that Westerners will criticize or find it strange. Japanese culture is totally different from the western one and they don't see the devil at all, nor do they even 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 search from reliable sources, watch and check out the story. Don't believe rumors just because something is famous and lots of lies have started to circulate about it. The internet is full of lies, stop depending on the opinion of others, or believing everything you read! Take your conscience into !
