Help a parent: what do you know about Bakugan?

[Mithrandir]

Hey everyone!

I've received an email from a parent asking for some assistance. This person has as child that's into Bakugan, and would like to know what it's about. Since we don't have an official review here (and the mod staff doesn't have a great deal of experience with the title), I'm posting a thread to you guys, asking for those of you who have seen it to post a little bit of information. I've emailed the parent and Referred 'em here.

If you have experience, please compose a little note. If you happen to BE a parent, so much so the better! Please rate this title similar to the reviews system.

For example, on a scale of 1 to 10 (one being low), how would you rate this anime in the following areas:
Violence:
Offensive Language:
Sexual Content:
Nudity:
Negative religious themes:

Also, feel free to post anything else you think would be of use. Would you let *your* children watch this show? What age do you think it's appropriate for?

Thanks so much for helping out, everyone!

- Mithrandir

[EricTheFred]

Violence: 2 Pokemon-like battle scenes involving the monsters, not the humans. They look pretty scary, but there isn't a lot of action to the 'battles'.

Offensive Language: 2 (kids insulting each other using childish insult words, that's about it.)

Sexual Content: 1 None at all, really.

Nudity: 2 (No nudity, but some parents might find some of the female characters under-dressed.)

Negative religious themes: 2. On the plus side, Good and Evil are clearly defined, with Good being the cool side to be on. On the other hand, the monsters of Bakugan might be seen by some as equivalent to demons, since they have a dimension of their own (analagous to Hell?) It would be a stretch to see it this way.

I have no issues with my children watching this show. (My youngest is turning 8 in a couple weeks. The monsters might look a little scary to children younger than her.) I dislike the fact that it is largely an infomercial for Bakugan merchandising, roughly in the same way Pokemon is.

[rocklobster]

It's just like Pokemon, but with marbles. There's really nothing else to it, from what I can gather. BTW, welcome to CAA.

[goldenspines]

I am the parent and have a 5 yr old who is picking up on the Bakugan craze. I am smart enough to know that it's just good to be an informed parent. Other than that, I HAVE NO CLUE about what Bakugan and Pokemon are. My 5 yr old and I checked out a Pokemon movie from the library, but it made absolutely no sense to me! What my son is getting interested in is mainly the card/marble game. So I guess I had a logistical question (the jist of the game) and a philosophical question. Is the philosophy behind it objectionable?

Well, while I don't know much about Bakugan, I can tell you a bit about Pokemon.

Basically, it's really just a cute little cartoon where kids use their "pokemon" (short for Pocket Monsters) to battle and to help them achieve their goals of being the best "pokemon trainer". So, in the sense of showing people that they can achieve their goals if they work hard enough, it's a great show for that.

Though, there are a one thing in particular to be aware of in the series. That is the term entitled "evolution", which is mentioned in the video games, anime, and it comes up in the card game. This basically happens when a pokemon grows up to a certain age (or level, in the video games, or evolution card in the card games). Though, the idea of evolution in pokemon is based on microevolution, which, for example, is not a mouse changing into a dog, but rather a mouse changing into a stronger mouse.

But that mostly has to do with the anime/video games, I'll explain a bit of what I know about the card game.
The rules were always a bit complicated, but this pokemon site: http://www.go-pokemon.com/tcg/howtoplay/ as well as this wikipedia article explaining about what cards do what: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Trading_Card_Game will probably explain things better about how the whole games works better than I can.
The game works much like the anime/video games. You can play certain pokemon cards and try to defeat your opponent's pokemon by means of flipping a coin, adding energy cards to your pokemon, etc.
The card game is fun, as long as you don't put high stakes on winning or losing the game. Because the game is left up to chance, a lot of players often use it as a gambling tool. I wouldn't worry about this with a 5-year old, but it's something to keep in mind at least. ^_^


Overall, the philosophy behind pokemon is not something I would consider to be objectionable. Some of the content in the anime/video games can be a bit strange (i.e. explaining where pokemon came from and stuff), but as long as your son knows that pokemon is fantasy and knows who the true God is, things should be fine concerning that. ^_^

And lastly, major kudos to you. I love it when parents get involved with and care about what their children are watching.

I hope my rambling helped you out. ^_^; If you have any other questions or if something is still not clear to you, please don't hesitate to ask.

[EricTheFred]

The only other thing that caught my attention on other forums was that someone said there is some satanic symbolism in the game. (a pentagram or something???) That just made me wonder more deeply about the philosophy.

Pentagrams, when encountered in anything from the Far East, have nothing to do with Satanism, just like hexagrams in same have nothing to do with Judaism (unless they are explicitly referring to something Jewish, which does come up once in a very long while).

The pentagram in Asia is a Taoist symbol, representing the five elements and the corresponding five visible planets (which are named by both Chinese and Japanese speakers according to their associated elements. Thus Kasei = Fire Planet = Mars.) It makes no difference to Asians which way the symbol is oriented. The exact same reasoning gives certain Japanese philosophies (and, IIRC, Esoteric Buddhism) the six-pointed star that we think of as the Star of David. This is because these add a sixth element, "Void", or nothingness.

Actually, pentagrams once had nothing to do with evil in the West as well, regardless of whether they were 'upright' or 'inverted'. They represented the five wounds of Christ, for which reason Constantine had one on his seal ring. From what I understand, the idea of the 'inverted' pentagram being evil can't be traced back farther than the nineteenth century. This is why it is possible to find older churches and other public structures with inverted pentagrams in the ornamentation. The most prominent example of this in the US would be the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS (which some dimwits will point to as 'proof' the Mormons are 'in league with the Devil'), but there are plenty of other examples around, including churches belonging to other faiths.

[TriezGamer]

That was a fascinatingly informative post, EtR. Thank you.

[Etoh*the*Greato]

I am the parent and have a 5 yr old who is picking up on the Bakugan craze. I am smart enough to know that it's just good to be an informed parent. Other than that, I HAVE NO CLUE about what Bakugan and Pokemon are. My 5 yr old and I checked out a Pokemon movie from the library, but it made absolutely no sense to me! What my son is getting interested in is mainly the card/marble game. So I guess I had a logistical question (the jist of the game) and a philosophical question. Is the philosophy behind it objectionable?

Philosophically, I can't really say that it posseses anything actually all that objectionable. As others have stated there's a very strong line drawn between good and evil. Any fuzziness might be the show's lens of cultural difference (having come from a different country with a sometimes alien viewpoint to the western world) but the underlying morality is pretty solid. Things like treating people with respect, standing up for what you know is right, being true to your friends, that sort of thing. They could do a lot worse.

There is, obviously, going to be a marketing angle to it as well, but this is a danger you run with almost any show (and it's a danger that's been around for half a century now). The only shows that don't actively hawk their products using the program are still strongly marketed with lots of merchandising.

The show doesn't preach Christ as Lord, no, but there is a lot to be said about the generic kind of morality it does preach.

As for interpreting things, it always helps to sit down and enjoy them with your kids (which you're obviously already doing). I wouldn't worry about being lost so much. The plot elements might be largely jargon aimed at people who are already deeply enmeshed in the series but any moral sticking points will pop up regardless. As for things like this, Harry Potter, and Pokemon, remember that these are works of fiction. They take place in a world that is not ours, but they often share the same struggles we do, and (at least in the case of childrens programming) the same moral viewpoints if just not the same theological viewpoints.