Book chapter
Masterful Trainers and Villainous Liberators: Law and justice in Pokémon Black and White
Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture From Crime Fighting Robots to Duelling Pocket Monsters, pp.74-91
Routledge
2018
Abstract
This chapter highlights how both Pokémon Black and White and the law itself construct a human-orientated rights discourse. It discusses Pokémon, persona and the Poké Ball and examines how categories of legal personhood trap the non-human within Pokémon, reading the Poké Ball as a representation of the technic of persona – that which brings the wild creature within the scope of legality. The chapter moves away from the Pokémon trainer capturing nature through battles against wild Pokémon to the battles between trainers themselves. It turns from the structure of Pokémon as an analogy of law to the very nature of the game as a site of legality which, through its interactivity, reproduces an 'optical delusion' – the anthropocentric gaze of law. This perspective points to the need for law to evolve beyond these delusions of anthropocentricity, embracing a change which may provide equity for the non-human creature.
Details
- Title
- Masterful Trainers and Villainous Liberators: Law and justice in Pokémon Black and White
- Authors
- Dale Mitchell (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Law and Society
- Contributors
- Ashley Pearson (Editor) - Griffith UniversityThomas Giddens (Editor) - St Mary's University Twickenham LondonKieran Tranter (Editor) - Griffith University
- Publication details
- Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture From Crime Fighting Robots to Duelling Pocket Monsters, pp.74-91
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781315136134-6; 10.4324/9781315136134
- ISBN
- 9781315136134
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99611508502621
- Output Type
- Book chapter
Metrics
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