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Piplup and Me
Before Mom and Dad had become accustomed to spending their vacation time in their Shanghai apartment or traversing Singapore’s many air-conditioned malls, my parents loved visiting new locales that would make them feel important and learned. My mother especially loved gawking at the exotic dancers of Phuket and speculating as to who was transgender and who was born female. “Look on the feet on that dancer, he’s definitely a man”, she once said to my father partly drunk. However, one trip that transformed my life forever was a visit to Tokyo just before the great recession hit. My father had decided to indulge me with a trip to the city’s famous Electric Town mall. It was there, among the cornucopia of cutting-edge electronics and widely acclaimed video games, that I saw the stuffed animal that would change my life forever.
The stuffed animal looked just like the cartoon character from my favorite television show. He had a round head shaped like bowling ball with an unremarkable yellow beak. His black and white oval eyes only accentuated his blue hair and light blue body. His thick down resembled superman’s cape. On his chest were two round white circles that were supposed to be buttons but looked like nipples. Pressing the button on his hand and hearing him talk aroused a deep passion that was unbecoming of any maturing eleven-year-old boy. This talking penguin was a promotional item to promote the latest season of Pokémon. A consortium of Japanese companies had designed, manufactured, and sold hundreds of thousands of talking pocket monsters for more than a decade. This talking penguin plush was nothing special or extraordinary, except to the many people that bought it. To me, Piplup was more than an adorable baby penguin that was disinclined to working hard and desired nothing more than the affections of his owner. While he alienated many non-Japanese viewers for his off-putting arrogance and headstrong attitude, he certainly appealed to me. Perhaps it was because of our similarities. Piplup loved indulging in his favorite foods, just like me. I craved other people’s attention and affection, just like him. In one episode, the penguin attempts to desert his owner and her posse after wrongly concluding that they no longer loved him. His stunt lands him and the group in hot water. The posse must spend the entire episode trying to find him while fending off the weekly villains. That story, while juvenile and badly written, was particularly resonant to me. Who among us hasn’t felt unloved and isolated after a heated argument with friends and family? How many teenagers, even those blessed with a privileged upbringing, haven’t fantasized about escaping to a faraway land to make something of themselves?
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co /
eh /
fit /
halp /
jew /
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phi /
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sci /
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zom
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a /
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grim /
hi /
me /
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cake /
cd /
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fag /
fur /
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h /
men /
pco /
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unf
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