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← darkroom
Pokemon and School
It is so wild to me to see school play such a fairly active role in our protagonists lives sofar, and while I'm sure that'll be slid to the background as the show goes on it's really got me thinking about how this aspect has been treated over the years.
In Takeshi Shudo's list of wacko ideas he had for the show in his collected 2 novels 1 of which was that by the time you were 10 you were a legal adult, including all of the horrifying ramifications that implies, this... obviously didn't factor into the show itself but in turn the nature of what Ash's school life was ever like is kept vauge aside from years later just hearing that he's wanted to go to a few summer camps. In season 1 we get that one trainer school episode which seems more focused on how to train and battle with pokemon than regular education (which appears shockingly similar to the school Liko is enrolled in but obviously isn't the same place) and, to my knowledge anyway, we don't hear about school much again until Sun and Moon with the Pokemon School, which definitely feels like a special private school of sorts, not in terms of being ritzy and stuck up but more in it's fairly chill atmosphere compared to, say the schools we see Goh and Chole attend in JN or even, again Liko's school.
Roy takes online classes (which wow, I can't even think of an anime off the top of my head that just outright has a character do that. I'm sure they exist but I don't know em) and while we can assume it's similar to Liko's in that it focuses on trainer stuff, it may also double as his general education as well, which really gets me thinking about the logistics of it all. Now look this is a silly cartoon/franchise that is mostly about capturing that sense of childlike adventure and applying that to the fantasy of being a child who is able and capable of going on a massive region wide adventure alone, and we more than likely aren't supposed to be thinking of these things too seriously but I can't help myself, especially when the current show itself even decides to mention that Liko's school vacation will be over soon instead of making it ambiguously long to match the length of her journey lol.
Given that there are obviously working professional adults, it really nakes me think that being a trainer is something one can try to make a full career out of, but like alot of careers of the sort it isn't a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket like that, even if this society would be fairly accepting of people trying. Like there may be a bunch of different schools with special curriculums to factor in traveling trainers, less they try to bumrush a gym/trail run during an especially long vacation, which may not even end well if league tournaments and such happen at specific times. Again time in Ash era pokeani was merely a suggestion and so you didn't have to worry to much about him having to collect badges in a certain amount of time but if that's no longer the case, then in this setting, one where society at large is so intertwined with Pokémon and living with them, the schools would have to really factor that into their school years. (Like god could you imagine what it must have been like pre "internet"/Rotom technology? haha!)
Ok I think I'm just rambling at this point but I kinda can't stop thinking about it, anybody have any thoughts?
I wish there was signal strong enough irl for people to stop in the middle of a forest and attend their classes irl lolol.
If i had to imagine how they did it pre internet/rotom tech(altho lowkey they alr had advanced enough tech for online classes in the pokemon world... we just didnt imagine the idea of remote classes ig), I'd say they probably just took years off. Sorta like gap years? Since kids would often want the adventuring experience, ppl probably didnt think much of age differences in various classes/grades.abt the last bit, Ive always thought that was how it was meant to be. of course for people like Ash pokemon battling is their entire life goal, but for the majority of ppl in-universe that's clearly not the case. Even most of Ash's travel companions(or classmates, in SM) only travel temporarily and have different career goals outside of being a league champion. Not to mention it doesn't actually seem to pay anything, u gotta get sponsored the way Leon does.
another thing i notice is that friede(and to some extent the other adults onboard) feel a lot more present as adults. Ash in the early generations of the show did NOT feel like a ten year old, so even tho he was way younger than the adults he travels with it never rlly felt like there was a difference in maturity or responsibility.