[Note: The main text of Pokemon Story is written by freelance author, Kenji Hatakeyama. Masakazu Kubo adds marginal notes at various points throughout the text. The translator has set aside Kubo's text with brackets.]
"What to do with the sudden appearance of Mew?" So wondered the people involved.
Rumors of the existence of a phantom Pocket Monster are a great way to create a buzz, but there is no telling what direction the rumors will take if left unchecked. Nintendo was also concerned about how to communicate the existence of Mew to the users.
Unless something was done, there were many possibilities, ranging from occult-like stories to debugging errors to poor program management by Nintendo.
At that point, Tajiri made a suggestion. He said, "I would like to give Mew as a gift to children." He wanted to give a Pokémon called Mew to children and see how it spreads among them. It was a proposal that could only come from the original creator of the Pokemon game, which was based on the keyword "exchange." Perhaps Tajiri could imagine Mew spreading like a ripple among children after he gifted it to them.
Tajiri's idea seemed like a strange one. It is true that the children had discovered the story of the phantom Pokémon. There is no reason to stop the story from going forward as the children want it to go. Besides, if the original creators could officially declare the existence of Mew and make it a gifting event, it might establish a clear image of a special game that has a special Pokémon.
However, what Tajiri, Ishihara and Kubo had in mind at this time was something much more straightforward. They thought that if children wanted it, the best thing to do was to give it to them as a gift. This turned out to be the best solution for the children, for Nintendo, for the editorial department of CoroCoro Comic, and for the Pokemon product.
That left the question of how to present Mew to children, and CoroCoro Comic was the perfect place to do it. Kubo discussed the idea of a Mew present in the magazine with the editorial board. The editorial board agreed on the idea of a magazine giveaway, and immediately proposed the idea to the original creators Nintendo, Creatures, and Game Freak.
After receiving approval from Nintendo, Kubo announced in the May issue of the monthly CoroCoro Comic, which went on sale on April 15, that 20 people would be chosen by drawing from among the applicants to receive a phantom Pokémon Mew. "First, send us a postcard entry, and if you win, send us your Pokémon game cartridge. Twenty winners will be chosen by lottery and the cartridge will be returned with a Mew in it." That was the content of the announcement.
At that time, Tajiri made a request through Ishihara regarding the content of the announcement.
He requested that they never say "data will be given as a gift" to children. The reason was that Pokémon are living creatures. Kubo understood this very well. For in his conversations with Ishihara, he had sensed the same kind of commitment to Pokémon in Ishihara's tone of voice.
"However, as the editorial department of CoroCoro Comic, it was necessary to officially describe the item that would be given to the children, since there should be no misunderstanding that they would receive a stuffed toy as a way of explaining the project to them. After Mr. Tajiri pointed this out to me, I was careful not to use the word 'data' even if it would increase the number of words used in the explanation. I am sure that the original creators' thoughts and feelings were conveyed to the children." (Kubo)
Children must also think of Pokémon as living creatures. Perhaps this game could really become a game loved by children, Kubo thought.
Naturally, there was talk among those involved about how many applications would be received... would a thousand or so apply? No, it's a magazine with a circulation of over a million copies, so we might get 4,000 or 5,000 people. But if we really had that many applicants, it would be very difficult to hold a lottery. ...That was the kind of conversation they had. That was about the number of applications that the people involved, including the editorial department of CoroCoro Comic, were expecting.
Then the May issue of CoroCoro Comic went on sale, and it was the day after that. And so they came. Thick stacks of postcards piled up on the desks of those in charge day after day. By the deadline, a total of 78,000 postcards had been received. This was not just an event that exceeded expectations. Even in the world of children, it was already a social phenomenon. At that time, the population of grade school students was about 8 million, and almost 1% of those children applied for the contest.
"I thought at the time that this could be a big deal. I think the total number of Pokémon shipped at the time of the raffle was still around 350,000 to 400,000 units, and 78,000 letters came from that number. Considering that some children don't apply for these events, it became clear to me that the majority, if not all, of the Pokémon players are readers of CoroCoro Comic. I thought, 'If that's the case, I can play catch with them in a variety of ways.' In other words, if we do various gimmicks with CoroCoro Comic, all Pokémon players will respond to them."
At that time, Kubo was convinced of the potential of the Pokemon material. The enthusiasm of the children, transformed into 78,000 postcards, was real, and he could feel it firsthand.
"If we're talking in terms of out or safe, of course it was safe." (Kubo)
It was Kubo who first ruled Tajiri's close play on the home plate, the man who brought Pokémon to completion, safe.
With the aim of confirming this, Kubo held another Mew giveaway three months later in the August issue of the same monthly CoroCoro Comic, released on July 15. Again, 80,000 entries were received for 100 winners. The children were eagerly waiting for Mew. Seeing this, Kubo decided to hold a third Mew giveaway, but this time, he decided to move it from CoroCoro Comic to an event venue.
The Ipsum Cup 4th Next Generation World Hobby Exhibition was held at Tokyo Big Sight from August 23, 1996. This is a trade fair for companies that use characters managed and operated by Shogakukan and Shogakukan Productions for their sales promotion, as well as for companies that appear in Shogakukan magazines. Many toy manufacturers exhibit their products, including pre-release game consoles and game software, and the event is known to draw crowds of children on open days. On this occasion, the fair was held at the request of CESA. Kubo decided to distribute Mew at the venue in a guerrilla-like fashion.
"The announcement in the magazine only said that if you brought your Game Boy hardware and Pokémon cartridge to the event, something good would happen, but it did not say that you could get Mew. I hired about 10 part-time workers, gave them all a lot of Mew, and set up a desk at the event site. And, of course, they did come. We connected each child who came to the event with the cable and exchanged Pokémon, so each child would give us a Pokémon and we would give them a Mew in return. We did not have a vendor machine like Nintendo, so we had to hand-deliver the Pokémon one by one. At that time, I think we gave out about 700 in two days." (Kubo)
In August, the same month as this event, CoroCoro Comic moved Pokémon from the bimonthly supplementary volume to the monthly main magazine (September issue) and began a new serialization. This was because of its tremendous popularity in the supplementary volume.
[Postcards sent to CoroCoro Comics]
Even now, more than 100,000 postcards are sent to the editorial office every month.
[View of Mew gifting at event venue]
At that time, each person was given a gift through Pokémon trading using a link cable.