Pokémon Creator Admits Game is Anti-Christian, Created for Satanists-Fiction!

Pokémon Creator Admits Game is Anti-Christian, Created for Satanists-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:
An interview with Pokemon creator Satoshi Tajiri in which he admits he created the game as a backlash against his Christian parents went viral amid the success of the game, Pokémon Go.
The Truth:

Pokémon isn’t anti-Christian, and the game wasn’t originally created for Satanists.

Those rumors started after an old, satirical interview with Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri resurfaced after the release of Pokemon Go in July 2016.
The fake interview, which appeared at the video game news site Play4Real under the headline “Pokémon Creator Admits Games are Anti-Christian, Aimed Towards Satanists,” includes excerpts from a fictional Time magazine interview:

Time: What inspired you to start making the Pokémon games?

Tajiri: Well, my parents were Christians. I grew up being taught the ways of that religion. When I got older, I started to realize that the things they said were foolish and I guess I rebelled a little.

Time: How did you rebel?

Tajiri: I started to argue against their teachings. They tried to punish me in various ways to try to get me under control, but it didn’t work. This is when I was inspired by nature and started the basis for the Pokémon games.

Time: Could you explain how your parent’s religion is connected with the games?

Tajiri: Well, when I got old enough, I wanted to do something that would show the world that my parents were wrong. Something I saw in nature was the concept of evolution which my parents vehemently denied existed. This sparked the idea for a game that would go against everything my parents believed in.

Time: This game being Pokémon, correct?

Tajiri: Yes. Pokémon is essentially the correct answer towards life, not Christianity. Everything presented in the game is the opposite of what Christians may believe. Some have said that the game promotes voodoo or magic, and I agree in the sense that there are many things that occur in nature that are unexplainable. Furthermore, the violence in the games is unparalleled. It may not show up in the actual graphics, but the brutality is made especially explicit in the Pokédex entries. Nature, again, played a big role.

Time: So those who say that the game is anti-Christian are correct?

Tajiri: I suppose so. I mean, some could say that the game supports Satanism. I don’t officially celebrate it, but I can understand why people would be attracted to it.

In reality, that interview never took place and Pokémon’s creator never said the game was anti-Christian or was geared toward Satanists. He did, however, sit down for a real interview with Time Asia in 1999 and talked briefly about the game’s inspiration, which was Tajiri’s fascination with collecting bugs:

TIME: Did you get the idea for Pokémon from these insects?

Tajiri: Yes. Places to catch insects are rare because of urbanization. Kids play inside their homes now, and a lot had forgotten about catching insects. So had I. When I was making games, something clicked and I decided to make a game with that concept. Everything I did as a kid is kind of rolled into one–that’s what Pokémon is. Playing video games, watching TV, Ultraman with his capsule monsters–they all became ingredients for the game.

Tajiri rarely gives media interviews, and we couldn’t find any evidence of him talking about Christianity or Satanism.