Should Pokémon add a deaf Character?

[TomTheTrainer510]

I mean Pokémon should add a Deaf character in the anime as a Character of the Day. Sure they already have a Large Diverse Cast of Characters with different skin tones. I just thought it would be cool.

 

[Mimicking Mimikyu]

I think that would be awesome! I can think of some good ideas for plots based around that.

 

[Palamon]

They should, but I don't think they will. It would be amazing, though.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

As I have always said when it comes to anime and video games, Asian Cultures do not care about inclusion. So I doubt they will. They are not the Unite States.

I think a deaf character is a little to much given this is a child's anime in most cases, aimed at 4 to 8 year olds. I do not mean that in a negative way, but I can almost guarantee a child will not read the dialogue and they will be lost. This would also be incredibly hard to include in the anime that involves a large amount of talking and giving commands and reactions. And say if Ash is the character, he isn't going to know what is going on at all. This is not really a learning anime, so I feel like it suffer. And I feel like it would almost come out as making fun of the character.

A Blind character would be more doable. Avatar the Last Airbender, while aimed at a slightly older crowd, I'd that 10 to 15 and now 15 to adult. Who can understand what is going on a bit more.

 

[Mimicking Mimikyu]

As I have always said when it comes to anime and video games, Asian Cultures do not care about inclusion. So I doubt they will. They are not the Unite States.

I think a deaf character is a little to much given this is a child's anime in most cases, aimed at 4 to 8 year olds. I do not mean that in a negative way, but I can almost guarantee a child will not read the dialogue and they will be lost. This would also be incredibly hard to include in the anime that involves a large amount of talking and giving commands and reactions. And say if Ash is the character, he isn't going to know what is going on at all. This is not really a learning anime, so I feel like it suffer. And I feel like it would almost come out as making fun of the character.

A Blind character would be more doable. Avatar the Last Airbender, while aimed at a slightly older crowd, I'd that 10 to 15 and now 15 to adult. Who can understand what is going on a bit more.

I understand where you're coming from. I didn't think about it like this.

 

[Palamon]

As I have always said when it comes to anime and video games, Asian Cultures do not care about inclusion. So I doubt they will. They are not the Unite States.

I think a deaf character is a little to much given this is a child's anime in most cases, aimed at 4 to 8 year olds. I do not mean that in a negative way, but I can almost guarantee a child will not read the dialogue and they will be lost. This would also be incredibly hard to include in the anime that involves a large amount of talking and giving commands and reactions. And say if Ash is the character, he isn't going to know what is going on at all. This is not really a learning anime, so I feel like it suffer. And I feel like it would almost come out as making fun of the character.

A Blind character would be more doable. Avatar the Last Airbender, while aimed at a slightly older crowd, I'd that 10 to 15 and now 15 to adult. Who can understand what is going on a bit more.

I mean, A Silent Voice & I Hear A Sunspot exist. I don't think it'd be difficult. There are other ways to communicate besides with physical spoken words.

Sadly still unlikely to happen in Pokemon, though.

 

[virtualpet]

There are kids shows that have deaf characters, even some shows meant for pre-schoolers have them, and usually what they do is have a character who acts as a translator, which if they had to they might be able to have a character who has maybe like a translator Rotom given how Rotom phones are a thing and would be capable of speech-to-text and sign-to-speech. It also doesn't have to be treated like a big deal or even really acknowledged.

Granted, Pokemon in general has never really been the best with disabled representation. The most we can think of are a few characters with vaguely implied PTSD and Wally in the games, and a blind character in PokeSpe. We've watched a lot of random episodes of the anime and can't think of any with disabled rep either but granted we haven't seen every episode.

 

[Iceshadow3317]

I mean, A Silent Voice & I Hear A Sunspot exist. I don't think it'd be difficult. There are other ways to communicate besides with physical spoken words.

Sadly still unlikely to happen in Pokemon, though.

I am not saying it is difficult for everything. But for Pokemon specifically I don't think it would work. Now if the anime worked like the games, the possibly. but given a Pokemon trainer needs to react very quickly in the anime, it would be hard to do. So once again I feel like it would bring an air of negativity to pokemon against deaf people.

Rotom Phone could very much help and even a Pokemon that could read minds might be able to work. Now that I think about it, the trainer could just be a Psychic trainer and likes Psychic pokemon because they can read their mind and battle. And without speaking, they could make a formidable trainer. I am not sure a translator would be useful unless they could read minds and give commands to the pokemon. Or something similar. I am sure there are more ways, just a bit difficult.

 

[Duck]

We already have a non-verbal / low verbal character in the game series (Red), even if it was a retcon and not exactly intended for disability. I fail to see the reason why we couldn't have any kind of disabled representation.

Pokemon doing work is already a thing, and working as service animals is a logical conclusion that would fit in well enough with the universe and expand the lore.

Especially since the characters live in a world with a lot of gadgets and actual telepaths.

Get the deaf character a TTS Phone or a Psychic Pokemon, get a blind character one of the fifty dog Pokemon there's already lying around in the Pokedex, we got like 5 new vehicle Pokémon this gen + a bunch of ride Pokemon from previous generations - any one of those could work as a wheelchair surrogate if we don't actual wheelchairs for some reason.