The fans who went from collecting Pokémon to studying bugs and fossils

April 15, 2026

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The fans who went from collecting Pokémon to studying bugs and fossils

As Pokémon turns 30, we take a look at how the beloved Japanese kids’ franchise was inspired by—and has shaped—real-world science

By Kendra Pierre-Louis, Sushmita Pathak & Alex Sugiura

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Kendra Pierre-Louis: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Kendra Pierre-Louis, in for Rachel Feltman.

The year is 1998. Brandy and Monica’s hit song “The Boy Is Mine” is all over the radio. The movie There’s Something About Mary is doing solid numbers at the box office. And right around Labor Day the first episode of a Japanese animated television series centered on a 10-year-old boy named Ash Ketchum and his quest to become a master of taxonomy debuts in the U.S. Wait, is that not how you remember the plot of Pokémon?

[CLIP: The Pokémon theme song: “I wanna be the very best / Like no one ever was.”]

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Pierre-Louis: It’s easy to think of Pokémon—the TV series, video games and trading cards—as just child’s play. But for some young people, the franchise can be a gateway into scientific understanding.

We sat down with two scientists who were Pokémon fans as children: Arjan Mann, the assistant curator of fossil fishes and early tetrapods at Chicago’s Field Museum, and Spencer Monckton, an entomologist at the University of Guelph’s Center for Biodiversity Genomics in Canada. They both credit their scientific careers in part with their past Pokémon fascination.

As adults Spencer named an insect after a Pokémon character, and Arjan has co-curated an upcoming Pokémon-themed exhibition at the Field Museum.

We spoke to them about the relationship between Pokémon and science and how it goes both ways: Pokémon influences science and science influences Pokémon.

Pierre-Louis: Thanks for taking the time to join us today.

Arjan Mann: Thank you.

Spencer Monckton: Yeah, happy to join you.

Pierre-Louis: I have a very difficult first question for both of you, but we’ll start with Arjan: What got you into Pokémon?

Mann: I was a kid when the Pokémon TV series came out. I was really into the trading card game, too. And I actually kind of, like, remember one of my first favorite episodes. ’Cause I was also a kid that was into fossils, I really liked when they went to that underground realm and found all the fossil Pokémon.

[CLIP: In an episode of the Pokémon TV series, Ash Ketchum exclaims: “Wow! Look at all the people digging.”

Pikachu reacts: “Pika!”

Misty says: “We’d better hurry before all the fossils are dug up.”]

Mann: And that’s kind of what triggered that “Oh, my God, this is cool” to me. [Laughs.]

Pierre-Louis: Spencer?

Monckton: Yeah, I think probably the same answer. I did watch the show. I remember getting the game from the store and sitting in my grandparents’ car, playing it on the drive home. I can’t honestly remember why I wanted it, except that it was a game that looked fun. I probably was watching the show. But I was instantly hooked.

It’s funny—I also remember feeling a lot of appeal from the fossil Pokémon. But just in general the discovery element of, of the games really kept me going on them.

Pierre-Louis: Okay, I have to confess, I never quite got into Pokémon, and I was surprised to learn that dozens of Pokémon are named after real-life animals and that even some real-life species are named after Pokémon characters. And I was even more shocked to learn that Pokémon’s creator, Satoshi Tajiri, was inspired by his childhood as a hobbyist entomologist. Can you talk a bit about the relationship between, like, science and Pokémon, especially, I think, as it relates to taxonomy?

Monckton: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny—like, looking back, you know, I don’t have the standard origin story that most entomologists do. Like, normally you hear, as a kid they’re out in the forest digging in the mud and turning over rocks. Like, I spent time in the forest, I went outdoors with my family, and I had an appreciation for natural spaces in general, but I wasn’t digging around looking for bugs.

And so the appreciation for natural spaces was always there, but the, like, discovery and learning the names of things and what they do, like, that element didn’t exist,