Pocket Bishonen!
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Pocket Bishonen! |
| Owner/Maintainer: | |
| Dates: | 2000-2001 |
| Type: | |
| Fandom: | Multifandom |
| URL: | http://web.archive.org/web/20010301084625/www.pocket-bishonen.com/ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Pocket Bishonen! was a Pokémon-inspired fansite that allowed users to "capture" bishonen. Those interested in catching a character would click on that character's link to answer three questions; if the questions were answered correctly, that character would be "caught" and the user would receive a banner of that character to display. Users could also display badges proclaiming them as trainers. These type of image banners were a common sight on character shrines and personal webpages as they allowed fans to display their support of a character or a fandom.
While the site used Pokémon terms (ie, trainers, capture, pocket), the bishonen were not limited to the Pokémon fandom. Male characters from a variety of the then popular anime, manga, and video game series, as well as a few comic book characters and real-life actors and musicians could be captured, including those from Final Fantasy, Digimon, Sailor Moon, and Fushigi Yuugi. A spin-off site, Pocket Bishoujo, allowed users to catch female characters from many of the same fandoms.
History
Tokio created the site in 2000. The last update was made on February 26, 2001.
Fannish Impact
In 2002, FanFiction.Net user Songwind began posting *Bishounen and Bishoujo*, wherein the main character is pulled into a Pokémon inspired world where fellow humans capture, train, and fight with the characters from various anime and video games. The fanwork launched a number of follow up fanfics taking place in the same type of world. There is a list of works available on fanfiction.net here. To date the collection contains 51 stories including Songwind's original story.