Barack Obama tells the world he doesn’t care about Pokémon【Video】

The former U.S. president encourages you to choose someone other than Pikachu.

Investor Elon Musk recently revealed his love of anime, sharing a few of his favorite titles such as Your Name and Evangelion. He’s not the only famous anime fan either, as other people of note from the worlds of professional sports and Hollywood movies have also been forthcoming about their appreciation of Japanese animation.

But just when it seemed like the whole world was going otaku, former U.S. president Barack Obama had let the world know, in no uncertain terms, that he’s got zero interest in one of anime’s most popular franchises.

▼ Obama breaks Pikachu’s heart at the 0:16 mark.

“Look I don’t care about Pokémon,” Obama declares. To be fair, it’s not like he’s found himself with so much time on his hands in his post-presidency days that he’s taken up the all-too-popular hobby of going online and trashing anime you don’t like. His Poké-slam comes as part of a larger talk regarding the United States’ upcoming November 6 midterm elections. To encourage more people to cast their ballots, ATTN asked Obama to refute the most common excuses people give for not voting. First on the list was “I don’t care about politics,” and after leading off his rebuttal by establishing his non-interest in Pokémon, Obama went on to say:

“…but that doesn’t mean that it won’t keep on coming back. That’s actually what people in power are betting on. That you’ll check out. That you won’t vote. And when you opt out, that’s what allows other people to essentially fill that void. It allows them to do nothing about the things that you’d like to see government do. So if you really want to throw a wrench in their plans, throw them out. Vote in somebody better.”

Clearly, the intended message here is that a lack of personal interest in a thing doesn’t equate to a lack of that thing’s existence. Even if politics don’t intrigue you on a theoretical level, the decisions made by elected politicians affect you, and voting is the most direct way to shape the government into the one you want. That’s an admirable sentiment, but looking at the linguistics of the delivery, the logic gets a little confusing.

Obama is likening voting to Pokémon, and in regards to the first is arguing that even if you’re not currently interested in it, you should still participate. So is he also saying that even people who, like himself, aren’t interested in Pokémon should still make it a part of their lives, either by watching the anime or playing the video games?

That seems like a strange cause for a political pundit to take up, but if you recall, back in 2015 Obama made a point of personally thanking Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, during an official speech, for all of the anime Japan sends America’s way. So perhaps the former president is encouraging us all not only to take a more active interest in politics, but also in capturing, raising, and battling various species of Pocket Monsters.

In any case, Barack, the next time you find yourself in Japan we’d be happy to try to change your mind about the Pokémon franchise by treating you to dinner at Tokyo’s Pokémon Cafe.

Source: Twitter/@attn via IGN
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