Parents need to know that while the human characters don't fight themselves, they "battle" using their Pokemon, and the Pokemon do strike and apparently hurt one another, although they always stagger up to fight another day. Good Pokemon trainers are kind to their Pokemon and praise and reward them, while bad ones do not -- but all send them out to fight. Both boys and girls participate, although the Pokemon belonging to female characters tend to be cutsier than others. Finally, Pokemon was once a serious marketing phenomena, and there's still significant Pokemon merchandise out there.

Families can talk about the values of the program, discussing the importance of loyalty to friends, learning from mistakes and lost "battles," and living up to your responsibilities. They can also talk about the difference between owning pets and training Pokemon. Is it OK for the characters to encourage other creatures to fight, even if the outcome is never lethal? As always, what's OK in a cartoon is more than iffy in real life.