The Tamagotchi was designed in Japan by a man called Aki Maita. Within a short time of its release it was already attracting much interest and the craze had already started. For a while it seemed as though every school child owned a Tamagotchi. It was so successful in Japan that it was later released in other countries such as the US, Canada, Europe and Australia. Surely enough the release of the Tamagotchi in these other countries was just as a success than in Japan. This is only one of a few products that have had a global craze in consumerism.
You may think that the Tamagotchi is just a children’s toy but it also has a complex story line that was created by the founder Aki Maita. According to the story, each digital pet are alien creatures originating from the Planet Tamagotchi. Unfortunately their space ship crashed on earth and ‘The Professor’ and his young assistant Mikachu discovered them. Because the Tamagotchi’s were unfamiliar with the atmospheric conditions of the earth, he built little egg shaped cases to protect them from the potentially dangerous gasses that inhabited earth. Because of the work of ‘The Professor’ and his assistant, the Tamagotchi’s were now able to survive on earth. Mikachu then painted several of the protection cases and took them to school to show to his friends and this is what started the craze.
The craze lasted longer than originally anticipated and the production of the units increased day by day. It took a long time for the craze to die down but soon enough it was clear to see that the craze had been and gone. Surely enough Bandai’s first idea was to release more versions. An estimated 36 Tamagotchi versions have been released in the period when the craze died down and the current day. Each version has its own differences and similarities. At first the differences was only slight with the release of the Christmas Themed Tamagotchi that was only produced in Japan called Snataclautch.
Over the years the Tamagotchi has been a huge success for Bandai and very popular for young users across the globe. The Tamagotchi has played a major role in defining young people’s childhood in countries such as US, Canada, Europe, Australia but more specifically in Japan. In the days of the Tamagotchi, major controversy aroused over the issue of whether or not children should be allowed to take them to class. Children would easily become distracted and need to look after their digital pets but not only that but fights over ownership disputes and a general distraction from not only class work but also homework.
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