welcome to pankasu

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as another extension of my nerdiness, i am a huge pokémon fan. i have full binders of my pokémon card collection and the anime was a staple in my mornings. most of my drawing skills came from my love of drawing some of my favorite pokémon and learning how to create some of my own

a huge phenomen growing up was the amazing book series by suzanne collins...the hunger games. another thing i was obsessed with. during my hunger games revival, it combined together with my pokémon revivial to create the best of both worlds. so i welcome you to step foot into the pankasu region and see all the cool creatures that live there

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the reasearch

one of the most important part of creating a new pokémon region is to determine the area it is based on and creating a name that reflects that reason. so, for my hunger games inspired region the first thing to do was establish the setting of the series: panem, previously known as the united states. using the books, movies, and fan information i could find, i was able to see how the states as we know them were divided into the thirteen districts and the capitol that make up panem. each district is responsible for one main export or responsibility, i used this to help inform each design.

what is the backstory?

panem comes from a latin phrase panem et circenses, meaning bread and circuses. this phrase is meant to be a solution for government, that when given bread and circus (entertainment) the citizens are less likely to revolt or push back to what the government wants.

with knowing the meaning behind the name panem, i needed to now pokémon -ify it.

to do this, i studied the current pokémon regions and also those created by fans known as "fakemon" regions. so, following their style, i split apart the idea of panem and the idea of "bread and circus." because, pokémon was created in japan, and it's designs are very much entrenched in japanese culture and language, i wanted to encorporate a little bit of japanese into the name.

pankasu can be split into two parts pan and kasu. pan just like in a lot of languages translate to bread in japanese so that was a perfect fit. then, i wanted to encorporate the idea of circus. to do this, i broke apart the japanese word for circus sākasu, getting just the ending sound of kasu. now put together pankasu, pronounced pan-kah-sue.

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the symbol of the region

not only does a region need a name, it also often has some sort of icon or slight change to the image of the pokéball. some fakemon artists use common symbols or motif from the location that inspired their region. that is precisely what i did. i used the iconography often used by the capitol in the fictional nation of panem, the eagle with the laurel wreath around it, and combined it with the ever iconic pokéball to create the perfect combination of the two.