Open your eyes...
Open your eyes!
Wake up Brock!
Okay...
I'm done.
The Pokemon Anime was something I watched
diligently every morning before grade school.
We always had to miss the last few minutes
of the episodes because we had to make it
to school on time, but it is something I certainly
cherished.
Of course, we vicariously joined Ash, Misty,
and Brock on their grand adventure, but even
when we weren’t watching we were still talking
about it.
Many questions plagued us as kids, especially
given that this was probably the first anime
we ever watched.
Questions like: Why is Team Rocket so awful
at their jobs?
Is Misty really changing the course of her
life over a bike?
And of course…
Why doesn’t Brock ever open his eyes?!
This last question was certainly the king
of questions.
Tons of different ideas raced through our
heads as kids and it turns out were weren’t
the only ones.
Brock was a character we were definitely puzzled
by.
He seemed to be one of the most intelligent
characters in the show which made us think
he was in his twenties.
He was a certified creep when it came to the
ladies, and he is also solely responsible
for leading me to believe that rice balls
were delicious jelly-filled donuts…
And I believed that for the longest time.
4kids ruined me, I swear.
But Brock’s most notable quality was his
eyes…
Which almost always appeared to be shut.
Why doesn’t he open his eyes, you ask?
That’s the million dollar question.
If you’ve been around on the internet, you’ve
probably heard many people debate this topic
before.
There’s a ton of different ways to look
at it, and the speculation is surely fun.
When I was a kid, I legitimately thought Brock
was blind upon first seeing him.
Every character so far had actual eyes except
for this gym leader, so it made me think he
had other heightened senses or something.
He was the Daredevil of the Pokemon world.
It didn’t help that he was meditating in
complete darkness when Ash first encountered
him.
Now of course you have to also understand
that I was a wee little boy who spent his
time playing video games 24/7 and didn’t
pay much attention to the world around me.
The concept of Brock’s ethnicity wasn’t
even a thought in my mind yet.
If lines for eyes were meant to represent
something other than closed eyes, it surely
was way over my head.
But we’ll talk about that in a bit.
It wasn’t too long until I started questioning
our quote unquote blind friend though.
His perception of the world was simply too
spot on, and he was like a creepy hawk who
could sense any female from a mile away.
The details he would share certainly would
require vision as well, so I began to doubt
my theory.
However, it wasn’t too long until we finally
saw a glimpse of Brock’s eyes… and we
were left with some interesting takeaways.
On one occasion, his pupils are absolutely
tiny.
On another, they are extremely large.
Both of these seem strange for several reasons,
seeing as your eyes should adjust to the light
accordingly once they were opened.
But the more and more I thought about it…
Perhaps Brock was a tad darker than it seemed.
This light-hearted fellow was keeping a secret
from the world, and his eyes had all the answers.
What if Brock kept his eyes closed because
they were dead giveaways that there was something
strange about him?
As if he could use Hyper Beam from his eyes
just like Snorlax could?
What, did you think I was going to say something
crazy like Brock is on drugs?
Of course not-
(Gasp!)
Oh my god.
This explains everything!
Why is Brock’s pupils small when he opens
is eyes, despite the fact that having your
eyes closed all the time would make your pupils
large?
Heroine.
Why would his pupils be abnormally large and
almost appear to be dilated when they should
be shrinking in sunlight?
Heroine withdrawal.
As defined on Wikipedia, Mydriasis is dilation
of the eye’s pupil which can non-physiologically
occur by disease, trauma, or drugs.
This is when your pupil becomes abnormally
large.
Heroine, on the other hand, causes miosis.
Miosis is the constriction of the pupil.
However, Mydriasis can occur when you start
to rebound and go through withdrawal.
When he’s under the influence, his pupils
are small, but when he starts to get antsy
for his next dose, his pupils grow large.
I suppose if your eyes were closed though,
one wouldn’t be able to tell.
Your behavior would certainly be off though
and you would lose your self control.
Brock, our trustworthy Pokemon companion is
actually a closet heroine user.
The real reason he becomes interested in medicine
later on in the series is because of his addiction
with substances.
It’s the next step for him.
Perhaps he’s even a dealer.
Okay, okay.
Let’s shelve the ideas that Brock is Daredevil-blind,
he is a hyper-beam concealing Medusa, and
that he is a drug lord addicted to his own
product.
Let’s actually take a look at the barebones
of this whole ordeal - crazy theories aside.
Earlier I mentioned that as a young kid I
really didn’t understand that what I was
looking at was actually someone stylistically
drawn to represent a different ethnicity.
In a world full of huge anime eyes, it made
sense that a child would just see him as having
his eyes closed.
Especially when he was standing next to other
characters who were expressing their emotions
by closing their own eyes.
What’s interesting is that while the younger
generation was confused, the anime creators
became worried.
According to an interview with Masamitsu Hidaka,
who was the director for the Pokemon anime
at the time, Brock was a character they worried
about when Pokemon became global.
They preemptively feared that his character
would be viewed as discriminatory and stereotypical
by an American audience.
So in order to deal with the situation they
cut him from the show.
They decided to bring him back when they realized
no one actually cared - people simply loved
Brock for being Brock.
If this wasn’t the case, Brock may have
truly ended up as Professor Ivy’s soul mate
- as the interviewer commented in conclusion.
So while Brock may not be blind, have laser
eyes, or be confirmed to be addicted to substances
(my head canon is that he’s still higher
than a kite), his eyes remain closed due to
a design choice that augment his character.
Obviously he can open his eyes when prompted,
but the line-for-eyes approach makes him a
much more serious character when needed.
Yet at the same time, also compliments the
ridiculousness of certain aspects of his personality.
I mean, if Brock had normal eyes, I honestly
don’t know if his classic line would have
had the same effect.
"Hey I know! I'll us my trusty frying pan as a drying pan!"
Eyes give away tons of emotion especially
in drawn characters.
You can tell if someone is passionate, lazy,
or evil simply by their eyes.
With Brock lacking detail to his eyes, he’s
sort of a wild card and that’s what I love
about him.
Brock doesn’t open his eyes because his
character is defined by not doing so.
He can be the quirky, creepy dude that no
one can read simply because he has nothing
to actually read about his face.
Some would say it was an Asian generalization
or stereotype, but I’d argue that this design
choice actually strengthened his character.
His eyes appear when he needs to show extreme
expression or when he’s taking a smack to
the head, but other than that they simply
resides back into the caricature that is Brock.
Two lines on a face and nothing more.
(Which conceal his drug-lusty eyes.)
But now that I’ve dumped that on all of
you, I’d of course love to hear your thoughts.
Design choices aside, do you have any personal
theories about why Brock doesn’t open his
eyes at all?
Truthfully his eyes being a subject of controversy
doesn’t mean that speculation is ruled out.
His family shares similar eyes as well, and
he obviously widens them in certain situations,
so let me know your own theories in the comments
below.
And with that…
I hope you enjoyed this ocularly analysis
of a childhood favorite!
Perhaps some of these other videos will tickle
your fancy!
You can also check out all my live streams
on my second channel.
Thanks for watching guys and gals, and until
my next video - cheers!
