Sometimes a Pokemon is just a Pokemon.

And sometimes the children's phenomenon of the moment becomes so ubiquitous it is hard not to see it as an inescapable, if elusive, window onto the moment.

Consider this week. Police here say they have broken up a $1 million Pokemon card counterfeiting ring, pushing the total value of bogus Pokemon products seized in North America since May to $20 million. In Bridgeport, Conn., a 9-year-old boy hid in a downtown store until it closed, tried to steal 44 packs of Pokemon cards and $600, and, trapped in the locked store, called 911 for help. And, in a clash of Asian and Western culture and religion, Nintendo of America, which controls Pokemon licensing in North America and Europe, persuaded its parent company in Japan to stop printing a Japanese symbol of hope on Japanese-language Pokemon cards because it resembles a swastika and offended customers in the United States.

What lifted Pokemon from a card game to a zillion-dollar phenomenon may be a process too mysterious to comprehend.

''Kids value Pokemon in an hysterical, passionate way,'' said Todd Gitlin, a professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University. ''If anyone tells you why, don't believe them. No one knows. Why was it hula hoops? Why was it Monopoly? Why was it Babe Ruth? Why was it yo-yos? It just is.''