How about this? Back in middle school when I first got into Pokemon, I had a major crush on Ash and even carried an Ash figurine in the shirt pocket of my school uniform. You can imagine how well I got along with the other kids, especially since none of them liked Pokemon at all other than TCG. I never really liked the cards nor even played them, but at one point I had a misprinted holographic Charizard, which some kid ended up tricking me out of. Kids are so rotten at that age... except me, I was just stupid, lol.
Also around that time period, I went to a summer camp for a week, which was run by the YMCA. They weren't really pushy about religious stuff except when it came to the stuffed toy Pikachu I brought with me. I made the mistake of taking it into the chapel with me and all the other kids flipped because I brought a 'devil monster' into their place of worship. I have nothing against religious people at all (and I'm not atheist), but people should at least open their eyes wide enough to see Pokemon are as far from being 'devil monsters' as they can be.