Did you ever stop watching the anime?

[Itstoppedatumbreon]

In sinnoh, when the entire thing turned into pokemon contest's,

[Sweets Witch]

I stopped watching maybe halfway through Hoenn and completely missed the last few gyms, League, and Frontier. No clue what happened there but I think it involved a Sceptile. Then I completely missed out on Sinnoh while it was airing until just before the League battles when I was on Serebii and I happened to look at Ash's team and go "Oh hey this looks pretty sweet" so I watched a condensed version (captures, gym battles, evolutions, character introductions only, pretty much) and caught up in time for Ash vs Paul and it restored my faith in the anime.

Then I showed how restored my faith was by putting off the newest journey over and over until I just decided to give up and not watch it.

[Kaisersaur]

I stopped watching the anime, because Ash is as dumb as a bag of door knobs, I would actually love to see him 4 or 5 years older. I mean, I know it's a kids show but a lot of us grew watching it and it just make me lose interest with the same cyclic Team Rocket tries to take pikachu again and again. I think the majority of people actually playing the games or watching the anime are 14+. A little more "mature" content would be great, just like in the manga at least to throw a hint that the characters actually have a gender and not all of them are happy friend-zoned forever.

That's just how I see it

[jfuze174]

The only thing bad about pokemon is that the writers are too lazy cause they know they will make their money regardless they could of let ash win years ago but they have to milk it while its still hot that's why I know pokemon is never going to have a final episode these guys are going To run it into the ground with repetitive-ness and were going to wake up 1 day to find out pokemon was cancelled due to lack of ratings

[JawKam]

Pretty much ended my anime marathon after Johto.

[Thereaperofdeath19]

lets see i stooped watching pokemon when i was 10 and got into other anime like DBZ Bleach etc until i saw pokemon in jb-hi-fi and thought why not might as well get back into it again that was last year and now watching the hoenn one soon it will not have the old voice actors

[Imperator161]

I stopped watching when the voice actors changed and the show moved to Cartoon Network. I didn't like the new voice actors at all, and I didn't have cable, so I didn't have any way of watching new episodes when they aired anyway. My interest started to dwindle a couple of seasons before that, though. I never liked the Hoenn series characters much, and I also disliked how Ash essentially dumped all of his Pokemon (sans Pikachu) and "rebooted" at the start of the Advanced series. As a result, though I watched the Hoenn episodes until they went off the air, I wasn't as upset by Pokemon's switch to cable (and therefore, off of my TV) as I expected to be.

[RoreyG]

I stopped watching halfway through Hoenn. For me, it lost its charm; it just didn't appeal to me anymore. My nostalgia for the show ended after Master Quest.

I'll occasionally watch it if I'm bored and there's nothing else good on TV, but that's about it.

[Cerberus87]

I stopped mid-Johto I think. The show advanced at the pace of a snail back then.

But really, I stopped watching because of Ash's plot armor. I know Pikachu is supposed to be the mascot and all that, but really, it's way too strong in the anime. The anime depicted things that puzzled me back then. Ash's toddler Pokémon could beat things three times more powerful than them. Also, the whole thing with "being friends" with Pokémon and what not, being stubborn about things such as evolution, and so on.

Finally, every episode is the same apart from a few different elements. I started watching the first series of Yu-Gi-Oh at the same time Johto was airing in my country and the storyline approach of Yu-Gi-Oh appealed to me much more, despite Yami Yugi having way bigger plot armor than Ash.

I was really happy when I found out they introduced in DP a character with the mindset of a competitive battler (Paul). Paul was the best invention they could've come up with, a guy who does exactly what we do at the beginning of the games (something like, catch three Starlys and keep only the one with a good nature). He was a metaphor, an antithesis to the whole anime and the message it passed to the viewers, and, since I was fed up with Ash, I thought it was a great thing. Paul is what the kids grow up into once they grow out of the anime and take the games more seriously.

[AzaleaLightning]

I stopped watching sometime in the Hoenn arc. I remember being super excited for the whole premiere episode they did for Sinnoh, the maiden voyage ep or something, mostly because at the time I really thought Dawn/Hikari had such an amazing character design and was excited to see her in action. But, I didn't watch anything after that lol.

[Whistler]

Stopped watching it with Diamond and Pearl. Tried watching Black and White series, came to the conclusion that Iris is addicted to Apples and needs help. ;__;

[Ashist_Wilketch_mark_april]

Yes I did, it also depends on my mood whether I like watching or not. XD Also, new characters and plot were also some of the factors, making me watch or not.

[The Amazing Justin]

I stopped watching in early Sinnoh, it just got ridiculously boring to me.

[yossarian]

Apologies for the tl;dr, in advance.

Wow it's been ages since I logged on or followed any thing of the anime. Only came back as I've only just found out that B&W is concluding and Generation VI is in the works.

Anyway with regards to the question at hand: after persisting bravely with the anime for many years up till the end of Sinnoh I just gave up at the start of Unova. I got really pissed of with the way Sinnoh was concluded - no meet ups with any of Ash's old pokemon back at Oak's place, no typical episode back at Pallet Town, sudden arrival at Unova and no references at all to any of Ash's past and Pikachu comically losing yet again to some starter right when he arrives in Unova.

Not that I had any hopes of any significant global progression in Ash's initial goal of being a "Pokemon Master" (remember those days, ehh?). I realised at the end of Johto that the anime was never going to conclude any time soon or that Ash would progress and develop that much and the entire story would essentially be reset every region, but ...... there were at least references to the previous regions & adventures up till Sinnoh, e.g. Old and previous generation pokemon reappearing, previous characters returning for a brief spell, Ash's earlier pokemon returning, flashbacks to the past, Ash spending time in Pallet etc etc, something that was completely erased during Unova.

As a matter of fact, I hear it got even worse at the Unova tournament with Ash actually regressing in terms of final tournament position. That's the final straw as far as I'm concerned with my association with the series. At the very least I expected Ash to equal his Top Four achievement in Sinnoh, with him finally winning a final league tournament when the series finally comes to a conclusion.

I may watch some of the earlier seasons for nostalgia purposes at some point in the future but unless I discover some episodes in the future with references to earlier periods I'll probably just skim the timeline page on Bulbapedia every few months just to get an idea what's going on. Plus just being a lot older now with responsibilities and more important things in life to worry out, I don't simply have the time to spend watching episodes.

[SoulSilver10112]

I stopped watching in Unova. I kind of lost intrest after they left Brock and Team Rocket got promoted and didn't appear as often. I thought they were funny characters, and without them, I stopped waking up early Saturday mornings to watch the show.

[Caelus]

I stopped watching the series during the Johto saga because I didn't like the new Pokemon, then I got back when they got to Hoenn, stopped watching after about halfway through Sinnoh, and honestly haven't watched a single episode since maybe 2009.

Though honestly outside of sports I don't even watch TV anymore.

[solaris knight]

I stopped in the 4th generation. The writing was just getting so ]terrible. I mean, pokémon isn't the greates anime out there, but the 4th generation just felt so awful. I only came back for the league matches, which I generally liked, with the exception of Walking-plot-device aka Tobias.

Tried watching the japanese version of Best Wishes. Got up until the third gym without any annoyance, but I stopped because I wanted to wait until that cancelled two-parter was aired. Which never happened...so, I eventually lost interest and just started watching Doctor Who.

[xVaporeon]

Going to be honest, the old anime was my favourite.

You know, old-old, with Ash, Misty and Brock.. I watched less of the anime around the time when the second generation was introduced and I just gradually stopped watching it, yet I did watch all of the movies. I don't keep up with the anime anymore, but I do watch it from time to time whenever it's on and I happen to catch it.
I stopped watching the movies at the Lucario one (I can't remember the name of it) as I really disliked that one, sorry! I'm re-watching the old series though, plus all of the old movies.
Nostalgia!

[pokemanmdj]

I had stopped around the 4 gen for a while.
I don't know why, either. I guess I just never thought of watching it, for some reason. .-.
Had to catch up afterwards, though.

[doeboy9]

I originally stopped midway through Johto champions (correct me if im wrong on the name) I believe. I recently got into the current season and am enjoying it.

[KriegStein]

I started to watch from the very beginning. And I continued to watch up until dawn joined. Maybe a little after that. Didnt like the show much then anymore. Then I moved to watch otjet anime mostly. I have an idea of starting to watch the series again from the beginning and stop at kanto final.

[MidnightShine]

I was FORCED to stop somewhere during the first DPPt season or whatever you call them seasons. I bought the DVD's cause where I live in, Pokemon isn't on the showlist. Then..... the DVD prices went up like a rocket, so yeah......

[HaiImNate]

I watch the anime off and on. If I see Pokemon on Boomerang or CN, then I'll normally watch it. I stopped watching the anime consistently about the time it got to the Sinnoh region.

[Miss Anne Thrope]

When I was a child, I had no cable, so no watching Pokemon on TV. They had a select few VHS movies of Pokemon at my Blockbuster, so I rented those a lot and watched those.
Occasionally I went to my dad's house and watched Pokemon, as he did have cable.
Around the time the characters went to the islands and traveled with Tracey instead of Brock, I got less interested in the anime and played the games and cards exclusively.
I remember once, years later (perhaps 2004) I saw an episode of AG on TV, I actually think the channel was WB, and I was appauled. I didn't like May, I didn't like how Pikachu's design seemed to have changed (it looked less pudgy and more defined.) I didn't like how there was no "who's that Pokemon?!" break. So I just completely fell out of the anime.
Then, upon deciding to watch the first DP episode last spring, I became interested again and kept watching. I haven't seen all of the DP episodes, but most of the episodes I've seen are DP. I also like the BW series, I didn't like Iris at first but after awhile she grew on me.
So yeah, I took a huge anime break. About 7-8 years.

[F1ygon]

When it hit the 4th gen, I cried slowly watching my favorite childhood show turn into Digimon :'(