My primary interaction with the Pokemon franchise has always been with the games. Apart from Gen IV, I've played at least one game from each generation and have always, for the most part, enjoyed playing them. I'm not a massive RPG fan, so there must be something about the nature of the games that keeps bringing me back for more. Haven't found it yet, tis all.
I remember watching the anime when it first aired on television, but I was about 10 years old at the time and only really watched it because of its connection to the video games and not as a show in its own right. Indeed, I was always disappointed when the anime went off-track of the games: especially in the nature of evolutions - I always wondered why Ash and Co. had such weak Pokemon despite going through so much together... I know the whole message of 'friendship' and 'fraternity' and all that (God, it sounds like the French national motto!) but it was this disconnect that led me astray.
The trading card game was a popular fad in my school for about two years, but I never cared about it that much, again because of the perceived disconnect between the TCG and the actual game. Of course, people in my school didn't feel that way, and the intense competition for cards (especially a shiny Charizard card for some reason) led to their being banned irrefutably!
So... yeah: the games for me!
