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What first got you into Pokémon?
Was it the games, anime, TCG, merch, something else? Did your friends at the time get you into it, etc?
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It started with cards and the original games not long after lol
Pokemon cards were quite the fad when I was back in elementary school =p The games are the only thing I keep with nowadays though. Did also briefly watch the anime, but stopped following it. |
A sibling. Began with the video game.
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It was the anime that got me into Pokemon when I saw my classmates talking about it.
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Red/Blue version. My brother got a copy of Red for the Game Boy at his birthday party when we were extremely young and I threw a massive temper tantrum because I wanted a copy as well. I wish I can go back in time and get myself to not act like that. Pokemon is amazing but they're just video games.
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I remember being out in the playground in Kindergarten (1999) and saw a buddy of mine with his GameBoy so I went to see what he was playing and it was either Red or Blue, don't remember which. I don't remember a whole lot besides seeing a Dragonite and thinking it was cool. I didn't own a game until I got Yellow but that wasn't until the GBA was out but I was hooked from there on. I got the cards, marbles, watched the anime, and only wanted Pokemon toys.
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The TCG, then then games. I was just so mesmerized by the character designs!
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Ironically, it was the anime, which I wouldn't watch nowadays even if I'd get paid for it.
I just liked anime in general so I gave Pokémon a try because it was on TV, and while watching the first season I learned that it was based on a video game so I decided to get and play the GB games. Watched up to half of the Hoenn season, then gave up on it because I was pretty much hating the series at that point and so sick of how repetitive it was, it started feeling like a complete waste of time. It was a totally different story with the games though, which I still like and play nowadays from time to time. |
Got a gameboy on my 5th birthday and went with my dad to Toys R Us to see what games they have for it and Pokemon looked cool lol. Picked up Emerald based on the cool dragon on the box design and never looked back
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I can't really remember what I started with... I think it was the anime first and games second? Or maybe games first? Either way they were both around the same time and everyone in my class was super addicted, plus helped me learn English since I'd just immigrated to the US in the late 1990s. I begun playing with Blue and watched the anime actively since I was 8-9 or so :3
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The very first episode of the anime, which aired on SMTV Live. I wasn't expecting much from it but given how it was hyped up to hell and back and how my life revolved around Saturday morning cartoons at that stage in my life I decided to give it a try. Shortly after that my neighbour got some Pokemon figures - a Gengar and a Meowth, and I think a Venusaur too - and a guidebook, then the games happened. Then everyone was into it, so I was too, because Primary School kids don't have all that much in the way of free thought when it comes to crazes and trends, haha.
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A Game Boy Color kiosk with Pokémon Yellow. I had become interested in the games not long before then and was looking to replace an original model Game Boy that had been stolen years earlier, so this enabled me to pick up both at once. I've been a fan ever since, though mostly of the games these days.
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A guide for Red and Blue at a friend's house. I was obsessed with that guide!
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It started with the show. It used to come on when I'd come home from school. Then from there I got into the tcg and then the games. Nowadays I only play the games.
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One of my earliest memories is me watching an episode of the original anime series and I remember being into it when I was about 5 or so. Pokemon has basically been an integral part of my life since then.
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It started around 2019 with Pokemon Platinum. I was looking to get some actually good Nintendo DS games when a librarian offered to sell me all his old DS games for $5 each, and with them was Pokemon Platinum. It was a great deal and I've been hooked ever since, so much that I could barely stop playing at first. Just a few years later and I already have so much information stored in my head and the true identity of a Pokemon Superfan.
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For me it was waaaaaaaaay back in 5th grade when the TCG first came out and everyone was playing it. I had the boys on the playground teach me how to play the game and then it just went from there. I remember them trying to ban Pokemon from school because everyone with acting like gangsters and using the cards as their "drug money" so to speak. xD
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interestingly enough, it was the anime + the tcg! i would watch the anime and play tcg games against my brother at the time so that really introduced me to pokemon as a whole.
also interestingly, i dropped out of the anime and i know nothing about the tcg because i haven't played since i was a kid! kinda sucks that the very things that introduced me to pokemon are things i don't have time/interest to dedicate to. :c |
My Pokemon history is weird.
I've first started Pokemon when I was in the first grade but it was mostly to collect cards and watch the anime but then I've dropped it in second grade because child Faf's mind cannot have multiple interests at all when she got into Digimon before dropping that for Yu-gi-oh. My first real start was picking up the series again in 7th grade and this time I was a bit more interested in the games. Nowadays, my interest in Pokemon is extremely low but I still do like the series despite that. |
So I had friends who were into the card game. From there I learned there was a gameboy videogame of the card game. Then I learned there was just a videogame, period. I ended up with Pokemon Blue as my first actual game, and I've been playing ever since.
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my bro and cousins were obsessed with it so i couldnt avoid it. think i saw the anime first then my bro let me play his pokemon silver i was about 3/4 and couldnt figure out how to leave the first house 😆 then i got pokemon gold myself and was hooked until around gen 7 i stopped playing but starting to get back into it
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When I first played Pokémon Black, and then got Black 2 soon after. I love and still love those games as they will have a special place in my heart, although its the gen that gets the most flack I still appreciate it and love it and what It brought to the series.
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I remember being in Kindergarten (1999) during recess watching my friend fighting Lance in either Red or Blue. I remember very vividly him fighting one of the Dragonites and thinking it was super cool looking.
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the cursed card game
so many bad trades made by poor innocent young riki, taken advantage of. woe is me. |
I saw my cousins with a Game Boy Advance playing Pokemon Leafgreen, and they let me watch them. I got interested and badgered my parents to get me the same game lol, and I've been hooked ever since.
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The anime is what got me into Pokemon, followed by playing Pokemon Red. I enjoy the games moreso than the anime these days. I stopped watching the anime around Diamond and Pearl.
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I saw anime by accident, and I only remember Pikachu and Ash. For game, my first experience is Red, yes Red on GB, before this I've heard some creepypasta (most famous one is Lavender Town).
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A combination of TCG and the anime (which I only caught because as a young child I didn't understand scheduling - and it seemed to change - so would wake up slightly too early for Power Rangers!)
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also gotta feel the scheduling comment lmao |
I had a copy of Pokemon Diamond and my brother asked if I wanted to play and he helped me get started. I'd never heard of Pokemon before- I didn't even know who Pikachu was.
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the TCG is what really got me into it, heard of Pokemon through some classmates but I started myself with the TCG before I borrowed an Gameboy with Sapphire, only to end up buying a DS Lite with Pearl not much later.
not to mention the first card I ever got apparently was a shiny Charizard... all I wondered is why it was a different colour and never understood a single thing while everyone else lost their minds. |
I wanna say pokemon white 2........ but it might have been the anime?????? Im not sure, but I do know what got me back into pokemon! pokemon super mystery dungeon baby!
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I first got into Pokémon watching the anime. My twin brother and I had a bunch of the VHS tapes and we would watch them fairly often. I don't remember how we got the tapes, though.
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I think it was watching the anime on TV after school, and then watching Kanto/Johto/Orange Island episodes on VHS.
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How did you get into Pokemon?
It all started coincidentally when I was aged 10 to an oversaturated market of bootleg TCG cards with Yogabagaba characters as a rare Pokemon typed scissors and HP higher than 1 milion.
Yes, that's right, I bought many of those to battle with me as I confidently pronounced "r0zRAiD is strong against paper, it has 3 trillion attack!" to my classmates- and if I was being honest, I only joined the wagon to look cool. And yet, for such insignificant reasons, I somehow miraculously ended up being one of the few people who still love pokémon to this day. After buying the cards, I turned to the anime in search of something more official [my baby brain realized that these cards were probably fake], and thus my interest grew. Next thing you're a parent with a kid thay starts dressimg up as a poorly cosplayed furry, demanding that you should buy them a Pikachu plushie! Which I was never able to get ='| [Oh well, they were all fake anyway] So I turned my head into the next direction: YouTube Pokemon Content, from there I found out about the games, oh boy was it a wild ride. Well, as you have likely deduced, my family was financially troubled. That meant playing a basic Pokemon game was just another dream, right? No. Emulation. One word and a number of humble beginnings, with the development of emulation you could play almost any of the old Pokemon games! Recently I even saw people who could play BotW on their computers! (Assuming the game worked without lag, but I'm sure it still happened). This is also how I was introduced to Rom hacking and Essentials, at first it was quite frustrating trying to get a basic emulator to work and play Yellow, it seems so simple now, but for an eleven year old without much guidance I really tried too many times [shame on me], but when I finally figured it out I was very happy. It also sparked my interest in technology and video game development. Gradually over time as I was cemented to the internet, other pokemon media such as the manga, spinoffs, and fangames have joined my peripheral, while there were highs and lows- I'm still a huge Pokemon fan at heart and maybe just like you too. So what about you? |
It was an old friend. She was in 3rd grade, I was in 7th. I am convinced she was playing Blue when I watched her and she just beat the leauge with I beleive a psyduck or goldduck. I remember it was Easter a few days later, and I spent the entire holiday daydreaming about what the Pokemon World would be like...which I was 100% wrong about. My brother and I got Red and Blue recently after (forgot who got what version and who are starters were). But my brother was in Kindergarten/first grade at the time, and I was a middle schooler. I was mocked for liking it in school because I was "too old." I guess that didn't stop me from playing the games/watching the anime. I remember I could only watch the first 15 minutes of an anime episode before the school bus came. Then i'd imagine the rest on my own. I was such a nerdy 12 year old. When summer holiday came, season 1 re-aired I was able to watch the whole anime episodes and I was wrong about the ending 100% of the time (not surprised). That summer, I think I was the oldest in my camp and oh boy was Pokemania HUGE! I saw a random kid get his card collection taken away from a conselor and that was so foriegn to me since no one had the cards in school, so there was no such penalty. It was awesome to be around Pokenerds like me even though 99% of them were in elementry school. My brother also helped fueled my obsession at the time. He had the cards and....other stuff I forget. I also had an imaginary Psyduck, Squirtle, and I think a Rattata that summer. I also had a Rattata card that I had in my pocket. It got wrinkled very badly but I treasued it. In 8th grade, Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Misty were my imaginary friends. Honestly, it was such a long time ago. I'm surprised I even remember that much. It was TOTAL CRINGE!
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For my birthday, I bought some One Piece mini mangas, did not check to see the pages, it wasn't One Piece but raher Pokémon Special. Of course, before that I already knew about Pokémon, this was just how I was mindnapped by Nintendo.
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Seeing the schoolyard suddenly filled with Game Boys and Red and Blue versions played a significant part in my wish to get my own. ^^
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I don’t really know,… I think it was by the anime
I loved the series as a kid, got even more into it thanks to the card game. Well, card “game”, because nobody knew how to play that game, so me and my friends just traded the cards and the one who had the most cards was the most powerful kid in the school (idk we were a bunch of stupid kids) |
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