What first got you into Pokémon?

[maggers]

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

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.

pokemon tcg game was amazing the music is really memorable too

 

[Geewithabee]

pokemon tcg game was amazing the music is really memorable too

Yeah I liked it. I remember there was a coin flip where you pressed "A" to stop it and I was certain that I'd figured out the timing to make the coin land the way I wanted it to every time.

 

[Mindless_Phoenix]

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.

 

[Incudust]

Was it the games, anime, TCG, merch, something else? Did your friends at the time get you into it, etc?

The gen 1 gameboy blue and red and the cards that came out around that time. Then the show came out and i was like, time to go back to my gameboy and pretend i never saw this trash

 

[Figure]

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.

 

[moon]

the cursed card game
so many bad trades made by poor innocent young riki, taken advantage of. woe is me.

 

[Inkwriter]

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.

 

[NipahRika]

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.

 

[Yave Yu]

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).

 

[Amore]

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!)

 

[Sheep]

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!)

It's awesome seeing more people get into it starting with the TCG! It wasn't my first introduction to the series but was definitely one of my obsessions as a kid, I even still have pretty much all the cards I had now over 20 years later. If it weren't so expensive I'd collect them again.

also gotta feel the scheduling comment lmao

 

[RadEmpoleon]

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.

 

[Fleurdelis]

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.

 

[TepigLover101]

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!

 

[Knight Of Legendaries]

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.

 

[RedDragonThunderzord]

I think it was watching the anime on TV after school, and then watching Kanto/Johto/Orange Island episodes on VHS.

 

[Ti-65 Fukunotsuki]

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?

 

[Venonat in Space]

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!

 

[NearAutomas]

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.

 

[Fact Checking Gardevoir]

Seeing the schoolyard suddenly filled with Game Boys and Red and Blue versions played a significant part in my wish to get my own. ^^