I was around 11 or 12 when the anime first came out here. I watched the beginning of one episode, and thought it looked boring, so I shut off the TV. A couple of days later, I decided to seriously watch an episode, and it was one that involved Ash battling a Metapod. Later on, I saw the one where Ash and his friends had to rescue Charmander. I think from then on, I started actually liking Pokemon.