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When did you fall out with the anime or stop watching?

I watched the anime pretty religiously as a kid, from the very beginning right through Johto Journeys/Master Quest. My parents probably still have the yellow VHS of "I Choose You, Pikachu!" that we got over 20 years ago.

I must've been 9 or 10 when the Hoenn series started airing, and as it was a turning point for Ash's journey, it was a turning point for me too. It hadn't been "cool" to like Pokémon
for a few years by then, and my school life started changing (in that I'd spend more of my afternoon away from home).

The odd Saturday morning I'd catch an episode, but the vibes I got, I kinda started to see that they weren't too worried about progressing Ash's character. Johto was its own thing but still felt like a continuation of Ash's journey, which was cool. But for Hoenn, he'd hit a reset button, and that felt like it came at too high a price.

Brock was back, using random Pokémon like Lotad. May seemed cool, but I didn't care for the contests at all, and most episodes I caught were focused on her. Max felt like a wasted character to me - "too young" to own a Pokémon didn't seem to matter before, when we'd seen characters-of-the-day with Pokémon of their own.
This feeling persisted across the DP and BW series'. They all could've been achieved without Ash being the primary focus, really. XY, he had an interesting dynamic with Greninja, at least.

Anyway, I turned 30 this year, and I honestly can't believe that they actually put an end to Ash's story. It was nice to dip into SM and Journeys from time to time, as it seems that the character development was finally sticking. I'm certain Ash's presence throughout the various seasons helped maintain a consistent audience... but I have to wonder what it would've been like if each region had its own protagonist.
 
I stopped when they changed a voice actor (but can't seem to remember anything more than that) because I just couldn't get used to the change. IMDB's showing Veronica Taylor was 1997-2005, so I'm guessing it was Ash and 2005.
 
I stopped when they changed a voice actor (but can't seem to remember anything more than that) because I just couldn't get used to the change. IMDB's showing Veronica Taylor was 1997-2005, so I'm guessing it was Ash and 2005.
I got used to it myself, but stopped when Diamond/Pearl's anime ended. I didn't have cable access after that in my room anyway and just never thought to find other means to watch the anime post DP back then.
 
When I was a child, I never watched the anime in order. I had miscellaneous VHS sets for Indigo League and the Volume 1 set of Orange Islands. (I didn't find out what happened with the GS Ball until the internet.) I started watching sometime during the Hoenn seasons, and I stopped watching altogether by the start of Sinnoh. It was actually a bit of a drag in young Reggie C's mind whenever Cartoon Network would put on the Pokémon DPP anime. I have no memory of what bothered me about the Sinnoh arc. I'd genuinely like to know and have closure, but I don't think I'll ever find out. I do want to watch through the Hoenn portions of the anime one day, but I don't know when I will get around to that.
 
I've always been on and off. Missed out on the end of Johto because I didn't have the channel. Missed out on most of Unova because I was busy with school. For Sun/Moon and Journeys, I watched good chunks of the beginning, dropped off, and but would still tune in to random episodes. The end of DP might be where my passion to tune in weekly dropped off the most, and I'm content to just watch whatever I can.
 
Man I used to love the anime when I was younger, with my favourites being the D/P and X/Y, but I lost interest during S/M and never really got back into it. Same with the games since I finished most of the Sw/Sh DLC. While I definitely agree with critics about the quality of the newest games, I think the main factor is just me growing out of the official stuff that's put out. I only ever replay my old games and write my own Pokémon stories, which keeps me occupied enough to never commit to even finishing LA, which I do think is an amazing game regardless!
 
Curious guys!

When did you stop watching the series? I stopped right around when the Diamond and Pearl anime ended. I've not watched it ever since, and was told the later seasons are alright. What made you stop watching? As for me I just lost cable in my room, and just never bothered to watch the anime. I preferred watching the English Dub of the anime over the Japanese dub. I really just never bothered to go back or find any of the eps online back then.
I stopped watching sometime after XY ended. I was getting a bit older by that point and moved onto other shows (I'd consider XY&Z to be my "gateway anime" lol) and at the time I was a little bit put off by the art style shift of Sun/Moon. It also changed channels on the TV and I didn't know where to find the Sun/Moon anime.
I'm currently binging it now (found all the episodes online) so once I get to SM I'll see if I missed anything good.

I'm currently near the end of Johto and man is it kinda boring, so much filler 😓
 
I fell out after the very first farewell of Ash's companions, for like months. Well I did continue to have this habit of taking a break after every farewell, sometimes it required a lot of courage to start fresh. But after every fresh start, it appeared fascinating!
 
I stopped watching sometime after XY ended. I was getting a bit older by that point and moved onto other shows (I'd consider XY&Z to be my "gateway anime" lol) and at the time I was a little bit put off by the art style shift of Sun/Moon. It also changed channels on the TV and I didn't know where to find the Sun/Moon anime.
I'm currently binging it now (found all the episodes online) so once I get to SM I'll see if I missed anything good.

I'm currently near the end of Johto and man is it kinda boring, so much filler 😓
Cool you have a lot to go for. Good luck to keep up
 
Curious guys!

When did you stop watching the series? I stopped right around when the Diamond and Pearl anime ended. I've not watched it ever since, and was told the later seasons are alright. What made you stop watching? As for me I just lost cable in my room, and just never bothered to watch the anime. I preferred watching the English Dub of the anime over the Japanese dub. I really just never bothered to go back or find any of the eps online back then.
This was a thing, after DP ended, it was so hard to go watching again that I missed the BW.... But XY was captivating and that's why I could go back to watching again otherwise it wouldn't have been easy
 
I have a weird relationship with this franchise, and by extension, the anime. I didn't care for it as a kid because anime character design kinda freaked me out, so I didn't end up getting into Pokemon until High School, when an LPer I watched did some fan-games. I ended up watching the anime in two different binges: Gens 1-3 and 6-7, though I still have a good chunk of a season to go for each. I just sort of lost interest. Given how close I am to the end, I should probably go mop them up.
 
I stopped around the start of gen 3, but I did watch a few of Ash's last episodes as sort of a goodbye to a big part of my childhood
 
I grew up watching the Battle Forntier series. Stopped watching around Unova due to how poor that season was, but started watching again from Journeys onwards
 
I watched the anime pretty religiously as a kid, from the very beginning right through Johto Journeys/Master Quest. My parents probably still have the yellow VHS of "I Choose You, Pikachu!" that we got over 20 years ago.

I must've been 9 or 10 when the Hoenn series started airing, and as it was a turning point for Ash's journey, it was a turning point for me too. It hadn't been "cool" to like Pokémon
for a few years by then, and my school life started changing (in that I'd spend more of my afternoon away from home).

The odd Saturday morning I'd catch an episode, but the vibes I got, I kinda started to see that they weren't too worried about progressing Ash's character. Johto was its own thing but still felt like a continuation of Ash's journey, which was cool. But for Hoenn, he'd hit a reset button, and that felt like it came at too high a price.

Brock was back, using random Pokémon like Lotad. May seemed cool, but I didn't care for the contests at all, and most episodes I caught were focused on her. Max felt like a wasted character to me - "too young" to own a Pokémon didn't seem to matter before, when we'd seen characters-of-the-day with Pokémon of their own.
This feeling persisted across the DP and BW series'. They all could've been achieved without Ash being the primary focus, really. XY, he had an interesting dynamic with Greninja, at least.

Anyway, I turned 30 this year, and I honestly can't believe that they actually put an end to Ash's story. It was nice to dip into SM and Journeys from time to time, as it seems that the character development was finally sticking. I'm certain Ash's presence throughout the various seasons helped maintain a consistent audience... but I have to wonder what it would've been like if each region had its own protagonist.
Had they did that, and wrapped up Ash's story in Johto, I think the Anime would have been fine...
 
The XYZ arc of the anime was the last season I would sometimes tune into, at least watching the episodes that had anticipated events like rival fights, gym matches and the Kalos league conference. It was kinda my last hoorah for the TV series. I heard good things about Sun and Moon, but could not make an adjustment to it's art style, and stopped watching the show pretty much for good then.

I am still up to date on the anime movies, so I haven't cut all ties to the anime, but the most recent one that I really liked was still back in the XY film series era with Hoopa and the Clash of Ages. That being said, I still always get the urge to check out a new non cg movie when it comes my way.
 
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I heard good things about Sun and Moon, but could not make an adjustment to it's art style,
It's not terrible, but yeah, the art style change was jarring, and not really my cup of tea. The sharper, solid designs in the first six gens were pretty iconic not just for Pokemon, but for a lot of anime around the same time in general, so it just kinda served as a distraction. The Gen 7 anime in general seemed like it had an identity crisis.
 
I stopped watching after Ash's Goodra left. (I knew it returned to him at some point...then left again), but that was painful for me to watch D:

I would like to go back to the classic anime, though...just for nostalgia.
 
I stopped watching around the English voice actor switch--the new voices just never sounded right to me.

That said, I do still keep tabs on what is going on in the show via the Bulbapedia synopses.
 
I've never fully stopped—I still watch Pokémon now and then purely for the nostalgia. I tend to go through phases of watching it, taking breaks and then picking it up again.
 
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