Have you ever been embarrased being a Pokemon and/or anime fan?

[Soki]

Always. Not when I was a kid, but definitely now that I am an adult. I always hate it if Event Pokémon are distributed via a store, cause I'm too scared too actually walk in and ask for a code, or even worse: having to download it via Nintendo Zone in the shop itself *shudders*. Always end up having to trade for them or aks other Europeans to get an extra code for me Buying Pokémon games or merch in stores I can do, but not without a huge amount of shame when handing it over to the cashier. If I can, I'll pretend it's for a young family member.

The only ones I can freely talk to about it are my mom and my boyfriend. My dad thinks games in general are a waste of money and time and my bf's mom has literally once said that it was ridiculous if an adult plays Pokémon (though she thinks games in general are childish too). Actually talking about it to others has not really rewarded me either, when I showed a classmate my school diary full of Pokémon pictures, she promptly turned around and stopped talking to me :/

I'm happy Pokémon GO is a thing, that is something I can play without any embarrassment cause everyone does it, even my way older colleagues at work. But I still would never consider telling them I play the regular games too, though I wouldn't hide it if they ask about it.

 

[~Smugleaf~]

Embarrassed to be a Pokémon fan? Nah, no way.
I always wear my Pokémon T-Shirts with pride when I go out, and whenever I meet someone new I have no shame in telling them that I'm a fan of the franchise.
Generally, most people that I've meet are really accepting of my love of all things Pokémon. The only people that haven't been so accepting are a few dumb kids from back in highschool. I couldn't care less about their opinions though.
I do, however, get a bit embarrassed about my Pokémon plush collection, and the rest of my plushies (and figures) in general. I get embarrassed buying them especially. I mean, seeing an almost 19yo girl with a handful of plush toys and figures probably looks immensely stupid. I also get a bit embarrassed buying Pokémon cards.
Other than that though, I'm fine.

 

[Almonds]

Growing up, I was embarrassed being a pokemon/anime fan so I never really talked about my hobbies to people who aren't my friends. I left the fandom after Gen2 and got back in the games after Gen4 came out. It was around the point my hobbies didn't really matter anymore. I go to distribution events if the location isn't too far and whenever there's a pokemon store setup for a limited time, I visit them if I can.

 

[ocelotlrama jaguar]

Back when I was in high school. This was in 2001-2005 and around the time the Pokemon fandom was waning from obsessive fans in every corner to chimes of "oh god they're still making these games what's next pokemon copper???" from people who wanted to look cool not liking something that was part of a fad.

I should clarify that I wasn't really embarrassed but more afraid of getting bullied for liking it. There were a lot of people who tried to make me feel bad for liking Pokemon, even when it was popular while I was in middle school. I had a few people come up to me to tell me that the shirts I liked to wear were for babies. It wasn't really something I could show off proudly without getting shit for it.

Most of my friends are those I have met online who are true Pokemon fans so it is very easy to discuss fandom stuff with them. I have one friend who isn't a Pokemon fan and I usually don't discuss anything with her about it. Maybe a bit out of embarrassment, but more out of knowing she may not care for it and I respect that. She knows I love the franchise and respects me for that, which I am grateful for.

 

[King Robert]

Um...not...not really, no. I can't recall a time when someone in real life showed negativity towards my interest in the series.

 

[Kisu]

I've never been embarrassed by it.

Only a handful of times has someone called me out as immature for it and I had the basic replies.

I work full-time and I'm responsible, everyone who's ever criticized me on it was either jobless,of considered mature to mean drinking and clubbing,to me those things seem immature.

 

[zakisrage]

I have faced some stigmatisation for it in the past, but not recently. I used to get looks in the cafeteria for playing Pokemon games on my DS. It's probably been at least two years since someone's complained about me liking Pokemon. Once you're out of school no one really cares anymore.

I feel like the "you're too old for Pokemon" thing is starting to pass, due to the kids who loved Pokemon during Pokemania in the late 90s/early 2000s being adults now, the mainstream success of Pokemon Go (particularly among people who haven't played a single Pokemon game since RBY), the rapid growth of the Pokemon franchise that's been going on for 10 years now, and the franchise as a whole is shifting away from the kiddie demographic to become a multi-demographic franchise. Honestly, I know more people my age who like Pokemon than little kids. You still get people like the Nostalgia Critic who dismiss Pokemon as a fad, but I think the Pokemon franchise has staying power due to its continued success.

 

[Natu? Natu!]

When Pokémon came out first, I was already slightly too old to be interested in it (or so I thought; I am still older now and yet I am interested in it, so I was obviously wrong), and at that time, I wasn't that into it because I had too many other things that took my time. I was into traditional board game RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, I was into computers and I was into bird watching/bird photography. If I had had the time and someone had introduced me to it properly, I would probably have been interested in Pokémon too, but that didn't happen. My interest in Pokémon started later, and by that time, I wasn't very open about it. It came as something of a surprise to me, when Pokémon Go came out, that people in my own age and sometimes older started playing it, talking about how they had enjoyed Pokémon back in the nineties. I knew some of them back then, and I had no idea that they had been into Pokémon. I don't know if they treid to hide it from me back then. At the same time, I was a bit careful in the beginning (when Pokémon Go first came out) to make comments that would reveal too much in-depth knowledge about learnable movesets or type matchings etc. I don't know if I would say that's due to embarrassment, though. It's more like most of the Pokémon Go players around me are not that much into it; they simply think of it as a more enjoyable alternative to taking walks, and they are not that interested in other aspects of the Pokémon universe. And I'm fine with that.

 

[Gotapennaame]

To answer you're question no I have never and never will be ashamed to be a Pokémon fan largely because I have no shame. Although I am ashamed I used be a Gen wunner.

 

[danh19]

the reason I stopped watching Pokémon before getting back into was because I felt like would be picked on for liking a little kids show even now I wouldn't tell anyone about the fact I do quite like it still

 

[dragon_nataku]

For me it depends, for some weird reason. Like, I have Pokemon shirts, my iPhone case is covered with Eevee-lutions, and if Pokemon somehow comes up in conversations with my friends I talk about Pokemon with them, even though none of my friends are actually into Pokemon. I have no problems as a 33-year old woman walking into a store and buying $100 worth of Pokemon plushies (did that less than a month ago) and I don't pretend they're for other people. The couch in my room is literallly drowning in Pokemon plushies and the only thing remotely "embarrassing" about it is how much I've spent on them, but I tend to feel the same way about a lot of things I spend a lot of money on, like plane tickets, so it's not because it's Pokemon.

That being said, however, I do have a bit of a problem with admitting to playing the actual games. Pokemon GO? Fine. Wear the shirts? Fine. Drown in plushies? Fine. Watch the show? Fine. Post on Bulbaforums~? Fine. Play the games?! What?? With every single event distribution this year I've gone in and claimed that the codes were for my children (and, being 33, it's believable I've got kids, even though I don't). I don't know if it's some sort of barely-concious feeling of "girl gamers are always dismissed as "not real gamers" anyway, so I have to protect my gamer cred" or what, but it is literally just the games that's kind of embarrassing for me. This is only with people who aren't my friends though. My friends know and don't care that I play Pokemon games, mostly because they know I play more hardcore games as well, and am good at them, so they don't give me shit over it. I guess I just really don't want to get into an argument with some random stranger over how I'm "not a real gamer" just cause I happen to like Pokemon games as well as things like Skyrim and Far Cry. So... less "embarrassed" and more "conflict avoidance"? I dunno.

 

[Ｄｉｓ]

I'm fine with people seeing t-shirts/posters, but cards and games are different.

It depends on whether or not I'm around people who're also fans. Like I'll battle with someone else in public if they have their 3DS, but if it's just me on my oddy knocky I'd rather pull out a book to pass the time since it has less of a chance of attracting stares, which in turn has a high chance of making me turn red. Or when there's an event code distribution I don't like to go to Gamestop alone. So you could say I'm still relatively embarrassed

 

[Zexy]

When Gen IV came out, I (as well a few of my friends at the time) stopped getting any new Pokemon merchandise. After the transition from elementary school to junior high and as we adapted to it, we would never really bring up Pokemon again as we would feel embarrased with all the new friends/classmates that weren't into it. When I got into it again back in 2012, and joined Bulbagarden a bit later, I would hide it from everyone, only telling my parents and the older cousin who got me into Pokemon in the first place when I was younger, by 2014. Early into university (October 2015), I realized it is considered cool to be a Pokemon/anime fan and ended up becoming a bit more open about it. After the release of GO I can even be proud of it

 

[Fennel]

Not at all.

Not really, no. Pokemon has always been such an integral part of my life that liking it feels as natural as breathing air to me. It's difficult to feel embarrassed about something you've had ingrained in you since you were very young. At least for me.

This pretty much sums it up for me too. Though I'm fortunate in that I've only faced a few snarky comments and weird looks over the years, nothing too horrible.

 

[danh19]

i which could say the same but admitting you like a kids show even when you were actually still a kid leads to mocking

 

[Rainami]

eh, sorta. Sometimes I felt weird telling people, since there are a depressingly high number of plebs who think I shouldn't be playing kids games. There were instances where I even lied and said I "played pokemon as well as [insert 'adultish' game that I don't actually play here]" when people asked what sorts of games I played, in effort to make myself seem more "mature". Sometimes I only mentioned the latter. Kek. My self esteem and the like have been improving lately, so I've stopped doing stupid things like that, and am more open about my love of the series.