- Joined
- Jul 16, 2014
- Messages
- 675
- Reaction score
- 766
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- They/Them
For me, I got into the franchise through the anime; specifically the early Advance Generation episodes, and played Blue on a second-hand copy. Given this was in the early 2000s where the anime got full-frontal promotion instead of the games, and me being born in mid-1994, I was convinced Blue was adapted from the anime. I lost interest in the franchise around 2005.
When I bought Platinum in 2009, I had to be closeted during that time because I was in an all-girls high school, and all the other students were obsessed with High School Musical and Twilight. You had to (pretend to) like those two franchises and Hannah Montana, otherwise you'd be subjected to homophobic bullying.
It wasn't until the release of Black and White that I started to open up again in regards to Pokémon, and so did a lot of adults around South Australia, as Japanese culture became wildly popular in the early 2010s, and our state had a weekend festival dedicated to it every July before the pandemic started. Pokémon is well-beloved in Adelaide, and even a railway station has a mural showing Vulpix, Fennekin, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, and Mudkip. And this was before GO came around.
Nowadays, I'm very active in Pokémon GO, and I'm at Level 44 and have never missed a Community Day. I've also bought the mainstream games on the DS, 3DS, and Switch, and definitely looking forward to PLA.
The anime, on the other hand, I never really regained full interest over, especially after the Kalos League, where I left a comment on this forum's review page for the episode where Ash lost stating the anime had jumped the shark. Although I mainly see it as something akin to preschool media for its more black-and-white morality, less-risky writing, and character shilling. Heck, in Adelaide, if you see merchandise with Ash on the cover, it's either in the bargain bin at a supermarket, or a bootleg in discount shops to trick clueless parents.
When I bought Platinum in 2009, I had to be closeted during that time because I was in an all-girls high school, and all the other students were obsessed with High School Musical and Twilight. You had to (pretend to) like those two franchises and Hannah Montana, otherwise you'd be subjected to homophobic bullying.
It wasn't until the release of Black and White that I started to open up again in regards to Pokémon, and so did a lot of adults around South Australia, as Japanese culture became wildly popular in the early 2010s, and our state had a weekend festival dedicated to it every July before the pandemic started. Pokémon is well-beloved in Adelaide, and even a railway station has a mural showing Vulpix, Fennekin, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, and Mudkip. And this was before GO came around.
Nowadays, I'm very active in Pokémon GO, and I'm at Level 44 and have never missed a Community Day. I've also bought the mainstream games on the DS, 3DS, and Switch, and definitely looking forward to PLA.
The anime, on the other hand, I never really regained full interest over, especially after the Kalos League, where I left a comment on this forum's review page for the episode where Ash lost stating the anime had jumped the shark. Although I mainly see it as something akin to preschool media for its more black-and-white morality, less-risky writing, and character shilling. Heck, in Adelaide, if you see merchandise with Ash on the cover, it's either in the bargain bin at a supermarket, or a bootleg in discount shops to trick clueless parents.