Pokémon How did you get into Pokemon?

[Zinnia.]

As the title says! I was inspired to make this by some of the other 'how did you get into _' threads resurfacing lately.
The trading cards were really popular when I was in elementary school and I ended up finding my first card in a trash can on the bus in surprisingly good condition. I thought it looked cool and got curious about what all the excitement was about, so from there I started trading with friends, playing the card game competitively and watching the anime on tv. A few years later my half-sister got me a 2ds and my first mainline Pokemon game, and it's been one of my favorite series ever since. It's funny to think that if some random kid hadn't decided to throw out their Professor Juniper then I might not have ended up here today.

 

[Midoriya]

I ended up buying Pokemon Diamond as my first Pokemon game a long time ago. A friend had Pearl, and so we'd play together and update each other on our progress. I remember getting stuck on the Jubilife City clown game where you had to find all three of them and answer their questions. Given that I was around 10 or 11 at the time, it's not really surprising that I couldn't find one of them.

I remember continuing to play it and then facing Cynthia as my first champion battle, and it took me many tries to defeat her. I finally managed to defeat her with just my Infernape left standing. Somehow she had Garchomp out, but Infernape's Blaze ability had been activated from being in low health, and I managed to take out her Garchomp for the victory. I remember clearly just how excited and energized I was after that.

I've played all of the mainline and side games since, and it truly is my favorite Nintendo franchise.

 

[Belle T]

The media hype surrounding Gen I was so massive at the time. It can't be understated how much they dominated the airwaves at that. I saw the commercials, thought the game looked cute, and bugged my parents into buying it, along with a Game Boy, for me. The rest is history.

 

[Seastar]

It's kinda funny, actually. I had been watching the Digimon anime dub on Jetix (which doesn't exist anymore) and my great aunt mixed it up with Pokemon and got a Treecko plushie.
After that I started watching the Pokemon anime and collecting merchandise. This happened during gen 3 though I also found older episodes of the anime at my local library. I was so interested I even went and found a fan browser game that has since shut down a long time ago.
Eventually, my parents decided to let me own video games and I started that with Pokemon Diamond & Pearl.

 

[Corrie]

Pokemon being THE THING in the 90s was the main culprit. It was impossible to avoid as a kid. Every kid had cards, plushies, shirts, backpacks, etc with Pokemon on them. My brother and I even had a treasure box with Pokemon merch that we could choose if we successfully used the toilet during potty training. I even had Pokemon themed math workbooks to help me with my math. Haha that's how long I've been into Pokemon.

We were heavily into the OG anime super young but we didn't get into the games til about grade 4 or so since I saw my cousin having Sapphire. Sapphire ended up being my first Pokemon game.

 

[Biyaya]

I, too, was a 90s kid and jumped on the bandwagon with Gen 1. Haha. I probably started with the anime, but I have no definitive memory of when I first got introduced, so it could have been anything.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I always enjoyed watching the Pokémon X & Y TV series when I was younger. It honestly surprised me as I am not a big fan of TV in general but I was REALLY interested. I still love the show and really enjoyed the Alolan seasons. The games however, I only got into because my best friend from Elementary school loved Pokémon X and convinced me to get the game. I didn't really get into it but I ended up LOVING Pokémon Ultra Moon a few years later. I bought it at GameStop and enjoyed that game soo much, I still occasionally play it! Now I own Shield and Let's Go Eevee which were also super fun games!

 

[SkyKnight03]

My older brother picked up a copy of Fire Red/Leaf Green for us in a game store. I was so small and I couldn't even read english yet.

 

[Halloqueen]

If memory serves, I believe I first encountered the series when I visited a friend's house and they had a copy of Pokémon Red Version. I thought it was cool, so very soon thereafter I had my own copies of Red & Blue. This was during the initial boom of the series in the United States. The series was pretty big on the playground around that time. A lot of us got into the trading cards too, but honestly I could never get into that aspect of the franchise and just liked the art and those little colored glass beads they used for the energy. Unfortunately I was a dumb child, not knowing what the future was to hold, and traded away my Charizard card. I also watched the anime for a while but dropped it sometime during Johto.

 

[Kanjouhi]

I played a fangame of it on Roblox (I believe it was called Project Pokemon?) and I thought it was syo awesome that I started watching the anime and eventually got into playing the official games... I was, like, 7, okay?

 

[Croconaw]

I have no idea. It really just happened. I don't remember the specifics other than being obsessed at a young age.

 

[Snek]

Most 90s kids will remember the Pokémon hype. Back then it was everywhere and I didn't want to feel left out. Gameboys were less expensive so my mother thought it was better than other home consoles. My love for Pokémon remained even after the hype waned, unlike my peers, and sadly it became more of a lone obsession.

 

[VernalLapin]

Ok, I feel a bit embarassed about not getting in to pokémon as a younger kid, and I’ve held back on telling it for a long time because I wanted to seem cooler but who cares. Plus I love telling it lol.
I wasn’t into Pokémon until I was 14. I wish I cared for it as a kid, but I didn’t. I just thought it was weird for the creatures to fight.

‘Twas the summer of ‘16, which was when Pokémon Go came out. I started hearing about it and wondered why so many people were talking about it. Then I saw a screenshot in the newspaper of a charmander being caught in AR mode. I thought “hey, that actually sounds really fun!” During that time I also really liked reading webcomics and one of my favorites was the Gamercat. Even though I didn’t understand most of the references the cats were really cute. Anyway, one day I saw one about Oddish and I INSTANTLY fell in love with the lil guy. He reminded me of the paralympic mascot that year Tom, (I was and am huge fan of those mascots)! Eventually I started reading more and more about pokémon every day. I loved looking at all the variety of interesting creatures and memorizing their names. Then I realllllly wanted to play Pokémon Go. I was kind of afraid to ask my mom and dad because I was afraid they’d say no thanks to all those stories of people walking off cliffs and such. But I started talking to them about Pokémon and eventually my dad said he’d like to try it! And ever since then, it’s been a wonderful bonding experience. I don’t play that much but he plays every day. Either way, we can still talk about pokémon and enjoy it together!

Another reason I wanted to look into Pokémon is because I wanted something that would help me fit in with more people. I was super embarassed that I wasn’t really in any popular fandoms. Some very nice girls came up to me and asked me if I had any fandoms and I was like uhhhhh…um these people tend to like cats…not really, but I like cats! And one said “you shall be converted”. But I converted myself really. I felt like I was squeezing myself into a box “forcing” myself to have this interest, being unauthentic about myself, and that the interest would go away in like 5 months tops. But it turned out, Pokémon ended up being something I love to this day! I may not play the games a whole lot, but ever since 2016 I have loved the species and characters and have drawn them tons! All that time spent thinking “I’m faking this” and then one day my mom said something like “Pokémon really fits your personality. Like all the cute and funky creatures that are perfect for you to draw!” And that was when I fully realized. Pokémon is for me!

 

[BobRocks20]

It all started when I was about 4 to 5 years old. My siblings used to play on the Wii a lot (we still have it in our house) and one of the games we had was Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I don’t remember what fighters they mainly used but sometimes I saw my siblings play as Pikachu or the Pokémon Trainer. It was my first exposure to the franchise as a whole.

In my time the craze had waned, but the popularity remained. I remember discovering videos of the games and anime on Youtube, and soon I was hooked.

I got my first game, Ultra Sun, on Christmas 2017. I even began collecting Pokémon cards around that time, but lost interest after a while. Nowadays I’ve stuck with the main games and have recently gotten into watching Pokémon Horizons (with subs, since I don’t have Netflix).

And that was how I came to enjoy the world of Pokémon. And then things happened and I bought Scarlet and the DLC and now I’m hyper-fixated on Kieran.

 

[Lancelot]

I used to watch the diamond and pearl anime when I was younger and didn’t really appreciate it was Pokemon but just some cool cartoon. Then I got giacarloparimango recommended to me on YouTube one day, and I binge watched some of his Soul silver playthrough. I asked my mum to buy Soul Silver for me for Christmas and found it tucked away with the other Christmas presents under her bed so when she went out I snuck in and played up to sprout tower.

I kept playing only up to sprout tower like everyday till Christmas

 

[LambdaDelta]

I got pokemon red version and pokemon blue version alongside an atomic purple gameboy color, back when that came out

 

[Zane]

I was alive when it was the biggest thing on earth and like most kids I was obsessed with it. And I just never got over it. lol

 

[LoyalDragonfly]

I was in elementary school when my older sister introduced me to red and blue when it first came out, and I simply became obsessed with it and stayed that way forever.

 

[Sharksheep]

A relative gave me a copy of Pokemon Silver and a Gameboy color. I still like Pokemon but not as big of a fan of the games as I was back then.

 

[Kamex]

I started playing Pokemon back in 2007 with Pearl. At first, I never liked the franchise because I thought the Pokemon anime was kinda dumb, though I saw my brother playing Diamond and I really liked the Pokemon in the game, especially Buizel. After that, I instantly got hooked and have been playing the games ever since. Also, I started getting into the anime, especially the Johto Journeys. I used to play Pokemon with some kids in my neighborhood and on field trips, though now I almost always play by myself.