Pokemon-Rise and Fall

[Carnivus]

Pokemon-started as a game for SNES and NGBA-now a multi-billionaire franchise.
We all watched at one point Pokemon.Certanly one of the best anime ever made,Pokemon sure brought some fresh air in Japan.In the '90s Japanese animation was full of Mecha and Robots anime,but Pokemon(alongside with other works such as Naruto or Dragon Ball)helped animes to reach out of endless copies of Gundam.
I feel now that Pokemon isn't the anime of my childhood,it became more americanized like other such as Transformes(about which I didn't know it was an anime).
Even despite all that and the fact that probably it won't ever have a couple(AshxMisty etc)or the fact that it derived too much from the core and the new "Pokemon" look horrible,I still love it.
I posted this to see your memories with Pokemon,how you grew up to love/hate it,how you woked up every weekend at 8AM.
So,how did Pokemon influence/help you?

[Temuthril]

Pokemon-started as a game for SNES and NGBA-now a multi-billionaire franchise.

For the Game Boy, to be exact.

[quekmeister]

I actually got all 151 Pokemon in Red version without cheating (luckily a friend had Blue). After that it was all about MISSINGNO. and infinite Rare Candy and beating the Elite Four with as many different combinations of Pokemon as possible. (Six lv 143 Snorlax :3)

Yeah. I watched the series for awhile, and I memorised the theme song like every other little kid out there (also memorised the Captain Planet theme). When Johto Journeys rolled around in my country (ie later than most other places), I'd just gotten into Rurouni Kenshin, so it was one of my first forays into anime.

[Sakura588]

Got Red, Blue, and a GBC for Christmas when I was 8. Beat Blue the first day and got all 150 while at my grandma's house; I was bored out of my mind and had my original plastic-encased green GB with a link cable. Traded between myself and figured out all the trading quirks by myself. (I actually gambled for half the coins needed for porygon, then I said fuck it and bought the rest. God were those slots annoying as hell)

EDIT: The first time I saw Pokemon was when they sent me a VHS of the first two episodes in the mail. I liked the series and the games, but they ruined it with the TCG.

[geoffreak]

I remember when my friends and I were all disappointed when Pokémon was banned from school.

[PowerMac]

I Played Red/Blue and Gold/Silver then did not get any of the newer ones due to the fact that I never bought a Game Boy Advance. As for the Anime I stopped watching it after Jhoto, once they added ANOTHER 100 pokemon to the series I got tired of trying to memorize all the names and types.

Recently I have started watching some of the reruns on TV and its very hard to know anything now, I mean come on who has the time to memorize over 400 pokemon.

[Lucerin Red]

I bought my first gameboy with pokemon blue. But then I got teased for playing pokemon in high school. fucking cartoon ruined it all for me.

[ray1301]

I remember back in the days when it was only pokemon with red+blue games out, at the time I was able to identify all 151 pokemon at the time but eventually it got old and I forgot about them.

In the end it just dragged out, with all the expansions like ruby, diamond, gold and what not, and magically more pokemon just so happened to be discovered :/

lol whenever I think of the new pokemon series I just think of 'giraffamon' because I recall a pokemon that just just a giraffe, talk about losing ideas for pokemon, just throw in an animal and ad -mon on the end and your done.

edit: I remember the red/blue game had the glitch to get that glitched pokemon or was it to see mew at the very end hall of fame (whatever it was) lol I did it and true to its rumours, it actually did mess up your game....

[zherok]

I've seen episodes of the original series, but I never watched it habitually. I was a high school freshman when I first got a copy of Pokemon (Red, my friend had Blue). I haven't played a new one since Ruby (which I got for free), but they have their moments still as games. They're very much a "franchise" first over a really good game, but they're long lasting RPGs. I like having permanence in a game.

As for the shows, eh, I think just playing the games is as far as I need to get into Pokemon. No card game, no plushies, no anime about the game.

[sotamarsu]

I had Pokemon Blue when it was new and original, and about 5 years ago I also bought Pokemon Green for the same GBA for nostalgy.
Pokemon Green has the same story as original Pokemon games but in color and few extra characters around the world. It's cool.

First serie of anime was also awesome. Really, it had nice story that was advanced in good pace and you grew attached to the adventure.
First movie was also decent because it gave depth to the whole Mew/Mewtwo thing, been downhill from there in my opinion and now they just milk money from kids.