Pokemon! (gotta catch em all)

One of the biggest franchises I can think of, next to things like Disney or Super Mario. Pokemon has been one of my favorite things since I was a small child. My favorite generation is Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, and my favorite pokemon is Riolu. (Not Lucario, Riolu.) I'm currently playing Pokemon Sun on my 3DS and it's pretty fun.

My first exposure to Pokemon was Pokemon Indigo League, because my parents recommended I watch it (they were huge Pokemon fans as children.) When I watched it I was reallyyyy young, and it was one of the very few shows at the time that I watched on streaming instead of buying a DVD with the first season or so on it. I was too young to remember all the characters and plots, so it just blended in with all the other shows I watched. Sooner or later, Pokemon GO came out, and like most of the country, my entire family got super into it. I didn't have a phone, so I sat on park benches and played on my dad's iPad while my parents ran around catching as many pokemon as they could. Eventually I forgot about Pokemon GO and by extension, my interest in Pokemon.

When I was about 8, my Pokemon obsession was resurfaced by a youtuber named ZebraGamer. He's retired now, but he was the only youtuber I was allowed to watch for a long time and I like to believe I was his biggest fan. I would watch all of his letsplays of various nintendo games and then run to my parents and beg them to get me the games that he'd play. One of the games he happened to play was Pokemon: Let's Go Pikachu. Watching his playthrough inspired me to rewatch the Pokemon series, and get the game myself. Beating Let's Go Pikachu was one of my biggest accomplishments when I was little. 

One person I need to thank for my Pokemon obsession is my little brother. When he was old enough to get into Pokemon with me, he helped me convince my parents to pay for every single season of the Pokemon anime, and we watched it daily throughout the covid lockdown. We had a house with woods and a field behind it, and we would run outside and play our own version of Pokemon, where I would play all the NPCs, rivals, etc, and he would play as a trainer. Then we would run around the field and I would lead him on a "Pokemon Journey," which usually involved me crawling on all fours and making Pokemon sounds while he threw tennis balls at me. We played so often that I started to actually believe Pokemon were real, and when my parents didn't let me leave home on my tenth birthday I was FURIOUS. Then my mom told me a shocking and heartbreaking truth. 

"Sasha, you know Pokemon aren't real, right?" 

My world was shattered. Despite being 10 years old, I genuinely believed that I could someday go out and catch Pokemon, just like Ash Ketchum. (Quarantine really messes with kids I guess.) I ran off into the field and cried, and my mother still feels bad to this day. 

One thing I had to learn the hard way as I finally started going to school again after missing like 2-3 grades, was that other kids at school weren't as into Pokemon as me. I don't really wanna talk about this too much because there were a lot of traumatic factors, but there was a time when being as obsessed with Pokemon as I was would get me beat up by other kids. While I never stopped liking Pokemon, I definitely toned it down as I switched from my terrible private school to a public school. I still loved Pokemon, I'd beaten Pokemon Sword, Pokemon Legends Arceus, I'd memorized the entire Pokerap, I'd watched the Pokemon series more times than I could count, and every Christmas list included the newest pokemon game, Pokemon cards, and plushies. My love for the franchise was kept to myself however, and I felt ashamed for liking something "childish." 

Fortunately, I started to be myself more as I made some better friends and regained my confidence. I felt like I could enjoy Pokemon the same way I did when I was little. I played Pokemon Scarlet the day it released, picked up Pokemon GO again, and started playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game competitively at local game stores (I also tried starting a TCG club at my school but no one would join). I like to think that without this colorful game franchise, I wouldn't be who I am today. It taught me how to be the imaginative, ambitious storyteller I am now. While I often cringe at all the comics I'd draw with my own characters going on their own journeys and titles like "Pokemon Pink and Purple" "Pokemon Eevee Power" and "Pokemon Magic Mysteries", I know that I was super proud of them at the time, and I'm sure my future self will feel the same about the comics I make now. 

Pokemon is more than just a kids game or a competitive card game. Pokemon brings people together, like me and my brother, and teaches kids to be themselves. It is a part of me, and it can be a part of you too. I have a lot more stories about Pokemon that I wanted to talk about, but it was impossible to fit it all. Thank you for reading, and tell me, who's your favorite pokemon?