Opinion of Pokemon (20th Anniversary Special!)

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Pokémon Red and Green was released in Japan 20 years ago. Opinion of Pokémon?

[This account no longer in use.]

The video game series is a FF. I always found the anime overrated.

[Mr. Smith]

FF out of respect for what it meant as a kid in the 90's:

Excellent video games

Hilarious Anime, but only because of Misty AND Brock...when even one left, even one of them left, the whole thing fell apart into just being awful.

And completely awful Card Game.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Freedom games, horrible anime. Voted FF.

[NewYorkExpress]

Freedom Franchise all around...except for the trading card game, Yu-Gi-Oh has them beat there.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Am I the only person that never watched the whole Pokemon thing?

I take it back. I did watch one episode just to see what the whole hype is about. I watched it and was like: "THIS is what everybody are getting excited for?"

[Oldiesfreak1854]

When I was a kid, my cousins were big Pokémon fans, so I became a big Pokémon fan myself through my interactions with them.  I loved the video games, enjoyed watching the anime occasionally, and collected the cards (though I rarely played the card game).  In my early teens, I began losing interest, partially due to outgrowing it, but also because I had heard rumors that the name was short for "pocket devil" or "pocket demon."  The psychic, ghost, and dark types were a little to much occultism in my mind, although in retrospect, I have to question whether it was more than the kind seen in fairy tales and Disney cartoons.  I still have a soft spot for the games and the cartoon, but not so much for the cards.

More recently, my seven-year old cousin has become interested in Pokémon, in part from seeing my old cards, and probably also due to interaction with his friends at school (which happens to be a church school, but from a less conservative denomination).  As a result, I've regained some interest, but I doubt I will ever follow it as closely as I did before.  The franchise has expanded so much over the years that I doubt I could ever catch or keep up with it now.

In summary, I vote Neutral.  While there are still elements of Pokémon that concern me, the anime and the games are both nice memories of my childhood.

[This account no longer in use.]

Am I the only person that never watched the whole Pokemon thing?

I take it back. I did watch one episode just to see what the whole hype is about. I watched it and was like: "THIS is what everybody are getting excited for?"

The anime is horrible; same plot every episode. The video games are what make Pokemon what it is.

[Goldwater]

When I was a kid, my cousins were big Pokémon fans, so I became a big Pokémon fan myself through my interactions with them.  I loved the video games, enjoyed watching the anime occasionally, and collected the cards (though I rarely played the card game).  In my early teens, I began losing interest, partially due to outgrowing it, but also because I had heard rumors that the name was short for "pocket devil" or "pocket demon."  The psychic, ghost, and dark types were a little to much occultism in my mind, although in retrospect, I have to question whether it was more than the kind seen in fairy tales and Disney cartoons.  I still have a soft spot for the games and the cartoon, but not so much for the cards.

More recently, my seven-year old cousin has become interested in Pokémon, in part from seeing my old cards, and probably also due to interaction with his friends at school (which happens to be a church school, but from a less conservative denomination).  As a result, I've regained some interest, but I doubt I will ever follow it as closely as I did before.  The franchise has expanded so much over the years that I doubt I could ever catch or keep up with it now.

In summary, I vote Neutral.  While there are still elements of Pokémon that concern me, the anime and the games are both nice memories of my childhood.

I sure hope the "elements" that concern you have nothing to do with that devil and occult bullsh*t that you bought into as a child.

(BTW, in case you still didn't know, it stands for "pocket monsters".)

[Marokai Backbeat]

It really wasn't until I picked up the Yo-Kai Watch game that I realized how all of the Pokemon games at this point are kinda sh**ty. They've really not evolved at all, run pretty poorly, and at this point have been made so offensively easy that I really feel like the series' continued popularity is pretty unjustified. The games peaked at Black/White and declined hard. The anime is what it is.

[seb_pard]

The video games were fun, but Ash was one of the worst characters of any tv show. I watched because everyone at my school watched the show.

[OSR stands with Israel]

I never got into pokemon as I was a Yu-Gi-Oh fan

[Oldiesfreak1854]

When I was a kid, my cousins were big Pokémon fans, so I became a big Pokémon fan myself through my interactions with them.  I loved the video games, enjoyed watching the anime occasionally, and collected the cards (though I rarely played the card game).  In my early teens, I began losing interest, partially due to outgrowing it, but also because I had heard rumors that the name was short for "pocket devil" or "pocket demon."  The psychic, ghost, and dark types were a little to much occultism in my mind, although in retrospect, I have to question whether it was more than the kind seen in fairy tales and Disney cartoons.  I still have a soft spot for the games and the cartoon, but not so much for the cards.

More recently, my seven-year old cousin has become interested in Pokémon, in part from seeing my old cards, and probably also due to interaction with his friends at school (which happens to be a church school, but from a less conservative denomination).  As a result, I've regained some interest, but I doubt I will ever follow it as closely as I did before.  The franchise has expanded so much over the years that I doubt I could ever catch or keep up with it now.

In summary, I vote Neutral.  While there are still elements of Pokémon that concern me, the anime and the games are both nice memories of my childhood.

I sure hope the "elements" that concern you have nothing to do with that devil and occult bullsh*t that you bought into as a child.

(BTW, in case you still didn't know, it stands for "pocket monsters".)

I did know that, even before hearing the "pocket devil/demon" rumors.

And the same elements concern me about is as before: the psychic, ghost, and dark types.  Although you could argue that the concept of evolving with stones, and the whole elements concept in general is based on the occult.  I don't know, and if you read my previous post more closely, I bolded the part about questioning whether the occult elements are that extensive.  Realistically, it's doubtful that we can expect many Japanese import franchises to not have some questionable elements, because Christians make up only a very small percentage of Japan's population, and like most east Asian countries, it is deeply meshed in Eastern mysticism.  I actually read an article from a Christian gamers' website that seemed very fair and balanced on this issue, unlike many of the fundamentalist/conservative Christian sites that jump to conclusions and automatically label Pokémon as satanic.  It was by far the best analysis of Pokémon from a Christian perspective that I've seen.

[Illiniwek]

I couldn't watch the episode when pikachu wanted to leave ash for the other pikachus; it would make me cry.

[Goldwater]

When I was a kid, my cousins were big Pokémon fans, so I became a big Pokémon fan myself through my interactions with them.  I loved the video games, enjoyed watching the anime occasionally, and collected the cards (though I rarely played the card game).  In my early teens, I began losing interest, partially due to outgrowing it, but also because I had heard rumors that the name was short for "pocket devil" or "pocket demon."  The psychic, ghost, and dark types were a little to much occultism in my mind, although in retrospect, I have to question whether it was more than the kind seen in fairy tales and Disney cartoons.  I still have a soft spot for the games and the cartoon, but not so much for the cards.

More recently, my seven-year old cousin has become interested in Pokémon, in part from seeing my old cards, and probably also due to interaction with his friends at school (which happens to be a church school, but from a less conservative denomination).  As a result, I've regained some interest, but I doubt I will ever follow it as closely as I did before.  The franchise has expanded so much over the years that I doubt I could ever catch or keep up with it now.

In summary, I vote Neutral.  While there are still elements of Pokémon that concern me, the anime and the games are both nice memories of my childhood.

I sure hope the "elements" that concern you have nothing to do with that devil and occult bullsh*t that you bought into as a child.

(BTW, in case you still didn't know, it stands for "pocket monsters".)

I did know that, even before hearing the "pocket devil/demon" rumors.

And the same elements concern me about is as before: the psychic, ghost, and dark types.  Although you could argue that the concept of evolving with stones, and the whole elements concept in general is based on the occult.  I don't know, and if you read my previous post more closely, I bolded the part about questioning whether the occult elements are that extensive.  Realistically, it's doubtful that we can expect many Japanese import franchises to not have some questionable elements, because Christians make up only a very small percentage of Japan's population, and like most east Asian countries, it is deeply meshed in Eastern mysticism.  I actually read an article from a Christian gamers' website that seemed very fair and balanced on this issue, unlike many of the fundamentalist/conservative Christian sites that jump to conclusions and automatically label Pokémon as satanic.  It was by far the best analysis of Pokémon from a Christian perspective that I've seen.

Eh, fair enough, I suppose. I just fail to understand the Christian point of view of being "concerned" when a forum has non-Christian elements, assuming it's not explicitly anti-Christian, which Pokemon obviously isn't. It reminds me of BRTD's "all liberal all the time" nonsense.

[MasterJedi]

Love Pokémon! can't wait for Sun and Moon (Generation 7) to be out! While I don't have a 3DS or play the games anymore it still makes me happy to have new Pokémon.

I have watched and own every anime episode as it's released on DVD and that's where my main focus is. The show is SO much better than the beginning but the genonners who have nostalgia blinders on live the original series more. DP and now XY are the best the series has to offer!

[pikachu]

Obviously, I have a positive opinion.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

the games are usually great, some movies like the first one are very good, the anime is extremely clichéd

[bagelman]

It weirds me out how so many people my age, especially among video game enthusiasts, still care about it. I watched the movies and played a little bit of it with my friends around 2nd grade and loved to start arguments with digimon fans about how their franchise sucked and Pokemon was better. Now I don't know why it's still a thing. One factor may have been that I never played the games because my family wasn't rich enough to buy another game console alongside the PS1 I already had.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

When I was a kid, my cousins were big Pokémon fans, so I became a big Pokémon fan myself through my interactions with them.  I loved the video games, enjoyed watching the anime occasionally, and collected the cards (though I rarely played the card game).  In my early teens, I began losing interest, partially due to outgrowing it, but also because I had heard rumors that the name was short for "pocket devil" or "pocket demon."  The psychic, ghost, and dark types were a little to much occultism in my mind, although in retrospect, I have to question whether it was more than the kind seen in fairy tales and Disney cartoons.  I still have a soft spot for the games and the cartoon, but not so much for the cards.

More recently, my seven-year old cousin has become interested in Pokémon, in part from seeing my old cards, and probably also due to interaction with his friends at school (which happens to be a church school, but from a less conservative denomination).  As a result, I've regained some interest, but I doubt I will ever follow it as closely as I did before.  The franchise has expanded so much over the years that I doubt I could ever catch or keep up with it now.

In summary, I vote Neutral.  While there are still elements of Pokémon that concern me, the anime and the games are both nice memories of my childhood.

I sure hope the "elements" that concern you have nothing to do with that devil and occult bullsh*t that you bought into as a child.

(BTW, in case you still didn't know, it stands for "pocket monsters".)

I did know that, even before hearing the "pocket devil/demon" rumors.

And the same elements concern me about is as before: the psychic, ghost, and dark types.  Although you could argue that the concept of evolving with stones, and the whole elements concept in general is based on the occult.  I don't know, and if you read my previous post more closely, I bolded the part about questioning whether the occult elements are that extensive.  Realistically, it's doubtful that we can expect many Japanese import franchises to not have some questionable elements, because Christians make up only a very small percentage of Japan's population, and like most east Asian countries, it is deeply meshed in Eastern mysticism.  I actually read an article from a Christian gamers' website that seemed very fair and balanced on this issue, unlike many of the fundamentalist/conservative Christian sites that jump to conclusions and automatically label Pokémon as satanic.  It was by far the best analysis of Pokémon from a Christian perspective that I've seen.

Eh, fair enough, I suppose. I just fail to understand the Christian point of view of being "concerned" when a forum has non-Christian elements, assuming it's not explicitly anti-Christian, which Pokemon obviously isn't. It reminds me of BRTD's "all liberal all the time" nonsense.

While I generally agree with you on this, I would argue that occult elements ARE explicitly anti-Christian.

[Antonio the Sixth]

It weirds me out how so many people my age, especially among video game enthusiasts, still care about it. I watched the movies and played a little bit of it with my friends around 2nd grade and loved to start arguments with digimon fans about how their franchise sucked and Pokemon was better. Now I don't know why it's still a thing. One factor may have been that I never played the games because my family wasn't rich enough to buy another game console alongside the PS1 I already had.

You are evil.

[Sozialliberal]

Being a kid in the late 90s and early 00s, I was infected with Pokémania, too. I cherished the Game Boy games and also loved the first two seasons of the anime. What's more, I even drank a soft drink whose taste I didn't particularly like (Mirinda) just to collect the Pokémon bottle tops that came with it, haha! I still have them, by the way. Eventually, I started to get bored with both the anime and the games because I felt that it's the same thing rehashed again and again (and partly because I thought at the time that I had outgrown it). Also, I didn't like that the music in Ruby and Sapphire sounded more "polished". I guess it's because I'm used to the "rough" themes of the previous generations. The last game I played was Sapphire and the last season I watched was Johto League Champions. My favourite game generation is Gold and Silver (both Johto and Kanto in one game, amazing!) and my favourite season is the very first one (Team Rocket seemed like they could actually steal Pikachu!).

If you enjoyed the Game Boy games but didn't like the anime, you should give Pokémon Origins a try. It's an anime that is much more faithful to the Game Boy games (e.g. no Ash Ketchum!). There are only four episodes, in which they focused on the most interesting parts (departure in Pallet Town; first gym battle in Pewter City; creepy Lavender City with Mr. Fuji, Cubone, Cubone's Mother and Team Rocket Grunts; 1st battle against Giovanni in Silph Co.; 2nd battle against Giovanni in Viridian City gym; final battle against Blue after the Elite Four; Mewtwo). I liked watching it, but I wish there were more episodes.

Pokémon video game music for a rush of nostalgia: https://www.youtube.com/user/pokemonmusicmaster/playlists

[MasterJedi]

Being a kid in the late 90s and early 00s, I was infected with Pokémania, too. I cherished the Game Boy games and also loved the first two seasons of the anime. What's more, I even drank a soft drink whose taste I didn't particularly like (Mirinda) just to collect the Pokémon bottle tops that came with it, haha! I still have them, by the way. Eventually, I started to get bored with both the anime and the games because I felt that it's the same thing rehashed again and again (and partly because I thought at the time that I had outgrown it). Also, I didn't like that the music in Ruby and Sapphire sounded more "polished". I guess it's because I'm used to the "rough" themes of the previous generations. The last game I played was Sapphire and the last season I watched was Johto League Champions. My favourite game generation is Gold and Silver (both Johto and Kanto in one game, amazing!) and my favourite season is the very first one (Team Rocket seemed like they could actually steal Pikachu!).

If you enjoyed the Game Boy games but didn't like the anime, you should give Pokémon Origins a try. It's an anime that is much more faithful to the Game Boy games (e.g. no Ash Ketchum!). There are only four episodes, in which they focused on the most interesting parts (departure in Pallet Town; first gym battle in Pewter City; creepy Lavender City with Mr. Fuji, Cubone, Cubone's Mother and Team Rocket Grunts; 1st battle against Giovanni in Silph Co.; 2nd battle against Giovanni in Viridian City gym; final battle against Blue after the Elite Four; Mewtwo). I liked watching it, but I wish there were more episodes.

Pokémon video game music for a rush of nostalgia: https://www.youtube.com/user/pokemonmusicmaster/playlists

Anime has gotten a lot better lately with DP and XY (AG was very good with a second female quest), blip in between with BW but to be fair it was a new director and plan. But overall the story is tighter, more character development, better plots, Developing the Pokémon and evolving more.

I don't know why people are so crazy about Origins. It really makes no sense in a real way (Pokémon just stand there and take damage), literally only Charizard used by Red who was a Mary Sue. But it's "more mature" so I guess that's it.

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Freedom games, horrible anime. Voted FF.

[SATW]

Massive Freedom Franchise. Loved it as a kid.