How did you get into Pokemon?

I was around five or six when the TCG and the First Movie hit America. I think my first encounter was a cardboard poster of the first 150, but there was a store called Duncan down the street from us that sold the cards. I'd go there with my dad and buy the cards, and I've been a collector ever since.

I had a friend who had an older brother! The older brother would introduce his younger brother to new games and such, and then my friend would show them to me! 

I think it waz cuz of playing teh card game w/ mah sis lol

I got into it bc my brother watched the original anime and I sat along w him and watched it too. I got my own gameboy and played ruby and sapphire and loved battling w my Torchic!! Since then I've loved this franchise.

My brother and sister were into Pokémon first technically and part of the generation two era but because of them I got super into generation one and I still have my brothers Charizard although it is damage :(

My sister got me into it back in 2008 I think idk I was little. She had a copy of platinum and pokemon cards. from then on i got a used platinum and BOOM!!! 

Saw the cartoon, saw trading cards on the primary school playground, bought a DS and Pokemon X when I was 9. Was a blast, even though I don't play the series much anymore.

I never watched or played as a kid but around 5th grade is when pokemon go came out and ive been playing since. i still play and actually watch and play other games now aswell :)

My cousin introduced me to pokemon back when I was about 4 years old. He used to play on his ds all the time but he wouldn't let me play because he was scared I was going to mess something up so I always just watched. About a year later or so once platinum came out I got a ds of my own and a few pokemon cards to start off with for christmas. Whenever I went over to my cousins after that we'd always play together. It's a core part of my childhood and I've been obsessed ever since. Both of us still talk about pokemon to this day :)

When I was around 10 I came across X and Y on Netflix and later that year I got the game, i've never been into the TCG and I've tried collecting but it never stuck. My latest game is Pokemon Legends Arceus and I love it! 

when i was in about second grade, i saw people in my class with the cards. i thought they were so cool, so i got some of my own. eventually, i found out about the show, so i watched it, and here i am now!

i used to have an acekard with heartgold downloaded on it and my brother was obsessed with it when we were kids, i don't think i really got into it until black 2, i played y, then i got sun, later i got ultra moon and i didn't play that a lot cause it was too similar to sun and moon, then i got shield and thought it sucked, now i got legends arceus, but i think i didn't get into the main games until black 2 when i was 13 going on 14

Not sure when the first time was but the first notable time was when I was attending summer school and this kid had brought his DS. I'm not sure exactly which game he was palying but he was attempting to catch Kyogre and I was so intrigued with the design of the Pokemon and the premise of the game I instantly fell in love. I have never owned my own DS so I just play Pokemon games on emulators on my phone XD.

well as a little kid (around 6) i got a ds for chrismas with an old card of Pokemon pearl from my mother since she used to play it as a kid, and thats kinda how igot into it

I was probably surrounded by pokemon the moment I was home after being born cause my older brother was super into it. When I was about three I would follow him around and copy him, as younger siblings do, so I tried to play Blue version on his Gameboy which he didn't care as long as I didn't touch his Silver game. Since then I've been very into the series, always wanted to watch the anime, collected some cards but never played the card game, drew pokemon a lot, and collected figurines around the Diamond and Pearl era.

Wh3n I was a baby my dad would showz me it on tv!! I didn’t playe the gamez for a few yearz :(( but I’ve luved it all mah life !!!  

my brother and i were eating happy meals *no im mot too old they’re good idc-* and they had pokémon cards for the little toy thingy and we started talking about it and he gave me a whole bunch  of cards and that’s how i started my collection!!! (: 

I got a copy of leaf green when I was around 4. My grandmother was a teacher, and my parents often weren't home when I was little. My gram bought me a gameboy and a copy of Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. My uncle was a huge pokemon fan, as he was in elementary school during the pokemon boom of the 90s. He gave me some of his old games when I got my gameboy and those were leaf green, silver, and sapphire. I played leaf green the most, because green was my favorite color and the cartridge was green. I played that game without being able to read, and I very vaguely remember spamming protect on my blastoise. I don't remember who I was fighting, but I remember using protect until it ran out of pp. 

my mom and dad bought me pokemon black 2 and i got the meloetta event from gamestop and slowly, over the course of a year, i beat the game and it was awesome

I was 9 or so and Brick Bronze was peak popularity, I didn't care about Pokemon at all but gave the game a shot after my brother insisted. The thing that really got me hooked was the little Torchic I saw could be my starter, after that I put too many hours to be healthy into that game, hunting for hours to find a Bagon and Pikachu, finding a shiny Jigglypuff, and hours planning hard battles to the dime. I was so sad when the game was shut down, from there I watched the anime and played gen 3 games. I kinda grew out of it after playing Let's Go Pikachu and Shield, but one day a girl in school showed me how to play gen 3 on school computers, now look at me, a mess with way too much Pokemon (specifically Steven Stone) stuff :')

So, it's kind of a long story.

Way back when, my local Wal-Mart had these DS systems attached to walls that kids could play to try out new Nintendo games. I loved my little DS, so I always really wanted to see what games were available. I can't remember if it was with my grandpa or my dad, but someone took me up to Wal-Mart one day. I played on one of them. It had a demo for Pokémon Ranger on it. I was immediately hooked. The next weekend, either my dad or grandpa (it was someone different from the first time I went, I just can't remember if I have them switched around or not), I went back up there and it was bought for me.

I loved the Ranger Browser and collecting data on the Pokémon. I NEEDED to know more. Then, one day, I went up to the library with my mom. They had a section of books you could grab and take home. One of them was a manual listing all 151 Pokémon, as well as Togepi, in it. It included their typing (called "element"), and their moveset (called "techniques"). I read this book over and over again. I even got tracing paper so I could trace the pictures in it.

I was introduced to the anime through the first movie. We rented it from the library. After that, I started using the internet to search for episodes, and thus, I was introduced to the wider world of Pokémon. I realized that there were other games beyond Ranger. I decided to get my hands on one of the core games. My first ever core game was SoulSilver. I still have it to this day.

The rest is history!

I got into it because my sister liked it and watched it.  While I didn't play the games until gen 3, I watched the anime with her.  I also got some books that had come out at the time, and I had a Pokémon Yahtzee game as well.

if I'm fully honest just 2 months ago i started bringing out my old Pokémon binder and collecting them again well the first time i ever got Pokémon cards was from my brother in 2014

My friend who was into it at the time told me about the games and said I should play em. So I looked around to see which one interested me and I found Pokemon Emerald. Ive been in love with the series since :D That very same friend I've now convinced to play Scarlet Violet lol

My friend who was into it at the time told me about the games and said I should play em. So I looked around to see which one interested me and I found Pokemon Emerald. Ive been in love with the series since :D That very same friend I've now convinced to play Scarlet Violet lol

i got into pokemon properly around 2017. before then i’d only ever watched the anime and looked through my brother’s card collection he got gifted by one of his friends (which he later gave to me when he lost interest). i truly got into pokemon when i started playing pokemon brick bronze and project pokemon on roblox. brick bronze will always hold an extremely special place in my heart because it’s where i caught my first legendary pokemon, a latias i caught in a chance encounter while passing through a forest, and i’ll always remember the day the servers were taken down and how i’d cried about all of my mons, now lost to time. after the shut down in 2017 i got an old copy of pokemon mystery dungeon blue rescue team from a second hand game shop and then that christmas i got my first official main line pokemon games: a copy of ultra sun and ultra moon.

ever since then i’ve been sucked into the world of pokemon!

Mainly from my older brother and friends. I started with the tv show. Then my grandmom bought me diamond and pearl for Christmas. My love for the series only grew from there. I would always go to my friends house and we'd battle each other. It brings a lot of good childhood memories and I still play the games today :3

I remember watching kids WB back in the day, and saw commercials for the anime

I forget what interested me but I was super excited. Watched the first episode. Loved it. Found out there were games. First one was pokemon blue and I played that thing for hours upon hours 

well, i got a nintendo switch in 2019, and the first game i bought was “pokemon lets go pikachu”, because some of mu friends had it! i started playing and i like it, but i forgot pokemon after finishing the main story ️

1/2 years later, i had a online friend that started watching pokemon sm, and he recommended pokemon to all of his friends (including me), i watched and loved it! soo the pokemon anime basically brought me to the pokemon francise, i’m currently watching the xyz series 🫶🏻

Well I was in the first grade

And autstic

So when I run into a show about little animals that are best friends with humans and they go on little adventures I'm like

Wow this is the best thing ever

Thus started one of my longest lasting special interest

I also began scamming other kids out of Pokemon cards

I rember kissing two boys to get some pokemon cards dkjsks

My favorite regions are definitely Kanto and Kalos

There also what my special interest focuses on

My cousin gave me her Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP: Limited Edition Groudon when i was like 6? Then i have random memories of me watching her playing pokemon on her ds,she really liked pokemon :') then well...i got into it i started watching the tv show and then i started playing it until this day! :D (i dont rlly like what theyve done on the new edition, i dont like the way that our characters look like and i feel like pokemon shouldn't be an open world,at least i dont like it, i find it overwhelming) aaand my first card was probably one fom McDonald's. :)

I saw a commercial for HGSS when I was a kid, and admittedly I only wanted the games for the pokewalkers at first, but when I got both copies I ended up falling in love with the series and have played pretty much every game since :)

It was on tv when i was in elementary and i instantly fell in love with it, People at my school also loved playing with the cards so much they banned it at lunchtime ToT

I don’t remember my age but a friend showed me a Fennekin card and the rest was history (I also somehow had a blazekin figure prior that I found when I was like 2-3)

I actually found out about pokemon when I was quite small and my older sister put the original series on tv (I think it was on a dvd or a vhs or something in a pack along with the first movie) because their friend had recommended it to her. While my sister didn't seem super hooked by the concept, I, the unintended audience, became immediately obsessed and ever since that day I've been a fan!

i was on a market, my country was celebrating the kings birthday and i went into a store and saw a bulbasaur plushie laying there, i asked my dad if i could have it and it just started there!!

I used to see some Pokemon Red and Blue clips on youtube when i was young, i ended up searching for some episodes and ended up finding Pokemon Black and White on netflix, i looooved watching it, but sadly they stoped posting new episodes in there, and when i tried to look for it not that long ago i couldnt find much:c

I was sitting on the bus on the way to school. To get to my elementary school, there was a long route through the mountains, so the trip was always quite long. I ended up sitting next to a kid with black hair (just about the only physical characteristic I remember about him). He was older than me by a few grades and he introduced me to Pokémon. From then on, I was hooked. The anime, cards and Pokémon Red soon followed. Pokémon is the only interest of mine that’s never faded.

My dad let me play on his wokr laptop 

All credit goes to this game!   from this point on I was sucked into the world of Pokémon.

It was back in elementary school when I saw card packs at a store and really wanted a pack. 

I can't remember what Pokémon were in the packs but now here I am today, with about 2 big binders full of Pokémon cards, and still collecting them. 

Would probably be my biggest and most expensive collection to this day. 

I love the eeveelutions Pokémon's and have a couple of the different one's with my cards. Also have a Pokémon Moon 3ds game. 

I was never into Pokemon as a kid until I got ahold of a gameboy with Red and Sapphire. After that my biggest core Pokemon memory was playing Gen4. My brother and I got DSLites and each one was Blue and Red, of course to match the games, Diamond and Pearl. I got Diamond and I was super into it. Eventually I got Platinum when it came out but my bother never got into it as much as I did.

I got into Pokemon thanks to a school friend, since then I have been loving the games and the manga (haven't seen the anime much) and thanks to it made a loot of cool friends :3

I'm a life timer. My  mom has videos of 4 y/o me explaining "porkychu" to my cousin (probably the person who introduced it to me). As of today I have over a thousand cards, I've watched a fair selection of the anime, and I draw pokemon art to make up for the games I can't emulate (unfortunately I do not own a system, although my relatives do)

It's my special interest, all in all

it's be 84 25 years and i can still smell the fresh cards

The older boys who lived next to me started playing the games and buying the cards and i found them cool. I didn't have the 3DS at the time to play the games so i just watched them but i did start collecting the cards. The shows were also a big reason Pokémon became something i rlly liked. My first game was Pokémon Moon. <3

I was 5 when I got into it! My grandma would pick me up from school and drop me off at my great-aunts house where she'd hang out, and the only kid friendly show she knew was Pokémon. I watched the original 90's series on Boomerang and it became a big part of my life! The reason Gengar is my favorite Pokémon is because my favorite episode of the original show was The Tower of Terror. And I was around 7 or 8 when I got my first game, which was PMD: Explorers of Time. My first mainline game was White 2, and to this day it's still one of my favorite games ever!

Played pokemon fire red on a random flash game website when i was like 5 or 6, learned to pirate just to continue playing it