Now before you ask some questions, this is NOT a hate thread, there isn't alot of anime that I do like, I did explain in my Sailor Moon Coin-op review that I devoured everything Sailor Moon related at it's peak between 95 and 97 and also in the early 2000s I got into Cardcaptors (or Cardcaptor Sakura as the purists would prefer to refer it as) I will admit Anime kind of had a boom in the 90s considering that Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon found it's way into North America (I wasn't into Dragon Ball Z either)

But I won't lie, I did TRY to get into Pokemon considering that everyone was into it, but despite sampling a few episodes, I realized maybe it's just not for me, however there is another factor to why I didn't get into it, by the time YTV started promoting Pokemon I wasn't watching YTV full time anymore, sure I still tuned in once in awhile to watch shows like Rugrats, Stickin Around and Uh Oh! but by this point I was watching Teletoon full time and ironically Teletoon is actually currently airing some form of Pokemon. Yes Pikachu is stinkin' cute (especially in live action form as Detective Pikachu has shown) but even the merchandise wasn't enough to get me interested (didn't even have the Spaghetti-o Type pasta, I think Sailor Moon had one though sure of it)

so as 1999 and 2000 went on all I could think of is "Is there no end to this?" well I think it started to slowly die down after the third movie (the one with Entai) was released, I don't even recall any promotions for any of the films after that they must have thought "It's Pokemon, we don't need to promote the films now" uh yeah you do because by the time the fourth film came out, they actually found something to take down Pokemon....YU-GI-OH!!! yeah that ended up taking off but I guess the adrenaline didn't last but then again Yu-Gi-Oh has had so many spinoffs, but I know the interest died down pretty fast because their own movie was released in theaters in 2004, and IT DIDN'T DO WELL like it opened in 12th place. (though to be fair, Yu-Gi-Oh and Cardcaptors had an ending, I mean where do you go from there after you transform all the Clow Cards into Star Cards?)

Well since the 2000s lull, it seemed that Pokemon gained a second wind thanks to the pokemon go! game, but I still question when was the last time an Anime took over the world? As of this posting Pokemon is STILL running (hell Ash even won a tournament finally....just before COVID hit....man Ash finally wins a tournament and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers finally break the Grey Cup drought and a pandemic hits talk about unfair) even Sailor Moon got a revival, albeit a brief one, I'm just sorry that the final season wasn't dubbed before the original licensing expired, I would have loved to have known what the Starfighter's North American names would have been.

You know I'm starting to think Teletoon acquired the rights to Cardcaptors because they wanted to have an anime on the channel, but Cardcaptors never took off the same way Pokemon and Sailor Moon did despite there being merchandise (most of it I later learned didn't make it into Canada) but I'll bet my parents would have questioned "Aren't I a little old for this?" yeah I was ten when Cardcaptors premiered on Teletoon, well at least the trading cards made it's way here I collected four packs


So yeah no matter how hard I tried Pokemon isn't for me, even if Teletoon did air it back in the day I still probably wouldn't have watched it (there was the labour day weekend when I sampled everything on Teletoon because I was sick, maybe I'll start another thread today and talk about this since it's a thread day)

Well this aged weirdly now, because they announced that they are retiring Ash and Pikachu from the series...and people freaked out because they're wondering what's going to happen to Team Rocket

Now granted I stand by my statement I still am not into pokemon but even I found this rather shocking and earth shattering, but I hope this isn't going to be a fake out like The Santa Clauses

(Scott Calvin did retire but he ended up taking the job back in the season finale)

I was in middle school 1999 and 2000 when Pokemon was just becoming a thing. I can remember a lot of my friends had the games. I just could never get into it. I don't hate the game franchise at all. It just did not appeal to me. I was into Mega Man, Kirby, Mario, and baseball games. I also played Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Those were the games that appealed to me.

When I was in college I can remember Pokemon caught its second wind. Then I guess its been about 8 years ago Pokemon Go came out. Lot of my friends continued to enjoy those games. But I was just once again not interested.

classgame : Considering they revealed 2 new protagonists and have been hyping up these final 11 episodes series for Ash I really don't think it's a fake out though I wouldn't be upset if it was I'm going to miss Ash I've been watching his journeys since I was 3 years old it doesn't feel real that it's about to be over.

I was never into the Pokemon anime either. The fact of how Pokemon leveled up there, the moves they learnt and what not didn't appeal me. I know I didn't have as much knowledge back then, but I saw it so different from the games that I decided not to follow it beyond the first episodes and movies. Just like in America, we were getting other animes dubbed over here, and some were masterpieces in that field, so there was a lot of competition to turn to back then.

I did follow the games due to the strategy they involve. I've always loved games with a factor of strategy, and up until Gen 3 I was absolutely into any Pokemon videogame in existence. But then, as I grew older and more selective about the new games and systems I wanted to acquire and play, I also distanced myself and kept watching from afar.

The fact they're getting rid of Ash would have enticed me to watch the anime again, but it's happening so late in my life. Most anime have short periods of time happening in decades of airing episodes, but for some reason in Pokemon it felt like the time did pass faster than the plot said and so keeping Ash (and making him look younger as the animation evolved) was out of place. I'm eager to see what new anime will we be seeing now and what other aspects do they alter, maybe if any VA I actively follow appears in any episode I may go watch it.

tornadocam : That's odd, I don't really recall it ever getting a second wind before Pokemon Go came out