how i got into it

pokémon wasn't part of my childhood like it was for most fans of the franchise. as a kid, i knew it existed, but i had no real idea what it was. i saw my older brother playing and collecting the cards, but it never made me curious enough to actually look into it. so no, me liking pokémon as an adult has nothing to do with nostalgia.

when i was 13, i got into anime and found out pokémon wasn't just about the cards my brother had, there was also an anime. but it didn't catch my interest at the time, so my 13-year-old self skipped pokémon entirely.

fast forward to 2024, i found out the pokémon franchise is actually mostly about games (until then, i thought pokémon go was the only one). i also vaguely remembered seeing gameplay from red & blue somewhere.

a few months later, pokémon tcg pocket dropped, and my boyfriend asked me to download it so we could trade cards when that feature came out. long story short: i fell in love with the game and what was supposed to be a casual thing turned into a full-blown obsession.

over time, i got more and more curious about the pokémon themselves: their personalities, how they act, how they battle, that kind of stuff. i really wanted to see them in action, so i finally decided to watch the anime. spoiler: best decision ever.

i can't really explain why pokémon hits so hard for me, but if i had to guess, i'd say it's because of the endless possibilities in the universe. there's just so many ways to enjoy pokémon: lore, the pokémon themselves, trainers, battle styles, games, anime, collecting, tcg, you name it. it legit feels like being a kid walking into disney for the first time. i've never had a hobby with this much stuff to dive into. like, you can just type "pokémon" on aliexpress and boom, endless merch (when it's not the weird kind, ofc) . i feel like i'll never get tired of it cause there's always something new to check out.

some people might think charmander is my favorite just because its final evolution is charizard, but nope. i'll get into this more on a page dedicated to charmander, but just to be clear: i like charmander, not charizard, not charmeleon — charmander!

i also started collecting pokémon cards in real life too because why not? for now, i'm only buying cards from the original 151 and the ones i think look cool, which is already enough to keep me broke.

recently, thanks to my boyfriend's persuasion , i downloaded pokémon go and have been playing casually ( i swear ). running around catching pokémon is actually pretty fun.

as for the other games like red & blue, i already downloaded the game files and i'm planning to play them. my experience with each one will be in the 'games journey' tab here, so stay tuned!