Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
Fireminer
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Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by Fireminer »

Their is no deny that the Pokemon boom in the late 1900s-early 2000s was a momentous occasion for anime fans. Many cut their teeth on the show, and while Pokemon served as the gateway drug to anime for some fans, even those it failed to convince, it still left an impression that would colour their perception of anime for years to come.

But for this topic, I want to ask about you, a lot of who came into the fandom earlier than that, and your exprience during the Pokemon boom. Do you feel like it affected you personally, like having a sibling who became interested in anime, or seeing stores began stocking more Japanese collectibles? And how do you rated these experiences? Was it good, because it brought in new fans; or was it bad, because the playground was changed?
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by davemerrill »

when Time Magazine did a story on Pokemon in 1999, one of their writers called me to ask us about the Japanese animation convention scene. It was pretty cool to see a national magazine mention our convention.

I took my friend Grant's kid to see the first Pokemon movie and it was still fairly rare to see a Japanese anime film in the theaters, so that was nice. The film didn't make a lot of sense to me.

Other than the film, I've never watched the show or played any of the games or owned any of the merchandise, it's not a franchise that's impacted me personally. It is a franchise that a LOT of younger people were fully immersed in; it's a huge property around the world and was a big part of many people's childhoods. Overall it's been a positive influence towards anime fandom - its success meant other properties were adapted, a lot of translators and localizers were employed, and kids who grew up watching this Japanese cartoon have gone on to become interested in other Japanese cartoons. It's all good.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by DKop »

Pokemon came out in 6th grade for me in the fall of 1998, and it hit the airways during the week on WB (now CW) at about 6:30 AM EST in my area, so kids had a chance to see it before heading to school. This really helped in getting it popular while kids like me ate breakfast and got ready for school while Ash and the gang went on some adventure to get more Pokemon.

As far as it affected me, yea I got the toys, I played the games and watched the show from the first series. I kinda stopped caring about Pokemon by the time the second series started in that spring of 2000, I just felt I was "too old" to keep watching it so I really didn't care anymore. The games personally were the main sellers and the show a close second in my book. The game is a fantastic RPG without being a traditional RPG like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games. It was marketed very well and that hasn't stopped 20 years later. That's my brief history for Pokemon for me.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by mbanu »

It was nostalgic for me. I was a little too old for it, but it reminded me of the animated-in-Japan Saturday morning cartoons of the 80s that I watched when I was younger. It was also the show that gave me my "Eureka!" moment -- realizing that the Saturday morning cartoons, the late-night animated films on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the stuff they were discussing on rec.arts.anime were all the same thing.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by Akage »

Pokémon started showing in my market in the Fall of 1998. We were always one year ahead of the rest of the country. Sailor Moon started in 1995 while I was watching the dub in the summer of 1994. So, yeah, Pokémon was super popular among us college students and a good group of us would crowd around the TV to watch the dub every day in the dorm.

I would say I'm still affected by Pokémon. I've been a Pokémon GO player since Day 1, and the only video games I've played for years are the Pokémon games. I don't spend as much money as I once did on the franchise, but I am happy to say that I own some Pokémon cels.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by usamimi »

Kind of? I was too old for Pokemon's target demographic when it came out here dubbed, but my baby sister loved it so I often played it with her and helped her get into the anime. This was also back when I lived around the same area where Nintendo's WA HQ is located, so there were a lot of promotional events to hype up the games & tv show (I still have some promo items from one of the first big events in a box in my closet somewhere. It included a big list of tv station affiliates who were going to carry the anime, lol.) So while it didn't really hit me directly, I have lots of found memories playing the games & watching the show with my little sister. It helped her get into games & nerdy stuff, and brought us closer together so I have a soft spot for Pokemon to this day even if I'm not the biggest fan or whatever.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by Drew_Sutton »

Had little impact on me. Like usamimi, I was older than the target demographic and I had no interest in the games or anything like that. Some friends of mine were into the games, so I wound up seeing a bit of the show through them and I was interested enough to get a fansub of the first movie and a copy of the seizure episode. But I was never into it myself, so I just kinda left it alone. It's funny though, anime conversations come up with people who are just a scant few years younger than me and it has this tremendous impact on them and I'm just like "Yep, electric rats are indeed a thing."

I think, if I remember back to 1999 or 2000, it was really irritating as an anime fan who wasn't into Pokemon because that was the thing most people associated with anime. But eventually, Pokemon hit fad status and kinda busted as the thing and anime moved on. Or I stopped being an angsty teenager about the whole thing. But the fact that it helped an entire generation of kids get into Japanese cartoons as a hobby is definitely A Good Thing (TM), regardless of how I felt (or continue to feel) about a single cartoon.
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by DKop »

While I was substituting middle schoolers last week, one of the girls I had in my 2nd period class was reading the old comic form of Pokemon by VIZ, and I asked her where she found that from. She told me from her house, which didn't really go into specifics on if she found it somewhere and bought it because its Pokemon or that she has older siblings and they left the house with all of their Pokemon stuff in the basement that she might have stumbled upon. I will throw out there that it might be one of her parents issues they've had all these years and she found it that way. I'm going to really strong assume the latter reason why she has Pokemon Viz comics in her home since people who are in their late 20's and 30's now kept their Pokemon stuff for their kids to enjoy.

It's gonna be something when I get a call one day from the principle office that my future kid brought Crying Freeman to school and want to know how this child obtained this "illicit contraband" to share to their peers at school. :lol: Well, i'll worry about that bridge when I cross it someday.
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usamimi
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by usamimi »

Drew_Sutton wrote: Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:25 am I think, if I remember back to 1999 or 2000, it was really irritating as an anime fan who wasn't into Pokemon because that was the thing most people associated with anime.
OMG fun fact: the ONLY time I ever got an entire anime club screening room to be absolutely quiet was when I got a fansub of the first Pokemon movie & did a showing of it a week before the American version hit theaters. I was mystified at how many new people showed up, too, but hey....The more the merrier right? :lol:
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Re: Did the Pokemon boom affected you?

Post by Drew_Sutton »

usamimi wrote: Sat Oct 06, 2018 1:26 am OMG fun fact: the ONLY time I ever got an entire anime club screening room to be absolutely quiet was when I got a fansub of the first Pokemon movie & did a showing of it a week before the American version hit theaters. I was mystified at how many new people showed up, too, but hey....The more the merrier right? :lol:
Oh that's amazing! "Quiet" was never really an anime club experience I remember having! :lol:
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