PokéMania!!!

The Day I started to Love Pokémon

I have been a fan of Pokémon for a very long time (Around Gen. 3) and as might have said before it's a BIG part of me. So, today I will tell you the story on how I began to love this fandom!!!

I remember It was Christmas Eve 2005, when my older brother got a GameCube bundle as a gift from my Aunt. In the bundle my brother got a special GameCube with Pokémon XD details

(it was silver), he also got the game (his first game too) Pokémon XD Gale of Darkness. I, at the time was 5 (turning 6 that coming February) in Kindergarten, I didn't know Pokémon all that well or what it was (I do remember getting some Littlest Pet Shop toys and a styling head of a horse from Barbie as well as a Barbie bath set!! 😄😄). My brother plugged in his new system and began to play, My brother and I were close (and still are "Sometimes" 😂) so I wanted to watch him play, he named the protagonist "Drake" after the TV show "Drake and Josh" since we loved watching the show and found it funny. The beginning of the game starts with a battle in a simulator, you against another trainer, You had a Salamence while your opponent had a Metagross. I didn't know names at all, but I watched anyway. After my brother won the battle, he saw that his starter Pokémon was an Eevee, I,  from that day fell in LOVE with Eevee. Eevee, was the first Pokémon I learned about (Pikachu comes second!!) I used to think that all Eevee were girls because my brother called his a girl (maybe it was??) My brother evolved his Eevee into a Umbreon, I remember almost crying when I thought Eevee was disappearing, My brother then told me that Eevee is "evolving"  basically telling me that Eevee isn't going away, which I started to see it as Eevee growing up. My brother experimented on the other forms of Eeveevolutions such as Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon, Espeon, and Umbreon (No Leafeon, Glaceon, or Sylveon) so I saw what they looked like. From that day forward I was invested in watching my brother play his Pokémon game, learning new Pokémon everyday, it eventually came down to the point where I wanted to watch the two Pokémon videos (yes, they were VHS tapes that I STILL own to this day) that were handed down from my eldest cousin (he was actually around the time Pokémon was just out). The videos are

"Our Hero Meowth" and "The Fighting Tournament"
each tape had three Indigo League episodes.

"Our Hero Meowth" had episodes:
* "Princess vs Princess" Where Misty wants a Pokémon doll set and has to compete in a tournament to get them.
* "The Purr-fect Hero" Where Ash and company let these little kids play with their Pokémon and this little kid is convinced that a Meowth saved him, he mistakes Team Rocket's Meowth for the real one.
* "The Misty Mermaid" Misty has to dress up as a mermaid and perform for the Cerulean City gym's play

The other video "The Fighting Tournament" had:
* "The Punchy Pokémon" Where Ash and the rest meet a Hitmonchan in a Fighting type Pokémon tournament
* "Sparks fly for Magnemite" The group is in a city (a gross one too) that had a blackout, plus Pikachu is sick and Ash caught a Muk
* "Dig those Diglett" A bunch of Diglett annoy a construction site. Plus, Gary shows up in this episode.

By watching these videos I learned some more things about Pokémon and actually learned about other people (trainers) besides the ones in XD, Ash being the most obvious as well as Misty and Brock. Yeah, and Gary too!! Which I remember calling him a "Big Fat Meanie" (curtious of Spongebob!!! 😂)  Since you know when your little you don't like anybody that's "Mean" in TV shows!!

Well, anyways I didn't actually see a Pokémon episode on TV until I saw an episode of Battle Frontier at my old friend's house (it was in 2006) where Ash, Brock, May, and Max participated in a Scavenger Hunt thing (I don't remember a ton of it), each person got to bring one Pokémon with them, Ash with Pikachu (Obviously), Max with Munchlax (which I used to think was his), but I do remember that May brought Eevee with her. This was the first time I saw Eevee on TV in action, I remember jumping up and down and running around saying "Eevee's on TV!!" It made me so happy to see my favorite Pokémon on TV AND even more happy when I would see that Eevee used shadow ball every opening.

I remember going to the old Kmart (which is now an Ollie's) with my mom and getting a small Celebi figure out of the gum ball machine. My brother got a Rayquaza. I still didn't know their names yet but I did like them. Later, my brother gave me his Rayquaza figure.

Well, that's how I began to love Pokémon as a small girl!!!

How did YOU began to like Pokémon??? If you would like to share your story tell me in the comments!!!

XOXO