We were born just a little too early for Pokémon
Posted by memestheword@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 518 comments
By the time it hit the monoculture in the late 90s, we were already teenagers and it had been branded as uncool and something that only my little brother and his friends played or watched or whatever.
But the reason it’s significant is that it was (and still is) a cultural force, and we only missed it by a few years! Crazy to think about. I still don’t totally know what it’s about to this day lol.
But it’s possible I’m way off base, and the majority of y’all were into it. Thoughts?
cappnplanet@reddit
I guess it's time to quit being considered "uncool" and just engage with what you're interested in.
Stonetheflamincrows@reddit
I’m a young xennial (Dec ‘84) and Pokémon really became popular in my first couple years of high-school here in Australia. It was crazy popular at my school but I was never into it. I watched the cartoon a bit nothing else.
Wild_Calligrapher_27@reddit
When I was in college a future med student who was two years older than me recited the name of all 104 Pokemon from memory. People my age and older barely knew what a Pokemon was and we gamed quite a bit.
jackfaire@reddit
Hit or miss with older teens. I was not into Pokémon my ex-wife very much was.
gofixmeaplate@reddit
I feel you but when my son was about 10, I played it with him and I have been playing the video games ever since
be_loved_freak@reddit
Same, we just barely missed it. That's what separates Millennials and Xennials I guess lol I'm into Pokemon a bit now but that's because I married a Millennial & it's his favorite thing.
pregnantandsober@reddit
I got into it anyway. The Gameboy game, but not the playing cards.
I went to a mall tournament when I was 21, I think, and was matched up with a 7-year-old. I had a blast.
MonkeyBred@reddit
Born March '80... when I was a sophomore, my freshmen friends would play Pokemon in the library. I didn't disrespect it, but it seemed kinda kiddish to me... and the cartoon felt super commercialized—"Gotta catch em all" sounded like a sales pitch.
Now, I have a friend who makes $5K trading cards on the weekend twice a month.
SenecaLux@reddit
I finally got into it when my own kids did. Just Pokémon Go, but still. I have a whole collection now 😅 I remember being too old for it back in the day.
Xjadebones@reddit
Completely agree. I feel like power rangers fall into this category too as well as spounge bob. I love me some spounge bob don’t get me wrong but my wife is a few years younger and makes way more references.
Deep-Interest9947@reddit
And pogs.
MIBJO@reddit
No we had POGS.
elphaba00@reddit
"Remember Alf? He's back! In pog form."
Psycosteve10mm@reddit
POGs were some serious military gambling if you were around a military base.
Lucky_Louch@reddit
didn't need to be around a military base for it to be serious gambling, they got outlawed at my school because kids were doing it constantly in class and getting into fights over losing their pogs.
Psycosteve10mm@reddit
One of the ways the US military prevents bringing a ton of cash into a warzone is that they will issue what is essentially POGs that have a monetary value to be used at the exchanges for goods only at the bases. Anywhere from a penny to about $2 were the denominations of those POGs. The whole game, which is a challenge coin ( Slammer), and the POGs themselves.
CommandAlternative10@reddit
I don’t know what year pogs hit your town, but they were huge in 1992 when I was in middle school.
-FORLORN-HOPE-@reddit
I feel like pogs were a thing in my circle for less than a year. I never really knew what you were supposed to do with them.
There was a game you played with them I think. And was there a metal disk you threw at them or something? I still don't know.
I do know the Simpsons joke of Alf being back in Pog form is hilarious.
anniemdi@reddit
My sibling is late 70s, I am early 80s. Pogs were huge for us!
rebelangel@reddit
Yeah my younger brothers were really into Power Rangers so I watched it by proxy, but I was just at the age where it was uncool to be into Power Rangers.
windupshoe2020@reddit
I finally watched a few episodes of SpongeBob Bob, after definitely being “too old” when it debuted.
Damn. It’s the spiritual successor of Ren and Stimpy. I should have been watching the hell out of Sponge Bob.
Common_Juggernaut724@reddit
My kids watched SpongeBob, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it with them. And a huge part of that was how much it reminded me of Ren and Stimpy.
MalcolmReady@reddit
My 8 year old asked me why I was always singing “it’s log, it’s log, it’s big it’s heavy it’s wood…” She’s too young for it but I’m thinking my 11 year old might be ready
jimmythesaint83@reddit
HeyCarpy@reddit
I remember thinking this when SpongeBob was new. Ren and Stimpy was huge for me and I remember liking the obvious influence despite not really getting into it.
Howboutit85@reddit
I love SpongeBob but prefer ren and stimpy
LazarusDark@reddit
I was 13 when Power Rangers came out. Yeah, I did watch it with my little brothers, but I liked the first two seasons just fine, it was clearly based on Japanese Super Sentai and I had a mild interest in Japanese exports. And I wasn't the only one, all my friends at school liked it too (we were the uncool nerds group, but also we generally didn't want to be cool cause the cool kids were boring). Took my brothers later to see the movie in theaters, just me and rhem, a bonding experience we still bring up occasionally.
I was a teenager when Pokemon came over, and sure my syounger siblings were into it, trading cards at school, but I'd been reading about it in videogame magazines since it was only known as Pocket Monsters before they came up with the Pokemon name, and already knew it was a craze in Japan, the idea never crossed my mind that it was "for kids", any more than anime or anything else was "for kids". It was the newest video game and anime and Japanese export, that's all, and I was into videogames and anime.
I never got into SpongeBob since I didn't have cable ever, until my wife (then girlfriend) had it on in college and we both found it entertaining (no substances necessary). More than half of the jokes and references in SpongeBob were things kids would never get, only adults would get them, that show was written for us as much as our youngest siblings.
luxtabula@reddit
Most people my age watches power rangers mostly because we were hitting puberty and the guys were crushing on the pink ranger and the girls were crushing on the green/white ranger.
Gishra@reddit
Yeah I remember it being big with some of my friends in 8th grade, although I didn't watch it.
Tiny-Reading5982@reddit
I wanted to be Kimberly. I watched power rangers until maybe zeo but I wasn't telling people lol.
Xjadebones@reddit
I was a big fan of how the drew rouge from X-men.
Psycosteve10mm@reddit
LitRonSwanson@reddit
HomelessKitchenCat@reddit
Its very generous
luxtabula@reddit
I'm a big fan how they drew everyone in that show. The artists definitely were in the Sahara with no Avion.
L3g3ndary-08@reddit
TotalHell@reddit
100%. I missed Pokémon, Power Rangers, an SpongeBob, all seemingly by just a couple of years. And these are things that it feels like everyone even 2-3 years younger than me will reference.
InfidelZombie@reddit
And Harry Potter!
CatchAlarming6860@reddit
This is as true as it gets for us because I could have written your comment verbatim. That’s the dividing line with us and Millennials right there.
mello5ive@reddit
Voltron walked so Power Rangers could run.
Troodonni@reddit
Ultraman crawled so voltron could walk
wrel_@reddit
Funny way to spell GoLion!
LitRonSwanson@reddit
I grew up loving Voltron and I would agree with you, but only for the USA.
You need to check out the history behind Super Sentai (the action scenes from power rangers are actually this show) and also it's still airing...
Super Sentai | Best TV Shows Wiki | Fandom https://share.google/TwJryYZv1sGCQ9x4b
MexicanVanilla22@reddit
And Harry Potter
AmputeeHandModel@reddit
Yeah I tried reading Harry Potter but it's literally a kids' book.
bosco9@reddit
The recent video game is even worse, they make you go to classes as part of the game, how boring is that?
AmputeeHandModel@reddit
They were basically just little tutorials, that was alright. I gave up on it after a while, though.
Aprils-Fool@reddit
Being appropriate for and about kids doesn’t mean a book can’t appeal to adults, too.
crazycatlady331@reddit
I have friends (and now my nieces) who are super into it. (My sister never got into it but her daughters really are.)
By that time, I had basically stopped reading fiction (middle school/high school English class ruined fiction for me). To this day, 99% of what i read is nonfiction.
The last fiction series I really got into was Babysitter's Club.
anniemdi@reddit
Curious, did you continue on to its finish even once you were "too old"?
crazycatlady331@reddit
I think I stopped in 6th grade.
lostcosmonaut307@reddit
Harry Potter is a watershed between Xennial and True Millennial for me.
wrel_@reddit
Ren & Stimpy was our Sponge Bob.
BasketballButt@reddit
SpongeBob was a great stoned watch. Used to get baked with my brother and watch it.
bikemandan@reddit
Accurate. My brother is 5 years younger and he liked both Pokemon and Power Rangers
dsteazy80@reddit
Same for me. Born in ‘80. Power Rangers and Pokemon were big later in my high school years, and SongeBob was college for me.
I never got into any of them.
pantheroux@reddit
I became a latchkey kid in first grade and started babysitting at 12. Meanwhile, some kids’ parents wanted them to be supervised until 12 or 13. This created some weird age gaps with babysitting. One of my classmates babysat a fifth grader in sixth grade. Because my friend had a December birthday, he was the same age as the kid he was watching. We’d just play games the whole time, and my friend would get paid.
At one point, I babysat a kid born in ‘85 or ‘86. Power Rangers wasn’t something I’d seek out on my own, but I’d often watch it with him. I mentioned it to some of my classmates who had no idea what I was talking about. It’s not that they considered it babyish, they were completely unaware of its existence.
therealpopkiller@reddit
I saw a few eps of power rangers when it started but lost interest quickly. It was late summer of 93, I was 14, and Nirvana had a new album out, I had no time for kids stuff anymore
hunnypunny@reddit
Absolutely! My brother born in 1988 was all about all these things though I did read the Harry Potter books but I was a voracious reader and literally read whatever I could get my hands on. But SpongeBob passed us both that’s for the younglings.
cjandstuff@reddit
I remember being excited about Power Rangers when they came out, because I turned 13 that year, and the TV guide listed the show as for teens.
bjgrem01@reddit
I wasn't into Pokémon or Power Rangers, but I was into SpongeBob from the beginning. I always enjoyed weird Nick cartoons. For me the other two felt cheesy when i tried to watch them. SpongeBob was just stupid and funny. I also got into Invader Zim which nobody our age has even heard of half the time. Zim got me into a lot of my favorite comics, like Jhonny the Homicidal Maniac and Lenore.
AmputeeHandModel@reddit
*Sponge
christopherDdouglas@reddit
I was born in 84, and I had one season of Power Rangers that I was into and I aged out. No SpongeBob, no pokemon.
memestheword@reddit (OP)
SpongeBob yes. it feels like everyone on Reddit knows SpongeBob but me
flatulating_ninja@reddit
I had a similar discussion around Power Rangers with a younger BIL born in 90. He was into Power Rangers but too young for OG Ninja Turtles. His kids are into the new Turtles though and he says they're pretty good.
Crabcakefrosti@reddit
I had a friend who was always watching power rangers. He claimed it was for his little brother but he was always in his room. I stopped hanging out with him and would watch MTV at my house.
Soberaddiction1@reddit
Meh. We had X-Men. Way better.
key_buds@reddit
Agree, what's funny is I have a coworker who's probably about 6-10 years older and he's still totally into it. Probably just past the age of it being "uncool" when it released
litchick@reddit
I think that's what it is. My brother was born in '84 and was into it so it's an eternal "nope" for me.
KrayzieBone187@reddit
I was born in 85 and never got into it, or really remember much of it from back then. I'm in NS, Canada, and am wondering if we were just a few years behind on everything.
melodic-abalone-69@reddit
I grew up in Kansas and same. I feel like I was a freshman in highschool when I started hearing about it, and it seemed like a little kid thing. Kinda like SpongeBob... Never seen an episode.
Friend_of_Gorgar@reddit
I'm '82, people a year younger than me love Spongebob, yeah never seen it. Pokemon, I sort of remember when an N64 game came out and they had a display at the Blockbuster. My wife is '81 and she read and enjoyed Harry Potter books. But then I think Harry Potter is a whole different thing if you were born in 85-90.
When my peers and I turned 13 or so and everything suddenly became about guitars, girls and cars in that order. I'm a big freaking Star Trek nerd today, but I never saw any of the shows during high school. I was NOT cool in high school, but the vibe used to be that you just sorta quit your nerdy kid stuff at some point.
80s_angel@reddit
I’m also ‘82 but I loved SpongeBob. I stumbled upon it one Saturday and found it funny because although it’s ridiculously silly, it’s also very earnest.
juniper3411@reddit
1980 here and I have always loved SpongeBob lol. Watched it before I had kids and when they watched it I was like hell yeah this shit is great lol
pantheroux@reddit
Yeah. I was a gamer girl who liked comic books. I missed the memo that life was supposed to become makeup, hair and boys the moment you turned 12. Junior high wasn’t kind.
rebelangel@reddit
I never got into SpongeBob because it came out the year I graduated high school and I was too old for Nickelodeon. And I think I started hearing about Pokemon in, like, 1996, so I was definitely in high school and it was seen as a little kid thing back then.
Aliveandthriving8505@reddit
Yet there's 85er that were into the games
Howboutit85@reddit
SpongeBob is for kids?
melodic-abalone-69@reddit
When I was 13/14 I thought so
lavasca@reddit
I’m sorry. Can you explain “NS Canada” for me, please? I keep guessing North-South for NS and that guess doesn’t make sense. LOL
Columbiyeah@reddit
Nova Scotia
lavasca@reddit
Thank you!
GarciaWolf@reddit
Born in 85 also from PA and I remember walking to Funcoland to buy Pokémon blue
buffysmanycoats@reddit
Idk, 85 from CT here and Pokémon always seemed too young for me. Interestingly, my older sister loves Pokémon.
Howboutit85@reddit
85 from Cali, I was into Pokémon in middle school, maybe 7th grade on game boy. I already liked turn based RPGs like final fantasy so to me it was just another one of those but with monsters. I didnt play the cards or anything else I just played the game on game boy, and I enjoyed leveling up and getting all the treasures and badges etc.
Playing the game got me interested in the lore and the world and I liked anime in HS so I did watch the anime, but I did t play or buy any actual Pokémon cards until I was like 36 lol. As for cards I was into magic the gathering in the 90s.
ThisWillBeOnTheExam@reddit
Same. I played blue and red all the way through in middle and again in high school on game boy. I preordered it at Toys R Us after reading how huge it was in Japan. Didn’t get into the rest of the universe.
SimianBear@reddit
84, Ontario. Don't remember it being a big thing either.
Chickenbrik@reddit
‘84, big video game nerd. I was ready and aware of the wave that was about to sweep the nation. Played and liked the game. Played the tcg with my cousins as I played Magic the gathering, but after the first game I didn’t get into the series until a much later entry(heart gold)
It depends on where your interests lies I think. If you were a gamer you knew.
Howboutit85@reddit
This is it. One of my friends showed it to me, and I immediately liked it for the RPG elements, because I had just played Wild arms and it looked similar, and I loved that game. But then the monster collecting and lighthearted tone was just unique and I loved it.
I probably wouldn’t have cared about Pokémon if I didn’t play the game on GB in like 7th grade
PercentageKey2581@reddit
Also 84 and Ontario. It was massive in my experience. We collected cards. Played the card game at the local video game store on Wednesdays. Kids would fight over them. Schools banned them. I'd sneak out to the park at night with my gameboy and link cable to play and share with friends. It was awesome. I still have binders full of pokemon cards. Gave them to my step son but he's not really into it. I wonder if they're worth anything anymore.
Howboutit85@reddit
Some of the cards are worth a lot
Smasholle76@reddit
Yeah similar age to both you guys and I don't know how his town was but I came from a small town and pokemon was massive in Ontario I don't believe his experience is the norm. South Park even did an early episode about it. Pokemon was massive everywhere unless you were living under a rock. I just got into Pokemon because we had indoor recess one summer and everyone was betting and playing Pokemon with GBC and link cables. I was already playing Final Fantasy for years so it clicked with me and won the tournament. I get the sentiment about just missing the boat on somethings. Had zero interest about Harry Potter was more interested in women and fixing my car at that age 😂.
bikeonychus@reddit
I'm an '85 baby, and I did get into it, as I was just about still 13 when it came out in the UK. I'd heard about it a year or two before through the internet, and I loved the cute monsters.
But, I did not make it my whole personality, and I only really sometimes play it with my kid now.
litchick@reddit
Yeah, I think that's another reason. We are 5-10 years behind in trends in Upstate NY too.
kristosnikos@reddit
I was born in ‘84 and I definitely felt too old for it. It seemed really silly and childish.
JustAnAgingMillenial@reddit
That's why I was never into power rangers. because my younger brother was 🤣
christopherDdouglas@reddit
I was born in 84 and pokemon came out in our tween years. I completely missed it. It definitely would have been an interest most kids kept to themselves if they got into it in my age bracket.
lumpialarry@reddit
Are xennials the last generation to push away kids stuff to be “cool” when they hit 13,14? But it seems like younger generations could still admit to watching Pokémon everyday in high school but saying you still watched GI Joe and transformers would have been seen as weird.
pantheroux@reddit
Yeah, I feel this way about Harry Potter. It arrived at exactly the wrong time for me - when I was a teen and it was uncool. 5 years earlier and I would have been the target demographic. 5 years later and I would have been reading YA books as they’re sometimes good, and a nice escape from university stuff and daily life.
My ‘84 born cousins didn’t really get into either Pokémon or HP, but my ‘84 and ‘87 born coworkers are heavily into both.
toasterb@reddit
I read HP in university when my prime millennial sister got into the books, so I certainly enjoyed them, but I was past the age at which one would really get into it in a huge way.
Kinda glad now. JKR being revealed to be a bigot is much less of a gut punch for me than it is for my sister.
Aprils-Fool@reddit
I started reading Harry Potter in high school, right as it was getting popular in the US.
key_buds@reddit
I never got into HP, until I was with my 90 millennial ex who loved it.
MalcolmReady@reddit
It is funny how that works. Once you’re out of the gauntlet, you’re free again to like what you like
SweetyDarlingLuLu@reddit
There are people riding around in their vehicles 🚗 to the adjacent parking lot of the park near my home. They play Pokémon and don't walk they drive. They have white hair. 👩🦳 I have been freaked out by them bc I assumed "Pokémon was for kids". Pokémon is not for kids and people older than you and I play it. So no excuses! OP can start Pokemon no problem. Brjng your car.
Konnorwolf@reddit
100% bypassed as I was about 17 by the time Pokemon came around. If I had been a few years younger? Yes.
Of course I know a bunch of 30 somethings that have been enjoying Pokemon in some way this entire time because they grew up with it.
On another note, I know how to play Yugioh.
desertrose0@reddit
I agree with this. I felt I was too old for it. Joke's on me, my kids got super into it in Kindergarten and that interest hasn't stopped. So I've had to learn some things, but it was still never a part of my childhood the way it is for people younger than me.
Fredwood@reddit
Eh I liked the game it was a fun time waster. I didn't have my own video games growing up and the gb and game was the first thing I ever bought with my own money.
I just wasn't watching the cartoon or wearing gear.
Relative_Progress946@reddit
I'm ok with that
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
I'm on the gen-x side of xennials, so i agree, but i could see half of us disagreeing, too. I'll tread lightly, because i could make a list of things that this applies to, for me. Little teenager me was too "old and cool" for things that, later in life, I realized were probably really great. Things like Pokémon and Doug. As an adult, I realize I was only shooting myself in the foot, though.
SilentSerel@reddit
That was me when RL Stine (especially Goosebumps) and Christopher Pike were popular. I dismissed them outright because I was already reading a lot of Stephen King and a little bit of John Saul, Dean Koontz, and Robert McCammon. I've gone back and read some of Stine and Pike's books and realized that I really did miss out and there was no reason why I couldn't enjoy them while still enjoying the books I thought were more "sophisticated".
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
I've never gone back to goosebumps, but I'm certain you're right. They didn't become hugely popular for no reason, I'm sure.
mattcoady@reddit
Yea I was 13 when it came out (in North America). I gave my younger brother my Gameboy before that since it felt pretty dead in the water before Pokemon. My brother got the game for his birthday and it was a phenomenon. He became the go to Pokemon guy on the playground.
My friends ended up playing it using the no$ emulator. They'd call the house and it would be like "Hey bud how's it going. Good good. Hey is your brother around I got a Pokemon question for him" lol
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
Lol, that's how it goes sometimes. I just look back and laugh at myself, now.
therealpopkiller@reddit
I’m the same age as you and loved Doug. Loved loved loved. But never seen a second of Pokémon
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
I never gave Doug a shot, and I'm sure that's to my own detriment. I could list a few more, I'll only be embarrassing myself. I was a really dumb teenager
SquirrelEnthusiast@reddit
Gen X here, have been and always will be a Pokemon fan, I've been playing games my whole life too. I completely have the opposite experience as OP. this post is weird to me.
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
That's fair! I was so into mtg at the time that a cartoon based version felt childish to me. Again, I realize how childish i was actually being, now. Oh sweet irony
baconbag@reddit
My siblings and I were all really into MTG, but I learned to play Pokemon a few years ago because my daughter wanted to play it. She gets fuming mad at me when I accidentally call energy cards “mana”.
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
Lol...I have no idea how Pokémon goes, but I would definitely be trying to tap my lands
firesmarter@reddit
Me too. I love Pokemon and haven’t been able to stop playing Pokopia
Puzzleheaded_Race_90@reddit
That game actually looks really fun
kellyasksthings@reddit
Jokes on you, I was deeply uncool as a teenager. My friends and I would tape the show and pause it to draw the new Pokémon we saw, then trade the hand drawn pictures with each other.
brilliantpants@reddit
Speak for yourself! I got it for Christmas and became obsessed. I’ve played at least one game from every generation all the way through.
But I acknowledge that I may be an outlier in this area.
Rahawk02@reddit
My wife liked it so we used to watch the cartoon. I think she liked Digimon more though.
Fair_Blood3176@reddit
Thank the Lord
Taanistat@reddit
Look...I'm a huge gamer. I've never gotten Pokémon. It was for kiddies when it was new and I was 17.
I've tried.
I figured it was a gaming experience I was lacking. I tried Pokémon yellow. I tried white and black, I tried sun and moon, I tried sword and shield, I tried Let's Go Evee, and most recently I tried Arceus. I tried about as hard as anyone could be expected to. I just don't get the love for this incredibly grindy, incredibly basic jrpg-lite.
Don't try explaining your fascination because I stopped caring. I just don't and never will get it and I'm fine with that.
Queasy_Connection738@reddit
I’ve heard about our mini generation, too young for MASH, too old for Pokémon.
OneMoreXennialSarah@reddit
Oh, I have many thoughts. So, Pokemon meant nothing to me when they came out, as you noted.
However! I had a kid. When he entered kindergarten, Pokemon cards were A Big Thing. Said kid was already into superheroes, some video games, and I realized that I needed to pick one of my kid’s interests and get into it too.
So I started playing Pokemon Go. Said kid is now in high school and we will be traveling together to Pokemon Go Fest for the fourth year in a row.
It’s been amazing.
SilentSerel@reddit
That didn't stop some of us, including me. I'm immortalized in the back of my senior yearbook playing Pokémon Gold on my Game Boy Color and the friends I was with were doing the same. They just weren't in that particular picture. We had a lot of Pokémon merch and were ecstatic when the movie came out. We also started an anime club, though, so it might have just been because we were that kind of crowd.
Power Rangers, Harry Potter, and SpongeBob (to name a few famous examples) totally missed me but for some reason Pokémon did not. I still have a soft spot for the original 151 and the 90s era art to this day.
PinkFloydDeadhead@reddit
Pokemon, Pogs, and SpongeBob are things I feel like I was just too old to concern myself with.
rightwords@reddit
What? I love Pokémon! But I was never one of the cool kids.
krillthemalll@reddit
No connection to it whatsoever. Star Wars is where its at!
Redhistaria@reddit
It’s funny, I was talking to a coworker about this the other day. Both of our kids are into Pokémon and he was excited about it because he got to relive his youth. It’s all completely new to me. He’s 5 or so years younger and that makes all the difference.
WorgRider@reddit
I was into pokemon hype in my early teens. My friends as well. Even had a classmate get me a new using a gameshark. I watched the anime up until johto island. I kinda lost interest after gold silver.
jtslp@reddit
When my own kid got really into Pokémon, I took the opportunity to dive in with him. We played the card game, which is super fun. Went to tournaments and everything. It was something I’d have loved as a kid if I’d been born a bit later.
eat_like_snake@reddit
Speak for yourself. I really liked the first gen of Pokemon.
Wise_Command9407@reddit
I like Marvel comics and marvel tv series in the 90's more than pokemon. by the time pokemon became popular I was into music .
ketimmer@reddit
I think I was already into Magic The Gathering by that point.
Due-Set5398@reddit
The pop culture zeitgeist was stronger for younger millennials. They all identify with a Harry Potter house. Ninja Turtle lore just wasn’t deep enough. I was done by 1992.
ShowMeYourHappyTrail@reddit
I started playing the games during the 3DS era and fell in love with them after seeing a Cubone and just falling in love with it based on cuteness and sadness. LOL!
I don't like the battling parts of the games and everybody always goes "that's just part of it" and I'm always like...the catchphrase of the franchise is Gotta Catch 'Em All not Gotta Battle 'Em All. LOL!
NeoManicXZ@reddit
I hate it. I’m glad I missed it.
ColdCalc@reddit
100%. Born in’84 and it was exactly as you say.
NPC261939@reddit
You're right. By the time Pokémon was in full swing I was preoccupied with dirt bikes and chasing girls.
EmmalouEsq@reddit
Yeah, I never got into Pokémon or pogs because we were all just slightly too old. I know Pikachu and that's it. I just can't wrap my head around all the rules.
lakebistcho@reddit
I'm 83 and was into the Gameboy games.
grumpyoldnord@reddit
Agreed. In my head, I think of it as something that started popping up when I was in middle school that I just never got into, but when I was talking with my little brother the other day, it turns out I was mistaken - Pokémon didn't come out in the US till I had already dropped out of high school.
AlissonHarlan@reddit
non. i was like 16 when it was released and always be a huge fan since then.
Granted that i was a bit ashamed when i bought the game, but whatever...
Turd-In-Your-Pocket@reddit
I didn’t miss it.
I bought Red and Blue and a gameboy color (already had an OG gameboy) with money made working fast food in late October 1998. I was 16 and none of my friends played lol. It was sophomore year of high school.
The next year there were some 9th graders in band that played so we battled Pokémon on the bus when we went to away games.
I knew I was older than the target demographic but I had been reading about it in Nintendo Power for months before it came out and was like “this sounds cool as fuck”. Never watched the cartoon until my son was born and wanted to watch it over a decade later. And while I have ROM’s of every game through the Gameboy Advance and Nintendo DS versions, the OG ones are the only ones I’ve played to completion. My main was blue but I played enough red to get the pokemon not on the blue cart so I could trade with myself.
Melancholy_Rainbows@reddit
I was in college when Pokemon got huge.
Still love the games, though. The anime is way too kiddy and I’m not interested at all in the card game, but I adore the games and the character designs.
dox1842@reddit
I watched it in 8th grade everyday.
starmartyr11@reddit
Seeing how much Pokemon cards can fetch now just reinforced to me how much artificial scarcity can inflate the price of anything to ridiculous levels... mix in some nostalgia or a burgeoning subculture and that's a winning formula
DarkJedi527@reddit
Yes. Same with Harry Potter. I was in high school and my little brother was in elementry. I just thought it was their TMNT or something. Never got into it.
reapersritehand@reddit
I remember when it it was taking over, by then we already played magic, mortal kombat, vampire and a million other tcgs, I was like this kiddie shit aint ever gonna last, then like 15 yrs later my kids obsessed with it, had to admit i was wrong
crazycatlady331@reddit
I feel like the holy trinity separating Xennials from millennials are Pokémon, Harry Potter, and Sponge Bob.
A few weeks ago I (80) was having dinner with a friend (82) who was talking about how badly she wanted to see the Harry Potter show on Broadway. I explained to her that Harry Potter literally meant nothing to me as I was in college when the first book was released. I saw a few of the movies (went along with younger friends) and they were just okay. They weren't bad but they weren't anything special. I was (and still am) an outsider looking in when it comes to anything Harry Potter.
JWWBurger@reddit
I remember seeing the first film in the theater, watching it with my nuclear family at Thanksgiving or Christmas. Enjoyed it enough but it didn’t pull me in. Years later, the second movie was on tv and I could see there was depth to its lore, so I stopped watching the movies and picked up the books.
I read them in private because I felt insecure in having people know I was reading them, largely because I didn’t want this tough-acting guy at work to give me shit for it. Eventually, we found out we both were reading them and became good friends, and learned not to care what others thought. It’s funny, because I know work with a bunch of GenZs and they all “sort” into houses like a personality test. I appreciate having the pop culture understanding of Harry Potter.
starmartyr11@reddit
I was a bit shocked to find out a that a guy i made friends with at work in about 2009 who was about 6-7 years younger than me ('82 here) had zero affinity for HP... I had never really heard that from a younger person before. I guess he was a bit too advanced for it despite his age being about right for them maybe? He actively disliked it though which i find pretty rare in that cohort.
Personally I only had some good memories of the movies because my nephew was into them ('01), and with him being a kid it was on a lot at my brother's place. Seeing him experience the magic of it all was pretty great. His parents read the books and enjoyed them. I ended up liking the movies a bit just for myself as I was about 19 when the first one came out and still a bit in awe of the new special effects at that time, but LOTR will always be king for me, books and movies. I read that long before they made the movies. I never read the HP books as I just wasnt that into it - the movies were enough.
Aprils-Fool@reddit
Harry Potter is a bit different. I worked in a book store during the height of its popularity. One thing that set it apart from other books was the massive age range that loved it, from kids through senior citizens.
GarblingCumfarts@reddit
We had Lord of the Rings, they had Harry Potter.
We had a huge variety of "collect 'em all" shows (TMNT, Transformers, Voltron, GI Joe, and the list goes on) and they had Pokemon.
We had OG Nicktoons and CN's Cartoon Cartoons and they had Dan Snyders era of Nick (yuck)
I think we got the better deal.
graveybrains@reddit
I had Pokémon Red for my gameboy, read all the Harry Potter books when they were new, but I've never seen a single episode of Sponge Bob
bad-wokester@reddit
I agree that I missed it in my childhood but I got into it through my kids. I love if
vidvicious@reddit
My ex gf was super into Pokemon, she was 21 when it exploded. She was mostly into it because she thought Pikachu was just the bees knees. At some point she bought me a stuffed Mewth. Which my niece has since inherited.
mondomiketron@reddit
Maybe but I was a huge stoner in highschool and would get super high after school and watch the cartoon.
htownAstrofan@reddit
So true. One of my good friends from college is 2 years younger than me and he was really into Pokemon in his younger years. But yeah when Pokemon got big i was already a teen and wasnt interested.
Plumeria9798@reddit
Totally agree, I only knew one person who was getting into it when we were in HS and we made fun of her behind her back for it, poor girl…it was deeply uncool back then for people our age.
aenus79@reddit
I play Pokemon go, it gets me out and walking away more than I used to! As for the card Games and game Boy stuff, ya, it was after my time.
elphaba00@reddit
I've been playing Pokemon Go since about its launch. (I actually didn't install until about 3 weeks after.) One of my Millennial coworkers looked at me funny when she caught me in a down moment, but she's also the one I think grew up in a commune shielded from all pop culture. Thanks to my other Xennial coworker who stepped in and said he played, too. It gives me a routine and something to track and work toward.
IndependentLove2292@reddit
Yep. I've seen a few things like that. Granted none have reached the sustained heights of Pokemon. Power Rangers was big for a good while with my younger cousins and it was the lamest, most inane thing my 12 year old brain had ever seen at that point.
Wiz_Hellrat@reddit
I remember Pokemon was famous when I was in high school. I had friends that played it. They collected so many cards. Well when it started to die down. They sold their decks dirt cheap. I bet some of those first generations cards they had. Are worth so much money now.
Zytharros@reddit
‘86 and absolutely love Pokémon.
remnant_phoenix@reddit
I was past the age, but I still played.
I got into it when I was 14 and it was just a Game Boy game. And then came the show and the cards and the movie and all that, and I enjoyed them because I like the original game so much, but that was definitely something I kept to myself in general peer company. All the way through until I was 16, at which point I legitimately lost interest because I got into other games.
Tiny-Reading5982@reddit
I never got into Pokémon until recently but I did play Pokémon go when it came out. But I started playing the switch violet game and its addicting and I like collecting the cards 👀
GlueGuns--Cool@reddit
I was like right on the cusp. Maybe 1-2 years too old. So glad I missed it.
YnotZoidberg2409@reddit
I know I'm a little younger than most here but I got Pokemon Red finally on my 10th birthday. Still play the series till this day.
dragon_morgan@reddit
I was like 13 when it became popular and I got into it along with my friends but we were on the older end of the target audience for sure. By the time the third generation came out when I was in high school I considered myself way too old and cool for pokemon. But I immediately got back into it im college when the fourth generation came out and I've been playing ever since
GonnaGoFat@reddit
I did get Pokémon red (and still have it). I was 18. I enjoyed and beat it. My brother had blue but he was younger. I know a lot of people viewed it as a kids game as the anime was aimed at a younger crowd.
Other than that Pokémon game I did get Ultra Sun for 3ds years ago. Haven’t touched any of the games in between them although I played a little bit of Pokémon go.
LQNova@reddit
I was in my mid 20s and the cartoon was on when I got home from work. Somewhere I have the whole Burger King set of pokeball toys that I collected for laughs.
granadesnhorseshoes@reddit
Born in 82 and it was perfectly fine to like and play it in the context of a game boy game. Even swap shit with others on the cafeteria and stuff. What was "beneath" us was the wider cultural phenomenon that it sparked with the cartoons and plushies and toys and shit.
Ironic because it only reached such a cultural significance because us "older kids" had engaged it when it was otherwise just a neat, if overly cutesie gameboy game.
Seabass_Says@reddit
Born in 1988 and it hit my elementary school like fire 🔥
Livvylove@reddit
I watched it with my little brother. He was much younger but it always made him laugh so much when I would sing and dance the theme song. That and Arthur were our shows. I really enjoyed it but I love anime and that was his favorite and it started becoming one of mine. I even got my now husband into it by playing the game and he would watch with us(we started dating around 19)
Atillion@reddit
Yes. I was never into it because I felt too old..
..until my first kid came along. Now I know every one of them as a middle aged man 🤣
NiteVision4k@reddit
I watched the cartoons and played the games on Gameboy. I was a bit too old for the cards. Lil bro loved the cards, pogs, and power rangers. I turned his pogs container into a bong.
Staggerlee024@reddit
I don't know about this. I was born in 81 and got big into Pokemon in my later teen years. Still enjoy it to this day.
LoudTable9684@reddit
I’ve had this same discussion with much younger coworkers! I LOVE Nintendo and anime, and I’m vocal about it, so everyone assumes I must love Pokémon. But this exactly! If I were like 4 years younger or older I think it would be one of my favorite series… but I must have been playing Final Fantasy or something at the time and it looked too “kiddie” and I can’t shake it
nogeologyhere@reddit
This is just a bunch of cool people still making us nerds feel bad 30 years later.
walter_grimsley@reddit
Elder Xennial here (77). I not only missed Pokemon, Power Rangers and Harry Potter, I was born too late for Star Wars, and I slept on the entire 16 bit era of games because I thought I was too cool (i was actually quite uncool).
My things were GIJoe, Transformers, MOTU, Knight Rider and Ghostbusters.
I quietly put away my 2600, NES and Commodore 64 and didn’t touch a controller again until the PS1 hit in 1995.
Reliving it now through my daughters eyes.
Agent17@reddit
I was a judge for pokemon in high school, first job. I made a bunch of money off that card game. Wotc era was good times.
GoonieMcflyguy@reddit
I played a bunch with younger relatives when I was older, so I get it, but not really my thing.
YouCanBetOnBlack@reddit
Yeah it was for little kids and I was a cool late teen. Says the man who's now 45 and gonna see the Mario Galaxy movie by himself.
sctrlk@reddit
I have never been into Pokémon. I’m glad that wasn’t big when I was a kid.
Proof-Put8182@reddit
Yup. I was right on the cusp. By the time it was big I was 6th grade and not so much into kids stuff like that anymore.
ZzzSleep@reddit
Yes if you’re a Gen X Xennial. But I know plenty of Xennials who are closer to the Millennial side who were into it.
_ism_@reddit
that's about when i checked out and had to start adulting, i think. everyone younger than me knows 800x more about pokemon even if they weren't into it
Dast_Kook@reddit
Pogs rise up!
disinaccurate@reddit
Yup. My brother is a 1986 baby and he is into Pokémon to this day. But by the time Pokémon hit, I was in late stages of high school and into PC FPSs (Quake, Quake II, Half-Life) and console survival horror (Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Silent Hill) and the like. Pokémon was definitely not reaching me at that point.
minnowmoon@reddit
I am into it now 😂
My kids love it and now so do I. I play Pokemon Go and watch the cartoons with them.
Neither_Internal_261@reddit
I remember the year it came out was the year I became interested in girls so yeah never got into them.
BomBiddyByeBye@reddit
I think about this a lot. I remember being about 18 or 19, kind of floating between high school and whatever I was going to do next. I’d just be on my computer with the Pokémon cartoon on in the background. That’s about as far as it went for me. I didn’t play the games because I felt a little too old, and I never got into the cards or anything like that.
PraetorianXVIII@reddit
Truth. And power rangers
LuckyCatastrophe@reddit
Millennial here. My coworker is 10 years older than me and got into it when Pokemon Go came out. I think that's really his only engagement with the series but he definitely knows Pokemon names and knows more of the new ones than I do.
Penn1103@reddit
Yes. Me (84) and my brother (87). My brother was all consumed with it. He’s 39 in July and still keeps up with it. I know nothing.
Remote_Sheepherder55@reddit
I was in 9th grade when it came out and I LOVED it! But as one of the older kids who was into it, I definitely felt embarrassed to mention it to my peers at all, so it was just my silent obsession.
Now I'm 42 and still like it, though not nearly as much as I used to. But at least I don't feel as embarrassed to say I like it anymore!
Prettypuff405@reddit
I feel this way about Harry Potter too…
DiamondContent2011@reddit
Guess you never heard of Magic: The Gathering?
Pope_Squirrely@reddit
I play Pokemon all the time still.
Chicken_Water@reddit
My kids are absolutely obsessed at the moment. Send help.
Brcomic@reddit
I missed out on the show. I did play some of the games. I only learned how to play the card game itself last fall. I was more into Magic The Gathering back in the day.
TellTaleReaper@reddit
Millennial here. Y'all are welcome as fat as Im concerned :P
Ok_Inspector9132@reddit
Funnily enough, I feel a similar way even though I was born in 1999. I really loved Pokémon when I was around 7 to 9 years old, but I feel like I hit it at a time when it was not as popular, less merchandise and toys were available, and none of my other friends were too interested. Then, by the time Pokémon Go came out in 2016, I could not understand why everyone all of a sudden loved it. I felt like my classmates were posers and I was a "real" fan after all these years lol
CatchAlarming6860@reddit
Nope, you’re not off base at all. This is an actual dividing line with Xennials and Millennials. We were too old for Pokémon.
It does make me sad, though. It seems like a cool game if you’re into RPGs.
ladyeclectic79@reddit
I never understood the appeal of Pokémon but sure did love Pokémon GO! Also I was more of a Digimon kinda girl, still sad that show never got as big.
ThePolemicist@reddit
Yes, agreed. Our generation is definitely not the Pokemon generation. I used to babysit my cousin, born in 1992, and she was deeply into Pokemon. It was a little kid thing at first, and we were too old.
That isn't to say people couldn't get into it later as an individual, like they might Harry Potter, but those weren't our generation aimed at us.
doktorhladnjak@reddit
There’s a few things like this. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers comes to mind. I have a brother who’s 7 years younger than me so growing up many of these were noticeable.
FionaGoodeEnough@reddit
To me it was the thing my nephew was into.
_Internet_Hugs_@reddit
Yep, my little brother was totally into it. I was too busy for that stuff.
Lumpy_Branch_552@reddit
Yeah I didn’t get into Pokémon as a kid. I got into Pokémon Go as a 41 year old.
cupcake_burglary@reddit
Pokemon was fun, but only generation 1, it lost its lustre for me. I only played the games and never watched the show
darumamaki@reddit
I was studying in Japan when Pokemon Silver/Gold first came out. Every exchange student on campus lined up release day to buy Game Boy Colors snd a copy of the game. Instantly hooked.
Once Pokemon hit the Switch, it lost most of what made it such a fun franchise.
ctrl_f_sauce@reddit
We’re aware of Pokémon and Harry Potter. That’s my definition of Xennial.
milky_nem@reddit
YES and same with Pogs….but that ended up actually just being a fad
wiltrvls@reddit
micro machines and garbage pale kids feel like my pokemon
HeroVia@reddit
I was born 77 but I was watching it . I probably made it through the first season and know the original characters but after that I’m lost . Never played the games or that App everyone went nuts for playing and crashing their cars . Now my wife is about 10 years younger and loves it and know a bit more .
AuntAmrys@reddit
I was in college and a Magic the Gathering player when Pokemon came out. Suddenly the comic shop where we (late teens - twenties) played was overrun with noisy little kids and their cranky moms. I was friendly enough with the owner to know the store was hanging by a thread, so I was happy he was getting this boost to business, but after being crowded out of our own space by Pokemon, I've never been inclined to get into it.
ymOx@reddit
I'm happy I missed it. But I was already into Magic The gathering, I had enough cards on my hands (pun intended). Compared to MTG (which I really dislike what it has become since then) it was very simplistic and cutesy in a way I could not accept at that age.
What also really turned me off was that it was an entirely manufactured phenomenon, when it launched outside of Japan. (Ofc. it was strictly business from nintendo) It was entirely planned that it would be a brand that could churn out games and merchandise for ten years, worked on by the same guy that manufactured the cabbage patch kids obsession. Now it obviously blew up much larger than that but the only passion in it from the start was the guy that designed the IP, about the monsters and the world itself.
PopcornSurgeon@reddit
My youngest brother is 12 years younger than me and I enjoyed Pokémon vicariously through him. I would watch the cartoon after school with him and took him to see the movie in the theater.
NakedSnakeEyes@reddit
I played Pokemon Blue when it released, and several of the other games. But I never got into the tv show or movies or cards.
Fun-Grab-9337@reddit
Yea being into pokemon is one of my telltale tells of whether someone is xennial or not.
karatechop97@reddit
Too early for Pokémon and Harry Potter.
ColdCorpseHotSecret@reddit
‘82 and I’ve never played Pokémon or really even know what it actually is. My friends were all into Magic The Gathering, and I don’t even know what that is, either. I played sports.
Dizzy_Pop@reddit
On a related note, I finally watched Avatar: The Last Airbender last year. Even seeing it for the first time as an adult, I loved it. I completely understand why it became such a major cultural reference point for younger millennials.
zeromoogle@reddit
I was born in 82 and I absolutely loved it. I was into video games and never really concerned with whether or not something made me uncool, though.
VectorJones@reddit
The thing that baffles me are people who still watch Pokemon, still play Pokemon games, and still fully immerse themselves in that whole franchise - even in their 40s. I know I can't watch any of the cartoon shows I used to enjoy as a kid, because they're kids shows, made for kids. It's just not speaking to me anymore.
Yet somehow Pokemon remains this consistently popular thing for people who long ago crossed the legal drinking age. I mean, I've seen it and it comes across as pretty much the same kind of kid-oriented content as other shows I used to watch. I can't conceive of what makes this still a thing for people long past the kids show demographic.
Cisru711@reddit
Mostly, except once l was in law school, I watched it and digimon every afternoon as a way to unwind before dinner.
Yara__Flor@reddit
I don't know, pokemon red dropped in junior year of high school. Were I lived it was cool. I played the he'll out of it in class
LilBennyPoo@reddit
I played blue on my first gen gameboy, beat the whole game and got all 151 of the original pokemons, but never really went back to it aside from the first season of Pokemon Go.
GaryNOVA@reddit
Maybe. Now that I think about it I was never into Pokémon.
Winwookiee@reddit
The biggest determining factor that I saw was based in if you had a Gameboy or not. The kids that did, got into Pokémon, the rest never got into it. Younger kids got into Pokémon from the anime as well as the game. Red and Blue are top tier in OG Gameboy games, so anyone that didn't play it was missing out.
Mickey_Juice@reddit
I always have to explain to people that I'm of the exact age to be immune to Pokemon, Magic cards, and Power Rangers (except for season one.)
bosco9@reddit
I was definitely too old when the originals came out but I have given it a shot and still couldn't get into it. The only game I tried was Pokemon X and while I hear it's not the greatest Pokemon game, it still failed to keep my attention and I ended up dropping it
Ltimbo@reddit
Yup. I was 16 when Pokemon got big and I had a chldhood friend who was 14. He got into it and I didn’t. I think born 1984-1985 is the cutoff for Pokemon interest.
WithoutCaution@reddit
In high school, I used to set the wake timer on my TV to turn on right as the Sailor Moon theme song played. My friends gave me shit for liking SM, but I still contend that it was a solid anime! Anyway, one day, without warning, they replaced it with Pokémon! I was so pissed, and I actively hated it after that. I never really gave it a chance, but I was 17, and I was definitely not in the demographic anyway.
on_island_time@reddit
Pokemon weren't "cool" when I was in middle school, but neither was Nintendo in general and neither was I, so I loved it then and still have a soft spot today.
dmsacred101@reddit
I'm glad I was the oldest among my siblings. I was able to experience so much of what most kids my age considered uncool and I'm glad for it. Not all of it was good, but certain things left an impression.
Though it is crazy how quickly opinions would turn just to fit in. I was in 5th grade when Power Rangers was a phenomenon and most of my peers were very against it. One kid in my class loved it and was made fun of for it. I got along with him because we would talk about the show and I think he appreciated the positive attention. Cut to 6th grade (middle school) and he suddenly turns on me as soon as I approach him at break for liking something that is a "little kids show." TBH, I think he was trying to fit in with a group of kids he met, but our friendship ended right there. He avoided me ever since.
nonexistentnight@reddit
I'm on the X side of Xennial and I love Pokémon. When it came out I probably had the same reaction as many of you. It looked like mania over a fad with a totally shameless tag line encouraging endless spending "Gotta catch 'em all!" I gave Nintendo points for clever marketing and didn't think about it much more.
After I graduated college, I had a few months where I was bumming around before going to grad school. As I was channel surfing one afternoon I came across the Pokémon cartoon. As it so happened, it was the very first episode. I figured I'd watch it just to learn something about the franchise. I thought it was fun, and very different from the kinds of cartoons I had seen as a kid. I watched more episodes over the next few weeks.
What was remarkable about Pokémon compared to the shows we grew up with is that it's all about exploration. Ash and his friends would stumble into a new town, there'd be some situation involving Pokémon, and the plot would resolve with everyone gaining new understanding, not with some bad guy's plot foiled. Sure, Team Rocket was there to scheme, but they were comic relief, not the main story driving each episode. Contrary to the series tagline, Ash was more about building a deep relationship with his Pokémon and his friends, not mindlessly acquiring as many Pokémon as possible. So my opinion of the franchise improved but I still don't think I was a fan.
That wouldn't happen until a few months later and the Pokemon movie. I'd routinely go to the giant multiplex near my house and sneak around watching 5+ movies in a day. It was during one of those marathons that I saw it. The Pokémon movie is wild. Emotionally, it's like the cartoon Transformers movie on crack. Ash dies trying to stop all the Pokémon from fighting and is brought back to life by the tears of all the Pokémon. All the Pokémon are cloned and forced to battle each other but Ash's Pikachu refuses and just gets face slapped over and over until the clone Pikachu gets tired. The bad guy reforms and gives a speech that delivers the moral of the movie. The movie convinced me that the people running the franchise were trying to do a lot more than make just another media franchise.
Over the years since, I've played some of the games, seen some more of the show, and watched a few more of the movies. But I also own more than a few plush Pokémon and other knick knacks. My partner is more core Millennial and she's loved Pokémon since she was a kid. So when I stumble on something like a sleeping Bulbasaur plush (we stand #001) at Costco I can tell her I bought it for her. But I think we both know the truth.
e3thomps@reddit
I like this subreddit because it aligns more with my interests than the millennial subreddit, but I'm definitely on the younger side (85). Pokemon Red and Blue came out when I was in seventh grade, and I even got a cheap promotional VHS in the mail that had Ash Ketchum's live action aunt and science teacher talking about how cool Pokemon were, which was absolutely wild when I found it on YouTube a few years back.
Anyway, I was peak age to enjoy it at the time, and Goldeneye/Smash Bros all on middle school, but I never caught the permanent Pokemon bug.
ineedanewhobbee@reddit
My kid got me into Pokemon Go. It’s still alive and kicking. Kid lost interest after a year or so
But I got connected with my local community and while millennials are the majority of players, there are a lot of Xennials, and full GenX peeps. Overall, everyone is really cool and laid back. We get together several times a month. It’s a great way to exercise, meet new people and still get into Pokemon.
dbzmah@reddit
Nah, I bought an old Gameboy to play it as a time kill in HS. It was fun. Did not have interest after Gen 2 though, outside of pokemon go for a bit
Britown@reddit
yep. the difference between Xennials and Millennials in my mind is this: mario 3 or pokémon.
thewhitecascade@reddit
84 here. And both :)
ConceitedWombat@reddit
Ditto, and ditto!
lastraven85@reddit
I watched the wizard in cinemas and still played Pokémon
Talilala@reddit
I still don’t know much about it either. I feel the same way about SpongeBob.
punknothing@reddit
I wasn’t too old. Pokémon Leaf Green came out in 1996, when I was 14. While I was trying to impress the ladies and was deep into sports at the time, I was also still really into Japanese RPGs from my NES days. My friends imported the Japanese versions of the game to Canada and would play them without knowing how to read Japanese.
CunnyMaggots@reddit
I didn't even know Pokémon existed until Pokémon Go! came out. Had never heard of it before.
Pinkleton@reddit
I made fun of my younger sister for playing it, but then I would steal her Game Boy Color and play it and I got hooked. I had to go and get my own atomic purple game boy.
Alarming_Fun_7246@reddit
Yep, I think I was in high school when Pokémon first came out. I could recognize Pikachu and the other popular Pokemon, but other than those few, I knew nothing about Pokémon until my Gen Alpha kids got into it.
Whatatimetobealive83@reddit
Just barely. I’m a so called xennial, my little bother born 3 years later is not. He was, and still is really into Pokémon. I couldn’t care less.
realoctopod@reddit
I missed it, but then tried it on emulator, and liked it. Its just a little RPG, whith a lot of team options. And lots to collect.
If you like RPGs and games where collect things, its pretty good. At least the older 2d ones, the 3d ones I've tried all pale.
Just need a 2d game, that is in 3d.
Vorpal_Bunny19@reddit
I was either 20 or 21 when Red/Blue came out and some of the 30 year olds in my D&D group got heavily into it. I played a bit but quickly lost interest. Now PoGo on the other hand, now that I still play fairly regularly.
Elandycamino@reddit
I'm a core millennial born in '87, I can relate. While Power Rangers was popular for the first and maybe second season, I quickly aged out of it. POGs were my thing, but when it came to Pokemon I never got into it. My cousin who was a year younger was obsessed with it, but he also liked power rangers and other things much more than I did. I think it was just on how I was raised, My parents were the oldest children in their families late baby boomers and we got the whole "go outside and play in the dirt" experience. My cousin's on both sides got the latest and greatest toys and video games and were raised by the time my grandparents had money rolling in.
loves_spain@reddit
I was in my late teens when Pokémon came out. Had I been about 6 or 7 years younger, I would’ve been all over it. One of my favorite video games of all time is Jade Cocoon which I call adult Pokémon
GladosPrime@reddit
I was too old for Pokemon but still play Lucario in Smash
tyomax@reddit
I guess I'm lucky. As a 1985'er, Pokemon was the perfect age. I'm healing a Magikarp t-shirt now and about to play Pokopia on the Switch 2. I got Pokemon Blue on the original gameboy, I think I was 13? It was so great!
erindizmo@reddit
I was uncool anyway so I didn't mind playing it back when it first came out. I never really dived into the card game or anything and I only kind of looked it over from afar for a few generations, but I jumped back into it in the DS era and don't regret it at all.
conspiracyeinstein@reddit
I was super into it, but I couldn't tell anyone.
StatementLazy1797@reddit
I’m still super into it. And not telling anyone has been replaced by saying it’s my kids that like it lol. Pokopia is one of the best Nintendo games I have ever played in my life.
erindizmo@reddit
Ditto. I think I've only gone like one day without playing it at least a little bit since it came out.
conspiracyeinstein@reddit
I really want to try it but I’d have to buy a switch 2 just for it.
StatementLazy1797@reddit
I’ve seen a lot of people in the game’s sub that do not regret buying a Switch 2 just for it. I passed the 100 hour mark and I’m not even done with my work in the first of 5 worlds. I honestly think I will be playing it for years.
cuemchugh@reddit
I wasn’t ‘into’ it but I was super into completionism as a kid and played it like crazy. Caught all 151 of those little shits and I remember being annoyed all I got was some certificate on screen.
Decent-Unit-5303@reddit
In college, I started playing one of my younger sibling's Gameboy games: had a red cartridge, you collected and fought little monsters. Real cute time waster; didn't think much about it. Must be some obscure kiddie game.
Then I heard they were making a movie about it. It was Pokémon.
Distinct_Wrongdoer86@reddit
mainly uncool cause it was associated with a kids cartoon, if not for that it would of been more accepted
jimkurth81@reddit
I felt the same way with pogs, teddy ruxpin, my buddy, and power rangers. Just too old and felt they were childish and uncool. Things I found cool as a kid were those WWF wrestler pillows, MUSCLE men and GI Joe action figures, Transfomers (not Gobots—that’d get you beat up at school for having one)
infinitesimon@reddit
83’ here I was definitely into Pokemon and other anime, but I was kinda weird (probably still am) Also played red and blue on the game boy and I caught them all even the glitch Pokemon and acquired mew from a friend who went to a Nintendo convention and got it uploaded to his gameboy(it was the only way to get him)
Bland_Boring_Jessica@reddit
Honestly, it’s kind of wild to me that I work with people in their thirties who are obsessed with Pokémon. It’s all they talk about, and they even bring Pokémon cards to school. Like… what? You’re grown adults—don’t you have other things going on in your lives
Requilem@reddit
I'm a Xennial, from 1982, I still sing the pokemon theme song randomly in my head. I never cared about the targeted age. If I liked something I enjoyed it. You're never going to make everyone happy, so why not pick yourself.
Then_Increase7445@reddit
I think Pokemon wasn't widely popular for Xennials, but there were some of us who were into it. As a video game nerd in my early teens, I got into it through Pokemon Red and then the trading cards. I was out before the 2nd generation came out. My 8-year-old was super happy when I found my first edition collection last month though.
novisimo@reddit
I was born in 81 and yes too old for us, but my 10 year old is into it and just went to first card show with him. He had fun, though I don't think he cares that much about the value of the cards to a degree. It's his hobby so dad won't get too involved.
kevstev@reddit
I played the original - I had younger brothers- and while it was good I didn't get the obsession.
There is a lot of stuff I just barely missed. SpongeBob being the obvious one but also ren and stimpy, doug. They just didn't catch my preteen selfs interest. I didn't get the power rangers at all. It was so low budget looking.
Worldly_Mongoose_432@reddit
In 98-99 when it came out I was going on tour with Phish, but I like it today and still see Phish but no more tours 😞.
Mr_SunnyBones@reddit
Yup pretty much sums it up for me .
cyclepoet77@reddit
Being on the older end of the Xennial crowd, yes. I was either in my first or second year at college when it really became a thing.
Expensive-Day-3551@reddit
I was too old and never got into it. My little cousins were major fans and I played their game boy pokemon a few times so I could connect with them. My kids were into it for a while too.
OskeyBug@reddit
I got into it in college because we didn't have cable and the cartoon came on right when I got home from classes. The first few seasons have kind of an absurdist humor that I really liked. Didn't play the game until a few years layer when I was playing around with emulators. I played a few generations after that and kinda fell off for a while. When my daughter was 5 I bought Let's Go Eevee and we played it together and she got hooked, and now Pokémon is kind of a thing we can still connect on, even though she's 12 now.
dspreemtmp@reddit
I played on a Gameboy as one of my younger brothers had it. Was just generally curious (same way I found harry Potter thru them...). Was decent
I just downloaded on my switch. My 6yr old isn't quite interested but she said there are kids in her class that are fans so she may come around still
Gonna_do_this_again@reddit
Yeah I had my license by then and was already getting into hoodrat shit
TomPalmer1979@reddit
It took me a little bit to get into it, but I got SUPER into it at the time. I had just graduated, and my best friend's little brothers were like 10 at the time and they were dying to see the movie and no one would take them, so I took them. And I loved it.
What really got me was the games. My first job out of high school was working overnights at a gas station. I would literally go hours without seeing a single customer, so I would play my Gameboy Color all night to stay awake. I sank HUNDREDS of hours into Pokemon Yellow and then Pokemon Silver after that. Sadly my GBC was stolen, but I know I had something like 600 hours logged on Silver at that point. I even got into the card game for a while, around 2000-2002ish. Had a ton of cards that are worth a mint today, that sadly got destroyed in a flood.
So yeah I've been a Pokemon fan most of my life, and I'm 46 years old. I've played most of the mainline games, though as I got older they kinda started to wear on me; lengthy unskippable cutscenes with dialogue written for small children, long handholding tutorials for the first 10 hours of the game, more and more stupid gimmicks, etc. But I still love the basic game of catching and fighting pokemon. I've played Pokemon Go actively since it launched 10 years ago, with only minimal breaks.
Josef_Kant_Deal@reddit
I first played Yellow in 2008 because my ex-wife had it. I still think about getting my own copy. I enjoyed it.
TeutonJon78@reddit
Same with pogs.
There are definitely some things, even dor our microgeneration, that put someone as firmly on the Gen X or Millenial side of it.
jessm307@reddit
Yep. Pokemon missed me, but pogs were huge for a year or two in middle school. I was born in ‘82 and reminiscing with a friend a few years younger, but a friend a 4 years older had no memory of pogs whatsoever.
TeutonJon78@reddit
As 78, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, 2nd round Nickelodeon (You Can't Do That on TV/Mr Wizard/Pinwheel vs Doug, Rugrats, etc), and pogs were all "too young" for me when they came out.
I never even understood what pogs were even about. I only e we got it was a bit like updatd marbles but you played with decorated pieces of cardboard.
EvanTurningTheCorner@reddit
I had a neighbor I was friends with, a couple years younger than me, and I remember seeing the cartoon for the first time at his house. He was excited about it and I just didn't care. We both got really into skating and punk shortly after that though, so I think it was short lived for him. The last burst of his childhood.
BrittaUnfiltered67@reddit
I remember people having to surrender their cards if they lost, so I avoided it. I might be thinking of Magic: the Gathering, but that kept me away from Pokémon, and I was in to some younger things back then. Also, I bought a Game gear instead of a Game Boy years earlier and that made me avoid handhelds because of super low battery life and I realized I preferred playing games at home, not on the go plus I could better spend my money on other video games for home consoles that held my interest well. Add to this that there was no WB in my area, so I could not watch the cartoon. I did watch Digimon some on Fox and it seemed to have a good story. Years later I saw some Pokémon and thought Digimon was definitely a better program.
SomethingFunnyObv@reddit
I was born in 81 and was very much into the first GB game but I don’t recall any of my friends playing it. The show started around then and it was mostly background noise and I was never into it. None of my friends were either.
giraffemoo@reddit
I felt like I was "too old" to be playing Pokémon Blue when I was in 10th grade, but there were other kids who also played who were my age and the game is so damn fun I didn't care if I was too old for it.
Riala4@reddit
By then, Sailor Moon and Magic the Gathering already had me. My friend's brother and I once played a game, my Magic deck versus his Pokemon deck, and I kinda trounced him...
sweetnsalty24@reddit
I was a smidge too old for pokémon too. My daughter is into it or into the idea of it and I have no means of helping her cuz I don't understand the lore and it's low and my priority list of things to catch up on.
affectionateanarchy8@reddit
Yeah I missed it too which was interesting because i still watched cartoons. Like somehow I got into SpongeBob in college lol
Wilberforcezen@reddit
'78 and I was like what is this mess?
RTalons@reddit
Yeah, I did not care that I was a little too old. I was in highschool but I bought an old gameboy color off someone at lunch, so I could play Pokémon blue (squirtle for those about to ask).
Friend had younger siblings which made it more acceptable to play the N64 game where you took pictures of them. We did not care if we were lame. I also taught everyone how to play Magic the Gathering…
gorgoloid@reddit
I was 18 in ‘98 when the first game was released. I was a huge JRPG fan and I loved the game. The show, however, was not of interest to me as it was targeted to a younger audience.
amodsr@reddit
I'm currently playing 3 games.
Champions Leaf green Pokopia.
Pretty sure I was born into it at the right age.
Runningman787@reddit
I was never into it. My younger brother ('85) was all about the card game, but not the cartoon.
jcstrat@reddit
Yeah I (born late 70s) never got into it. My youngest brother, born 82 was way into, still is. My kids are into it. It spans generations, but just missed me I guess.
cidvard@reddit
This definitely feels like the biggest 'childhood fixation' difference between me and me core Millenial friends, though I did watch a little of the cartoon with Ash and Team Rocket because it aired after I got home from high school in the same block as Batman: The Animated Series.
blove135@reddit
I feel like Pogs was another one of those things but with even closer age ranges. I was born in 79 and never got into Pogs but I know a few people just a few years younger that were really into them.
ElCaminoLady@reddit
Same. I was late teens/early 20’s when Pokemon came on the scene. Was drawing caricatures at six flags and a kid asked for Pikachu to be in his artwork.. I was like, a Pika-what?
Fast forward to today my 8yr old Nephew is way into Pokemon. I painted a Pikachu for him for Christmas.. lol!
I read about about the background a little bit but from what I vaguely remember the artist who created the story was inspired by woodland creatures.. In specific squirrels per the Pikachu..
guyako@reddit
I definitely know people my age who are into it, but for the most part, yeah, it seems mostly limited to people younger than us.
coffee_robot_horse@reddit
There was one day in 1985 when everything changed and children began to yearn for Pikachu.
dc1999@reddit
Well the first gameboy game came out in 1996, most of us were at the tail end of high school or early college. The cards didn’t come out until like 98 or 99. Well after most of us would of had interest in a trading card game.
Allrojin@reddit
When I was in high school, I watched Pokémon every day when I got home. 🤸🏽♀️
Unhappy_Classroom370@reddit
I had several coworkers who were way younger than me a few years ago, (2021) who were all talking about Pokemon, then switched to Dragon Ball Z. One turned to me and started talking to me trying to get me into the discussion. I had to stop him immediately and say "dude I'm 41 years old, I was like 16 when that came out" "I was too old for that stuff"
SlayerAlexxx@reddit
Even as a nerd I was into magic the gathering, but started too late to own any Black Lotus or power 9 big money. $$$$$. And then born too early to get into pokemon. $$$$$$$ :( bigger money.
Organic_Popcorn@reddit
I'm the same age as you and everyone around my age enjoyed Pokemon when it came out. Maybe it's a regional thing?
osddelerious@reddit
Wait, you got into Pokémon when you’re 14 or 15? Where did you live?
Organic_Popcorn@reddit
California
osddelerious@reddit
Yeah, must be regional. Or even your school, who knows.
whyisthissticky@reddit
I was in a Chicago suburb. I remember when the gameboy games came out and some of the freshmen kids were secretly into it. You would have had a hard time getting anyone in our high school to openly admit to liking Pokemon though. It was considered childish or dorky.
digitaljestin@reddit
I was born in 81 and have the same experience as OP. It was too baby-ish for me but the time it was a thing, and felt like something for those just a few years my junior.
MotorCycologist@reddit
Same here. It was something our little brothers and sisters played, but nobody in my cohort was into it.
Youcants1tw1thus@reddit
CT here, it was definitely nothing anyone my age got into outside of a few weirdos.
moogoothegreat@reddit
It was popular in my high school cafeteria, among nerds loke me at least
Trbochckn@reddit
got into it as an adult with my adult (by age) son. Playing pokemon is the thing we do together we both enjoy.
Still haven't fixed my deck since rotation and haven't played in a few weeks.
BookofBryce@reddit
I'm 43 1/2. For most of my adulthood, I've had to admit to people SLIGHTLY younger than me that I didn't get into Pokemon because it was for little kids; and I was more interested in girls and guitars. And obviously, now that I have kids, I recognize that there are people my age and older who still got into Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z and others regardless of age. So I can only name like 5 Pokemon still.
royheritage@reddit
Stuff like Pokémon is exactly why I consider myself an Xennial. Basically the kids stuff my millennial younger brother grew up with, that I was too old for, is what makes the difference.
Yellow_Curry@reddit
My kids were into it. Mainly the card game. Comically I never played it so I had my nephew teach us all how. It’s fun.
aroundincircles@reddit
Nah, I got my copy of pokemon Yellow and Silver Game boy pocket in 1998, it came with a ticket to see the movie. I enjoyed the game, I enjoyed the movie, what I didn't do was revolve every aspect of my life around it. I had cousins who did that and it was gross.
burjja@reddit
I would expand it to say East Asian culture/entertainment in general. It started with Japan; Power Rangers and Pokémon and then just kept building with all the anime, manga, etc. to where K-pop is such a popular genre of music.
I guess it started with us though. Technically it started with Nintendo and Sega and then PlayStation. Hard to remember now but people looked at Japan the way people look at China in recent years.
Back then you still had a lot of people who were alive during or grew up in the aftermath of WWII. Then there was the hatred of Japanese imports at a time when the US auto industry was floundering in the 70s/80s. (I grew up in the Midwest so that might have been more intense here. In my current neighborhood there is a faded sign you can barely make out but says something like "Foreign Cars Kill American Jobs".) Even in the 90s you had newspapers putting out all the scary articles about the Japanese buying up all the property in the US.
I guess Nintendo and Sega were the Trojan Horses of our childhood.
UnderH20giraffe@reddit
Yes! It makes me feel so isolated from millennials. I had no Japanese content in my childhood and theirs is dominated by it. It makes me feel crazy sometimes.
digitalgraffiti-ca@reddit
I'm late Xennial, and I played red/blue on my PC with an emulator. After that, I got bored. Glad I did, so I wasn't instrumental in the AI training Pokemon Go BS
Lucky_Louch@reddit
yup, I see so many younger millennials obsessed with it but it never grabbed me thankfully. I do still collect Garbage Pail Kids cards/memorabilia as that was my childhood obsession but to see the amount of money/time people dump into Pokemon is wild. I consider it one of the major things that divide our micro gen from millennials.
BlueBomber13@reddit
I played the Red/ Blue one when they came out and enjoyed them. I love RPGs and the idea of capturing your team and the rock paper scissors combat was fun. I never played any after that. However, they just released the red and green one (which is supposed to be blue?) on switch and I grabbed one of them. Definitely enjoying it as a chill game but not sure I could ever really get into any of it nowadays.
Foxy_locksy1704@reddit
Yes. I’m the oldest child in my family I have siblings 4 and 8 years younger than me. They both were super in to Pokémon. I was a teen so it seemed like a “kids” thing to me.
SlapHappyDude@reddit
Excuse me, some of us were nerds
SaltBag666@reddit
I still see it as a children’s thing.
jar36@reddit
we were playing Magic the Gathering like real men and women
avoozl42@reddit
I was born in '83 so I was all in at the beginning
RoiVampire@reddit
This a power rangers for me. I was in 7th grade when power rangers hit and all my friends were into actual kung fu movies and not stuff that was on Saturday mornings after cartoons.
KickAggressive4901@reddit
Yeah, I didn't get into it until Gen 3 (... because you did not have to buy batteries for the GBA SP).
tettoffensive@reddit
Agreed. We missed it. I also missed SpongeBob which other millennials have brought up.
mixmove@reddit
absolutely agree!
Dazzling-Astronaut88@reddit
My fiancée’s brother owns a card shop and makes about $200-250k a year, that majority of which is from Pokeman cards.
PoisonMind@reddit
I lived overseas for a few years, and it was a phenomenon when I came back. I never understood why such a mediocre JRPG was so popular. Hadn't everyone played Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Secret of Mana?
scoreguy1@reddit
I feel this way about Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, and Power Rangers. It’s like we just aged out when all 3 hit
Gloomy-Moose-4367@reddit
lets listen to some cypress hill then watch a babies tv show, said no friends ever.
Sullacuda@reddit
Born in 83. Pokémon was lame and for little kids, same with SpongeBob. I was still aware of them as a cultural thing though.
PuzzledKumquat@reddit
Agree. My younger brother was born in '87 and lived it. Now he shares that passion with his son. Xennials were more of the Pog & Slammer microgeneration.
MoarFlavor@reddit
I’ll take Pogs over Pokémon all day. They can keep their chargizzard or whatever far away from me. I feel like I need a shower after someone tries to talk to me about pokie-man.
Late-External3249@reddit
When I was a kid, my mom had to travel to Japan for a couple weeks once or twice a year for work. She would always pick up small trinkets for us and one year came back with little figurines. No idea what they were supposed to be. A few years later, Pokémon came to the US and we recognized them as the little toys she had brought from Japan. No idea if they are still in my parents house.
Particular_Cold_8366@reddit
I was 16/17 when the craze started here in the late 90s. Worked at Toys R Us and they let the nerdier, slightly younger kid handle all of the Pokémon stuff.
theCaityCat@reddit
I was very much into making fun of my 1987 brother for being so into it, does that count?
harlembornnbred@reddit
Born in 80 and I watched the cartoon but never played the card game or most of the video games. I still play Pokémon go though cause it's fun.
It wasn't "uncool" where I lived there were quite a few teens into it
CharmyLah@reddit
My brother never let me play video games with him growing up, my parents never made him share, but I was always interested.
So after I finished college, I decided to buy a DS and Pokémon Pearl was my first game! I chose it because I thought it would be easy to play for a video game newbie.
1732PepperCo@reddit
I was in 10th grade when Pokémon red and blue hit the game boy. I loved those top down rpgs style games and I though it looked fun and bought a copy of red. I was enjoying it and beat it within a few weeks, then moved on. Later it became viewed by my peers as kids stuff, which was expected since the majority of my peers at the time thought they had matured past Nintendo and thought of it as the kiddie brand.
We Xennials were at an interesting crossroads with video games in the mid to late 90s. The PlayStation 1 and N64 were a divisive topic in my middle/high schools. You had teens that were getting into more adult things and you had teens that were still doing kid stuff. The majority of my classmates thought the N64 and Nintendo were kids stuff and many jumped ship from Nintendo to PlayStation and by the time Pokémon was released lines were already drawn in the sand.
Cautious_Artichoke_3@reddit
I just don't like that deformed style anime. All the monsters look so dumb
acn09@reddit
I totally just missed it. However, my kid is 9.5 and we’ve been deep into Pokemon for the last five years. It’s so fun.
MrBayaud@reddit
Yes! Totally agree.
eyelinerqueen83@reddit
My younger brother was obsessed with Pokémon and would annoy me by telling me the names of all 150
pop5656@reddit
FMArroway@reddit
I played it briefly in college. Even met up with a friend in the student center to trade Pokémon with him. But when they introduced the second gen, and added a bunch of new ones to the roster, I thought, "Okay, this is too much. I can't devote this much brain space to memorizing all these characters. I'm not ten anymore." So I dropped it and never looked back.
ViciousSnatch@reddit
Seems like most of us elder Xenns didn’t get into Pokémon. I didn’t get into Harry Potter or SpongeBob either (despite being a bookworm and overall pop culture nut)!
graveybrains@reddit
Definitely not all, though.
FrostyMasterpiece400@reddit
Im 83 and bought a gameboy pocket for that exact game and a link cable.
We were in high shcool too lol
AmputeeHandModel@reddit
Yeah, I never got into them, and frankly, I'm fucking TIRED of hearing about them. Reddit is obsessed.
Ganip@reddit
Just missed it, and glad i did
xxplosive2k282@reddit
84 here, I always felt I missed it by just 2 or 3 years because my younger siblings were super into it. I never cared.
mrtimtracy@reddit
Yep. Despite the fact that Star Blazers on rabbit ears was my gateway into anime, I was one year out of high school and going to Neurosis or Green Day was where I was at. Same thing with the board game HeroQuest. Pokémon totally slipped under my radar. I even worked for a video game website back then and just dismissed it.
I recently got super duper interested in One Piece and have been devouring the manga and anime and started buying packs of the TCG. A lot of my coworkers watch it and collect the cards, but are cagey about admitting it. Not gonna lie, Pokémon is pretty fun to play.
Psycosteve10mm@reddit
I was born in '78, and the closest I got to being into Pokémon was the Game Boy games. But it was an RPG in a different setting, which was the appeal for me. The anime I was into was way darker and more violent, so the show had no appeal to me. The card game was a rich person thing, which I could only afford to get into once I was older.
JustAnAgingMillenial@reddit
I never got into the show or CCG, but I sank a lot of hours into a couple of the video games on my gameboy and later gameboy advance.
abombregardless@reddit
I was born in ‘83. I remember one summer at sleepaway camp. I was 12 or 13.
Suddenly Pokemon was everywhere… All the boys ages 10 and under brought Pokemon cards and Pokemon Game Boy games, and played & talked about them constantly. I thought it was SOOO STUPID. These little babies with their cartoon bullshit and their goofy-ass names. I was so much more mature and sophisticated.
With my Magic: the Gathering decks and my Weird Al Yankovic tapes.
LardLad00@reddit
A lot of this divide has to do if you owned a gameboy or not. I didn't and I was totally out of the pokemon loop. Unexposed.
AtaracticGoat@reddit
I'm 84 and I loved it, had pokemon for Gameboy, it was awesome. Was barely late 90's, 1996 to be exact, so I was 12.
Geek_King@reddit
Born in 1981, but I'm an only child so I didn't have a little brother who's tastes would steer me away from stuff. I did play Pokemon Red in my junior year of high school and had fun, but didn't beat it.
It was cute, and fun, but to me, simplistic. It was paper rock scissors with the Pokemon types having weaknesses and strengths vs other types. It was grindy, and forced you to assemble a team of Pokemon, then build other teams to counter different compositions of other trainers. That's another way of saying I lost interest. I've tried to get back into newer titles, and every time I bounce off it.
But people a few years young then us, it's a culturally defining thing. I still game a ton, so that isn't it. Oh well, we have a lot of our own unique cultural things.
Ohboycats@reddit
Yep. Just aged out before Pokémon and Harry Potter became cultural phenomenons. Those things are squarely millennial.
newenglandredshirt@reddit
Yep, it was deeply uncool... but life finds a way... my autistic son is OBSESSED with the minutiae of Pokémon, so now I know way more about it than I ever wanted to...
PhobosTheClown@reddit
We were already in to MTG. My friends little brother was into Pokémon. It was a non-starter.
Shigglyboo@reddit
yeah I played magic. but when the mobile game came out I joined the bandwagon. so now I can talk pokemon and I get it. also the cartoon is pretty fun.
slippedintherain@reddit
I’m on the late Gen X end of Xennials and I definitely entirely missed Pokémon. I do know the name Pikachu and that he’s the yellow thing but that’s about it.
littlemsshiny@reddit
Same! The only reason I know anything now is because my first grader is into it and it’s all he wants to talk about aside from Minecraft.
Some of his friends’ parents are a few years younger than my husband and I and they were super into Pokémon growing up.
fleetiebelle@reddit
Even on reddit, you'll stumble on a post that's entirely Pokemon references that everyone seems to get, and it's totally lost on me.
JaneDoe93130@reddit
Never watch Pokemon 🤷♀️
sey5_venn@reddit
I think it depends a little on whether you liked anime at that time. I remember watching Galaxy Express 999 and Venus Wars on Sci-Fi, and was willing to give it a shot. I'm not gonna lie, I enjoyed the first few seasons, and also watched the first 3 movies.
But it's also just the same idea repeated ad nauseum (Ash/Satoshi catches a Pokemon! Yay!) It was starting to remind me of Scooby-Doo, where every single episode had the same hallway door gag and bad guy reveal moment. I know adults who still watch the show...I'm not hating on them, but I can't imagine watching the same exact thing for years and years and still be into it.
Inevitable_Silver_13@reddit
I was really into the cartoon but ya never got into the games.
Intelligent-Camera90@reddit
Dunno, man. I got a Hey You, Pikachu N64 for my dorm room, had a bunch of original Pokemon VHS that I used to watch when doing homework and got my mom so into catching them all that my dad got us both Gameboy Colors so we could enjoy Pikachu in all his yellow glory.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Pokemon - reason I bought a DSLite and Switch. Can’t justify the Switch 2 yet, though.
squirrelnamedsteve@reddit
My first job was at a big chain bookstore and we sold Pokémon cards right when they got popular. They started hosting Pokémon games every Saturday morning at the store and it was anarchy. Kids running up and dumping piles of coins on the counter asking how much they could get for it, like tiny little coke heads needing a fix.
Crabbyrob@reddit
Yup. My youngest brother loved them. Me and the middle one thought it was dumb lol
Firebolt164@reddit
Agree.. I was into TMNT and Ghostbusters. I was a little too young for He-Man and too old for Pokemon or Power Rangers
Av33na@reddit
I played Gameboy Pokémon red and yellow and to me it was just another RPG. I enjoyed them, but no idea it would become as big as it is today.
Silly_Fortune3725@reddit
The comments would suggest we're not a monolith, but this scans for me. Pokemon, Power Rangers, Dragonball Z, Harry Potter, Spongebob - I didn't care about any of them. By the time they conquered pop culture, my friends and I were already going to punk shows, reading Vertigo and Image comics, and watching Clerks, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, etc.
mac117@reddit
I liked it to the extent where I’d watch it on tv but that was all. Now I’m fully into it thanks to my kid.
duncan345@reddit
I played it and enjoyed it even though it was uncool. I justified it by saying I was just playing it to sell Pokemon to the younger kids at school. I had a Gameshark and I could cheat in infinite rare items like master balls and rare candy. I'd use that to get rare Pokemon up to high levels then trade those to the younger kids for cash. I probably made $500 off that game.
newsflashjackass@reddit
In hindsight Pokemon feels like Nintendo monetizing the Mother series.
karebearjedi@reddit
Agreed
iwannaddr2afi@reddit
Exact same, two grades too old, my little brother was and still is interested in it. Not many in my class ever played and it certainly didn't stick.
Pokemon Snap was my first ever video game (we siblings teamed up and bought an n64) and I really did enjoy that. Also played several of the Gameboy games. Never played Go. Cusp generation was seemingly very cuspy about this lol
PSN-Colinp42@reddit
Says you! I got into it in college through emulation. Now I’m debating with myself if I want a switch 2…
c0debrown@reddit
‘82 here and I agree. I got it in the end though, my kids have given me a crash course as they’re all really into Pokemon.
bitwarrior80@reddit
Agree. When Pokemania hit in the middle 90s I was in high school. The cute esthetic of Pokemon and the marketing targeted at elemtary and middle school ages had no appeal to me. I owned a Gameboy Pocket; the few games I played were Star Wars, Contra, and Links Awakening. By then I was developing other interests and never expanded my collection. To this day I have zero Pokemon games in my massive library of retro games.
lastraven85@reddit
85 here I got red my friend got blue, got them out a cheap games store in Patrick and I still have the cartridge
AttemptVegetable@reddit
I actually got into Pokémon at 17. My little brother watched the show and because it was the only TV in the house so did I. The intro was super catchy as well so I didn't mind. At that age I was taking the city bus alot and needed something to do or just sit there. So I ended up getting a Gameboy as well as Pokémon yellow and red.
bynaryum@reddit
Truth. My cousin who’s a few years younger was SUPER into Pokemon. I saw it as something for little kids. It’s not really my thing; I’ve played Pokemon Go a few times, tried to play some of the Game Boy and GBA versions, but have never really gotten into it. I can definitely appreciate it, but I will glad spend my gaming time elsewhere.
hollus2@reddit
I played the ones on gameboy but that’s been it for me.
funatical@reddit
I watched it with my younger brother. We didn’t miss much. I love anime but Pokemon is about merchandise, not story.
sevnthcrow@reddit
Good thing is me and my buddies were perpetually uncool so we didn’t give a shit about loving it
fritofootedfriend@reddit
I’m 42 and never cared for it. I felt too old and was generally uninterested by the time it came around. My 3 siblings who are 4-9 years younger than me are all into it.
That being said, I do love the Pokopia game so much. But I think I’m missing the impact of a lot of the lore behind it. I don’t really mind though.
throwawaytoday9q@reddit
Same. I tried to understand the appeal later if life but it never clicked for me.
Squish_Miss@reddit
Yep, I missed that train. Low key grateful for that 😂
pennylanish@reddit
Nah, loved the anime and the games. I still have fond memories of playing pokemon snap and have the sp/ ds that looks like a Pokedex.
rojoshow13@reddit
Yes! And then I had kids with a girl who was 9 years younger than me and my kids ended up with her and her brothers Pokemon cards. And I learned how to play the card game so I could play with the boys. That was about 10 years ago. Now I'm 45 and I love playing and collecting the cards. I've played a few of the video games and watched a lot of the movies and TV cartoon. I think back to the late 90s and I know why I didn't get into it then, but I'm telling you that it's not too late to enjoy it because we were missing out.
ChaucersDuchess@reddit
I got into Pokémon, finally, at age 40 in 2022.
I had been on the periphery the whole time, sat at the table in the mornings in HS with the kids with the cards, etc., but I didn’t have a GameBoy so I didn’t have the games. I got a DS in Grad School but since I didn’t know the lore, I thought I couldn’t get into the games then. I did watch the anime off and on.
When I got divorced and was talking to a new guy who was a nerd, he got me into it, both the cards and the games. I don’t buy that many cards but I am very much about the games. I love those pocket monsters so much.
My now husband - not the new guy lol - was the same way and is now fully into it. He’s also one of the rare Xennials that’s into Power Rangers.
mog_knight@reddit
Yep. I played Magic in the 90s and loathed when Pokemon TCG came out as kids invaded my LGS to play it.
Suspicious-Yard4205@reddit
'82 and I agree. The original games didn't get my attention. However, the original anime did captivate me and I got a peripheral knowledge of it.
Also, I had a friend the same age as me that I roomed with for a while who certainly was into it and convinced me to get Pokemon X on the 3DS because he had Y, and I just couldn't get into it despite being a fan of turn-based RPGs.
I even gave Pokemon Go a try, and it did catch on for a while with everyone around me, including older friends. I dropped it fast, though I probably could put that one down to not choosing the same team as the rest.
I haven't felt compelled to try another game since, which sucks because I am a big Animal Crossing fan and everyone that I know that also likes it is devouring Pokopia. I just can't see the myself spending money on another full game whose characters I have no affection for.
DBPanterA@reddit
Hell no I don’t do Pokémon.
Got the NES for Christmas 1986. I was firmly in the Nintendo Universe for the next 20 years. Pokémon did nothing for me.
The South Park episode making fun of them by calling them “Chin-Pokémon” is what I always think of when they are mentioned. 🤷♂️
omega_manhatten@reddit
Nah, Im the same age and enjoyed Pokémon and Power Rangers just fine. Of course, I had been watching anime since I was 9 at that point. So YMMV.
christopherDdouglas@reddit
The first season of Power Rangers was kind of my cutoff point of kid shows. Anything after that I was too old to get into. I was watching Beverly Hills 90210 reruns and Melrose Place by the time Pokemon rolled around.
Pretend_Education_86@reddit
I still have the box and game for Pokemon Red I got in 98'. I remember playing it and trading with a homie in school with grey gameboys and the wire to hook them up. Took a big break but when I got older I totally got deep in to the love of the game again when Pokemon X/Y came out in 2013... SpongeBob nope. Power Rangers was around when I was in school and I recall the first season amongst school mates but nah. Pokemon Anime? Nah. Video games? Yes.
Responsible_Park3317@reddit
I played the OG on my Gameboy, but quit after a bit once I realized it was just a kidified RPG, and I'd much rather just play one of the many more mature JRPGs out there.
mrs_hippiequeen@reddit
pokemon and all of the anime. i feel like we matrix-avoided it! i even remember at one point, my little sister asked if we could rent the game pokemon snap from blockbuster, and we were pissed that our weekend rental wasn't even playable without some special controller.
Andro1d1701@reddit
Yes, the only people I knew who were into it were 2-3 years younger and frankly really annoying. I also missed Harry Potter for basically the same reasons.
IdesofMarchHair@reddit
Nope, you’re right. It was just a little behind our times and we missed it as xennials.
DoodleDoo1989@reddit
My husband is 8 years younger and he is ALL about it and now are our kids are all about it. I'm slowly learning, I fought it for a while but it's futile.
BigRonDongson@reddit
I never understood why so many people like it, I laugh at all the assholes lined up to buy cards.
Texas_Kimchi@reddit
Agree 100%. I remember the Pokemon cartoons on TV but the cards and stuff seemed stupid.
EfficiencyIVPickAx@reddit
True, but I hit the sweet spot on Pokemon Go and played for years.
Chicki5150@reddit
Its true. But, ive been playing Pokemongo since day 1. My slightly younger millennial friends are always correcting me on how I pronounce pokemon names.
rogaladriel@reddit
I was 13 when I delivered the Sunday newspaper with Pikachu on the front and the headline about kids all over Japan having simultaneous seizures due to the show. To this day, I've never watched an episode or played any Pokémon games. But I do enjoy anime. Never really thought about how I missed that cultural phenomenon. 🤔 I've just kind of observed it from afar and continued on. Huh.
KeyboardMunkeh@reddit
We're we? I remember buying Pokemon Red with a paycheck from my first job (Little Caesars.)Then I got the other guys in the shop hooked on it.
Seattle_chickey@reddit
I began work in the hobby game industry in ‘99 and my first role was answering rules questions for the Pokémon TCG.
I owe a lot to that little yellow mouse!
edcrosay@reddit
I bought Pokemon Red in 1998 when I was a senior. Did miss out on it. I had no one to trade with, but the game was great. The anime was not.
luxtabula@reddit
I actually bought Pokemon Red when it came out. I was into RPGs and still had a working game boy and saw magazine articles talking positively about it.
It's the only one I've played, and though I enjoyed it at the time, it was fairly simplistic. I usually can figure out the first 151 Pokemon but don't know the others as I eventually graduated high school and got a job and could afford to buy systems I didn't have at the time.
attgig@reddit
So accurate.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
No doubt. I was in college when it got big in the US. Back then, it was absolutely something that I saw as being for kids. I knew little about it, despite being into gaming and anime, until my own daughter started watching a few years ago. Then we bought one game for the Switch.
ThatFalafelGirl@reddit
82'
I would watch the cartoon after HS and enjoyed it, but that original cartoon is where all my knowledge of pokemons come from. Didn't have a gameboy until I was out of HS, did pick up red or blue but never got very far. That's more on me than the game though
teammartellclout@reddit
I grew into Pokemon around 97 to 99 with the Gameboy Color with Pokemon yellow
Ws6fiend@reddit
There's a small sliver of xennials that were born late enough to enjoy it. But it's literally the last of them. Born in 85 played it throughout middle school and then put it away when I got to high school. I only played the original red and blue though. Me and my friends all snuck our gameboys into school to play everyday at lunch.
vinciblechunk@reddit
Seeing all of my slightly younger coworkers in 2016 go absolutely apeshit for Pokémon GO really drove the point home that Pokémon is the Xennial-Millennial K-T boundary
horceface@reddit
We played magic the gathering in high school and thought Pokemon was for babies.
thewalruscandyman@reddit
I know, and I'm kinda jealous. It looks fun.
ClockNo4810@reddit
Pokemon and Harry Potter are the line in the sand for me. They are my younger brothers generation not mine. By that time I was listening to Metallica and Pantera, playing Quake and watching Seinfeld and The X Files (all of which that same younger brother now claims as his own interests)
TheWearySnout@reddit
I'm on the younger side here '85.
I never cared too much for the show, but the red/blue games on gameboy were awesome. I never played any of the other ones.
There are probably like a thousand pokemon or more now, but it will always be 151 to me!
Sunshineal@reddit
I've never gotten into Pokemon, but my cousin is and he's 52
DoveOnTheInternet@reddit
Absolutely. I got to ride the Pokemon Go wave, but the game was more impressive to me than the theme, if you know what I mean. It was more accessible than Ingress, which I should have tried harder to get into.
Trashusdeadeye@reddit
I was into Twisted Metal 2 and Command & Conquer. Final Fantasy 7, games like that. Pokemon was just not marketed for me at 13-14 years old.
Mmphska@reddit
85 here, 2004 grad and my grade (7th at the time) was the absolute oldest that Pokémon was cool, we were ALL into it. 8th graders and up, it was solidly uncool.
My older brothers (81 and 83) were firmly Xennial, me and my younger brother (88) had slightly different tastes and the Xennial/Millennial distinction was really noticeable. Pokemon was one of the biggest examples of that to us
We weren't interested in anything after Red/Blue though. Give me the original 151 (I am a Mew recognizer) or give me nothing lol
Super_Bad6238@reddit
I'm not sure, but god damn if Magic the gathering didn't hook me from about 1996 to 2005.
CausticAvenger@reddit
I was just a little too old for the Pokemon craze in the 90s. I actually didn’t play my first Pokemon game till maybe five years ago.
BennyOcean@reddit
Has the sub done an Anime post? I think we were born a little too early for that also. It was called 'Japanimation' way back in the day. It seems like so many people now are into it but most people our age really weren't.
We were also borderline too old for the Harry Potter series. I never read them. I think if I was 3-5 years younger I probably would have.
FETTACH@reddit
I'm mad at my "too cool" teen self for not getting into it. I'm using my neice and nephew to live vicariously with it now. Still don't know how to play but collecting through them is fun. And they know everything about them too. Good times.
ButterscotchAware402@reddit
I was born in '84 and too old for Barney, Power Rangers and Pokémon. I remember being baffled kids my age being into those things.
No_Bend_2902@reddit
I remember watching the cartoons and getting stoned
ItJustWontDo242@reddit
My little brother was into Pokémon, but when he first got Pokémon red for Gameboy, I tried it out and got hooked and have played almost every game since.
floodums@reddit
We were old enough to think Jessie was low-key hot though.
gravatorious@reddit
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Pokemon completely missed me.
For years I actually thought the little yellow one was named Pokemon, because why wouldn't I? All the merch I saw featured the yellow one and said "Pokemon" on it.
godsim42@reddit
Technically too old for Pokémon, but was my secret guilty pleasure. Then my gf at the time, now wife, was totally into it also. So we watched and played together, going on 30 years now.
ABH1979@reddit
It’s true. I’ve never played a single game or seen more than a minute of the cartoon series. But I saw Detective Pikachu though, and can name maybe 5-6 of them, just from being on the internet for years.
TrustAffectionate966@reddit
Speak for yourself, I played Pokémon Snap on my little brother’s N64 after coming back either from night classes or night shift. I remember Ma’ and my little brother sitting around and watching me take crappy Pokémon safari pics. I also played Pokémon Yellow on GameBoy Advance.
Prior to that, we used to watch the OG Pokémon show on TV as part a whole anime block - Toonami, UPN/The WB, Fox Kids, Adult Swim, and also home video. (We were/are anime and manga fans.)
🧐🤔
AshDogBucket@reddit
I ('84 baby) remember that when i was a freshman in high school, my brother (same grade as me) and my boyfriend both got obsessed with Pokémon. BUT these were the nerdy kids who loved star wars etc back when being into that stuff got you bullied. I remember it being a thing like power rangers had been... where for kids younger than us it was insanely popular, and among kids our age it was a fringe nerdy interest.
BlankSlate59@reddit
Fellow '84 here. Similar experience, I remember when Pokemon got big and there were a few kids in my grade that got into it. It wasn't too far off of my interests, I enjoyed Final Fantasy and had started getting into PC gaming. I saw Pokemon and was like ehhh, nah.
Novus20@reddit
Pokémon red and blue came out in 1996……
willowwanabe@reddit
In Japan. In North America we got them in 1998.
new_publius@reddit
I see this as a win.
LineImpossible3958@reddit
Absolutely agree. I was 19-20 when Pokemon debuted. Still don’t really know much about it, except what my kids have told me. Same with Harry Potter. Felt like we just missed that too.
tibbycat@reddit
Yeah I remember being in year 11 and I saw younger kids playing it and I mentally dismissed it as being too childish... unlike Mario and Sonic :p
I now see the hypocrisy of my thinking.
I've since tried the first game and it's good but I've never finished it. I guess I'm just not that attached to the setting.
impliedapathy@reddit
Red and blue got me. Didn’t bother with any of the rest.
Subosc@reddit
I was born in 80, but always like good cartoons. Nowadays it’s more anime than anything, but i still like a good animated show. Still couldn’t get into Pokemon. I was more of a Digimon guy.
Buttspirgh@reddit
Were we? I’m 41 and do a pokemon draft league with showdown games with my friends.
My 8th daughter is into it and it’s great. We watch the show together for her screen time and she likes watching my league games.
RandomGuyDroppingIn@reddit
I was really big into anime in the mid 1990s, and when Pokemon came along some time later both the games and the show just seemed really childish to me. It was almost like the entire premise was the anti-thesis of what we were told for years stuff that came out of Japan was. Japan wasn't cutesy characters. Japan created hardcore action sequences and heavy gore. As a consequence I never clicked with it.
Senn-66@reddit
Exactly. My kids are obsessed with Pokémon and I really don’t know anything about it other than what I learned from them. Meanwhile ninja turtles, while still around, are a much smaller cultural presence today even though they were just unbelievably huge during my childhood.
pismobeachdisaster@reddit
I’ve never played it, but I didn’t have cable in my room so I watched the cartoon. See also Wishbone.
SyntheticScrivner@reddit
Pokemon wasn't a thing until I was already out of high school.
Honestly, between being raised on Robotech and then being blown away by Akira and Ghost in the Shell, I can't be bothered with most anime cuz that other shit looks cheap.
Specialist-Leek8645@reddit
Same, I'm a couple years older than you. I did go back and give one of the first games a try in my 20s but never finished it. I see why ppl like it, especially if it was a childhood memory thing. As for the cards, nothing ever meant as much as my complete set of Marvel Masterpieces lol. I have a single loose Psyduck card (only one I own) around here somewhere. I thought he was cute and weird.
emptybeetoo@reddit
I worked at a Target in the electronics department when the first Pokémon games came out. I remember being really confused why all these 6-12 year olds were going crazy for the games whenever we got them in stock.
Hi_Hello_HeyThere@reddit
I’ve been thinking about this too lately because I am playing Pokopia, and it’s my first ever Pokémon game. Absolutely loving it and loving all the Pokémon!
Twanlx2000@reddit
In late high school / early college, I didn’t know anyone that played portable gaming devices, which is primarily where Pokémon themed games were launched. So maybe that’s where the dichotomy was — as we were all moving on to 64 bit systems bought with our own money for our dormitories, younger Xennials were playing in the backseat of mom’s van.
One of my roommates bought a second hand N64 controller that was Pokémon themed, and it was actually designated as the loser controller that was passed around to whoever finished last playing Golden Eye or Mario Kart. So there was definitely a kiddie stigma in my circles.
InMyHagPhase@reddit
I was born in 80 and I am all over Pokemon. Born in 80. But I was really really into anime.
ComprehensiveLink210@reddit
It’s never too late!
Filmmakernick@reddit
For me, as a '78 baby, my friends and I were super into Power Rangers. They were teens woth attitude and we also crushed hard on the Pink and Yellow Rangers.
Plus, we were still watching cartoon in 1993. Batman X-Men, The Tick, Spider-man.
I agree I never played the games, but I did catch the show from time to time. I somewhat got into by proxy from the animated show. Never saw the movies, played Pikachu in Smash 64 a lot and loved him as a character.
When a new game drops now, I wish I could get into it. I couldn't even get into the cell phone game. 😞
Dukami@reddit
I got into Pokemon in my senior year of high school. For Christmas my girlfriend got me a black and white Game Boy and Pokemon Green.
thecatsofwar@reddit
Pokemon is fun and was easy to get into.
After_Preference_885@reddit
My oldest child was into Pokemon and all the other stuff my baby brother was into like Harry Potter, power rangers, sponge Bob, etc.
wookiesack22@reddit
Pokémon, power rangers, and dragon balls were things my friends liked but I felt to old to enjoy. I watched first season of dragon balls, and I enjoyed other kid stuff. I still like the show rugrats. Ninja turtles, g.i.joe
SilverAsparagus2985@reddit
It was the same for me. I never got into Pokémon or anime for that matter. It wasn’t apart of my childhood. That said, I think I was only a couple of years off where those that did get into Pokémon or anime like a Sailor Moon which was wild on popular on TV found a niche. But this was like the opening to the genre imo. The crack that opened a whole door to it. I think it’s cool people have something that’s specific to them and I don’t carry any particular judgment towards it. I still have my strawberry shortcake and rainbow beige and she-ra.
Bindlestiff34@reddit
Yep, in my case (83) only by a year or two. Classmates directly under me loved it but I never got it.
rayfin@reddit
Agree. It was what little kids did, not teenagers. I never heard anyone in middle or highschool mention Pokemon. It was cringe and odd. My next younger sister never got into it either. But our even younger sister who's 10 years younger than me was all about them. My kids today are heavily into them. My parents still had my sister's cards and gave them to my kids.
osddelerious@reddit
That’s so weird, I just said this yesterday to someone. Same with Power Rangers.
jaxsonMiss@reddit
We did Magic The Gathering instead of Pokemon.
Seraphtacosnak@reddit
As a console gamer, I didn’t get into pokemon until after the physical card game. I pulled out the ol’ gameboy and really enjoyed it my senior year really playing pokemon gbc.
MoonlitBlossoms@reddit
I don’t know.. I was born in ‘78 and I enjoyed Pokémon. But then again I really enjoyed video games and anime then as well. 🤷♀️
blaz138@reddit
I had the real Monster In My Pocket toys. Not these "pocket monsters"
Mudcreek47@reddit
Yep. Early college for me, but I did have a hallmate who was into it with his girlfriend. They thought it was cool.
callsignmario@reddit
Pokémon, Tamagotchi, Furbees, et al... all things I could never wrap my head around being even remotely interesting or entertaining. '79 🍻
willowwanabe@reddit
I was in grade 10 when it came out. I was too old for it but didn't care and got into the game that Christmas.
stompy1@reddit
I agree with you. I even had a gameboy in grade 6 or 7. I'm into Pokemon now, as an adult, thanks to covid and long walks around town. Plus my kids are into it a bit and that helps.
JWWBurger@reddit
But not too late to enjoy it with our kids. I got the original on the game boy when I was 15 and could not get into it...felt geared towards younger audiences. 25 years later, my daughter has encyclopedic knowledge of Pokemon, collects the cards, watches the shows, and plays the games. The community that has developed around it is special, sans the card scalpers.
It might be the exposure to the franchise but I love it now, though my experience with it is largely through her. Also, as an experienced gamer, the Pokemon games, gameplay-wise, are largely knock-offs of the JRPG games I liked as a kid, so I have insights that surprise my kid. It’s great to have a shared experience to spend time around.
JD4Destruction@reddit
It was Pokemon Go that finally got me to try FireRed. No one around me in college talked about Pokemon. It was mostly sports, N64, PS2 and the war in the Middle East.
Short-Nail-3781@reddit
I didn’t know anything about Pokémon then but now I play Pokémon go everyday
ElectricLego@reddit
82 - I played the first game on my original monochrome Gameboy and enjoyed it. Never played with the cards or watched the show. Even the later games, I had lost interest by then.
vandal_heart-twitch@reddit
As a 1980 I definitely missed the initial boat but by later in college the nerd culture caught up and I enjoyed the GBA version.
KoreyYrvaI@reddit
My issue is I was buying baseball cards and Star Wars cards when Magic the Gathering came out, but my parents wouldn't let me buy Magic cards because it was 'evil, demonic stuff'. Some of the Magic cards from back then are worth small fortunes, whereas my star wars cards aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
Toddythebody_@reddit
I was a card playing Spellfire and MtG nerd. Pokémon was too late. I was into girls by then.
_NoleFan6@reddit
Yup I was a sophomore in HS when it came out. Ninja Turtles was most of our Pokémon
Playongo@reddit
Yeah. I was starting college when red and blue came out and just wasn't interested. I got into the cartoon later but I didn't really play the games. I tried Pokemon Platinum last year I think. It's okay, but it's hard for me to really judge. I didn't beat it.
litchick@reddit
It's funny, because just the other day one of my students asked me what my favorite Pokemon, and I could only name one, Pikachu. My friends that are 5 years younger love Pokemon go and it's not even on my radar.
Matt-J-McCormack@reddit
Speak for yourself I was playing fan subbed roms of Pokémon on an emulator on my pc before the official western release. 🤓
chitownkid81@reddit
Pokemon Red and Blue on the OG gameboy. Me and the other nerds were sneak the into class to play.
Strict-Farmer904@reddit
I actually use this as my personal benchmark for being an Xennial: If you’re a millennial who’s too old to have any childhood memories of Pokémon, you belong under the Xennial umbrella.
Hipcatjack@reddit
same. i faked it my entire adult life. i only know the main ones and never played the..card game? mighty morphin power rangers too
waywardflaneur@reddit
Absolutely agree.
It was of our era, but it was not for us.
Quirky_Dog5869@reddit
I do not concur. Me and my college mates were totally into this. Still very happy with my complete base set 1 collection. Didn't go much further than that though, couldn't really afford it anymore when I moved into a dorm.
aweedl@reddit
I honestly thought it was some kind of Teletubbies-style thing aimed at literal toddlers until I was in my 30s and met (slightly younger) adults who were really into it. Weirded me right out.
I was never a gamer at all, so I had no idea there was a whole video game franchise, nor did I really know what the deal was with the cards (even though I saw them in stores in passing, etc.)
I just knew of the cartoon and that obnoxious yellow thing doing baby talk all the time.
TheLastBoat@reddit
Pokémon became a thing when I was into doing what the older kids were doing.
NachoNachoDan@reddit
‘81 and completely agree. My youngest brother born in ‘87 was into it tho.
I generally regard people my age who are still into Pokémon with a healthy skepticism. Exception - if you are over 45 and can do the Pokémon Rap, that is cool.
MyNameCannotBeSpoken@reddit
Same with Power Rangers.
platypus_farmer42@reddit
Yep, I’ve never understood the Pokémon thing. Never got into it at all
NineToeBIll@reddit
Born in 80, love Pokémon. My older buddy introduced the Gameboy game to me and Pokémon Stadium on N64. Played everyone ever since, we still get together and battle. Now that Gen 1 has been re-released on Switch we are all playing it again.
doomerunicorn@reddit
Same here, about 5 years too early. But I did get into the Pokémon video games much later, once my son started playing them.
stoyFC@reddit
I agree 100%, I’m into video games old and new still and I never got into Pokemon, I was in high school when it started making the rounds, too childish for me. I have quite a few friends now who are a few years younger than me that are huge fans that still can’t wrap their head around me not knowing anything about the series.
janellthegreat@reddit
I had younger siblings who were Pokémon fans, so I picked up a lot vicariously. As a babysitter I made good money because parents appreciated I could sit and talk Pokémon for a long time.
Admittedly - now as a parent I sure to appreciate babysitters who talk Minecraft. I get so tired of having to talk Minecraft.
oNw_Duncan@reddit
No I definitely missed the boat too. I feel like one day it wasn’t there and the next it was everywhere and it never clicked with me.
throwitallaway@reddit
It completely missed me as well and I've never been able understand why it's a big deal.