The Rise and Fall of Pokémon: My Third Year Anniversary Editorial

A failed attempt on Geocities made me resort to Angelfire, with its basic editor. The original Practically Pokémon! was a list of all the Pokémon, (Japanese names) Pokémon Stadium (but you e-mailed me to vote) and a few Japanese version codes and tricks, stuffed onto one large page with no pictures or decent HTML. No one knew anything about the American version yet, except for what Nintendo Power's mini magazine Pokémon Power reported.

In fact, that's what got me interested in Pokémon. Pokémon Power introduced me to this unique RPG, hooking me because it revolved around collecting and battling cute and powerful creatures.

I don't remember the exact release date of Pokémon Red and Blue. Some time in late September, I believe.

All I really remember is that my 10 year old self couldn't be happier to get it.

September 1998. Everyone in my grade 5 class loved Pokémon. Everyone with a Game Boy had the game. A few even bought a Game Boy just to play Pokémon. Those who didn't made up for it with merchandise and watching the anime.

The internet was booming with Pokémon websites. Every fan had to have one, filled with all the codes, tips, and pictures they could find.

Pokémon stuff used to be scarce. You had to go to Chinatown and shop through the bootlegs if you wanted anything at all. That was long before Hasbro went merchandise nuts.

The TCG was quickly introduced, attracting older fans to Pokémon and giving younger fans a new reason to get involved. Trading took over schools, angering teachers and parents.

And fans still longed for more. We stared at Japanese screenshots of Pokémon Stadium and Snap, longing for the day we could view our Pokémon in full 3-D. Pokémon Pinball and Yellow were fun, but they were nothing compared to those 3-D wonders.

Despite constant bashing by critics, Pokémon continued to thrive. I remember them commenting Christmas 1998 that no one would know what Pokémon was by next year.

They were wrong.

The first movie, released in November, brought in fans by the droves. Mid to late 1999 was definitely the peak of Pokémon's popularity. A full year had gone by. We had discovered that Pokémon Snap and Stadium weren't all they were cracked up to be, losing the average fan's interest in a few weeks. Christmas brought repeat predictions that Pokémon would be done and forgotten in a year.

They were wrong. Sorta.

As 2000 went by, fans just in it for the fad began to drop out. Pokémon's popularity steadily began to drop, until only Pokémon fans who truly liked it remained. The ones who started it all, the ones who weren't in it just to look cool, were the only fans left.

Followers and fad-lovers had totally dropped out by the summer of 2000. The hatred of Pokémon had begun, and its fans were gradually ridiculed for liking a children's show. Most fans began denying they liked Pokémon in public. Many started hating it just because their friends did.

Sites began to shut down, small and large alike. With no games to look forward to but Gold and Silver, which seemed decades away, fans only in it for the games slowly dropped out. With TCG releases slowing down and trading bans within schools, fans only in it for the TCG slowly began to drop out. And with the anime becoming kiddier and new episode production slowing down, fans only in it for the anime slowly began to drop out.

Eventually, only diehard and complete, true fans remained. Fans that liked it all, not just certain aspects of it. Hardly any 1998-99 fans showed up to the second movie.

Nintendo made a controversial decision near the end of 2000. They began marketing Pokémon to preschoolers.

On one hand, most older fans had dropped out, leaving the preschoolers to get into Pokémon. Older fans quickly change their opinions due to cliques and peer pressure anyways.

On the other hand, older fans have longer attention spans. My kindergarten memories remind me how easily younger children move on to other fads. Older fans also have their own money, which can be a good or bad thing. On the pro side, they don't have to beg their parents to buy things for them, who may hate fads and refuse. On the con side, however, older fans may not want to spend their hard earned cash on Pokémon.

Well, whatever your opinion, the marketing worked. At my school, young children are trading Pokémon cards, playing the game, and discussing battle strategies like my friends and I did three years ago. (Except, of course, we were 2-5 years older than they were.) In fact, of all the original Pokémon fans in my class, only I and my best friend still like it, about 9% of the original local fan base. Nintendo has made Pokémon a children's classic. If the marketing keeps up, the next generation of preschoolers may like it as well.

The third movie has passed. It did well for a children's movie, but it didn't make nearly as much money as the earlier ones. A fourth one is scheduled for release this Christmas, but how well will it do? At this rate, the fifth movie, scheduled for Japanese release summer 2002, won't make it to North American movie screens. Maybe not even video.

Pokémon Crystal appears to be the last Pokémon game, although Nintendo may make a few pathetic American games. (Remember Pokémon Puzzle League?) Japanese producers have already commented that they aren't planning any Pokémon games for the Game Boy Advance.

Perhaps it's time for Pokémon fans to move on, many will say. Your TCG, your anime has little left to catch your interest. There are no more games, the once original ideas overused and beaten into the ground. Your fellow fans have turned against you, bashing Pokémon left and right. You are the only one left liking it; you're lucky if you have one fan left to talk to. The bones and leftovers that were once a meal fit for a king have been thrown to the proverbial dogs, the preschoolers who are the only fans left.

Perhaps even I am losing interest. I used to buy Pokémon games the day they came out, but Pokémon Gold is the only game I have bought since Pokémon Stadium. I memorized all 151 original Pokémon and their basic attacks within one or two weeks, but I still don't know all the 151 new Pokémon, and I don't think I'll ever know their basic attacks. (Then again, maybe a cheap Player's Guide is to blame. I'll never trust Official again.) I once watched each new episode of the anime with happiness and excitement, but now it's almost a chore. I haven't faithfully collected and traded the cards since the Rocket set, although I purchased a few Gym and Neo packs for collection's sake. I used to be happy to see any Pokémon merchandise on the shelves, but now it seems overpriced and pointless, another thoughtless attempt by Hasbro to make more money. The Internet used to keep me interested when there was nothing up in the Pokémon world, but now all of the good sites are gone, and the fan fiction is all new trainer/self-insertion fics about a character almost exactly like Ash, maybe even related to him, with rare Pokémon within the first few days of their journey and one Pokémon that won't stay in their Pokéball.

I'm sure I'm not the only fan thinking this way.

Hey, I feel old. There's probably less than five Pokémon sites over three years old that still update. It's a feat for a website to make it to three years, Pokémon or not.

Then I'll come across a great site, or read a great fan fiction, or overhear a preschooler talking about Pokémon with their friends with the excitement I once had. My interest will be temporarily rekindled, and I'll ask myself how I could possibly hate such a great thing.

If you, like me, are an original fan thinking of dropping Pokémon, watch an episode, even if it is years old. Leaf through your old card collection. Play a long-forgotten game. Surf a few sites, whether they be new or haven't updated since December 1999. If none of these things rejuvinate your interest or even make you think back to your younger days when Pokémon was your favourite thing in the whole wide world, you've lost your interest. There's nothing left for you in Pokémon, and it's best to drop it.

But if these things do make you enjoy Pokémon again, even if only a little bit, you still like Pokémon deep down, and you may only want to drop it to fit in with your friends. Although it's easy to enjoy Pokémon in private, friends are more important than any interest. If you think you're going to lose friends just for liking something, and you can't enjoy it in private, it might be best just to drop Pokémon anyway.

But for those of us left - those that still enjoy this series after three years of trials, we are the original and still going strong fanbase.

We are the only older fans left among a sea of screaming toddlers.

It may be hard to hang on to Pokémon against lack of interest among friends, pathetic and closing sites, the absence of games, a TCG slowly being beaten into the ground, and an anime shifting its focus to four to eight year olds.

But we made it through earlier trials. We made it through a lack of merchandise, spread out release dates, annoying critics and occasionally parents, the possibility of trading bans and slow release dates for TCG sets, and few new episodes of the anime.

These trials may prove to be harder or easier than the older ones, depending on who you are and where you live. But one thing's for sure -

We're the original fans. We started this craze. And we're going to support it even as it dies.

A happy three year anniversary to any Practically Pokémon! fans left.

-Tressa