*This is an entry of me reminiscing about the days when I was a huge Pokemon enthusiast. If you think having been crazy over Pokemon is lame or talking about Pokemon when I’m almost 20 now is childish, or if you think Pokemon is demonic, evil or simply boring, I suggest that you do not proceed in reading. Thanks! =)

*Warning: Ridiculously long entry ahead. Please make sure you’re comfortably seated!

I am no longer a kid, but I realized that the sweet memories of Pokemon in my life have never faltered – it was then, it is now, and it will be forever.

During my most stressful times of my final exams period last week, I was deeply stressed-out by intensive last-minute-revisions and the burdensome preparation works for the commencement of my new business. Topped with my newly developed anxiety problem, I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Those times were so terrible that it was quite impossible to get a break without having to think of my other concerns. With mostly drug-induced sleep and heavily unbalanced diet, those times were physically weighing on me as much as they were mentally.

It was at that time of suffering, that I was blessed with the sweet reunion of one of my greatest childhood ‘friend’ - Pokemon.

I was taking a break from studying that day when I came across this guy’s videos * on Youtube. It was so heartening… He’s got the whole collection of the English Pokemon Kanto series uploaded!

When I was watching the first episode, I was overwhelmed… It all came rushing back to my mind – The times when everything in my life was about Pokemon, and nothing was more important than playing and staying away from being caught by parents – I remembered, all of them. The memories so vivid, the emotions so strong.

The feeling was strangely mixed – joy and grief - happy because those were the happiest days, sad because the times are forever gone and will never come back… At that time nostalgia struck me so hard, I felt my eyes prickle and I wanted to cry.

For a moment I couldn’t believe that in this world with all its evil and selfishness, competitions and hectic lifestyles; something so innocent, so carefree, could still have existed in my memory at that time.

I think I was 13 when I knew about Pokemon, and gradually became an unstoppable Pokemon fanatic. Video games, cartoon series VCDs, trading cards, softwares, figurines, toys, apparel, movies, comics… Almost anything related to Pokemon, I daresay, I had ‘em all.

How it all began? Oh, I can remember it as if it was only a month ago…

Well, about 7 years ago…

It all started in my school, when some of my friends started playing ‘virtual’ Pokemon games among friends, with one person being the ‘game controller’ and the other guys being ‘players’. The game controller would narrate the story of the game and the players make decisions like to look for Pokemon, battle trainers, challenge gyms, use skills etc. We used fingers to represent the HP (health point) bar, and all the captured Pokemon / items were recorded in a book that served as the ’save file’.

I knew nothing about Pokemon when I participated in these games, but they were great. Soon, the Pokemon anime series came, but there were no English dubs for sale yet in Malaysia. So we bought Cantonese-dubbed VCDs, and it became the hottest conversation topic among friends at then.

At that time, I didn’t have a Nintendo GameBoy console, on which the Pokemon video game was supposed to be played. So I used a PC emulator (a software to play GameBoy games on PCs) and played my first Pokemon Blue version with it. I still remember I got the emulator through a diskette! Hah! My current PC doesn’t even have a drive for diskettes!

Eventually, I bought a GameBoy and played the Yellow version on it. It was huge, new-found freedom! Because at that time my mum used to limit the time of me using the computer, but somehow there was no limit for playing the GameBoy!

It was crazy, many of my friends were either playing, or have already played it. It was really an unstoppable and immensely influencial trend among my peers at that time, hardly anyone I knew didn’t know about Pokemon!

After that, Gold and Silver version became very popular. That was arguably the ‘golden age’ of Pokemon in my life! I was sitting on the couch all day ‘training’ Pokemon, reading and memorising video game walkthroughs (books with detailed written strategies in playing the game), and buying an enormous range of Pokemon merchandise.

To cap it all, the Pokemon English-dubbed anime series started airing weekly on NTV7 and the first and second Pokemon movies were released. I loved absolutely everything about the characters and I used to happily watch the movies over and over again.

It was at this period that I was so obsessed with Pokemon that I seriously wished our real world had Pokemon, and we could become Pokemon trainers and capture real Pokemon!

In fact, all the Pokemon stuff were so significant in our lives that I think I wouldn’t be too surprised if I suddenly saw a Pikachu bouncing happily out from a patch of grass beside me…

*day-dreaming* I would then probably try to touch it and “Pi…ka…chhiuuuu…!!”, receive a Thunderbolt attack from it and fall to the ground with spinning eyes and smoke emitting from my hair… Awww, well… =)

Soon after, I was hooked up with the Pokemon trading card game. I think I spent a huge fortune buying decks, booster packs, individual cards, and attending tournaments. I still recall myself used to eagerly going back to my school every Saturday morning to play trading cards with all the other guys who played it.

Every Saturday, the school canteen was unanimously agreed and understood as the arena for trading card games. Although I didn’t really liked school, I was always looking forward to going to school on Saturdays because those times were really fun!

We spent a great deal of time, err… in class, tirelessly thinking and building up different decks and card strategies on papers. I used to have many note books dedicated for deck building. Every now and then, an ‘invincible’ deck building strategy was created, but only to be replaced by another ‘more invincible’ idea created later.

Because our school banned its students from bringing trading cards to school, we used to create our own decks in school by cutting paper into card-shaped pieces, drawing imitations of the real cards on them, and playing them as if they were real!

Many not-so-happy things happened in school as well: Cards being stolen, decks being confiscated, people being conned into buying /selling cards at unreasonable prices, playing truants, and even some cases of students stealing money from parents/other students to buy the cards!

These things did happen, but not that regularly. Come on, there’ll always be something bad happening behind almost everything that’s good, won’t there?=)

Despite all these things happening, Pokemon typically promotes a very healthy, innocent, and good-natured personality. The entire Pokemon story plot promotes good values such as friendship, sincerity, determination, loyalty and trust.

The Pokemon franchise may be highly addictive to kids and younger teens, but I daresay it’s a healthier thing to be addicted to compared to other much worse, but more typical, alternatives.

Slowly after that period, the Pokemon craze started to fade for teens of my age; and my friends, including myself, started idolizing computer games. =)

So for the record: I stopped playing after the Gold/Silver version of the Pokemon video games, the “Neo Destiny” set of the trading card game, stopped watching after “Johto League Champions” series of the anime and the 3rd – “Spell of the Unown” of the Pokemon movies. All of which I started from the very first version/set/episode.

As for now, I’m rewatching the episodes of the first season from the Youtube address I stated earlier. (My VCDs are in my hometown) I’m also playing the Emerald version of the video game, attempting to catch up from where I left 7 years ago. Wow, what an experience!

It’s pleasant and quite shocking to discover that Pokemon is now over 11 years old and still a multi-billion Dollar worldwide franchise. Continuing after the Gold & Sliver version where I left off, the video games have developed into Ruby & Sapphire, and even the latest Diamond & Pearl versions!

The anime series is still very popular with 2 new main series “Pokemon Advanced Generation” and “Pokemon Diamond & Pearl series”, each with their own different sub series. And there are currently eight Pokemon Movies released! OMG!

The trading cards are even more well-developed. With a whole bunch of new sets that I couldn’t possible list all, I am so left out! I’m still keeping my last modified “haymaker” deck though! Anyone wanna challenge me? ^^

Strangely, the Pokemon phenomenon in Malaysia seems to be diminishing in influence, when it is still enormously huge in the US and some other countries! Why is our country not that hooked up anymore? Sigh…

Anyway, I know I won’t be as fanatic as I was before – now that I’m a university student, I have work to do and everything… But whenever I return to the Pokemon video games or anime, it’s always a tranquil experience to enter a world of innocence and dreams that no longer exist in our current lives.

Sometimes I really wonder why some people label Pokemon as ‘demonic‘, ‘evil’ or ‘Satanic’. I mean, it’s wierd enough to say that Harry Potter is ‘demonic’, but uh… Pokemon?

I don’t know whether the critics have actually took the time to know more in detail about Pokemon, because if they did, I don’t think they’ll find much demonic things perhaps except for a couple of Houndooms and Gengars.

Pokemon may be nothing more than a collection of fictional characters and an imaginative story plot, but it has been with me for many years, accompanying me through many joyful events and precious memories. Although the years are quite long past, they are still so dearly remembered.

I’m not being childish and I’m not being lame. If a person thinks that reminiscing about childhood events is lame and childish, pardon me then, I pity his childhood.

We all have our own childhood story to tell, don’t we? Yours could be much more interesting than mine!

Finally, I really want to say this:

Thanks, Mr. Satoshi Tajiri, for creating Pokemon; Nintendo, for bringing us into the Pokemon world; 4Kids Entertainment, for bringing Pokemon to life in English-dubbed animation; Wizards of the Coast, for the trading card game experiences.

and above all…

Thanks, Pokémon, for keeping my childhood alive in me.

*(Update 03/06/2007) Sadly, the Pokemon episodes on the Youtube account that I mentioned is no longer watchable. A great amount of episodes have been taken down by Youtube due to, err, you know… copyright infringement.

If you’d somehow still like to watch the Pokemon eps, you may come here. This guy has… Oh my God… ALL the episodes all the way till season 11! – that’s the season that’s being aired in the US currently… and ALL the Pokemon movies!

You’d need to add him as a friend before you can watch though, because those are private videos. =)

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