I am a huge Pokémon fan!!!! I think that was the first big fandom that I really got into on my own. I love Pokémon so much. I started out when my next door neighbors introduced me to collecting the cards. Then one of them let me try out his copy of Platinum on my DS. I remember his Torterra really well. I started collecting my own pokémon cards and eventually got my first game, White 2. I still think BW2 have the best postgames out of all the series. I spent soooo very many hours in the game. And when I got a 3ds and got Pokemon Y, the same thing happened... I loved the bridges in Unova and I thought Castelia City was huge and overwhelming when I was there, so seeing Lumiere City (is that the big Kalos city?) absolutely fried me. I had SO much fun in it. I love France and I love New York so I really enjoyed those games.
It's impossible for me to overstate how much of an impact Pokémon has had on my life. I found homes in Pokémon fansites and forums, and I made friends through the forum that I'm close with even today. The forum is even still up!!! I know that's rare for it's genre. I got a pikachu blanket for a birthday in middle school and I still have it today. When I was in middle school, I was soooo worried about going to school with a pokémon shirt on. I remember that as kinda the beginning of my Gender Feelings and when I did wear that pokémon shirt it felt awesome even though I was nervous. I used to play the Trading Card Game with my brothers, and it was a lot of fun battling them. I used to have way more of an encyclopedic knowledge on pokémon, but they keep releasing too many new games to keep up with!!!!! My best friend Dan gave me a pikachu and a popplio when we were in high school and I have them in my bed now :^) I seriously love pokémon so much and I hope I get some new cards for my birthday. I'm also so excited about the diamond and pearl remakes!!! I wish I had a switch so I could play them but I'll play through them one day. I've been looking forward to diamond and pearl (dnp) remakes since middle school and it's sooo cool that they finally came out :)))