What aspect of Pokemon did you get into first?

[Blaquaza]

Really obscure merchandise. Like, really obscure. It started off when I saw someone at a family party with a big Pikachu hat, then the next year me and my brother both got these weird binder things with calendars other stuff inside (as well as a Hamtaro one). Then a couple of years after that I got into the anime, just in time to get the first movie on video before we had DVDs. And then I got my GBA and started playing through Emerald; if I wasn't a fan before I got Emerald, I was 110% a fan after it. :D

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

I got a Gameboy Color and Pokemon Gold Version for my sixth birthday, but going back even further: I was at a friend's birthday party when I was five or so, and I got a pack of German-language Pokemon cards from the Team Rocket Expansion and I still have the very first Pokemon card that I got: Dunkles Flamara (Dark Flareon)

[Yoshrek]

I believe I first got into it when my grandmother bought me Pokemon Yellow when I was 5 years old.

[roo]

i can't remember if i got into the original anime first or the games because i had a neighbor who introduced me to the games around the same time i started watching the anime

[Coru]

For me, I did a complete 180 on Pokemon.
Back when Boomerang was still a channel on UK TV, I used to get annoyed that Pokemon was regularly on and I hated it. I never had any intention of playing the games, in fact, I wasn't even a nintendo player. I was a Playstation player at that time.

When I was maybe 10, I had an asthma attack and was hospitalised for about 4 days or so. One day, this guy came in giving teddies to all the kids on the wards and he came to me and gave me an old Pikachu teddy. I still have it and I love it. It's back before Pikachu was put on a diet so he's quite plump and chubby. I ended up not wanting it because it was Pokemon and I really disliked Pokemon but I took it as they were being kind and I sort of just left it alone when I got out of hospital. Then I started going to a holiday club over the school holidays run at my school where kids would go and be looked after by people whilst parents needed to work over the summer. I think that was probably the best time of my life to be fair. I don't speak to anyone from there anymore which saddens me but it was where I made so many good friends and I was popular there for once compared to normal school.

That was around the time Gen 4 first came out and everyone there was playing it, except me. My friends would let me watch and eventually, as kids do, I wanted to jump on the bandwagon and get it myself. And the rest is history. I don't really watch the anime or read the manga but I'm very invested in the games and lore of Pokemon now.

[Noblejanobii]

Technically the cards but we never played like you were supposed to. The the show and then the games.