February 27, 2026 - Happy 30th Anniversary Pokemon!
Today marks the 30th anniversary of Pokemon. 10 years ago I was in college throwing a Pokemon for my friends. 10 years before that I was keeping my love for Pokemon a secret because it wasn’t cool with the kids. 10 years before that and I was a wee wee lass. Now it’s the most popular media franchise in the world, and a dominant force of nostalgia among my generation. I’m not going to throw shade, I LOVE Pokemon, this is not a secret. Pokemon has been a source of comfort, joy, and creativity throughout my entire life.
I don’t have a big poetic piece that I want to write tonight, but instead just a stream of consciousness of my favorite Pokemon memories from throughout my life.
- Renting Pokemon the Third movie as a kid as a launch pad for getting into the series because Entei looked like a lion.
- Getting Sapphire as my first game, but not beating it because I got Red shortly after and loved that it had all the Pokemon from “the cartoon”. Even at the age of six I was into older things lol.
- Spending hours on Pokemon fan sites like Mewtwo’s Opinion and Pojo’s looking up cheats and walkthroughs for Pokemon Red and Silver.
- Finding Missingno for the first time was such a pivotal experience, and gave credence that any cheat could be real. Sadly, I fell for many fake ones including Mew under the truck, PokeGods, and Pikablu. But it was fun!
- The Christmas I got Pokemon Silver, Ruby, talking Marill, Master Trainer, and figurines. I don’t think a Christmas has ever topped that? lol
- Playing the Pokemon Master Trainer board game with my friend in the neighborhood every weekend.
- Pulling base set Charizard as a kid and refusing to let the boys bully me into trading it lol.
- Getting a little bit better at the internet and spending time on Mew’s Hanout, Pokemon Elite 2000, and Serebii. I used to make Pokemon websites in MS Front Page, and spend hours looking at sprites/trying to make my own.
- Having a very brief Pokemon “show” on Youtube, but then getting bored and deleting it.
- Learning about Pokemon Green and thinking it was cool and mysterious. Finding a copy at my local Gamestop and convincing my mom to let me buy it even though I was 10 and knew no Japanese. (It’s a real copy too!)
- Following the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl weekly, and falling for some of the fakes.
- Replaying the Hoenn games when I was feeling down at the beginning of high school and it making me feel better.
- Nostalgia for Pokemon Crystal in high school keeping me from giving up on the series.
- Pokemon Mystery Dungeon just being amazing and changing the way I thought about Pokemon stories forever. The only games I’ve ever cried playing.
- Making a living dex in Pokemon Soul Silver only for Pokemon Black and White to be announced a week later and being extremely pissed about it.
- Begrudgingly buying Pokemon White and playing it when I went on a beach trip. I started liking it more and more until I was in LOVE by the end and needed Black for Reshiram.
- Being annoyed about Black 2 and White 2, then LOVING them. I remember playing White 2 on my first trip to California my senior year of high school and having great memories.
- Buying a booster pack of Pokemon cards after many years of not doing it in high school, and then falling back hard into the game. I spent an entire summer opening packs, collecting the old cards, building decks with friends, and having a really great time all around.
- My first cosplay being a Pokemon trainer.
- Reading the manga that I only saw glimpses of as a kid and thinking it was so cool and edgy.
- Pokemon 3Ds games in college. Being excited for XY, and dumping hours into ORAS. Getting into the competitive scene and playing as a “gym leader” online.
- Slowpoke/Slowbro becoming my favorite Pokemon because of competitive play.
- My friends throwing me a Pokemon themed party complete with Pokemon shots and a pokeball pizza.
- Using my adult money to buy missing copies of old games, magazines, and figurines I missed out on.
- Seeing Galarian Zigzagoon, immediately falling in love with it, and centering my entire Pokemon Sword playthrough around not evolving one.
- My favorite basketball team winning the tournament only for me to get sick and play the Pokemon Sword DLC the day after lol.
- Hating Pokemon Violet, but then doing a 180 after a road trip forced me to play.
- Pokemon Legends Arceus renewing my passion for the series and keeping me excited about the direction the franchise could go.
- Nuzlockes bringing a whole new level of enjoyment to old games.
- Watching so many Poketubers. (s/o Tamahero and JWitz, I still rewatch their old vids).
