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I never really stopped liking Pokemon. I was the target audience when it first came out (9 for red and blue) and even when other people generally stopped liking it, I continued liking it because fuck what other people think. I like what I like. My little sister wasn't the same, though. She liked Pokemon growing up and stopped as she hit about middle school and got embarrassed. She dumped all her games in my lap at one point and just said, "I think I don't want to play this anymore. I think I'm too old and I don't like it...But just in case, please keep these safe for me." That was probably something like 20+ years ago. I still have all of her cartridges and her GBA sitting in a box in my home. All her Pokemon were shuffled around here and there, but I know roughly where all of them are. Everything is still safe, still accounted for. Pokemon was one of the last things we really had in common, though. So we interacted less and less as time went on after that. She wanted to be popular and seen as mature and I didn't give a fuck about any of that. We eventually just sort of stopped talking all together and pretty soon after that I moved out.
We've been reconnecting on and off the last few years, though. So that's nice. She has 2 kids and they're getting to be about Pokemon age at this point. She's super tightly wound now and is kind of a strict mom, but I'm the fun uncle who shows them weird shit and brings them toys. If they start playing, I want to see if I can find a couple of their Mom's Pokemon to give them as a fun little gesture. Something about it seems like it would be super symbolic. But maybe I'm just getting old and sentimental and dumb as hell.
