>>49508201Pokémon was the last big global trend before the internet took over the world. As such, it was the greatest media franchise with most varied forms of related media in a time nobody could just google info about anything. Rumors were spread and created at school, and the pokémon world, for us kids, was like a real fantasy world that we were discovering without having a certain place or authority to settle debates. A lot of lies, made up stuff, actual discoveries, rumors, "my dad works at Nintendo", etc. This thirst for info made every single official release or collaboration sell millions. Pokémon was in your cereal, yogurt, school bag, towels, soap, everywhere. Games, cards, pogs, stickers, there was everything. It was the ultimate collecting experience and drained parent's wallets like there was no tomorrow.
Honestly, really fun times to experience as a kid, and it guaranteed you'd make instant friends wherever you went. The more you knew about pokémon the more popular you were. There is no way anything like it will ever happen again.
New players usually complain about the Kanto pandering but if you had lived in the late 90's and experienced how massive pokémon was during gen 1, you'd understand how inevitable Kanto pandering is.
Posting this picture because it was probably the most copied and distributed image of that era.
