>>27376761Pokemon started to die out at Gen 2.
The hype was huge at first but, as I said above, the anime was shit and it killed the hype a lot. In fact the games reignited the craze that was already starting to die a bit.
Johto is a really, really bland season. Nothing happens for long, long stretches, the fillers are boring and lack a lot of the fun of the Kanto fillers, and it's generally more or less the same when it comes to who Ash caught.
Wasn't Bayleaf the only Pokemon Ash had that evolves in that entire season?