>>36456804Born in '94. Heard about R/B when they came out but didn't get involved until '99. Young enough that I had what feels like a ridiculous amount of merchandise now since I wouldn't have been expected to buy it on my own.
-Pretty common, but I would look up stuff online about the games starting in 2000 and, though I didn't believe stuff about Yellow since I owned that, totally bought all the fake cheats and rumors about R/B. Saw some maxpages site filled with bullshit and believed I was missing out.
-My father won me some huge bootleg Pikachu plush at a fair. Looked more like the fat Pikachu than anything and I threw it around like a ball with friends once because the shape worked for that.
-Really liked how you could go almost anywhere and see all kinds of Pokemon stuff stuff being sold, from the typical American products to weird bootlegs to stuff actually from Japan. Had stuff like Japanese figures and a coloring book and ended up knowing some Japanese names as a result. Used to try to go to little stores in Chinatown to get imported posters and stuff of Pokemon doing stereotypically Japanese things like pounding mochi. Images like pic related were my favorite thing.
-Despite being aware that Pokemon was Japanese I can remember being really confused when I got the Beckett magazine showing the new G/S Pokemon with untranslated names. Like "wtf how am I ever gonna remember these names" confused. Also the art was gross.
-They played Meowth's Party after some Pokemon episode once and my parents helped me send the video recording of it to a Japanese friend of the family asking for a translation of the lyrics to English. She sent the translation back with anime-style drawings she'd made of things like catgirls and Meowth saying hi to me and stuff like that along the margins. Like she went above and beyond for what was a weird request anyway. I know it's in my house somewhere but I haven't seen it recently and really wish I had a scan of it to post now.
