For every kid growing up in the 2000s and 2010s, running home after school to turn on the TV meant hearing the opening notes to the Pokémon theme song signal the beginning of a new episode and a new adventure with 10-year-old Ash and his adorably electric Pikachu. With the show celebrating its 30th anniversary, one of those kids, Sasmit Mulidar, now a college student, says with a laugh, ‘It makes me feel old!’ On a more reflective note, he adds, “For a lot of people, especially those who enjoy games and anime – Pokémon has been a fundamental thing in our lives. We have so many new games now but it’s good to see some franchises that don’t die away.”
The show’s premise tapped into something every kid longed for, freedom from their parents and adventures with their friends. In the very first episode, main character Ash Ketchum sets off on a journey to catch Pokémon and become the best trainer in the world by battling other trainers along the road. Except, the first Pokémon given to him is the notoriously temperamental Pikachu who is not afraid to (literally) shock him with his lightning powers. The idea of Pokémon or ‘Pocket Monsters’ themselves was extremely captivating, point out fans. “It was fascinating for me to see these animals with superpowers, throwing fire, water, and electricity. As kids, we all loved the supernatural stuff but later on, it wasn’t just that, it was Ash’s journey and seeing him go through problems and growing up with him, that made me fall in love with the show,” says Ujjwal Mahakud, an undergraduate student.
For others, the appeal wasn’t the show alone but the collectable playing cards and online games that let fans join in on the fun they were seeing on TV. English student Preksha Mukherjee recalls, “ I loved trading cards the most, I started collecting in 3rd standard and I had 10 to 20 different decks of Pokémon trading cards. There was a shopkeeper in front of our school and I used to spend most of my money just buying Pokémon merchandise and cards from him.” Vibhuv Reddy (23), who has made a mobile business out of collecting and selling rare cards, explains why he loves them so much, saying “Especially in the older cards, there’s so much personality in each design and sometimes I see something I really relate to. My favourite card is a 1997 one that is simply drawn – it is a picture of two kids with Pokemons in their hand, giving them to each other.”
When Pokémon Go became a viral phenomenon in 2016, many Gen Zers were in middle school and became just as obsessed as everyone else. Mukherjee recalls, “We used to go out for hours, from 6am to 6pm, walking and taking cars to locations just to collect them. It was so fun!”
Many have fond memories of nostalgic games like Pokémon FireRed which came much before, a simple 2D game that allowed people to have Pokémon battles. Mulidar recalls fondly, “I downloaded a bootleg version with a lot of effort and played it with my sister. We couldn’t even get the files to save because it was such a bad format, but we enjoyed it so much that it’s a really important childhood memory of mine.” Reddy adds, “I still like to go back to it a few times a year because it’s kind of a history of myself – I like to remember ‘ah this is what I was doing in seventh grade, and this in ninth grade’.”
(With inputs from C Jayanth)